Type Public Founder Tomoyoshi Miyazaki Headquarters Tokyo, Japan | Industry Video game industry Founded April 1989 | |
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Key people Tomoyoshi Miyazaki
Masaya Hashimoto Products ActRaiser
Soul Blazer
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
The Granstream Saga Website www.quintet.co.jp (defunct - Internet Archive link) Video games Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, Soul Blazer, ActRaiser, ActRaiser 2 | ||
Quintet Co., Ltd. (株式会社クインテット, Kabushiki gaisha Kuintetto), was a Japanese video game developer, founded in April 1989. The company name is derived from musical terminology, as well as 5 elements of game design — planning, graphics, sound, programmers and producers. Quintet was most active in the 1990s, when it had a strong relationship with Enix (now incorporated into Square Enix); the company was also a member of GD-NET group of Sega Saturn developers. The current status of Quintet is unclear but it is believed that it went defunct around 2000 to 2002.
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Company background
The director and president of Quintet is Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the scenario writer for the first three entries of Nihon Falcom's classic Ys series. Masaya Hashimoto, the main director, designer and programmer for those same Ys titles, is also a member. Thanks to the Ys connection, composer Yuzo Koshiro (also an Ys veteran) lent his talents to the score of the company's official inaugural title, ActRaiser, a soundtrack which has since been adapted for orchestra. Koshiro's sister, Ayano Koshiro, drew the character designs.
The later releases of Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, known to fans as the "Soul Blazer Trilogy", established a defining feature of Quintet games — the strong, sometimes dark themes addressed in their titles. Quintet's games frequently revolve around a conflict between a being that brings destruction and a being that controls creation as symbols of duality. The world has two aspects which both oppose and complement each other, and everything in existence is built upon that relationship. Unflinching portrayals of the suffering and sacrifices that are a part of life set Quintet games apart, and have attracted many fans. However, around 2000, release of games that contained characteristic Quintet themes declined. Currently, the company appears to have been inactive since 2002.
There was an active bulletin board on the official site until March 29, 2002 (the release date of the Game Boy Advance action RPG Magical Houshin, the counterpart to the GameCube title Battle Houshin, released as Mystic Heroes in North America). In response to angry comments from fans made impatient by the lack of news, Quintet staff posted: "As we cannot currently release any information, we will close this bulletin board." (現在は外部に提供できる情報がなく、また掲示板は閉鎖する, Genzai wa gaibu ni teikyō dekiru jōhō ga naku, mata keijiban wa heisa suru.) Afterward, the bulletin board was shut down. In March 2008, Quintet's website was also shut down.