Summary
Squaresoft and Enix were rivals from the start, cranking out two of the most popular RPG series ever made on the NES. Squaresoft hadFinal Fantasyand Enix hadDragon Quest. Their rivalry only got hotter during the SNES generation and it went beyond their bread-and-butter franchises.
Squaresoft, for example, put out some odd RPGs likeBahamut LagoonandTreasure Hunter G. Both were never released in the West or even got sequels in Japan. Enix had some strange ones too likeActRaiserandSoul Blazer. Those examples have their fans, but these eight other titles have a more rabid fan base. Let’s see what great games the two of them made and produced in the 90s on the SNES.
E.V.O.: Search for Edenis one of the weirder action RPGs that Enix helped distribute on the SNES and it was released in the West. Players begin as a small fish in the ocean but as they eat and fight more, they grow and evolve. There are branching paths players can take to evolve their fish from razor-blade fins to sharp beak-like mouths. Besides simulation games like Spore, no one has really copied this idea. It’s an outside-the-box concept but that’s what made the SNES so magical and why Square Enix buffs should check this out.
Star Oceanwas not released outside of Japan until it got a PSP remake in 2008. There was a fan translation years before that though, which is how a lot of fans got acquainted with the franchise. The great thing about combat was that it was action-based even though players still warped into instanced arenas akin to a turn-based game. It’s like how theTalesof games were released in the early years of that franchise. This game looks and sounds good on the SNES as the first in theStar Oceanseriestoo on top of having an engaging battle system.
6Front Mission
Customizing Mechs On A Global Warfront
Front Missionwasone of Squaresoft’s earliest attempts at a tactical RPG and they went all out. The mech customization alone was something not seen in even the best mech games from this era likeMetal WarriorsorCybernator. Players could equip their mechs, or Wanzers as they are called in-universe, before battle and then engage in grid-based maps.
Like a few of these RPGs,Front Missionwas not released in the West until much later when it got a DS remake in 2007. It has since received an even more detailed remake and it is out on most modern consoles like the Switch.
TheManaseries, overall, was kind of like Squaresoft’s answer toThe Legend of Zelda. The original was a top-down RPG complete with puzzle dungeons and an overworld map.Secret of Manaexpanded that idea on the SNES, adding a lot of great improvements while keeping that same action RPG feel. It’s one of the few RPGs from this era that offered co-op, for example. The game eventually got a remake on PS4 and PS Vita which did not review well. The best way to play it instead is throughCollection of Manaon the Switch which comes bundled with the first threeManagames.
Dragon Quest 3was originally an NES game before it got this massive remake on the SNES, but only in Japan. This version is basically what players can buy on digital stores like the eShop now though.Dragon Quest 3is an important one because it introduced the franchise’s version of a class system called Vocations. Similarly,Final Fantasy 3is the first game in that franchise to offer swappable Jobs. Like most games in the series,Dragon Quest 3is light on story, putting its best gameplay foot forward instead which is comforting in a modern RPG world.
Final Fantasy 6is considered by many fans to be the peak of the series in this early era. It went all-out by adding a huge cast of playable characters, the biggest in the mainline franchise to this day. From a ninja going his own way to a boy lost in the wilderness to a young painter, the group was an eclectic cast of characters.
It was a globe-trotting adventure wherein agroup of resistance memberstried to take down an evil empire. The Esper system, which allowed characters to learn magic, was like an early prototype for Materia inFinal Fantasy 7and it gave players a lot to experiment with.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Starsfelt like a big risk for a game in the 90s. Up to that point, Mario mostly starred in platformers and the occasional puzzle game. Putting him in an RPG seemed wild but Squaresoft proved they were up to the task. It was the first game to create a more active turn-based combat system wherein players could boost attacks or defend themselves with timed button releases. It was also just a funny game that made the Mario universe feel more alive. It recently got a remake on Switch which was a solid love letter to this SNES classic.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven StarsandChrono Triggerhave a lot in common because they feel like dream projects. A lot of the best minds at Squaresoft and Enix came together to make Chrono Trigger, almost a decade before the two companies merged officially.Akira Toriyama did the artwho also did the art forDragon Questand of courseDragon Ball. Hironobu Sakaguchi, who helped birth Final Fantasy, designed the game, and Yuji Hori, the main talent behindDragon Quest, wrote forChrono Trigger. Those are only a few names that helped make this time-traveling RPG stand the test of time in a non-ironic way.
