Gaming Ads: Square Soft

Masafumi Miyamoto began developing games in 1983 with his company acting as a software division of his father's construction company before officially founding Square in 1986. It's first computer game was The Death Trap, a text-based adventure with graphics from Hironobu Sakaguchi. The company took off in 1987 with the release of Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy, the role-playing game that would spawn numerous sequels and spin-offs, and is still hugely popular today. All of Square's games were available on either home computers or Nintendo platforms only until the PlayStation released; Square never published games on Sega consoles.

In 1989 a North American office was opened that was called Square Soft (sometimes spelled as one word). The naming here is a bit confusing because Square also branded some game boxes with Squaresoft in Japan. Another publishing division opened in 1998 called Square Electronic Arts that, as the name suggests, was a collaboration between Square and Electronic Arts. As I previously posted for Enix America, Square and Dragon Quest developer Enix merged in 2003 to form Square Enix. Along with both Enix and Square's catalog of games, Square Enix also holds a number of former Eidos and Taito properties, such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Space Invaders.

Square Soft albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Dragon Warrior Reviews

With the upcoming September 4th release of Dragon Quest XI from Square Enix I thought these older reviews would be a fun read for fans. However, I wasn't sure if I should call this post Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest reviews. Of course, since these are from 1990's North American magazines all of the games are titled Dragon Warrior as the game name was changed with each release up until 2005. Enix America must have thought "warrior" would make the games sound more appealing and thus lead to more sales. If you're not familiar with the series the first Dragon Quest, developed by Chunsoft, released in 1986 on Nintendo of Japan's Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short) and is one of the longest running Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) series.

However, the first wasn't released in the U.S. until 1989 and since three of the games had already been out in Japan before 1989 they rolled out quite fast here. From 1990-92 the next three parts released though I'm not positive of the dates. Multiple sources online state part three released in March 1992 but the two reviews I have indicate late 1991. GamePro even says available now at the end of the review though it's possible they simply expected it to be out when the issue hit newsstands. In any case, the first four did release on the NES with the series continuing on the Super NES after that. There have also been numerous re-releases and spin-offs, such as Dragon Quest Heroes from Koei's Omega Force (Dynasty Warriors) which is the only Dragon Quest game I've actually played any of since I grew up with Sega systems and for a long time the series was only on Nintendo platforms, and I rarely play JRPGs these days.

The reviews I scanned are for parts two, three, and four as the first game predates many of my issues or the magazines I have simply did not review it. Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) was, perhaps, a bit harsh in its reviews of two and three while GamePro rated all three games a four out of five on "FunFactor." Three of the Game Informer staff reviewed Dragon Warrior IV rating it a 7.5, 7.5, and 9. It's not surprising that most publications rated the sound and graphics rather low since these are NES games that, as mentioned above, were already a few years old by the time they reached North America and the 16-bit generation had begun by then as well.



Dragon Warrior II

GamePro - November 1990

VG&CE - November 1990

Dragon Warrior III

GamePro - December 1991

VG&CE - November 1991

Dragon Warrior IV

GamePro - November 1992

Game Informer - Nov/Dec 1992

Gaming Ads: Empire Interactive and Enix America

U.K.-based Empire Interactive Europe was founded in 1987 as Empire Software while the Empire Interactive publishing brand was created in 1989. The company did develop some games at in the U.K. but primarily published games via numerous offices based throughout Europe and North America. Empire also acquired a few developers, most notably Cunning Developments (Pro Pinball) and Razorworks (Ford Racing). In 2006 Empire was purchased by Silverstar Holdings and in 2009 the publisher went out of business. Empire did publish more than 150 games during its 22 years of business but more in Europe than North America, and I currently only have one ad.

Yasuhiro Fukushima founded Eidansha Boshu Service Center in 1975 as a publisher of real estate papers before entering the video game publishing business and changing the company name to Enix in 1982. Enix is best known for publishing the Dragon Quest games that were renamed to Dragon Warrior when released in North America. The Dragon Quest games were actually developed by Chunsoft, a developer founded as a result of a programming contest sponsored by Enix.

Enix had two publishing branches in North America during the '90s. The first was Enix America Corporation based in Redmond, WA that was in business between 1990 and 1995. In 1999 Enix America, Inc. opened in Seattle and closed in 2003 when Enix merged with developer Square to form Square Enix. Today Square Enix develops and publishes many popular game series, such as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex.

Empire Interactive albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Enix America albums: Facebook - Google Photos