Japanese company Square Enix is one of the biggest game publishers these days. It’s best known for the evergreen Final Fantasy series, but these games are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of titles Square Enix has to offer now, both as a developer and as a publisher.
Many of Square’s titles weren’t available on PC from the get-go, but there’s been a steady trickle or re-releases, bringing certain classics out of consoles. To celebrate this, we’ve prepared a list of games published or developed by Square/Square Enix which you can play on your PC. Some of them are certified classics, whose PC release might have gone unnoticed. Most of these games are offline, but there’s an MMORPG in the mix as well.
Without further delay, let’s take a look at…
Developed by Square (Enix)
Final Fantasy VII Remake
| Release: | 2019-09-03 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Square Enix |
After twenty-three long years, the fans’ demands, and dreams were finally realized: Final Fantasy VII finally got a remake. And wouldn’t you know: it’s outstanding, even in its current state limited mostly to the Midgar section of the original three-disc story. Don’t take it the wrong way: the brief Midgar chapter of the original game was incredibly expanded, truly becoming worthy of being its own game.
The game is presented as a third-person perspective action game this time and has the gorgeous graphics to support it. The story got expanded, NPCs got much more personality, and the cutscenes are both impressive and entertaining. Combat system is much more dynamic but retains elements of the classic Active-Time Battle system for special actions, creating a good mix of old and new ideas.
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Octopath Traveler
| Release: | 2019-7-07 |
| Genre: | jRPG |
| Developer: | Square Enix, Acquire |
A joint project of Square Enix and Acquire, Octopath Traveler is an old school-style jRPG from 2018. It features a mix of 3D environments and lovely 2D sprites with retro, minimal animation to create a world that looks quite whimsical. Despite the retro sprites, the game still looks obviously modern, thanks to detailed, smooth special effects and other graphical flourishes.
There are eight playable characters, all with their own stories and abilities they can use in both turn-based battles and to interact with NPCs peacefully. Over the course of the game, you’ll play as all 8 travelers before their stories cross paths in a dramatic manner. Octopath Traveler is an exceptionally good mix of modern and retro and you should absolutely give it a chance.
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Chrono Trigger
| Release: | 2018-02-27 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Square Enix, TOSE |
Chrono Trigger is an absolute classic dating back to 1995, featuring art by Akira Toriyama, known mostly as a creator of Dragon Ball, and telling a story full of big-scale time travel. Even the characters you get to play as all come from different times in the setting’s history, ranging from prehistory to science fiction future. The story is quite engaging and supported by many time-hopping side-quests.
Unlike other jRPGs of the time, Chrono Trigger doesn’t separate overworld exploration from combat. There are also no random encounters, you always see the enemies roaming around and can prepare accordingly. The combat itself uses the Active Time Battle system known from classic Final Fantasy games, which keeps things dynamic without losing tactical complexity.
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Final Fantasy XIV
| Release: | 2014-02-18 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Square Enix |
Final Fantasy XIV had a long road to glory, including a full re-release the game to fix it, but now it’s one of the most popular and respected MMORPGs on the market, with tons of praise heaped upon its story and gameplay. There’s a lot to love about the game, once you get a good sense for its systems and style. FF14 has seen a huge influx of players, and it’s easier than ever to find people to play with.
Since its functional release in 2013 the game has received several substantial expansions adding both new gameplay elements, such as new classes, and expanding the story in interesting directions. If you’re looking for an online game which is engaging both mechanically and narratively, AND also shares a lot of its DNA with the Final Fantasy series and other jRPGs, absolutely give FF14 a chance.
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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of and Elusive Age
| Release: | 2018-09-04 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Square Enix |
Don’t be mistaken by the almost cute art style od Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of Elusive Age. Despite the big eyes and cute critters, this is a properly epic story with high stakes and dramatic turns of events. The story has a lot happening, including monster attacks, destinies, and many big nouns, all creating an exciting, high fantasy, heroic plot with likeable, distinct characters.
The Definitive edition of DQ11 features a neat gimmick: outside of battles you can freely switch between nice, stylized 3D graphics and a 16-bit retro aesthetic. A quirk shared with Chrono Trigger is that there are no random encounters in DQ11, you see your enemies plain as day and can decide to take them on or find a different way to your objective.
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SaGa Frontier Remastered
| Release: | 2021-04-15 |
| Genre: | jRPG |
| Developer: | Square Enix |
Another refreshed edition of a classic jRPG, SaGa Frontier originally came out in 1997, the year of Final Fantasy VII, with which it shared an ancestor: FF2. Frontier takes place in a setting knows as The Regions, a collection of diverse cultures with their own technology, magic, and dominant species. The story follows one of seven playable characters with their own motivations and troubles.
The game is mostly non-linear, leaving you to pursue your chosen character’s main quest and universal side quests at your leisure. Combat is turn-based, with extra flair in the form of combination attacks the heroes can unleash by meeting specific requirements. There’s even a limited New Game if you play one character after the other.
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Legend of Mana
| Release: | 2021-05-23 |
| Genre: | RPG, tactical |
| Developer: | Square Enix, M2 Co., Ltd. |
Another Square game from before the turn of centuries. Legend of Mana launched in 1999 for PlayStation, but came to PC in 2021, with its lovely, vibrant 2D graphics remastered, and its gameplay preserved. Unlike other games on the list, Legend of Mana allows players to form their own world by placing location-creating artifacts on the overworld map.
There’s also a lot thought that goes into creating the map, since the placement of land isn’t without mechanical importance. As for the story, it’s set in a world which suffered from a great war erupting in the wake of the Mana Tree burning down. There’s no singular through-line to the plot, instead there are several arcs you can pursue, eventually unlocking the final arc.
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Published by Square Enix
Kingdom Hearts III
| Release: | 2019-01-29 |
| Genre: | Action RPG |
| Developer: | Square Enix Business Division 3 |
The Kingdom Hearts series is a crossover paradise for fans of Disney and Final Fantasy, and the series is more than a little convoluted if you care for the plot. If you don’t, then you’re into a treat: a highly energetic adventure happy to take you from one Disney world to another to fight the joint forces of Disney’s, Final Fantasy’s and Kingdom Hearts’ own villain.
Kingdom Hearts III, the only main release playable on PC follows the series protagonist Sora, accompanied mostly by Donald Duck and Goofy, who are quite capable in their KH incarnations. Together they’ll visit locations such as Big Hero 6’s San Fransokyo or Frozen’s Arendelle, teaming up with their iconic characters in pursuit of the series’ inscrutable plot and entertaining storytelling.
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution
| Release: | 2013-10-25 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Eidos Montréal |
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel to the original game, showing a world that is still adjusting to the existence of cybernetic prosthetics. The players become Adam Jensen, a security chief in a corporation producing cybernetics. After the brutal prologue Jensen is left with lethal injuries and survives only thanks to extensive cybernetic replacements.
The game is a series of contained sandbox areas, each with its own set of major and minor objectives to complete. Thanks to your cybernetic augmentations you have access to functional superpowers, including enhanced strength, better hacking skills, invisibility, and social enhancers, allowing you to complete mission in your own way: through combat, stealth, or anything in-between.
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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
| Release: | 2021-10-26 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Eidos Montréal |
Surprising everyone, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be a really good, really FUN action game. It did a great job capturing the energetic, irreverent banter you might be familiar with from the Marvel movies, but the game also slaps in a lot of inspirations and references from the comics, forming a cool blend of inter-galactic chaotic adventures.
Although it’s very much a party-based game, you’re not controlling the full party, just the leader, Star-Lord. You get to give orders to your companions, but you’ll also need to resolve disputes which tend to pop up every so often over the course of the plot. If you’re looking for a solid, single-player, party-based game, you should give this one a chance, especially if you like Marvel stuff.
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NieR: Automata
| Release: | 2017-03-17 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | PlatinumGames |
Developed by PlatinumGames and written by Yoko Taro, Nier: Automata is a fascinating game which gets deeper and deeper the more time you spend paying attention to it. On first glance, it’s an action game starring stylish androids with big weapons. Then you start realizing that the star of the show is not the excellent action: it’s the story and the characters, with whom you’ll spend a lot of time.
The story doesn’t even truly conclude until you’re several New Game playthroughs in, because over time you get to play the game from the perspective of other characters. On top of that the gameplay itself is an exciting mix of character action and bullet hell elements, with a generous heaping of RPG systems in position, such as detailed character progression via implantable chips.
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Life is Strange
| Release: | 2015-01-29 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | DON'T NOD |
The Life is Strange series has grown in mythos and characters since the original game, but the original title is still absolutely worth playing. What might seem like a straightforward adventure game about teen romance quickly turns out to be a supernaturally charged about the consequences of toying with causality for selfish reason. And it’s really good about making this a legitimate dilemma.
The plot follows a teen girl, Max Caulfield, who in a traumatic moment discovers that she can turn back time and find a way to prevent a tragedy from happening. Life is Strange uses Max’s powers in interesting ways, often allowing her to solve puzzles or undo mistakes, which is very handy given that structurally it’s very much an adventure game based on interacting with the world and the NPCs.
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Many final fantasies
This concludes our list. We made sure to focus on games by Square (Enix), but it would be rude not to include a few SE-published titles by other studios.
Hopefully you found a game that sounds like it’s right in your wheelhouse and you can’t wait to spend a few dozen hours with it.