Squaresoft was established in 1986 while Enix was established in 1975. Amazingly, these two companies existed for so long, separately, before they combined in 2003 to create Square Enix. Suffice it to say both companies brought a lot of amazing heroes to the table.
Together, they went on to craft even more memorable protagonists mostly across RPGs. It was the bread and butter of the two companies before the merger betweenFinal FantasyandDragon Quest. It also remains their bread and butter now. So, of the many games and characters they helped create, who stands out?There will be spoilers in this breakdown.
Fans ofFullmetal Alchemistmay not know this but the manga was published in a magazine run by Square Enix called Monthly Shonen Gangan. That’s why they released several games on the PS2 includingFullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixirwhich was the best of the three.
It was an action RPG that took scenes from the anime and adapted them into a game along with expanding the lore with new stories. Ed was an alchemist who was trying to get his and his brother Al’s bodies back through ancient secrets. Ed was a bratty character on the outside who got angry a lot but he genuinely did good deeds despite that temper and outright cockiness.
Claude is one of the two protagonists of this game. There are always a lot of party members in an RPG like this butStar Ocean: The Second Storywas different because players could choose to start as Claude or Rena.
Claude was a space cadet who crash-landed on Rena’s home planet which was behind the times technology-wise. Rena is a good character, but it was more fun to do the whole fish-out-of-water experience with Claude. Claude was a standup soldier and an all-around nice guy who always had good intentions behind all of his actions.
One of the best games on theDS wasThe World Ends With You. It used the touch screen to its full effect beyond just a gimmick, offering players a challenging action RPG unlike anything else on the system. It’s a time loop death game wherein the hero, Neku, has to go through several challenges over seven days.
At the end of every seven-day cycle was a twist. Initially, Neku was a pain as he trusted nobody. However, his arc is one of the best in any Square Enix game as Neku learned to come out of his shell and not be a sassy teen to others anymore.
Ramza is the hero of one of the best spinoffs in this series,Final Fantasy Tactics. He is a knight who goes through three big conflicts in his life. It’s always interesting to see an RPG use time skips to good effect as it can be tricky to keep players invested.
Ramza begins as a lowly squire trying to protect the land to a full-on crusader trying to prevent ancient gods from destroying the world. He’s not a cutthroat though as he always gave enemies a chance to relinquish their terrible ways. Unfortunately for Ramza, he often had to use his blade to save kin and countrymen.
Square Enix hasn’t had a lot of female protagonists in their games, but Aya stands out fromParasite Eve. She was a lowly New York City cop until one night at the opera went wrong. Despite monsters evolving from harmless things like rats and bats, Aya kept her cool in the line of duty.
She investigatedthe titular Eveand tried to solve the case one monster death at a time. If monsters started spawning in the real version of New York City, it’s safe to assume the cops wouldn’t be as calm and collected as Aya. That’s one of the big reasons why she is so great in this horror RPG classic.
Cloud is the main character inFinal Fantasy 7who is beloved by fans. However, it is hard to like him as he had a similar arc to Neku’s but without as much change. Cloud copied a lot of his backstory and look from his best friend within SOLDIER named Zack.
Zack doesn’t get a lot of time to shine in the original game but he does in the prequel,Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7. His happy-go-lucky attitude is infectious between his squat happy routine and his bright smile. The story is kind of nonsensical, but Zack definitely makes the spinoff worth playing.
As far as the mainline games go, Zidane may be up there as the best hero. He’s the protagonist ofFinal Fantasy 9and he is a swashbuckling sky pirate with plenty of charisma to spare. He had some nasty habits in the game so he wasn’t perfect.
One example was his treatment of women but it was all in good fun as a roguish plunderer. He had a good crew too along with an even better cover story as his troop posed as a band of theater performers. Zidane was basically Han Solo in the game if Han Solo had a tail.
There is absolutely no beating Sora in this contest. This young ladfromKingdom Heartsalways spoke about friendship whenever he faced his enemies as they gave him strength even in the darkest of hours. There was not a single bad thing about his character other than maybe how much he spaced out.
Also, he talked about friends a lot but Sora never brought up his mom after the first game which is also not great for a character. It’s a bit odd but let’s forgive Sora for this as it was probably not his fault. The minds at Square Enix must have decided to retcon and ditch the idea of his mom after the first game but she may appear again one day. There’s really no way of predicting where these games will go next.
