If pushed, I’d describe my 2024 gaming habits as eclectic, but that would actually be a lie. All my favourite games for the year are actually very similar: they are all the best. Unfortunately, the realities of sharing website space with several less-correctos means they didn’t all make this year’s advent calender.
]]>Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launched on console back in February, and if I'd had to guess, I'd say it would arrive on PC about a year later. Hey - guess what! Square Enix just gave Rebirth a PC release date: January 23rd, 2025.
]]>After rebooting Final Fantasy 7 as the trilogy of Remake, Rebirth and Really, You Went With That? (TBC), Square Enix are now planning to reboot themselves. Among the publishers’ revamped approach to making money - following a recent drop in profits, per their latest financials - is a more “aggressive” approach to bringing their games to more platforms than specific consoles (in other words, PlayStation) as exclusives, with a particular focus on “win[ning] over PC users”.
]]>The long-serving top producer of legendary RPG series Dragon Quest has stepped down from the role, according to sources that spoke to RPS Maw tribute site Bloomberg. Yu Miyake, who has been involved with numerous DQ games since he joined Enix in 1989 as marketer on DQ books, is moving on to head up Square Enix’s mobile games.
The change comes as part of shake-ups at Squeenix under new President and blockchain enjoyer Takashi Kiryu, who Bloomberg point out has committed to reverse SE’s flagging sales of both big releases (like Final Fantasy 16) and mobile titles (like Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis), possibly so he can profit handsomely enough to construct himself an arm-mounted Australian Shepherd launcher (like Final Fantasy 8.)
]]>Developers happy to mimic the style of Hollywood blockbusters in their video game soundtracks are stopping video game music from advancing, one of the best to ever do it - Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu - has said.
]]>Nobuo Uematsu, the celebrated composer behind the iconic soundtracks for much of the Final Fantasy series, has said he probably won’t score a full video game again. While Uematsu didn’t rule out creating the main themes for future games, he said that his days of scoring an entire game are likely over - leaving his last complete soundtrack as the OST for mobile-exclusive RPG Fantasian.
]]>The director of Final Fantasy 8 has shot down hopes that the next numbered Final Fantasy might see a remake once the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy comes to its conclusion. The reason? Simply that it’s a lot of damn work.
]]>Square Enix showed off 20 more minutes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth during a special State Of Play stream last night, and holy heck, they sure are bringing it with the mini-games in this one. There's a whole Gwent-like card game called Queen's Blood (watch out Triple Triad), dolphin ride obstacle courses, playing with Mooglets, the return of Intergrade's Fort Condor battles, a strange bit of chicken wrangling, photographing Red XIII, frog jumping... and that's before we even get to all the stuff at Gold Saucer. Honestly, Like A Dragon better watch out, as Rebirth is clearly making a play for its mini-game crown in this second part of Squeenix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake project, and man alive, I'm so very here for it.
]]>Tonight's the night of Sony's latest State of Play gaming showcase, a recurring round-up of PlayStation videogame announcements, trailers, celebrity developer cameos, and assorted high jinks. It kicks off at 2pm PT, 5pm ET and 10pm GMT. The show will be focussed on console games, as you'd expect, but many of the PS5 and PSVR2 projects in question will also be coming to PC, and you can watch the whole event right here.
]]>The latest IAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast (embedded in the full article below) is a chat between Sony's head of independent development Shuhei Yoshida and Square Enix producer, designer and director Naoki Yoshida, one of the big fish behind Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16. In a lengthy discussion of the latter game, the two Yoshidas chew over the familiar topic of where Final Fantasy should go next. According to Naoki Yoshida, it might be time for an injection of new blood.
]]>Every game is Who Framed Roger Rabbit now - or, less charitably, a metaversal hellscape where canonical integrity matters far less than providing a platform through which to sell cosmetics.
Apex Legends is the latest live service game to take the plunge with its first crossover event. It's with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and it'll bring the Buster Sword, Aerith, and other elements from the JRPG to the battle royale on January 9th.
]]>Final Fantasy 6 is so popular within Square Enix that staff keep asking FF brand manager Yoshinori Kitase for a remake. Although the game has been re-released as part of the Pixel Remaster bundle, fans within the company have been asking for a full blown remake.
]]>Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - the second part of the FFVII remake - has finally been shown. Its first trailer popped up at the end of this evening's Summer Game Fest, alongside the news that it'll launch early 2024 on PlayStation 5 and that it will come on two discs. There's no mention of a PC release yet.
]]>Over the past seven days, the Final Fantasy VII Twitter account has been tweeting some cryptic developer comments from members of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth team. The tweets are all in a Q&A style format, and most of the questions have been fairly innocuous things like "Will FF7 Rebirth have original music?" and "Has the battle system changed from FF7 Remake?" But the answers, at least on the English FF7 Twitter account, have been downright baffling, and have been promptly memed into oblivion. Things will happen to characters during the story, you say? No kidding!
But thanks to some clever internet sleuthing, eager Final Fantasy fans are quickly realising that there's a lot more to these comments than meets the eye. Well, at least there is in the original Japanese versions of them. The English translation team clearly didn't get the same memo...
]]>Board games based on Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy spin-off Chocobo's Dungeon are in the works. News of the games was spotted at board game trade convention Essen Spiel last week, though there's no official announcement yet.
]]>Square Enix are threatening to overshadow the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7 by partnering with Enjin, a cryptocurrency platform, to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on the long-running JRPG series. To coincide with the anniversary, Squeenix will be releasing a digital collection of cards on Enjin’s Efinity network for owners of physical cards that are expected to go on sale in 2023. There's an NFT linked to a Cloud Strife action figure too. Feel free to watch the trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth below to take your mind off this woeful event.
]]>Square Enix’s 25th anniversary livestream for Final Fantasy VII played out in almost textbook fashion for the JRPG giants, starting and ending with the two most important pieces of news for PC players. First up, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade leaves Epic exclusivity to steer its motorbike onto Steam today. Steam Deck compatibility was touted too, you lucky beggars.
Then, after much faffing with mobile games and memorabilia, producer Yoshinori Kitase revealed footage from the second part of Remake, now known as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Kitase also confirmed that the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga might actually be completed in our lifetimes, thanks to Square Enix deciding to draw it to a close with a third, as yet untitled part. Gawp at Sephiroth’s broad shoulders from behind by watching the trailer below.
]]>