Fantasy Earth Zero

Fantasy Earth Zero was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in which the player controls a customizable avatar and chooses one of the five nations to ally with and fight for. There was no storyline beyond the setting and premise, with the intended narrative being created by the battles of player factions. In the game's setting of Melpharia, a long era of peace causes ancient petty differences between the nations to erupt into full-scale wars for control over magical crystals that gave birth to all things. During the character creation stage, the player chose a gender, character class, weapon type and starting nation.

The main emphasis of gameplay was player-versus-player battles, carried out on the same server; starting with a minimum of seven versus seven, it went up to large-scale battles between two armies of fifty players. Alongside this, there was a player versus environment element, with players able to fight hordes of monsters for lower rewards.

Fantasy Earth Zero began production in 2001 as Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion, a small-scale online game project led by Enix. During this period, it was headed by George Kamitani, a developer whose previous work included fighting games for Capcom and the Sega Saturn game Princess Crown. The project ballooned in scale, and to facilitate its development Kamitani created a small development studio dubbed Puraguru (later known as Vanillaware) in 2002. The project was originally planned as a battle scenario between humans and vampires, but under Kamitani's guidance the scenario changed to a battle between princess-themed kingdoms.

It was Kamitani's first time developing a 3D game, and he recycled artwork and assets from Dragon's Crown, a cancelled Dreamcast sequel to Princess Crown. Production was originally placed in a small section of the Enix company building nicknamed the "submarine". By 2003, Enix had merged with Square to become Square Enix, and Kamitani stated that the newly merged company took the project away from him. Kamitani and Puraguru left production in 2004, and development was taken over by Multiterm.

The release of The Ring of Dominion was a commercial failure, with low subscription rates contributing to it being sold to Gamepot. By contrast, Fantasy Earth Zero rapidly became very popular and one of Japan's most active online games of 2007. Between 2007 and 2009, registered active users increased from 200,000 to 700,000. By July 2011, the game was supporting one million concurrent players.

The original release met with a generally positive reception from Japanese critics, who praised its fast pace and addicting gameplay loops. Game Watch Impress, reviewing the version from the final beta test, called it one of the most innovative online experiences available at the time, praising its networking and gameplay loop, and looking forward to both its future game modes and its possible influence on the Japanese MMO market going forward. 4Gamer.net, again reviewing the last beta version, enjoyed the combat loop and movement, but noted that its interface and item management might be confusing for players.

Following their departure from production, Kamitani and Puraguru relocated to Kansai and renamed themselves Vanillaware, going on to develop multiple titles including Odin Sphere and a reimagined version of Dragon's Crown. Kamitani's parting with Square Enix was on poor terms, and he disliked the idea of working with the company again. Due to their earlier positive relationship, Kamitani has exclusively involved Basiscape and Sakimoto in his projects' music and sound design. The indie title Fantasy Versus, developed and published by Animu Games, was influenced by the gameplay of Fantasy Earth Zero.

A spin-off title set in the original game's universe, Melpharia March, was released on September 19, 2013, for iOS. An Android version was released on August 12 the following year. The gameplay used a field-based tower defense style similar to the Plants vs. Zombies series.