Quintet

Japan · Founded 1989 · Developer

Founded by the writer of the first Ys games, Quintet made ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma for Enix — action RPGs remembered for their philosophical, often dark themes.

Quintet was founded in April 1989 and led by Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, who had been the scenario writer for the first three Ys games at Nihon Falcom. Throughout the 1990s it worked closely with Enix, which published nearly all of its games. Its first release, ActRaiser (1990), was one of the most inventive early Super Famicom games, alternating side-scrolling action stages with a god-game simulation in which the player guided the growth of human towns. Quintet followed it with a loose trilogy of action RPGs — Soul Blazer (1992), Illusion of Gaia (1993) and Terranigma (1995) — sharing themes of creation, death and rebirth. The games were praised for their broad philosophical and sometimes dark subject matter, unusual in console action games of the time. Quintet also made ActRaiser 2 and the robot-building RPG Robotrek. The studio was much less visible after the 16-bit era. Its last game was Magical Houshin for the Game Boy Advance in 2002; it has been inactive since and is presumed defunct, and its website went offline in March 2008. Square Enix, which gained access to Quintet's intellectual property, released ActRaiser Renaissance in 2021.