Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing game franchises, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, among numerous others. Outside of video game publishing and development, it is also in the business of merchandise, arcade facilities, and manga publication under its Gangan Comics brand.
Yoko Shimomura is a Japanese composer and pianist primarily known for her work in video games such as the Kingdom Hearts series. She graduated from the Osaka College of Music in 1988 and began working in the video game industry by joining Capcom the same year. She wrote music for several games there, including Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and The King of Dragons.
Jump Festa is an annual manga and anime fan convention in Tokyo, Japan. it is organized by Shueisha, publisher of the various Jump anthologies, with Jump Festa focusing specifically on the Shōnen manga magazines such as Weekly Shōnen Jump, Jump Square, V Jump, Saikyō Jump and Shōnen Jump+. The exposition was started in 1999, and is held for two days in December with over 100,000 people attending every year. New manga, anime, films, games, and merchandise are introduced during this event. Manga artists of popular current and former Jump series are often on hand, and many of them have panels where they answer questions. The festival's mascot is named Kaizo-kun (KAIZOくん) and was designed by Akira Toriyama.
Daisuke Moriyama is a Japanese manga artist best known for creating the Chrono Crusade series which was adapted into a 24 episodes anime series by the studio Gonzo. Moriyama worked on a series called World Embryo, which was serialized in the Young King OURs magazine from 2005 to 2014.
Nier is a 2010 action role-playing video game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In Japan, the game was released as Nier Replicant for the PlayStation 3 with a younger main character, while an alternative version titled Nier Gestalt with an older main character was released for the Xbox 360; Gestalt was released outside of Japan as Nier for both platforms. A remaster of the Japanese version, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in 2021.
Drakengard, known in Japan as Drag-On Dragoon, is a series of action role-playing video games created by Yoko Taro. The eponymous first game in the series was released in 2003 on the PlayStation 2, and has since been followed by a sequel, a prequel and several spin-offs. A spin-off series titled Nier, taking place in an alternative timeline set after a different ending to the first Drakengard than the one 2005's Drakengard 2 followed, was started in 2010 with the eponymous game. Yoko has directed every game in both series, with the exception of Drakengard 2 in which he only had minor involvement.
Yoko Taro is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. Starting his career at the now-defunct game company Cavia, his best-known work was on the action role-playing video game series Drakengard, and its spin-offs, Nier and Nier: Automata. Yoko was born in Nagoya, Aichi, and studied at the Kobe Design University in the 1990s. While he did not initially intend to pursue a career in video games, after working at Namco and Sony, he joined Cavia and became the director and scenario writer for the first Drakengard game. He has since worked extensively on every game in the series, and on mobile titles, after becoming a freelancer after Cavia's absorption into AQ Interactive.
The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls is a Japanese free-to-play simulation video game co-developed by Cygames and Bandai Namco Studios for the Mobage social network platform for mobile phones. It was first released on November 28, 2011, for feature phones, and compatibility was extended to iOS and Android devices on December 16, 2011. The game is based on The Idolmaster franchise, and features a cast of new idol characters. In September 2015, a music video game developed by Cygames titled The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage was released on the Google Play Store and Apple Store in Japan. The original game ended service on March 30, 2023, and was succeeded by its spinoff game and adaptations.
Nier: Automata is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. It is a sequel to Nier (2010), itself a spin-off of and sequel to the Drakengard series. Nier: Automata was originally released for the PlayStation 4 and Windows via Steam, and an Xbox One port was published the following year. A Nintendo Switch port was released in 2022.
Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler is a Japanese manga series written by Homura Kawamoto and illustrated by Tōru Naomura. It began serialization in Square Enix's Gangan Joker in March 2014, with its chapters additionally collected into seventeen tankōbon volumes as of July 2023. In North America, the manga has been licensed for English-language release by Yen Press. The series has also inspired numerous spin-off manga, including a prequel titled Kakegurui Twin.
Grimms Notes is an online free-to-play role-playing game developed by Genki and published by Square Enix. It was released in Japan on January 21, 2016 for Android and iOS devices. The game was released worldwide on March 2, 2018 in South Korea, China, North America and Europe by Flero Games, a Korean publisher. An anime television series adaptation by Brain's Base, titled Grimms Notes: The Animation, premiered from January 10 to March 28, 2019; the anime series is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.
Million Arthur is a Japanese media franchise created by Square Enix, consisting primarily of a series of video games. The first release was an online free-to-play card battle game titled Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur, which was released for iOS and Android in 2012. A sequel game titled Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur was released in Japan in November 2014.
YoRHa No. 2 Type B, commonly known as 2B, is a fictional android from the 2017 video game Nier: Automata, a spin-off of the Drakengard series developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. One of the game's three protagonists, 2B is a soldier for YoRHa, an android task force fighting a proxy war with alien-created Machine Lifeforms. Her story arc focuses on her backstory within YoRHa, and her relationship with her partner 9S, a reconnaissance android. She is also featured in related media, such as the anime Nier: Automata Ver1.1a.
Nier Reincarnation was a 2021 role-playing video game developed by Applibot and published by Square Enix for Android and iOS devices. The game is a sequel to Nier, forming part of the wider Drakengard series. Set in a realm called the Cage, the game followed the story arcs of multiple characters, each exploring their troubled pasts while manipulated by a greater outside threat. Gameplay was split between exploration within the Cage and narratives dubbed Weapon Stories, and turn-based battles against monsters infesting the Weapon Stories. The game was free-to-play, incorporating a gacha-based system for character variants and weapons.
Deep Insanity is a Japanese mixed-media project created by Square Enix. It consists of a manga titled Deep Insanity: Nirvana, which began serialization in Monthly Big Gangan from January 2020 to March 2023, a mobile and PC game titled Deep Insanity: Asylum, which was released on October 14, 2021, and an anime television series by Silver Link titled Deep Insanity: The Lost Child, which aired from October to December 2021.
Dungeon & Fighter, sometimes abbreviated to DNF, is a series of video games created by Neople, a subsidiary of Nexon. While early games were only developed and published by Neople, Nexon began to publish other entries in the series as well as outsource the development to other companies.
Nier: Automata Ver1.1a is a 2023 Japanese animated television series directed by Ryouji Masuyama, co-written by Masuyama and Yoko Taro, and composed by music studio Monaca. Based on the 2017 action role-playing game Nier: Automata developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix, the anime is being produced by A-1 Pictures. Set in the far future during a proxy war between alien-created Machine Lifeforms and human-crafted androids, the story primarily focuses on 2B and 9S, soldiers for the elite YoRHa combat force who become involved with the latest conflict against the Machine Lifeforms.
Kainé is a character from the 2010 video game Nier, a spin-off of the Drakengard series developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix. She is a lead character and player companion in Nier, and prominent in related media and merchandise. During Nier she accompanies the unnamed protagonist in his quest to help a young girl called Yonah, first to cure her disease and then to rescue her from a being called the Shadowlord in a post-apocalyptic world beset by creatures called Shades. Kainé's storyline focuses around her quest for revenge against a monstrous Shade called Hook, and her history of discrimination due to being possessed by a Shade and being born intersex.
