Monolithsoft (Nintendo, Namco, and pre-Monolithsoft games from Square)
Paradox Games (internally developed)
Quintet (Enix)
Seedy Projekt Red
But I generally don’t get excited about publisher releases, so it’s hard to have five. The four above studios also represent teams that have been relatively consistent and longtime collaborators. For me, it’s not publishing companies, or even particular studios, but teams and developer figures that I get excited about when they’re involved. And sometimes it’s when certain collaborations occur that gold is struck - as was the case with Chrono Trigger, while Masato Kato (Chrono Cross) and Takashi Tokita (Final Fantasy 4) are great on their own, they were elevated by collaborating on Chrono Trigger (along with Tetsuya Takahashi, Yasunori Mitsuda, Akira Toriyama, Yuji Horii, and Yoshinori Kitase). That team seemed to be the perfect cocktail for timeless greatness in a classic 16-but style RPG. From North America, Will Wright in particular - SimCity, Sim Earth, SPORE, Sims, and so on - I’ll always be excited by a Will Wright sandbox game, even if it’s broken (as Sim Life was).
Apologies for going outside the parameters of the thread.
Last edited by Jumpin - on 27 November 2023I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
