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SOJ The Gallery · Quintet, the Studio
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The Quintet Gallery

The studio that rebuilt worlds instead of saving them.

Quintet was founded in Tokyo in April 1989 by two men from Nihon Falcom's Ys team, scenario writer Tomoyoshi Miyazaki and director and programmer Masaya Hashimoto. The name counts the five crafts of game making: planning, graphics, sound, programming, and production. Working almost entirely through Enix on the Super Famicom and Super NES, Quintet made a run of games about creation set against destruction: resurrecting towns, reviving species, raising continents. The studio has been inactive since 2002, its website closed in March 2008, and it is presumed defunct; no dissolution was ever announced.

The headline pattern is Terranigma: released in Japan in 1995 and in Europe in 1996, never released in North America, because Enix closed its American branch before the game could be published there. Its full history and the question page behind it already live in this Library, and this gallery doors to them rather than telling the story twice.

One naming note, at its documented weight. Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are grouped by fans and journalists as a trilogy under rotating names, the Soul Blazer Trilogy, the Gaia Trilogy, the Heaven and Earth Trilogy. None of those names is an official designation. Enix USA producer Robert Jerauld stated on record that Soul Blazer and Gaia are not connected, and that Soul Blazer belongs with ActRaiser instead. This gallery uses the grouping because the themes genuinely rhyme, and labels it fan naming every time it matters.

ACTRAISER

Quintet · Enix · Super Nintendo · 1990
ActRaiser Japanese Super Famicom package, box cartridge and manual
Japan · 1990
Shown as the complete package: the tall Super Famicom box, its cartridge and manual, the white statue over the lands. In Japan the hero is named God, plainly.
 ActRaiser North American Super NES box art
North America · 1991
The same painting at full width. America renamed God to The Master and Satan to Tanzra, eased the action, hardened the simulation, and kept the art.
The History
A god game in two halves, Yuzo Koshiro's career making score, 620,000 copies, and the remake that reunited the halves in 2021.

SOUL BLAZER

Quintet · Enix · Super Nintendo · 1992
Soul Blader Japanese Super Famicom box photographed at an angle
Japan · 1992 · As Soul Blader
The Super Famicom box photographed whole: the hero in red, Deathtoll blue behind him. One letter separates the Japanese title from the Western one.
 Soul Blazer North American package, box cartridge and manual
North America · 1992
Shown as the complete package. A sword in dark mountains, and box copy that spoils nothing and promises everything: Free the Freilians, Make Deathtoll Pay.
The History
Resurrection as a system, a king who sold his kingdom soul by soul, the best reviews on this shelf, and no re-release, ever.

ILLUSION OF GAIA

Quintet · Enix and Nintendo · Super Nintendo · 1993
Gaia Gensoki Japanese Super Famicom package, box manual and cartridge
Japan · 1993 · Gaia Gensoki
Shown as the complete package: Freedan and Shadow ghosted over the Earth on the tall blue box, the manual carrying the same painting.
 Illusion of Gaia North American package, box cartridge and handbook
North America · 1994
Shown as the complete package, Nintendo published, handbook included. In PAL territories this same game is Illusion of Time, a third name and a third box.
The History
Moto Hagio draws, a novelist writes, Will tours the real world's ruins, and Nintendo's muscle gives Quintet its biggest American sale.

TERRANIGMA

Quintet · Enix and Nintendo · Super Nintendo · 1995
Terranigma European PAL Super Nintendo box art
Europe · 1996 · PAL Version
The only English language box the game ever had, published by Nintendo. Japan received it as Tenchi Sozo in 1995; this Library's Terranigma pages carry that story in full.
North America · Never
There is no North American box, and there never was. Enix closed its US branch before localization finished, Nintendo published the game in Europe instead, and the rights then froze it for thirty years. The empty tile is the fact.
The History
Quintet's resurrection epic: raising the continents, reviving life itself, and the scores. Already in this Library; this gallery doors to it.
Never in North America
Why was Terranigma never released in North America? The existing question page, with the closure and the rights tangle documented.

ROBOTREK

Quintet · Enix · Super Nintendo · 1994
Robotrek North American Super NES box front
North America · 1994
The American box front, cropped upright from a complete package photograph: the orbital station, and Enix billing its own comedy RPG as another great RPG.
Japan · 1994 · As Slapstick · Cover Gap
The Japanese box exists, under the title Slapstick, but no scan of it cleared this build's verification: one candidate labeled as the Japanese package proved on viewing to be a different Quintet game's box and was rejected. The gap is named rather than filled.
The History
The comedy detour: invent three robots, program them, send them out in capsules, and sell only 65,000 copies doing it, two years before Pokemon.
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THE FIRST WORD

New pages and new pieces, first.