is a Japanese video game development company formed in March 1995 by former

Telenet Japan was a Japanese video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company had several video game divisions including: Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Reno, Renovation Products, Riot, Commseed, and Telenet Jr. Telenet Ja ...

employees

Yoshiharu Gotanda is a Japanese video game developer, video game development company formed in March 1995 by former Telenet Japan employees Yoshiharu Gotanda (programmer, current tri-Ace President), Masaki Norimoto (game designer) and Joe Asanuma (director). Th ...

(programmer, current tri-Ace President), Masaki Norimoto (game designer) and Joe Asanuma (director). The name is a play on words regarding the "three

ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

s" who formed the company. Most of tri-Ace's games have been

published Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

(formerly

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

). The company exclusively makes

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

s, and is known for giving their games' action-packed battle systems and deep skill systems. This trademark style began when the founders of tri-Ace originally worked for Telenet Japan's

Wolfteam , formerly known as , was a Japanese video game development company founded in 1986. The company was renamed in 2003 when Telenet Japan sold part of its stake and made Namco the majority shareholder. Namco Tales Studio was originally the primary d ...

, and had created ''

Tales of Phantasia is an action role-playing game originally developed by Wolf Team. It is the first title in Namco's ''Tales (video game series), Tales'' series. Initially released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Famicom in December 1995, it was ...

''. This game, published by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

, is a precursor to tri-Ace's own ''

Star Ocean is a franchise of action role-playing video games developed by the Japanese company tri-Ace and published and owned by Square Enix (formerly Enix). Development History The series is also known for being some of the earliest action RPGs to allo ...

'' games in several ways; e.g., an action battle system where the player controls one character and AI controls others in the party and special battle skills that the player can assign to different buttons. Besides the ''Star Ocean'' series, they also released ''

Valkyrie Profile or is a series of role-playing video games created by Masaki Norimoto, primarily developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (formerly Enix). The series is notable for featuring elements from Norse mythology. Common elements The ''Val ...

'' in 1999. Their 2010 release of ''

Resonance of Fate ''Resonance of Fate'' is a role-playing video game developed by tri-Ace and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in January 2010 in Japan and March 2010 in Western territories. The game uses a fast-paced strateg ...

'', was taken to Sega publishing. tri-Ace games have sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide as of September 2005. The company's sound programmer

Hiroya Hatsushiba Hiroya Hatsushiba ( ja, 初芝弘也, ''Hatsushiba Hiroya'') is the founder of video game developer tri-Crescendo, and a long time sound programmer for composer Motoi Sakuraba, whom he also gives English titles of the tracks Sakuraba creates. Hat ...

formed

tri-Crescendo tri-Crescendo is a Japanese video game developer. It was founded in February 1999 by Hiroya Hatsushiba, who still runs the company. Hatsushiba, originally being a sound programmer, carried his experience into tri-Crescendo; the company was initia ...

in 1999 which has since developed several games independently of tri-Ace. Japanese mobile company Nepro Japan acquired tri-Ace in February 2015. Despite being acquired by a company focusing on mobile gaming, tri-Ace will continue developing video games for consoles.

Games developed

References

External links

*
tri-Ace
profile at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{Authority control Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 1995 Video game development companies Video game companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1995