When you dive into the mess of folders on your PC, what do you find? Cobweb-plastered manuscripts for those twelve fantasy novels you started? Mouldy design documents for those nine games you never actually began coding? Perhaps dozens of little motheaten thumbnails of that masterpiece you're planning to someday paint? Relax, I'm not calling you out (I have my own groaning cybercabinet of neglect). Rather, I'm here to say don't worry. Everyone does it. Even famous Final Fantasy character designer and Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura, who has a “huge number of game proposals lying dormant” in a mish mash of folders on his PC. You're just like him!
]]>Can you believe we didn't have a best JRPG list until now? Baffling. To be fair we did once tackle this topic with a preliminary blast of recommendations for those completely new to the genre. We also have a few familiar fantasys in our list of the 50 best RPGs on PC. But until now we haven't addressed the genre in its own right. In an act of contrition, we offer you this: our list of the best JRPGs you can play on PC this year, according to our own tastes.
]]>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 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.
]]>Final Fantasy 6 is one of the most beloved Final Fantasy games in the series, so much so that even staff at Square Enix keep hassling series producer Yoshinori Kitase about when they're going to remake it and give it the full Final Fantasy 7 treatment. Alas, the prospect of such a project has had fresh water poured over it this weekend, with Kitase explaining that, given it's already taken them ten years to make Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (with a third entry to complete the trilogy yet to come), a Final Fantasy 6 remake would likely take twice as long as that to actually make. And you know what? I'm good, actually. The Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster is good enough for me in this lifetime.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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...
]]>In a New Year’s message, Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda reaffirmed the company’s focus on blockchain technology with “multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development” despite the public backlash against the initiative. This echoes Matsuda’s New Year’s message from last January, where the company first expressed its enthusiasm for an NFT-fueled, metaverse future. More recently, Squeenix partnered with the “environmentally friendly” blockchain firm Oasys, probably to sidestep potential controversies about, y'know, the environmental impact of the technology.
]]>JRPGs can be grindy affairs at the best of times, but imagine playing through one while actually swinging about Cloud Strife’s cumbersome giant blade. Custom controller maker Super Louis 64’s done just that, crafting a Buster Sword that lets him play through Final Fantasy 7 Remake in true Cloud style. When he shared a clip of his antics on Twitter, Super Louis insisted the whole game is playable using the big knife. The honorary Soldier says he’s hoping to have a full video of his time spent pretending to be Cloud up on his YouTube channel today.
]]>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.
]]>Card game Magic: The Gathering introduced sets which cross over with other worlds last year under the name Universes Beyond. Wizards Of The Coast announced during an investor call today that future crossovers would include Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed - although not until 2024.
]]>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.
]]>Final Fantasy VII Remake’s official Twitter account have tweeted to announce a 25th anniversary livestream for Square’s classic JRPG, which they’ve scheduled for June 16th. The stream will last for ten minutes and we’re asked to “Please be excited.” Okay then, I will. But only if it’s not about another Final Fantasy VII spin-off.
]]>You can obtain Gearbox Software’s zany FPS Borderlands 3 without exchanging any currency over on the Epic Games Store from, well, now. The freebie coincides with the start of this year’s discounterrific Epic MEGA Sale, which runs from today until June 16th. That means there’ll be three more “blockbuster” free games coming over the next few weeks, according to Epic Games.
]]>Three or four times a year, someone at Square Enix says that news is coming about Final Fantasy and we all get our hopes up. This is one of those times. Tetsuya Nomura, Final Fantasy VII Remake director, has said that "various" announcements are coming next month related to Final Fantasy 7's 25th anniversary. Will it be news about the second part of the FF7 Remake - or will it be, I dunno, a livestreamed concert and some phone wallpapers?
]]>Square Enix first launched Final Fantasy VII 25 years ago today, introducing a new generation to big-sword bishies. In celebration, both the director of the original JRPG and the creative director of the recent FF7 Remake have posted messages looking back and forward. Along with several FF7 mobile games kicking about, they tease that more new FF7 things we don't know about are coming. Hopefully this means we'll hear more about efforts to complete the remake, but I guess they could also be talking about merch or new movies.
]]>Over the holidays, I decided to treat myself to the gift of funk, and bought myself a neat little acoustic bass. The guitar arrived as promised; I am still waiting on the funk. Any day now. In the meantime, I’ve taught myself the riff for Valley Of The Fallen Star, better known as the Cosmo Canyon theme from Final Fantasy VII. I’m not sure if I can adequately put into words how the original composition of the track makes me feel, but I am certain I’m not the only one.It is sonic nostalgia for a simpler time, where following a talking dog’s weeble uncle to the projection of the cosmos he kept in his loft did nothing to shatter my emotional investment in a story.
]]>We called Final Fantasy VII Remake a luscious spectacle that takes FF7 in a bold new direction. You know what else takes it in a new direction? Dresses. Loads of them. Modders have been hard at work weaving nice dresses with their virtual looms at a rate of knots. Oh, and they’ve morphed characters into Buster Swords and produced some other equally useful things too. Let's have a gander at some of their most interesting creations.
]]>Final Fantasy VII Remake certainly knows how to make a good first impression. The original's bombing mission sequence, which sees Cloud and co. blow up a planet-killing mako reactor in the industrialised hellhole of Midgar's city centre, was already one of the Final Fantasy series' best openers, but here we get to really luxuriate in every last detail of its twenty-four-year glow-up. Director Tetsuya Nomura may have a reputation for excess in JRPG circles (both in his tangled storylines and his passion for buckles and belts), but in FF7R that tendency toward indulgence has been applied with deadly, laser-like precision.
]]>Final Fantasy VII Remake is finally headed to PC on December 16th, as announced during The Game Awards. That's great news, but there's a catch: Square Enix are selling it at the next-gen console price of £65/$70/€80.
]]>After yonks of leaving us aching for even a mention of a PC release for Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix casually announced at The Game Awards tonight, oh hey, it's coming next week. Just like that. Next Thursday, the 16th of December, FF7 Remake will hit PC in its expanded Intergrade form. Like many other recent Square Enix RPG ports (and as expected), it will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
]]>I know a lot of us are still jealous of the shiny Final Fantasy 7 Remake that landed exclusively on the PS4 last year. Us PC folks have held out hope it would come our way even though Square Enix had nothing to say when FF7R's PS4 exclusivity ended in April this year. The new PS5 upgraded version called Intergrade just launched this month too, also without mention of a snazzy PC port to match. There's still no word. Not officially, anyway. There is a convincing new leak by way of a hidden Epic Games Store listing that specifically mentions the Final Fantasy 7 Remake though. Cloud saves save the day again!
]]>Winter is coming and so are The Game Awards. I've double-checked my calendar and, sure enough, the yearly awards show presented by Mr. Game Awards man Geoff Keighley is less than a month away. The nominees for every category have been announced, so it's time to vote for your picks for everything from the ever-competitive "Game of the Year" on down to "Best Multiplayer" and "Best Esports Team". Get your opinion hat on.
]]>Earlier this year, Alice0 mused that it would be weird if Sony didn't bring more exclusives to PC and by golly it looks like they were listening to her specifically because now they're having a proper think about it. Sony now say they will "explore" bringing more games by Sony-owned studios to PC players.
]]>It's been a long time since I've been excited by a video game cutscene. I've never been the type of person who itches to hit the skip button whenever I get pulled into a pre-rendered sequence, but I do often find them to be a rather passive experience and I'm usually quite glad when they finally come to an end. In fact, I think the last time I was properly wowed by a cutscene was when I played Final Fantasy VIII back when I was all of 11-years-old. Obviously, the jump in quality from blocky old Squall to its fully 3D rendered action sequences was more than enough to get my pulse racing back then, but even recent Final Fantasy games have failed to elicit the same kind of reaction.
Until, that is, Final Fantasy VII Remake, because holy moly does this game have incredible cutscenes. I actually let out a genuine GASP at one point, and more than a couple of "CORs" and "OOOOFs" too, which is probably the strongest reaction I've had to an in-game cutscene for, well, practically 20 years.
]]>There is a moment toward the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake where you arguably have to make one of the most important choices in the entire game. Do you take the lift to go and save your friend Aerith on the top floor of the Shinra building, or do you take the stairs? I think I'd probably die if I had to climb 59 flights of stairs in one go, but trust me, friends, the stairs are the way to go, because this is legit one of the best game scenes you'll ever witness in your entire life.
]]>Everyone from Taylor Swift to Tyler, The Creator has written a song about flowers. Fancy restaurants scatter them over melting chocolate bombes. Van Gogh even had a crack at painting some once, I believe. And after all, why not? Flowers bloom all around the world, and symbolise so much to so many different cultures. Final Fantasy is far from the only video game series to lean into flower metaphors - but few have done it better.
As with so many of Final Fantasy’s strengths, the best examples can be found in Final Fantasy VII. Already considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series, the upcoming remake (eagerly awaited but a PlayStation exclusive until April 2021) has seen Cloud’s battles against Sephiroth back in the headlines. It’s been talked about so much since its original 1997 release that it’s hard to imagine anything about it remains underrated, yet the flowers are a seldom appreciated piece of Final Fantasy VII’s world building which the high definition makeover really must get right if it's to get anything right at all.
]]>The Final Fantasy VII Remake is still about two months away—now scheduled for April 10th—but the marketing machine is spinning up and there's no stopping it now. We still don't know for sure if it's coming to PC but frankly I'll be shocked if it doesn't wind up in our hands when the year-long PlayStation exclusivity ends in 2021.
Today Square Enix have shared the entire intro movie for the game and it's a whopping five minutes that goes almost shot-for-shot with the original. It does have some new bits of its own added in, you know, to show that time has passed.
]]>Square Enix still have not announced a release for Final Fantasy VII Remake on any system other than PlayStation 4, but they're certainly staying up to date with what they're not saying. They've recently updated the JRPG's box art to echo its recent one-month delay, now saying that it's a PS4 exclusive until April 10th, 2021. What happens then? Ah, who knows. Could be anything. Don't think anything of it. They're just casually refreshing their exclusivity commitment, okay, just because they want to, not because they have any plans.
]]>Listen, we all know that Final Fantasy VIII is the best Final Fantasy, but even I, Squall Fangirl #1, have to admit that the recent Final Fantasy VIII Remastered port wasn't everything I hoped it would be. What I've been itching for all these years is a proper Final Fantasy VIII Remake in the style of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake - although by the time Square Enix finally finish making the latter, I'll probably be old and grey and too decrepit to play video games anymore.
Still, while a FFVIII Remake is the thing I live in hope for, by golly does the new four-minute trailer for its wildly popular predecessor look exciting. There's Red XIII! Cross-dressing Cloud! Hojo! Some questionable dialogue! Lots of horrible Shinra execs! Summons! More of that gorgeous battle music! And someone called Aerith? Time to get HYPED.
]]>Today, Crystal Dynamics revealed that Marvel's Avengers will be delayed by four months, while Square Enix announced that the Final Fantasy VII Remake's PS4 release date is delayed by a month (though the game isn't yet confirmed for PC, it seems likely after its year of PS4 exclusivity ends).
The intended release date for Marvel's Avengers was initially set for the 15th of May, but has now been pushed all the way back to the 4th of September.
]]>Like a heavily-sponsored Santa Claus, the Game Awards swept in last night and left us a pile of presents to unwrap. If you did the smart thing and slept through the event, you'll have missed a bunch of new announcements. Alice O and Graham did some amazing work in writing up as much as they could as it happened, but a few sly games snuck past 'em. Plus, sometimes it's just nice to have everything all in once place. Here's everything that was announced.
]]>Over the four years since Square Enix announced their Final Fantasy VII Remake for PlayStations, they've been mighty vague about where else they might release it and when. They still haven't confirmed a PC release but they have now made clear that the PS4 exclusivity is exactly one year long? After that? Oh, who knows. They'll probably just bin it. No strong feelings for anything other than PlayStations, y'know. But if they considering releasing FFVII Remake on other systems? Well, such a thing might be possible from March 3rd, 2021. Hypothetically. If they wanted to. Which they're not saying they do.
]]>We're still waiting for the PC release of Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth while jealously looking over the shoulders of our PS5 brethren. But that doesn't mean we can't ride some other chocobo, so to speak. There are tons of other great Final Fantasy games you can play on PC right now. Below, we've ranked the 10 best Final Fantasy games you can currently play on Steam, putting an end to the debate over which Roman numeral is objectively best.
]]>Now that consoleers have enjoyed two months of the beautiful anime boyband roadtrip that is Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix have announced that we PCnauts will soon finally start fantasying ourselves with- oh, a port of free-to-play mobile game Mobius Final Fantasy [official site]. Grumble grumble. Mobius might be a smashing game, for all I know, but it's not the boyband barbecue I crave. What dreadful teases they are. But! If you've been waiting for confirmation of the Final Fantasy VII Remake on PC, I'm sure you'll be contented with news that Mobius will borrow resources from it for a crossover event. That's enough, aye?
]]>Playing with fire is dangerous, but the worst the fire does is consume you. Fire won't then kick your charcoal corpse yelling "That's what you get!" while holding back firefighters and medics because you're "a pigging idiot who deserves this and worse". No, only playing with fan nostalgia is that dangerous. Speaking of, Square Enix announced a remake of Final Fantasy VII [official site].
They haven't confirmed a PC release yet, but they've been quite good with PC lately. The trailer says "Play it first on PlayStation 4", which is of course E3 code for "Someone gave us money to pretend for a while that we won't release it elsewhere". So I'll tentatively post about the JRPG here.
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