Chunsoft
Chunsoft was founded in 1984 by Koichi Nakamura after he won a competition hosted by Enix through programming and designing the game DoorDoor. Chunsoft is best known for developing the Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in North America) series of games, published by Enix. In 2012, Chunsoft merged with Spike Co., Ltd. and became Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
Chunsoft at a Glance
Chunsoft is a Japanese company founded in 1984 by Koichi Nakamura. The studio gained its start after Nakamura won a competition hosted by Enix by programming and designing the game DoorDoor. Over a career spanning from 1983 to 2024, the developer has released 47 titles as a creator and published 17 others. Their work covers 49 games total on PlayPile, showing a heavy focus on Role-playing games with 27 entries and Adventure titles with 26 entries. They also produced 14 Visual Novels and eight Turn-based strategy games. The company's output fluctuated significantly over the decades. They released four games in the 1980s and thirteen in the 1990s. This activity peaked in the 2000s when they launched 23 titles. The following decade saw a sharp drop to seven releases, and only one game appeared in the 2020s so far. This slowdown coincides with their 2012 merger with Spike Co., Ltd. to form Spike Chunsoft. Despite this recent quiet period, their earlier work includes several highly rated games. The top three ranked titles are Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward from 2012, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors from 2009, and 428: Shibuya Scramble from 2008. All three scored above 86 out of 100. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome also stands out with a score of 85.5. Their overall quality record shows a mix of strong and average results. Out of 18 rated titles, four achieved great status while thirteen fall into the good range. There are no mixed or poor ratings in this sample, though one title below 40 exists in their broader history. Their platform reach covers many systems, with nine games each for the Nintendo DS and Wii. They also have seven titles on the Super Famicom and PlayStation Portable. Later years saw releases on the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. Recent activity includes Kamaitachi no Yoru x3 released in September 2024 and Shin Kamai-tachi no Yoru: 11nin-me no Suspect from December 2011. While they are best known for their long history with the Dragon Quest series, their portfolio extends well beyond that into complex narrative games and strategy titles.
