The Game Awards came alongside a number of huge announcements, with the reveal of the next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighter being one of the biggest in the show. With early fan reactions to Nintendo's teaser before the show hoping to see Kingdom Hearts' Sora make an appearance, they weren't too off the mark when another Square Enix character was eventually shown to be the next to join the roster.
Adding Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2020 seems like an obvious choice when considering the success of the character's recent appearance in a new remake. However, bringing Final Fantasy and Smash Bros. together for a second time might mean an even more for the Switch than it does for either of the game franchises involved.
Having Sephiroth appear in Smash Ultimate is only the most recent example of Nintendo and Square Enix working together, but fans from the earlier days of Final Fantasy might remember when this wasn't quite the case. In fact, Final Fantasy 7 itself comes from a pivotal moment between the two companies, making the recent inclusion of Sephiroth and the previous inclusion of Cloud in Smash Bros. WiiU real turning points for the company. Now, with so many Square Enix owned IPs in Smash Ultimate, this could be pointing to several new inclusions to Nintendo Switch Online's virtual console lineups that fans have been begging for since they launched.
Nintendo and Square's Rocky Past
It may seem like ancient history now, but there was a time when Nintendo and Squaresoft didn't get along, back before the merger with Enix that would eventually change the company's name. This is what caused the original Final Fantasy 7 to be a PlayStation exclusive, a trend that the series wouldn't buck until Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals put a spin-off on a Nintendo console. Since then, no mainline Final Fantasy has released on a Nintendo console, even before the more casual style of the Wii separated the company's systems from the competition in terms of raw processing power.
The source of this divide has been kept mostly internal, but reports from the time claim that the release of the Nintendo 64 and the system's continued support for the faster loading of cartridges over the larger storage space on discs is what turned Squaresoft away. Supposedly, Nintendo had consulted Squaresoft on how to build the next system, and the software developer took the disregard of its opinion as an insult. Of course, much of this is hearsay and the modern history shows that Square Enix is more than willing to publish on Nintendo consoles, with the recent Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory launching on Switch.
Square Enix Lineup on NES and SNES
Now, being willing to publish a game on the record breaking Switch console doesn't exactly mean much when it comes to a major game developer looking for potential buyers for its latest game. However, Square Enix allowing so many of its IPs to exist within a Nintendo owned title like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate absolutely means that the companies are on good terms with each other. This could mean that the two could be willing to share IPs for more than just publishing a game on the system, but could go as far as introducing Square Enix's titles in Nintendo Switch Online's virtual NES and SNES.
These titles could include the six Final Fantasy titles that initially launched on the NES and SNES, but could also extend to two of the most requested games for the virtual SNES. The last two games that Squaresoft developed exclusively for Nintendo consoles before the switch over to PlayStation are some of the most popular on the system, Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. Some players still place Chrono Trigger as the best game on SNES, if not giving it the top spot as the best JRPG of all time, making it seem like an obvious choice if Nintendo really wants to incentivize players on picking up Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo Switch Online Already Has Third Party Titles
Looking at the roster of games available through Nintendo Switch Online, adding these titles wouldn't be too much of a stretch compared to other third party titles. Even titles that have remastered versions, like Capcom's upcoming Ghosts'n Goblins Resurrection, are currently available with the paid subscription. So having a recent rerelease, like Chrono Trigger's PC and Mobile versions, doesn't necessarily disqualify a third party title from being included in the virtual console.
At this point, there is little excuse for leaving off one of the most popular games on the SNES from being included on the Nintendo Switch Online virtual console. This omission is made all the stranger with Chrono Trigger's biggest competitor for that top spot on SNES, Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past, already being made available. The Zelda titles is a slightly different story, due to it not being third party, but as players see Square Enix give Nintendo the rights to use Sephiroth in Smash Ultimate, the companies are clearly willing to negotiate.
Reinvigorate Classic Titles
There is a reason why it seems like so many developers are so obsessed with making remakes and remasters like Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and even the recent Resident Evil remakes. These revisits of popular titles have become a method of preservation in a number of ways, updating classics to modern technology and giving them a more permanent placement in digital libraries. Reintroducing players to some of the games that have been left behind multiple console generations ago can go a long way to inform a company like Square Enix what games players would want remade after Final Fantasy 7 Remake's final episode.
In addition to gauging fan responses to some of these older titles, this could also be the only way that younger generations of gamers can even gain access to some of these games. With classic consoles succumbing to aging, even seeing platforms as recent as the PSP losing its batteries, it's becoming harder and harder to backtrack through older game catalogues. Bringing the classic Final Fantasy series, along with Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, might soon be the only way for players to access these games at all.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now for Switch.
