In the early days of the video game industry,Square Enixwas quick to establish itself as highly advanced in terms of technological expertise. It prided itself on the prestige games in created, and much of that was based on the powerful in-house tools it had for CG production.

With such knowledge and tools, they advanced beyond just games too for their own media creations, and licensed out everything else they had to create a media empire centered within Japan. So in case you were ever wondering just how many shows and movies hve been made based on Square’s works, the answer is quite a bit.

Because Square Enix’s publishing library is massive, this article will exclusively focus on shows and movies based on Square Enix-developed properties.

How Many Shows And Movies Has Square Enix Created Itself?

While plenty of Square Enix properties had already been adapted into shows and films at this point, none of them had been developed in-house by Square Enix. To this point,Square’s in-house CG effortshad been restricted to short CG scenes within their games. Wanting to flex their impressive technology, they set their eyes to films, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was created.

If you know anything about that film, you’ll know it wasn’t a great success and becamequite the damper for Square’s later feature film efforts. You can see all of their efforts below.

July 11th, 2001

September 14th, 2005

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15

July 9th, 2016

Yes, despite all that ambition and expertise,Square has only made three whole films themselves, and in reailty Advent Children is the only one that is in any way held in high regard. Thankfully, their efforts have in no way gone to waste, as their CG division, the Square Enix Image Studio Division, is still used for all of their in-game CG scenes.

How Many Have Been Created Based On Square Enix’s Works?

Now when it comes to works that have been created based on the many games that Square Enix has made, that’s a whole different ballpark. Withliterally dozens of franchises to pull from, Square Enix has no shortage of properties to be adapted.

Thankfully, it’s not all just the biggest games that get adapted but some smaller ones, too. WhileFinal Fantasy and Dragon Quest are definitely disproportionately represented, they’re not completely dominating.

Here’s the full list ofSquare Enix-licensed and produced adaptations:

Many of Square’s adaptations are on smaller games and oftentimes exclusive to Japan, so it’s entirely possible this list is non-exhaustive.

Show Or Movie?

March 21st, 1994

October 2nd, 2001

March 30th, 2016

December 2nd, 1989

October 17th, 1991

October 3rd, 2020

April 20th, 1996

August 2nd, 2019

April 3rd, 2001

October 3rd, 2014

October 25th, 2018

October 8th, 2022

July 13th, 2018

January 7th, 2019

April 10th, 2021

January 8th, 2023

Show

Rooming With A Gamer Gal is not created by Square Enix, but a manga published by them. Since itrevolves around playing Dragon Quest X,however, it felt like a valid inclusion.

While the number would definitely shift around a bit based on what you want to count as a Square Enix property, by our own system that gives17 adaptations of Square’s works, with the vast majority of them being anime shows. From havingstarted back in 1989 with Dragon Quest, that’s a surprisingly more humble number than one may have expected.

How Many Have Been Made In Total By Square Enix?

Square Enix may not have had the success they were hoping for when it came to producing feature length films, that didn’t make them shy away from producing plenty of other versions of their works with the help of others, even for their biggest series'. Let’s take a look at everything they’ve made below.

In total, that gives you anice and even 20 adaptations. While the number would be far greater were you to count the many adaptations of the manga that Square Enix publishes, 20 is a respectable number for renditions of their own works.