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Game studio

Square Product Development Division 1

JapanFounded 1996Part of Square
About

About Square Product Development Division 1

Square's flagship development division from 1996 to 2003. Responsible for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, and notably directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase. After the merging with Enix Corporation it would simply be renamed "Square Enix Product Development Division 1".

Catalog

Developed

6
Final Fantasy X-2
2003

Final Fantasy X-2 is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy X, developed and published by Square Enix. It was the first direct sequel game in the Final Fantasy series and the first to feature an all-female playable cast. It also returned to the job system not seen in the main series since Final Fantasy V. The game uses a character class system where the equipped dressphere determines her abilities and stats. Party members can switch to any dressphere in their Garment Grid to swap to new skills and adapt to different opponents. It makes use of the Active Time Battle system that was absent from Final Fantasy X. The party has access to all locations early on and can visit them through the Celsius, complete several minigames and sidequests in a chapter before progressing through the story to the next one.

RomanceSci-FiFantasy
Kingdom Hearts
2002

Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft for the PlayStation 2. It is the result of a collaboration between Square and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney's animated features with those from the Final Fantasy series, developed by Square. Kingdom Hearts was a departure from Square's standard role-playing games by introducing a substantial action-adventure element. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which included many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. Kingdom Hearts was longtime Square character designer Tetsuya Nomura's first time in a directorial position. The game uses an experience based progression system, with experience gained by defeating foes. Experience gained rises in relation to the strength of the foe, and is consistent for each enemy over the course of the game. Levels are gained with experience, and provide increases to stat attributes in strength, defence, magic, hit points, magic points and ability points, with a new, predetermined ability unlocked approximately every four levels.

ComedyFantasyAdventure
Final Fantasy X
2001

Final Fantasy X is the tenth main installment in the FF series and the first title released on sixth-generation consoles. It was also the first game to feature fully three-dimensional areas rather than including pre-rendered backdrops, and the first to include voice acting. Final Fantasy X tells the story of a star blitzball player, Tidus, who journeys with a young and beautiful summoner named Yuna on her quest to save the world of Spira from an endless cycle of destruction wrought by the colossal menace Sin.

RomanceSci-FiFantasy
Final Fantasy IX
2000

Final Fantasy IX is the ninth main installment in the FF series. The title is a return to the series's roots, with gameplay features and references to the past games featuring throughout, as well as a medieval fantasy setting and cartoonish art style as a break from the sci-fi slant style of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.

JRPGFantasyAdventure
Final Fantasy VIII
1999

Final Fantasy VIII is the eighth main installment in the Final Fantasy series. The gameplay makes a departure from many series standards. While it still uses the Active Time Battle system, it deviates from the series' traditional means of boosting a character's power via leveling, although levels are not completely abandoned as they were in Final Fantasy II. In addition, it does not have a Magic Point-based system for spell-casting. Instead, magic is collected, drawn, and created from items, and is used to power up the characters via the junction system.

Sci-FiJRPGFantasy
Final Fantasy VII
1997

The Western release of Final Fantasy VII (released as Final Fantasy VII International in Japan) included additional elements and alterations, such as streamlining of the menu and Materia system, reducing the health of enemies, new visual cues to help with navigation across the world map, and additional cutscenes relating to Cloud's past.

Sci-FiJRPGFantasy

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