What If Square Never Left Nintendo?

1UP- For RPG fans of the early 1990s, Square practically had their own branch on the Nintendo family tree. This held especially true on the Super NES, where Square came into its own with Final Fantasy IV and VI, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and wealth of Japan-only releases that loomed just out of reach for Americans. By the end of 1995, the union seemed solid. Nintendo's long-awaited Nintendo 64 system was on its way, and would be home to Square's next Final Fantasy.

There seemed no reason to worry until the spring of 1996, when those same RPG fans opened game magazines and learned that Final Fantasy VII wouldn't release in the form of a Nintendo 64 cartridge. It was now headed for the Sony PlayStation, as with every other game Square planned to make for the latest generation of consoles.

By the end of the year, Square sewed up a publishing agreement with Sony, and their first PlayStation release, the fighter Tobal No. 1, sat on store shelves. It came as quite a surprise to players who'd effectively grown up with RPGs on Nintendo systems.

[NukaCola]

Funny thought. Even though FF VII was on PS1, the over world Cloud was a 64bit block character. lol

[Snookies12]

Hah! Everything about FFVII was amazing... Except the character models. XD
They were atrocious compared to everything else, though at the time it was acceptable.

[StayStatic]

The models reminded me of playmobil figures xD

[wishingW3L]

at least we still have the PC mods. With it you can use the character models used in the random battles which look miles away better but not as refined as those of FF8 though.

[123_321]

If Nintendo weren't so greedy at the time then Sony Computer Entertainment would never have existed. Square would not have had a worthy competitor to go to.

[beerkeg]

Do you not think that the reason for Nintendo not going with Sony in the end may have been because Sony wanted too much out of the deal? They may well have demanded a bigger cut than Nintendo was prepared to commit to.

We may never know, but I don't think it's as clear cut as Nintendo being too greedy.

[123_321]

You're probably right.
Actually i think they were both being a bit greedy.
Too bad though, because a Sony-Nintendo partnership would have been awesome.

[CLOUD1983]

GreenRanger disagree with u SONY & Nintendo is 2 completely different fruits, the classic Mario/Zelda/Metroid triangle of Ninti have nothing to do with Uncharted/MGS/GoW/InFamous/Kil lzone/Resistance/Demon's Souls/Heavy Rain/Yakuza & many other PS only games.

It's obvious that SONY concentrate 80%+ on hardcore gamers with more mature games & Ninti 80%+ on casual & little kids games, and that's obvious from the console design the PS3 is the strongest console in the market capable of run full HD games & the Wii the exactly opposite with PS2-like graphic quality and other than that it's the joystick design, hardcore gamers dont care about motion controls at all.

That's why I prefer those 2 on separate ways they target different markets I dont see them as competitors, SONY & Nintendo have a different philosophy and that's ok, variety is always good that way gamers have options we can choose what is more to our tastes.

[dark-hollow]

"Ninti 80%+ on casual & little kids games

what's casual or kiddie about Zelda or metroid?
Does including bloods and sexual themes makes it "mature" enough for your tastes?

[dmixwell]

not sure how Final Fantasy would have turned out. could have gone both ways (good or Bad)but Kingdomhearts would have been ten times better with the addition of Hyrule , Mushroom kingdom, planet Zeebes.

[FinaLXiii]

Kingdom Hearts its a franchise that was born from Final Fantasy´s sucess on the Playstation in the first place.

[dmixwell]

i hear ya. but to be honest final fantasy was on the rise before playstaion. and if the 64 would have homed ff7 im sure it would have been just as great maybe even greater than the ff7 we know today.with that being said kingdom hearts would likely have still happened, and combining Nintendo characters with the FF6 , FF7, would have turned out awesome. comon a master sword keyblade, sora in a raccoon suite , mario and mickey swinging keyblades.... the gamecube needed that

[FinaLXiii]

If square never left nintendo FF franchise probably would never have the chance to go big.

But ironicly its FF that made what Square Enix is today.

[Whitey2k]

wait they cant say that if sqaure didnt leave nintendo it should be what if square didnt merge with enix!! cos since then FF been really rubbish!

[Chrono]

I follow Square wherever they go.