Top Fifteen Square-Enix Games of All Time

Since the company was founded in 1983, Squaresoft has had a reputation of making good-quality video games. Since its first title to hit the North American market (Rad Racer back in 1987 for the NES) and through today the ratio of high-quality to low-quality games has greatly skewed toward the former. The company is now known as Square-Enix thanks to a merger with animé, manga, and video game company Enix.

Here's a list of the top fifteen North American Square-Enix games, dating all the way back to the companies' inception (according to The Game Guys)...

[DragonWarrior_4]

No Dragon Warrior4 or Xenogears? I think ABC 10 needs to get a new Gaming Editor. Someone who actually knows about video games. LOL at Dragon Warrior 2 having the best story in the series. Man this made my day. It goes to show that higher ups really dont know about everything like they think they do.

[SactoGamer]

Wow! Even I have to agree with you on this one. How could I have missed Xenogears?!? Expect a revision to my list within the hour!

[Reibooi]

This list is utter fail. It fails to list any of the lesser known but still absolutely incredible games like Parasite Eve, Einhander and Brave Fencer Musashi among others.

You know square did make alot more games then Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

[rockleex]

Should beat out The Last Remnant from the list easily. -_-"

I think you need a second revision within the hour. Oh wait, its already been 16 hours since your revision... O_O

[Daoshai]

Xenogears is there now yay

[Marceles]

good post rockleex...one I saw Last Remnant I looked all over the list for Vagrant Story lol. It's not on the list...FAIL

[Tony P]

I don't have too many issues with the choices. Rad Racer and TLR I think are items that don't need to be there at all.

Super Mario RPG might have deserved an honourable mention.

Edit: And I believe Enix proper deserves a list of its own. This is much more a Square-only list.

[Chimerhazzard]

the author screws up on purpose.

"Final Fantasy IX has solidified its place as one of the better RPGs on the market. While the soundtrack isn't as strong as other Final Fantasy titles, the game makes up for it with impressive CG sequences and quirky characters."

Final Fantasy IX's soundtrack is THE best soundtrack in a Final Fantasy game, by far. Even Nobuo Uematsu himself said that Final Fantasy IX was his favorite soundtrack from the final fantasy games, the one he felt it was his best. Just by this sentence, the article can be automatically labeled as epic fail, not counting all the other absurd statements like Final Fantasy XII is better than Chrono Cross? And Final fantasy IX? and FF VIII? Oh please. Someone tell this guy to actually go and play the games.

[Myze]

@Chimerhazzard

I agree that FFIX's music was amazing, and better than the much overrated music of VII (still great, but it was more about quantity than quality) and better than VIII's. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did FFVI's music, which I still feel is the pinnacle of the FF series, with the possible exception of certain tracks from FFT. Of course, FFIX, being in CD form, has much higher bitrate audio, but if you haven't heard the orchestra version of all the FF games, I think VI is well beyond any of the others. (edit: before it's said, just because Uematsu though he did better with IX than any other doesn't mean I have to think it's better ;) )

As for the greatest music in any game, not just the FF series, for me it's a tie between Xenogears and Chrono Cross.

As for the list, well, some are good picks and some are not, but that is just my opinion.

FF6, FFT, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Secret of Mana, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, FF4, FFX, FF7, FF8, FF9, Seiken Dentsu 3 (would have been Secret of Mana 2 in US), and Tobal No. 2 would have been my top 15, in no particular order.

The only Enix games I would consider putting on the list are Dragon Quest 8 (which I realize is Squenix, and done by Level5), as I wasn't big on any of the other DQ/DW games, at least compared to my top 15, and I would also consider Star Ocean Second Story almost there.

[life doomer]

Last remnant, WTF!!

[theusedfake]

lol, i thought the same thing.

Vagrant Story should have been in it's place,
or Parasite Eve

[SactoGamer]

We maybe should have specified that we're talking about the PC version, not the (somewhat) buggy console version.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Ugh. List is wrong... oh so wrong. Last Remnant, whilst I personally enjoyed it, is nowhere near the quality of SE's top games.

They picked DQVIII as well? It's good but it's not the best DQ at all. The Zenithian trilogy blows it out of the water.

[DragonWarrior_4]

Yeah, the Dragon Warrior Franchise hasn't been the same since DQ7. The Dragon Ball Z look is killing the series for me too. I miss my 8 bit sprites. Too bad Squeenix wont make a brand new metro Dragon Warrior like Capcom did with Mega Man. I would probably drop a tear. lol.

Edit. I forgot. DQ9 is out now. Isn't it the coolest dragon Warrior since the NES days?

[TheColbertinator]

WTF is Last Remnant doing there? This list doesn't have Secret of Evermore and Vagrant Story so it fails

[BigMassacre]

I forgot about Vagrant Story. You're right with that one.

[BigMassacre]

Horrible list. Not so much with what's on it, but the numbering is a mess.

Though there is questionable choices. Last Remnant shouldn't even be looking at the other games on the list.

Also, Star Ocean The Second Story and Valkyrie Profile should have made it on there. It is Square ENIX, after all. Those two games were two of Enix's best non DQ titles.

Also hurts me to see FFIX at the bottom of the barrel in comparison to VII and VIII. So much neglect...it's sad.

Edit: Also forgot to mention the SaGa Frontier games, Parasite Eve, and Vagrant Story. Legend of Mana was also beautiful.

[SactoGamer]

We put a deal of consideration towards those other games and nearly put Paracite Eve as number 15 but felt that The Last Remnant's storyline, graphics, and new battle style were enough to edge it just past Eve. As for Star Ocean, we just never got into that series.

[Chimerhazzard]

I completly agree with you, Final Fantasy IX doesn't get any love, and I really can't understand why.
-Amazing character development.
-Enourmous and really funny side quests (Chocobo Hot-and-Cold on a world map?! Yes please. Not to mention Tetra-Master and all the others.)
-Great Main Character! I think Zidane is awesome! Although many found him too happy-go-lucky, I found him funny and, at the same time, courageous, serious and a true leader when it was needed.
-Great Villan. Altough Kuja dressed kinda... "funny", I really liked his theatrical style.
-Great Battle system. The only big flaw being... the Trance system. I loved Trance and the transformations, I just didn't like how sometimes you would waste your trance on an enemy almost dead, just because he hitted you.
-Amazing story, and character relationship.
- Epic soundtrack.

and I could go on and on... from all Final Fantasy titles, it is still my favorite.

[dylandurden]

Crappy list :I

[The_Zeitgeist]

This list is bunk. Where the hell is Parasite Eve. So underrated it makes me sick. I hope we see a remake!

[swiftshot93]

100% agree with #1

[Godmars290]

What about Valkyrie Profile?

Hell, how does FF Tactics not get on the list before Last Remnant? Front Mission?

[SactoGamer]

Remnant is ranked at #15 whereas FF Tactics is ranked at #8. Tactics is, therefore, the superior of the two games.

[DevastationEve]

The list was solid :) I agree that Last Remnant was an awesome game, for the NEW age rpg gamers out there it's certainly something great to experience from a company that knows how to make rpgs.

Note: the title says Top Fifteen "Square-Enix" games of all time, so does he mean after their merger or before? Because a lot of them were before, and only one game on the list came from Enix before. They should just say Square or Squaresoft (FF-X and Kingdom Hearts were before, btw).

[KillerPwned]

I agree 100% with this list tho i never played xenogears im pretty sure i gotta buy this now.

[Spawnofgods333]

KINGDOM HEARTS!!!!!!!!!!

[AshleyRiot]

Vagrant Story is one of the best games ever made IMO and not on the list?!? Whatever ; ;

[illjaden]

Illusion of Gaia isn't even in this list!? What a newb..

[SactoGamer]

Illusion of Gaia, while made by Enix in Japan, was released by Quintet/Nintendo in North America.

[illjaden]

1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Chrono Trigger
3. Final Fantasy X
4. Final Fantasy VI
5. Final Fantasy VIII
6. Kingdom Hearts Series
7. Parasite Eve Series
8. Xenogear
9. Vagrant Story
10. Illusion Of Gaia / Illusion Of Time
11. Final Fantasy IX
12. Final Fantasy Tactics
13. Final Fantasy XII
14. Final Fantasy X-2 / Final Fantasy VII : Crisis Core (Cant decide)
15. Last Remnant

This is my list :)

[Gun_Senshi]

only kids think that ffvii is the best jrpg. chrono trigger, xenogears, ffiv and ffvi are all way better

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Final Fantasy IX's soundtrack is THE best soundtrack in a Final Fantasy game, by far. Even Nobuo Uematsu himself said that Final Fantasy IX was his favorite soundtrack from the final fantasy games

How is it possible for games Journalist to criticize FFIX's soundtrack??!!

I would place FFIX in the Top 5 since I cant stand those Old school 2D NES games...they make me sick

[-MD-]

Glad 9 made it onto the list.

[Etseix]

where is Radiata Stories? FF Core?
Core is the best FF of all
but i guess thats only for me lol, never played, and i think ill not play VII.

[Xiedo]

Last Remnant definitely does not deserve to be there.

Personally, I think FFVIII does. It was the one Final Fantasy that dared to be different. Even if it wasn't perfect, I enjoyed it more than any FF. FFVI and FFVII were good, but the aesthetic was still struggling. FFVIII was the first game where Final Fantasy began to develop it's own unique look and explore a new kind of gameplay.

And then we got FFIX which, for all it's good points, got a BEAT DOWN with the old-school stick and the gameplay was reverted about 10 years. A real chore to play.

[Ninji]

Listing Squaresoft games as Square-Enix games = fail.

There is no such thing as a good Square-Enix game so you can only have a top list of flops.

You know the games by Square-Enix suck when the Top 15 list has to include games by Squaresoft.

[Etseix]

people are commenting by just looking if its a Square game, not Soft or Enix, still yeah ur right, SE sucks, and now more, ah... many people blame SE, many blame MS in here, ... i just know that they do games so fast for xbox that almost all of them end sucking.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Actually last Remnant on the PC was FAR FAR FAR better then the XBOX60 version.

[Etseix]

i havnt played that one on PC, thax for that, ill check it up soon as i can ;)

[Troll-without-Bridge]

No FFvIII?

Fail

[bankai]

ugh squareenix is so mediocre compared to other developers

[DarkAzureIIIX]

Square/Enix/Square-Enix has a lot better RPG out there take Vagrant Story,Illusion Of Gaia, Parasite Eve, Valkyrie Profile and lots lots more. Who ever this person is is a noob.

[bankai]

i agree, but thats when squareenix was 2 companies. one called square soft and one called enix. that was a time that they were seperate and both produced epic games. now after the merge the best they have done was produce mediocre BULLSH*T, most of which has really just been fail. they have basically become the EA of the JRPG world

[NeoSprtacus]

@20.1 (bankai)

As tactless as you may have said it I agree with what you state.

This list is no more than a top 10+ Squaresoft games and top 5 Enix/SquareEnix games.
I was hoping to click the link and find the top 15 games made by SquareEnix (merged), so that I could count how many remakes would be up there, only to be disappointed with a list comprised of older games made by the two seperate companies.

I was once in love with Squaresoft, I had most everything, I even went as far as to love Ergheiz... but since the merger I have only been thoroughly, depressingly disappointed.

Wish the title of the article was Top 15 Square/Enix games.

I also want a Final Fantasy Adventure on there, that was tight. PS1 Brave Fencer Musashi was awesome, along with other great games on the PS1/SNES

[bankai]

yeah, i dont beat around the bush especially when it comes to the JRPG genre since that pretty much all i play outside of a few action titles. if a console JRPG came to the states, chances are i own it

[xXheidiXx]

CHRONO CROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? ????????????

[Tex117]

That's not a horrible list. Might rearrange the order, but most of the games on there deserve to be on there. (With the excpetion of Last Remnant)

There is no question Chrono Trigger and FFVI are two of the best RPG's or even video games of all time. I really liked Secret of Mana as well, but I must concede that Chrono Trigger and FFVI are more epic in scope and done with just a bit more touch.

[Jecht]

Complete fail of a list. I read Last Remnant and instantly knew it was fail, but to have FFIV at 14 and FFXII at 10 with FFVII at 3? Such a pathetic list. Absolut Phail.

[Gun_Senshi]

FAIL FAIL FAIL