In the beginning, there was Dragon Quest, It goes without saying that Enix is long known for its RPG line. Releasing such classics as the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series, the Star Ocean series, and most recently Valkyrie Profile, Enix has a long-standing tradition of producing quality single-player experiences.

Displaying a desire to keep up with current trends, Enix has decided to pursue the multiplayer online route. According to the Nikkei Industrial Daily, Enix is developing two online games for release in Japan next year. Information is sketchy at press time, but here is what is known:

The first game will be set in a persistent world that changes over time. The game will allow 4,000 simultaneous users to play over the internet. The second game is a much more limited game, allowing a mere 100 users to play at once. The goal in this game is to cooperate to solve a puzzle. The nature of the puzzle is unknown. The second game has a release date set at March 2001.

With the release of Dragon Quest VII in Japan and Valkyrie Profile in North America, Enix seems to be getting back into gear and is attempting to reclaim its share of the market. With news of online production, one can only assume that Enix plans to go head-to-head against Square's Playstation2 online endeavours, the tenth and eleventh games in the Final Fantasy series. Whether or not Enix's online games will come to the PS2 is unclear at this time, or if North America will get some Enix lovin'.