Key findings
- Square Enix relies heavily on mobile games, offering unique experiences that go beyond its console titles.
- Notable mobile games include Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7, SinoAlice, and Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross.
- The gameplay mechanics of Square Enix's mobile games vary from gacha elements to turn-based combat, appealing to a wide audience on the go.
While Square Enix is best known for its big console projects Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, it has a fairly large portfolio of games that never come to consoles. In fact, a large portion of their revenue comes from their mobile games, and there are some real gems among them.
There are quite a few ports of older Square Enix games for mobile, although there are a really large number of games that are specifically designed for mobile and take advantage of the platform. Just make sure you like gacha mechanics and RPGs before investing in them.
10 Before the Crisis: Final Fantasy 7
While it wasn't the start of Square Enix's mobile efforts, it was one of the first Final Fantasy games designed specifically for the platform, and the start of the more extensive Compilation of Final Fantasy 7. Before Crisis follows the actions of the Turks in the years leading up to the original game, with you playing as a custom character.
Before Crisis expands on the many Turks seen in the original Final Fantasy 7 and offers some limited multiplayer functionality in trading Materia or allowing other players to assist in battle. The game was canceled in 2018 and is functionally lost without a western release or digital backups.
The story of “Before Crisis” is set to be retold in “Ever Crisis,” in case you at least want to catch up on what you never got to experience.
9 SinoAlice
Yoko Taro is best known for his console work on the Nier and Drakengard series, but has more recently branched out into mobile, with SinoAlice being the first of his mobile games to really take off. It's a retelling of many fairytales with, well, some creative liberties taken.
In it, the characters from these fairy tales try to find their authors to fulfill their own wishes, but must first defeat the many monsters that threaten to destroy the library they live in. These characters range from Aladdin to Kaguya, with the gacha mainly focusing on new weapons. This game was also set to be released in late 2023.
8 Miscellaneous daily life
Not only does Various Daylife continue Square Enix's wonderful tradition of giving certain games the funniest, prototype-sounding names, but it was also one of the first games to be added to the Apple Arcade service, making it one of the few Square Enix mobile games that didn't focus on live services and gacha elements.
In Various Daylife, you perform various actions that one would perform in everyday life. It's a very simplified version of typical RPGs, designed more for casual play, so don't expect hours of fun. Ironically, the interface doesn't work perfectly on smaller phone screens, so the game was eventually ported to consoles and PCs.
7 Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia
Opera Omnia is another Final Fantasy game from Square Enix for mobile. It's also the first Dissidia game to be developed specifically for mobile, so it's dramatically restructured in almost every way. No more real-time battles, but a more traditional turn-based system. Realism is traded for a cuter representation of these characters.
Like previous Dissidia games, Opera Omnia acted as a crossover game that continued and expanded on the story of other Dissidia entries. While it was initially rather limited in content, it ended up with nearly 200 characters. As is typical of many of Square Enix's mobile efforts, it was canceled in February 2024.
6 Dragon Quest Tactics
To avoid ever having to make a new Final Fantasy Tactics, Square Enix instead creates countless other grid-based tactics games to fill that gap, and Dragon Quest Tact is one of those games. Dragon Quest Tact beautifully translates Dragon Quest's iconic art style to mobile, and is a really fun, casual game.
In it, you navigate grid-based maps and use the various monsters you've acquired to battle. There's a good amount of strategy here, and different party combinations can really change your game. There was a brief period outside of Japan in North America, though that version was discontinued in February 2024.
5 Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis
If there's one thing that's guaranteed to make Square Enix more money just by virtue of its name, it's Ever Crisis. Supposedly it's going to offer the entire Final Fantasy 7 compilation in a single package, but so far Ever Crisis is a means of giving Sephiroth even more backstory. After all, we still don't know Sephiroth.
While the story segments use a very unique art style, the combat sections instead use the hyper-real models from Final Fantasy 7 Remake and a highly simplified turn-based combat system. It's jarring, to say the least, but at least Cloud has some…tantalizing outfits you can acquire once you've hoarded enough gems.
4 Nier: Reincarnation
Nier Reincarnation is arguably Yoko Taro's most successful foray into mobile gaming to date, offering a whole new setting for the Nier games. It's not exactly unusual for the series, but it's a welcome change after the flood of Nier Automata content. In it, you play as the girl who moves through the cage and experiences the memories of the weapons within.
The story expands over time, with you taking control of new characters, though most characters are unlocked by playing their respective missions. Weapons and new outfits were limited to the gacha system, as were the deeper aspects of their backgrounds. It was unfortunately discontinued in April 2024.
3 Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross – Dark Road
The Kingdom Hearts series is already known for its convoluted nature. Each game must be read in chronological order to fully understand the story of subsequent installments, and Union Cross added even more beautiful layers to it. While it wasn't essential to understanding the current story, Kingdom Hearts 3's post-credit scene already made Union Cross's extensive lore relevant.
Union Cross is set in the days of Daybreak Town, in a time when Keyblade wielders were common and the Master of Masters watches over the world. Until he disappeared, leaving only his prophecies behind. Maleficient and Mickey Mouse still somehow appear as well. Dark Road was later released as its own side story that fully concluded Xehanort's story.
Like many other Square Enix mobile games before it, Union Cross was discontinued in 2021, followed by Dark Road in 2022, and the ability to watch story cutscenes offline was removed when the game was pulled from stores in 2024.
2 Dragon Quest Walk
One of Square Enix's few mobile games that hasn't been canceled (yet), Dragon Quest Walk is pretty self-explanatory. Dragon Quest Walk builds on the success of other GPS-based games like Pokemon GO, using the world around it as the core of its gameplay.
As you walk around in reality, you'll come across various monsters to fight and areas to explore. Giant monsters will also sometimes appear, which you can defeat with the help of up to 12 players. You can even set a custom location as your home, decorate it, and visit it whenever you're in that area. Unfortunately, this is currently only available in Japan.
1 Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent
Octopath Traveler marked the beginning of a new era for Square Enix, and it did so by investing in the HD 2D art style. The HD 2D style, developed by internal team Asano, was first implemented with Octopath Traveler. Although there has since been a sequel, there was first a mobile game spin-off set in the same world: Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.
The game must be commended for beautifully translating the art style of the console games to mobile and retaining the unique actions of each character. The only downside is that the highlight of the game, the champions, are almost entirely hidden behind the incredibly expensive gacha system.
