Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura explains launch of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts pet product line 

Square Enix announced their unexpected new merchandise line, SQEX Pets, on April 4. This will feature toys, beds, clothes and other accessories for your cat or small dog, themed around three of the Japanese game company’s well-known RPG series – Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest. In a comment to 4Gamer, game director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura revealed why Square Enix has decided to branch out into goods for your fur baby. 

When it comes to game-related merch, Square Enix is known for making a wide variety of goods that fans can buy to express their love for their favorite series- everything from Dragon Quest teapots to Final Fantasy Chocobo clocks and music boxes. However, this is the first time they have made a dedicated brand for our four-legged friends. 

Square Enix has announced three different ranges under their pet line, based on their popular series Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Announced products include a Dragon Quest bed shaped like the series’ iconic slime monster, a Kingdom Hearts dog jacket and a Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword scratching block. SQEX Pets debuts at the pet products and services trade show Interpets, held at Tokyo Big Sight from April 4 to 7. It’s likely that the ranges will later be available online. 

It turns out that Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura designed the logos for each of SQEX Pets’ ranges, and also supervised the KH and FF pet products’ creation. Explaining why Square Enix has launched the SQEX Pets line, Nomura revealed that, “Many of our staff have dogs or cats. We came up with this idea upon realizing that there weren’t any pet goods of our games.”  

This revelation should come as no surprise to players. Many of Square Enix’s games feature characters with beloved pets including Rinoa’s dog Angelo from Final Fantasy VIII (even though she does launch him off her arm…) and Clive’s frost wolf pet Torgal from Final Fantasy XVI. Last year, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi even revealed that he managed to sneak his beloved pet cat into the game (Related Article).