News

With all of the live music that Square Enix, and in particular the Roth family, have produced over the years, you might wonder what additional concerts we have yet to see. It appears that the answer for now is that we'll get a concert series, called simply ""The Music of Square Enix," that collects music from just about all over the Squenix songbook.

The new website for the series explicitly references music from Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Mana, NieR, and Octopath; this alone could fill a setlist, but naturally the site also says that other series of games will be included too.

So far, fifteen shows have been announced worldwide, with on-sale dates for almost all of the shows in Europe and the United States happening this week. The concert will kick off in Tokyo in April of 2026, then head into the United States in May and June, stopping in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon. Two shows are also scheduled in Fort Worth in 2027, with a few shows in Asia and Europe in between, which seems to imply that they have quite a few other dates that they would like to fill in other locations too.

Sorry, Final Fantasy XIV players, it's not an in-game collab, or at least it's not yet. What is happening, in honor of the tenth anniversary of Undertale, is that Toby Fox is linking up with Squenix' Music and Merchandising division to release at least two albums and a line of apparel, with hints of other items to come.

The first album is a series of "chill" arrangements of music from Undertale, with twenty tracks in all. It's due to release at the end of January, with preorders available from the official Square Enix online storefronts in North America and Europe, and CDJapan in that country. Apparently at some point it will also be sold through Fangamer. It's not shaping up to be cheap, but then, would anyone really expect that?

The official site also announces a second album, full of piano arrangements by longtime Square Enix collaborator Yoko Shimomura, but with no tracklist or release date yet confirmed. Additionally, all other Undertale merchandise is marked as "Coming Soon" too, so don't expect to see it right away.

Source: Square Enix × Undertale Official Page

Okay, it's not for The Ivalice Chronicles, but it's not like I got a preview copy...

Anyway, it’s very nearly a legal adult here in the States, but finally the War of the Lions version of Final Fantasy Tactics has a home at Caves of Narshe. This is a project that I’d wanted to do for many years, and at times made some progress towards that goal, but life being what it is, we never quite got it over the line until now.

This is almost a complete redo of what we’ve had to offer for over twenty years in terms of Final Fantasy Tactics coverage, with expansions and reorganization of our game guides and data throughout. It’s the perfect way to reacclimatize yourself to the game, no matter where you last played it, with just ten days left before the new release drops.

Our team of help in preparing this coverage is smaller than usual, but their dedication made up for the numbers in a big way and as always I’m beyond thankful for the assistance. Here’s hoping that this is the start of more new things to help our friends and visitors enjoy their Final Fantasy experience; I’ve already done a couple behind-the-scenes tweaks since I released the new section early this morning to help make future work a bit easier. As always, please let us know if you find anything that isn’t working or you’d like to see changed!

The news more or less broke yesterday and was rumored for far longer, but Sony's State of Play just announced it moments ago: Final Fantasy Tactics, the original and best, is back. The new version, subtitled "The Ivalice Chronicles," will be released on September 30, 2025.

Information is a little thin from the brief announcement video, but what we do know for sure is that the package will include a remastered version, with a new, high-resolution player interface and updated graphics, "fully voiced dialogue," and "additions and adjustments to the story." There will also be a version closer to the original, uniting "the graphics and gameplay of the original with the renowned War of the Lions translation." This does not make it clear that the retro version is actually War of the Lions, interestingly - it's not clear yet if that's just poor messaging or if they are including the original wholesale but only with the newer translation atop it.

The game was announced without any platform information; the followup from Sony on the stream did specifically mention Playstation 5 (and Playstation 4), of course, but concrete confirmation at the time I type this for PC or other platforms is not there. It also calls the retro version "a faithful recreation of the 1997 original," which makes the commentary about WotL translation even more confusing.

Preorders are opening up today - I'll add an AmaCoN link to this thread ASAP!

Nintendo's Direct for Switch 2 ran for about an hour, ending just a few minutes ago. This Direct was previously assumed to be mostly about first-party games, particularly those available near the launch window; under that assumption, the number of games presented by third parties was pretty significant.

For Square Enix fans, two titles in particular would be of interest, but neither are new. Bravely Default Flying Fairy was presented as a launch title for Switch 2 on the release date of June 5, 2025; this, the first game of the series, released for the 3DS in 2012. The remaster for Switch 2 will upscale the game and adjust the UI to suit, as well as add some new minigames. The online features from the original have been ported in as well.

Additionally, Squenix confirmed the long-standing rumor that Final Fantasy VII Remake would arrive on the Switch 2. This was not presented as a launch title, as far as I'm aware - the stream had some technical difficulties right before the announcement and I have not yet seen the complete video from that portion, just the audio. The version to be released will be the Intergrade version released for PlayStation 5 and PC, meaning it will include the additional Yuffie content. This of course implies that Rebirth may eventually come to Switch 2 as well, but that was not addressed in today's Direct.

Unfortunately, no announcements for anything Final Fantasy IX today, as many were hoping for - but there's still a few months before we hit that 25th anniversary.

The original release for Final Fantasy IX is nearing its 25th anniversary, with the game’s debut on Japanese PSX on July 7, 2000. In honor of that anniversary coming up, over the weekend Square Enix published a new anniversary-themed website on the Japanese Final Fantasy domain, featuring new art.

The site is primarily a placeholder at the moment, with more details around celebrations of the anniversary coming soon, but a few things were announced at launch, most of them merch:

• A new vinyl album, to be released on July 9
• A picture book featuring a new story of Vivi from before the events of the game, releasing July 2
• Collectibles including new figures of Zidane and Garnet, a pendant based on Garnet’s Alexandrian necklace, and a line of plush characters, all available for preorder now
• Themed eyeglasses and capsule toys in collaboration with Japanese eyewear brand Zoff

The website also mentions a “Commemorative Lottery,” but has no details as to what exactly that might mean yet.

Of course, all of these things are Japan-specific, though it may turn out that some of the physical items may be shippable elsewhere or may also be sold out of other regions in the future. Who knows, maybe the rumored remake of Final Fantasy IX might be a future announcement; I’d pick that up in a heartbeat.

Source: Final Fantasy IX 25th Anniversary Special Page