Dozens of Square Enix companion books have been produced since 1998, when video game developer Square began to produce books that focused on artwork, developer interviews, and background information on the fictional worlds and characters in its games rather than on gameplay details. The first series of these books was the Perfect Works series, written and published by Square subsidiary DigiCube. They produced three books between 1998 and 1999 before the line was stopped in favor of the series, a portmanteau of ultimate and mania. This series of books is written by Studio BentStuff, which had previously written game guides for Square for Final Fantasy VII. They were published by DigiCube until the company was dissolved in 2003. Square merged with video game publisher Enix on April 1, 2003, to form Square Enix, which resumed publication of the companion books.
Both the Perfect Works and Ultimania books have focused primarily on Square and Square Enix's role-playing video game franchises, such as the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series; over half of the more than 75 books are for games related to the Final Fantasy series. Sometimes, multiple books have been written per game or revised editions have been published years afterwards. One of the books, Final Fantasy IX Ultimania Online, was solely published online as part of an experiment by Square Enix with online content delivery; another for Final Fantasy XI was planned, but the idea was abandoned as unsuccessful and all subsequent books have been published traditionally.
The books are written and edited by Studio BentStuff. The Ultimania series had sold over books by July 2007, increasing to over copies sold as of 2017.[1] The highest selling Square Enix companion books are Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania (over copies) and Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania (over copies).[2] All of the books have been released solely in Japanese, but Dark Horse Books published English translations of the three-volume 2012 Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania as Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive in June 2018.
| Title | Game | Date | ISBN | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xenogears Perfect Works | Xenogears | ||||
| SaGa Frontier II Perfect Works | SaGa Frontier 2 | ||||
| Front Mission 3 Perfect Works | Front Mission 3 |
| Title | Game | Date | ISBN | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaGa Frontier II Ultimania | SaGa Frontier 2 | ||||
| Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana Ultimania | Legend of Mana | ||||
| Chrono Cross Ultimania | Chrono Cross | ||||
| Vagrant Story Ultimania | Vagrant Story | ||||
| Internet-only | |||||
| Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles World Ultimania | Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles | ||||
| Chrono Cross Ultimania | Chrono Cross | ||||
| Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana | Legend of Mana | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Ultimania | |||||
| Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Ultimania | Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts Series Ultimania α ~Introduction of Kingdom Hearts II~ | |||||
| SaGa Frontier II Ultimania | SaGa Frontier 2 | ||||
| Vagrant Story Ultimania | Vagrant Story | ||||
| Part of the Final Fantasy VII Potion box set | |||||
| Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 1: Character | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 3: Battle | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Chrono Trigger Ultimania | Chrono Trigger | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Ultimania | Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Ultimania | Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Ultimania | |||||
| Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Ultimania Action Side | Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy | ||||
| Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Ultimania RPG Side | Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy | ||||
| Final Fantasy Type-0 Ultimania | Final Fantasy Type-0 | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania Volume 1 | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania Volume 2 | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania Volume 3 | Final Fantasy series | ||||
| Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy X HD Remaster Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster Ultimania | |||||
| Kingdom Hearts Series Memorial Ultimania | Kingdom Hearts series | ||||
| Biohazard Revelations 2 Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy XV Ultimania - Scenario Side- | |||||
| Final Fantasy XV Ultimania - Battle + Map Side - | |||||
| Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Ultimania | |||||
| Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Ultimania | Dissidia Final Fantasy NT | ||||
| Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space World Ultimania | Another Eden | ||||
| Kingdom Hearts III Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania | |||||
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania Plus |