Difference between revisions of "Square"
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Revision as of 13:59, 26 August 2019
Square Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea [Square Corporation]) was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company began in 1983 as a division of an electrical company, but became independent in September 1986. The company often branded itself as Squaresoft on its games. Despite a very rocky start, the company developed several hugely popular franchises including the Final Fantasy series, Mana series, Chrono series, and SaGa series. Square merged with Enix in 2003 to form Square Enix.
I'm not positive which Square game I played first, but I think it was the original Final Fantasy which I borrowed from a friend at school in 6th or 7th grade, lending him my copy of Ultima: Exodus. I know I also played Rad Racer around this time, but I paid no attention to the creators and was later shocked to discover it was Square. In fact, looking back at Square's earliest games, I was surprised at how different they were from the epic RPGs I had come to associate with them.
During the 16-bit era, I started paying more attention to who created the games I loved, and that was when I learned that Square made my three favorite SNES RPGs: Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III, and Chrono Trigger. However, after being disappointed with the look of Final Fantasy VII and 32-bit era consoles in general, I stopped paying much attention to Square's games. I have since tried to play some of the 32-bit era Square games, and have found them to be lacking, not just because of ugly 3D graphics, but also the shift from high fantasy to science fiction.
Games
Here are some of the games Square created that are important to me.
Game Boy
NES
SNES
Staff
These are people who worked at Square whose work I appreciate.
Logos
Square's first logo was just a heavy-weighted sans-serif typeface. It would be white or bluish-cyan depending on the backdrop. It was only used on their first four Japanese releases.
In 1986, Square got an actual logo which, ironically, highlights a triangle. A white version of the logo was used for dark backdrops.
Square adopted this logo in 1992 and stuck with it until the company merged with Enix in 2003. It has nice sharp angles and edges. A white version of the logo was used on dark backdrops. This is the logo I'm most familiar with and my favorite.
Links
