Square Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア, Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea) was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 to form Square Enix.
Squaresoft was a brand name used by Square between 1992 and 2003. As such, the name is often used (incorrectly) to refer to the entire organization.
Yasumi Matsuno, the driving force behind the Tactics Ogre series, Final Fantasy XII, and Vagrant Story, has resurfaced at Level-5, the studio behind Dragon Quest VIII and IX, and the Professor Layton series. Read on
In this podcast at 8-4.jp, translator/localization specialist Richard Mark Honeywood discusses the tumult over the edgy Judeo-Christian overtones in Xenogears, especially the name of the final villain.
[They] took every biblical reference they could and tried to twist it. One of the translators was a bit worried about this and was like 'I don't want to have fundamental Christians or other religious groups being upset and blowing up our office.' And I guess in the States, at that time, it was a concern. So I had two translators walk off it and I was stuck there by myself.
Several Square Enix employees have reportedly parted ways with the Japanese developer after Final Fantasy XIII, among them are some veteran Square personnel including Toshihiro Tsuchida (who directed Front Mission), Takashi Ohkuma (who apparently moved to an island in Okinawa to blog about sunsets), composer Masashi Hamauzu (left to form Monomusik, a new development studio), character art designer Nao Ikeda (who started designing characters for The Legend of Mana), among others.
BlogThe more I think about it, the more it bothers. That is, the more people say "graphics don't matter" the more I think they're full of it. Actually, the more I think about it, I find the graphics are incredibly important to me. But maybe I'm being too loose with my definitions. Because whenever I think, "graphics," I automatically lump in art direction. Talking about how good the graphics are is pointless if what is being animated is boring to begin with.
An exploration of the mythological and scientific elements of Square's games
