sometimes working with Square Enix in later years. Kikuta, frustrated at the rigid hierarchy of Square, left and founded Sacnoth in 1997, which would become known for the Shadow Hearts series; he left Sacnoth in 1999 following the release of his project Koudelka and founded the music label Nostrilia. Takahashi and Tanaka, along with other Xenogears developers who wanted to work outside the Final Fantasy series, founded Monolith Soft in 1999 and went on to develop multiple projects, including further Xeno titles. Nishi and a few others he knew founded several studios over the years including Love-de-Lic (Moon: Remix RPG Adventure), Skip Ltd. (Chibi-Robo!), and Punchline (Rule of Rose). Kameoka and other developers who worked on Legend of Mana (1999) founded Brownie Brown in 2000, and ended up working with Square Enix on the Mana series with Sword of Mana. Mizuno founded developer AlphaDream in 2000, with Fujioka joining soon after; the company is best known for its work on the Mario & Luigi series. Staff members from Square Pictures, including The Spirits Within co-director Motonori Sakakibara, established Sprite Animation Studios in Hawaii in 2002. Sakaguchi, following a period of low morale after the failure of The Spirits Within, decided to re-enter game development. He founded Mistwalker in 2004, which has since produced series such as Blue Dragon and Terra Wars and standalone projects such as Lost Odyssey and The Last Story. After his resignation from Square, Takechi founded music label Dreamusic with Kazunaga Nitta. Both Mitsuda and Sakimoto formed independent music studios; Mitsuda formed Procyon so he could work while maintaining his health, while Sakimoto founded Basiscape to give himself freedom to work on a wider variety of projects. References Notes Further reading External links Square Co., Ltd Official website (archives) Wayback Machine Square Soft Inc Official website (archives) Square USA Official website (archives) History of Enix and Square (Square Enix's site) 2003 mergers and acquisitions Defunct video game companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1986 Japanese companies disestablished in 2003 Software companies based in Tokyo Square Enix Video game development companies Video game publishers Video game companies established in 1986 Video game companies disestablished in 2003