Developer Retrospective: Quintet
The 16 bit era is home to some of the most well-regarded games in the role-playing genre of all time. Pioneer series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest came even more into their own, while being joined by great new entries in the genre such as Chrono Trigger and EarthBound. Yet even amongst these giants of gaming, one small developer with big ideas stood tall: Quintet co, Ltd
Taking its name both from the musical composition and the five major elements of game design (planning, graphics, sound, programming and producing) Quintet was founded in 1989 by Tomoyoshi Miyazaki and Masaya Hashimoto, the creators of Falcom’s Ys series, who split of f from Falcom following the publication of Ys III: Wonderers from Ys. From the start Quintet had an ambitious approach to storytelling and a desire to create games that pushed the boundaries of what was possible within video games, especially in terms of narritive scale. Their first project was slated to be an RPG for the Super Nintendo meant to depict the entire life cycle of a planet, but hardware limitations led to the idea being retooled. Instead, the companies 1990 debut game would be Actraiser.
Actraiser, 1990 back of box
Combining action platformer and city building elements with the then-emerging “god game” genre, Actraiser was like nothing seen before or since. The action mode was appealing enough on its own merits, but the combination of this with all the other elements of the game, matched with an ambitious story about a divine figure vanquishing monsters and guiding them to civiliztion, only to see them abandon his temple once they no longer need him, made Actraiser a tremendous hit in its day and well-regarded in the present.
Actraiser was followed up in 1992 by Soul Blazer, which, while lacking the full simulation mode of the former game, was more of an action rpg proper. The protagonist, also a divinely appointed warrior, is tasked with liberating captive souls from the lairs of monsters to restore the population of a kingdom. Speaking of Soul Blazer in a 1992 interview, Masaya Hashimoto says the following: “By restoring the towns piece by piece, it gives the player a sense of progress and fulfillment, while also serving as a good way to structure and pace the information we reveal. This way we could avoid flooding the player with exposition.”(original source Hippon Super) Curiously, when Actraiser 2 released a year later, Quintet would opt to excise the god-game and simulation elements entirely, focusing completely on improved side scrolling action instead. Other interviews state that the game was developed specifically with overseas markets in mind, and attributes its high difficulty to this fact (source), without commenting on whether this also influenced the decision to remove the civilization building elements. While Actraiser 2 was a fine game in its own right, it is often not as well regarded as the original, since it is missing what made the original game so special.
From the beginning, Quintet never shied away from religious theming to give their games a grand sense of scale. Their games often focused on gods and demons; life and death; creation, destruction, and rebirth. While you might expect this to impede their ability to release in other markets, especially in light of Nintendo of America’s strict policies regarding such content at the time, this was largely not the case. Naturally, some changes were made: the protagonist “God” was renamed to the less blasphemous “The Master”, and the villain “Satan” to “Tanzra. A few other significant changes along these lines occured: the localization of the title of the game “Tenchi Souzou” lit., “Creation of Heaven and Earth” to “Terranigma for the european release, and in Illusion of Gaia, a church being referred to as a “school”, a prayer as a “poem”, and one line with an explicit reference to God removed. While these changes may have been unnecessary and even harmful to the game’s theming, they did little to bury it. the world of Quintet’s games was defined by this dualistic struggle between gods of light and darkness, creation and destruction, and this theme carried through the entirety of them, with or without these explicit references. It’s this very commitment to the idea that made the company stand out.
While not followed by a proper sequel, the story of Soul Blazer would be referenced in Quintet’s next release, Illusion of Gaia. Together, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma form an unofficial trilogy of sorts. Illusion of Gaia was even titled Soul Blazer: Illusion of Gaia at first. Amidst these other games, Illusion of Gaia stands out most for its three playable characters (forms for the main character, really) and more complex dungeon design, while sharing the action-rpg style of combat that would also appear in Terranigma and Soul Blazer. It also introduced elements of real world history like the Egyptian Pyramids and Christopher Columbus to its fantastic setting, an element that would re-appear in Terranigma as well. I’ve discussed Terranigma elsewhere, and suffice it to say, it stands out as the narrative culmination of this sequence: the RPG depicting a planet’s entire life-cycle that Quintet’s staff first dreamed about. It also famously did not release in North America, only in Japan and Europe.
Terranigma Official Concept Art
Quintet had worked exclusively with Enix as their publisher (this is before the merger with Squaresoft) up until this point. Yet Enix America Corporation, Enix’s North American localization subsiciary, closed its doors just as Terranigma finished localizaiton. Enix would not publish any games in North America until 1998, and opened a new North American subsidiary, Enix America Inc., in 1999. Without being able to find a publisher on short notice, and the Nintendo 64 having already released by Terranigma’s December 1996 release date, North America would miss out on Quintet’s magnum opus.
Yet it’s precisely this status as one of the hidden gems that passed America by that drew me to Terranigma in the first place, and through terranigma, to Quintet’s other games. While the game has a few structural issues, including a strange difficulty spike and a magic system that is not very well explained, the story is incredibly far-reaching in scope and the core gameplay makes a place right beside classics like the Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.
Prior to Terranigma’s missed opportunity at a global release, Quintet’s last game, the comedy robot-building RPG Robotrek (titled Slapstick in Japan) had underperformed. While charming in its spoofs of RPG tropes, and interesting as a precursor to games like Pokemon and Robopon, Robotrek was met with mixed reviews in 1994 and even today is not what Quintet’s fans remember them for. This combined misfortune led them to stepping back from the limelight in coming years, with several releases staying Japan exclusive as Quintet either self-published or worked through Enix. One exception to this is Granstream Saga for the playstation, developed by Quintet employees under the name Shade entertainment. While reviews from the time of its release are varied, some consider it an honorary entry in the “Quintet series”. That alone is enough that I have ordered a copy online at the time of writing. Another notable Japan-only release from this period is Planet Laika, a collaboration with studio Zeque, a puzzle RPG where turn-based battles are replaced by arcade-style minigames and the player must manipulate the protagonist Laika’s multiple personality disorder to overcome puzzles and obstacles. It’s ambitious even by the standards of modern Indie studios.
Planet Laika, 1999, honestly I don’t know what this is
From 1999-2004, Quintet would not have any major releases of its own, but a credit on the development of several games as a supporting team, including Shenmue and Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact for the Dreamcast, Mystic Heroes for the Gameboy advance, and Inuyasha: the Secret of the Cursed Mask for the Game Boy Advance. Quintet’s Company website shut down in 2008, and the company is now considered defunct. Quintet Staff have not been available to the public to interview by and large since. According to a 2021 Interview with Terranigma artist Kamui Fujiwara, director Tomoyoshi Miyazaki has “disappeared” as far as he knows. Fujiwara speculates that Miyazaki’s absence might pose problems for attempts at remaking or re-releasing the game. With no apparent social media presence, Quintet’s founders seem content to remain retired from the games industry, or otherwise have no interest in their older work.
Robotrek, 1994 Many of Quintet’s games feature a dog called Turbo
September 2021 saw the release of Actraiser Renaissance on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Windows, and Mobile devices, published by Square Enix, indicating that they hold rights to Quintet’s IP, or perhaps only that published by Enix prior. The remake of Actraiser has spurred interest in Quintet’s Super Nintendo games once again, with the unreleased-in-North-America Terranigma seeing much of the focus. As is the case for many SNES RPGs of high pedigree, games such as Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and even Robotrek remain highly valued by collectors, making a re-release of some kind the most hoped-for way of accessing these games for new fans. While they may have been a small studio whose heyday was 30 years ago, Quintet left a god-sized imprint on the gaming landscape. Perhaps, like the worlds they imagined, Quintet too can be reincarnated in a new form some day.
Terranigma, End Credits
