A media company cannot survive with a single franchise. Inevitably, they will need to diversify. What is most surprising, however, is when a company can maintain two incredibly successful franchises within the same market. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts are two of the single-most popular JRPG franchises in the world. Somehow, Square-Enix maintains both of these franchises despite the crossover in characters and staff. Does the co-existence of these games create market saturation within Square’s release schedule? Do they help each other or harm each other?
More Than a Spin-Off
When it launched, many mistook Kingdom Hearts for a mere spin-off of Final Fantasy. Instead, the game became a crossover between Disney movies and Square Enix’s characters with an original cast to keep things fresh. The first area of the game featured familiar characters from Final Fantasy VIII and X, with characters from Final Fantasy VII joining in the game’s second world. They were important recurring characters, helping the protagonist Sora on his journey. More would feature as the series went on for future installments. Many wondered whether these could even be considered cameos or if the whole game was carried by their presence. Certain characters were chosen as they were designed by Tetsuya Nomura himself.
The Kingdom Hearts series comes with its lore surrounding the Keyblade. Just as each Final Fantasy was a new world with a new story, the adventures of Sora ended up engaging players with more and more original characters and concepts as each new game was released. By the time side-story games were released, such as 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep, the Disney elements felt less and less consequential while the FF characters felt more and more unnecessary. When Kingdom Hearts III launched in 2019, it was entirely devoid of cameo characters. It wasn’t until the Re:Mind DLC that some of our old FF friends made their return. The KH franchise seemed to stand on its own two feet and was its own beast.
Team Crossover
At the head of Kingdom Hearts‘ development is Tetsuya Nomura, the director and main creative lead on all the games. However, Nomura has also been involved in Final Fantasy since the fifth entry, gradually working up to directorial roles in that franchise. It was Nomura’s divided attention that led to a dearth of releases in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with him simultaneously working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII and multiple Kingdom Hearts projects. It was only when Versus XIII was handed to another director that Nomura was forced to hunker down and finally finish Kingdom Hearts III.
Nomura is still a big presence in Final Fantasy. He is the creative director for all Final Fantasy VII projects, helping oversee the Remake trilogy and the spinoff titles. Many wonder if the reason games in both franchises take so long is because people like Nomura can’t help creatively guide either franchise full-time. Since he is fully in charge of the direction of Kingdom Hearts, that franchise’s long gaps between releases feel like a symptom of his busyness. FF fans, on the contrary, might blame the distractions of KH for why more isn’t being done with their favorite IP. It’s a tough situation.
Which Is More Worthy?
All of this begs the question: Which franchise matters more for Square’s future? Every new earnings call brings news of Square-Enix’s games underperforming their expectations. Whether this is due to facts like console exclusivity windows is unclear, but it’s also possible that fan interest wanes in the years between releases. Final Fantasy has been around since 1987, and it feels like dividing Square’s attention has only slowed the releases of that series and made them less successful. There’s no denying that Kingdom Hearts is tremendously beloved and has a fanbase of its own. It doesn’t rely on Final Fantasy for its success, yet it has to leech some of Square Enix’s creative talent.
As an ongoing story, there’s an argument that letting Kingdom Hearts continue is more important than yet another standalone Final Fantasy. However, this doesn’t account for things like the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, which is built to satisfy fans of that particular game. FF is not just releasing new standalone games exclusively. Games like Strangers of Paradise or Dissidia draw from the stories the series has already told and help service the pre-existing fanbase. Each fanbase has a reason to want Square Enix to focus on their franchise and leave the other out of it. Of course, there’s also a crossover between the fanbases and those who want both franchises to continue.
Final Thoughts
Square-Enix is a big company, but its current model is struggling. As we look to the future, we all want our favorite franchises to continue. Some want to see Kingdom Hearts bring the FF characters back into the fold, wanting to see the franchises succeed together. Others see them separately, each doing different things within a very tight space. Square-Enix is going to have to decide if Final Fantasy can continue to wait for creatives like Nomura to pursue their other passions, or if they need to once again make a tough decision and limit their creators’ scopes to get games out in a timely fashion.
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