They completely separated for more than five years
Square Enix is now one of the third most represented parties in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with Cloud, Sephiroth and Dragon Quest’s Hero as playable characters, but that before seemed impossible when the crossover series was created.
It’s almost like a miracle that Final Fantasy 7 could receive two fighter slots in Smash too, considering that it was the game that led to perhaps the biggest breakthrough in video game history, which left some at Square feeling like Nintendo had closed the door for them and never wanted to. to see / work with them again.
Hiroshi Kawai, the character programmer for Final Fantasy 7, remembered much of the impression he had on former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi after it was decided to make the new release exclusive to PlayStation.
This revelation came through Polygon’s oral history article for FF7, although not all Kawai colleagues saw the end of the meeting so bitterly.
“I will say that. I am impressed with what Nintendo [was] able to do with hardware 64, “said Kawai via Polygon.” Mario, Zelda – your developers must be top-notch to be able to do this. But that is essentially the extent of what you can do with the hardware. And you wouldn’t even come close to something like a Final Fantasy running on it. “
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi went on to say that Yamauchi was very kind in his meeting about his new partnership with Sony, providing everyone with beer and expensive food before patting them on the back when they left.
“What I heard was that Nintendo said, ‘If you’re leaving us, never come back’ – Hiroshi Kawai
Although Sakaguchi claims there were no hard feelings between them, Kawai replies that the famous game maker is “just trying to be politically correct about it”.
“What I heard was that Nintendo said, ‘If you’re leaving us, never come back,” concluded Kawai.
This meeting was the culmination of months of prototyping work on the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, where Sakaguchi made the call to move Final Fantasy 7 to the Sony console.
The era of each Final Fantasy before its release on the Nintendo consoles came to an end with the first games in the series taking Square from barely surviving one of the biggest developers in the industry.
Nintendo even gave Square a chance in their own Mario game with the Super Mario RPG, but the N64 created a gap between them on several levels.
Much of this break was attributed to the choice of using cartridges instead of CDs, which offered much more storage space, although Kawai also notes that the overall difference in power and communication problems also influenced the division.
Super Mario RPG was one of the last games that Square launched with Nintendo at the time in 1996. It wouldn’t be until 2002, however, when the two companies would start working together again.
Go more than a decade later, and Cloud is being announced as one of the last Super Smash Bros. DLC characters. for Wii U and 3DS, which is quite ironic, given the split and the fact that FF7 was not yet available on a Nintendo console at the time.
Smash creator Masahiro Sakurai said Final Fantasy was one of the most requested additions by fans, with Cloud’s popularity surpassing that of previous protagonists of the 8 and 16 bit eras.
Just over a month ago, we received a double dose of Mako with the surprise announcement and release of Sephiroth for Smash Ultimate.
Some fans were upset that the companies opted for FF7 again over the 14 other main entrances and countless spin-offs, but it’s hard to deny a place for one of the most iconic villains in video games.
Of course, Nintendo may not have purchased Final Fantasy 7 Remake either, but the developers have a very close working relationship again, especially when it comes to their other franchises like Dragon Quest.
Via Polygon, Nintendo Life.