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Well, I think we all got what we wanted there, yes? Short and sweet as promised, today's stream clocked in at just under fifteen minutes long but included a bucket of Final Fantasy VII detail. The stream led a montage of clips from Remake and Intergrade, with the announcement of a release on Steam tomorrow, June 17, with Steam Deck compatibility. They followed with an introduction from Yoshinori Kitase, and a bit of merch.

The merch shown was not groundbreaking by and large, though I think it's the first time I've seen the jewelry they showed. A Compilation of Final Fantasy VII vinyl album looked new to me, too, and it's planned for release this August as well as a special CD album and streaming playlists.

Kitase followed up with a brief video of the upcoming third season of The First Soldier, the Final Fantasy VII battle royale mobile fighter. Like every seasonal game in the genre, there's new content coming. That was followed by a moderately long look at Ever Crisis, the mobile game that runs through the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII in a new way. It's kind of hard to describe what I think this game is going to be exactly, as it styles things a little differently in various clips, but it appears to be a Final Fantasy VII version of the Final Fantasy XV game released for Switch, where everything was a bit simplified and a lot more chibi to present the plot to a new audience. It's coming for a closed beta sometime in 2022 for both iOS and Android.

Kitase returned again to lead into the first truly big news of the stream, a remaster of Crisis Core. To me, you can obviously see it's not a full remake, as the graphical quality doesn't look like it got the full Final Fantasy VII Remake treatment; that said, it's hard to say how much of that might be due to the stream itself. We should see some stills very soon. Called "Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion," it's going from official announcement today, in June, to a targeted release in "this Winter" across all current consoles and Steam.

Then, finally, one more lead-in from Kitase to give us what I called last week: Final Fantasy VII is getting its next part in Winter 2023. It's now called "Rebirth," meaning that "Remake" has been retired as the name for solely the first part; and, as has been widely considered, it's the second part of a trilogy. The third part is as yet un-named (may I suggest "Resolution?") and of course has nothing resembling a release window, so for now we will have to content ourselves on part two. This new episode looks like it's going to go heavy into Cloud's mental troubles as depicted in the middle part of the original, with a lot of content that feels like misdirection in the voiceovers from Aerith, Cloud, and Tifa, subtitles asking "What is Fact and What is Fiction?," and very brief glimpses of Meteor and... well, you all know the scene. Of course, it's releasing only for PlayStation 5 at launch. Kitase, along with confirming the name and the trilogy, mentioned that the team is still "hard at work" on Rebirth.

And that was it - I have to say it's probably everything we wanted and expected from 15 quick minutes. I no longer lament the loss of E3. Here's the video if you missed it:

Square Enix announced today that on June 16, next Thursday, they will do a brief livestream for "the latest information relating to the 25th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VII." Tetsuya Nomura made a statement that the stream will be only around ten minutes long but will contain lots of information. The broadcast will take place at 6pm Eastern time.

Of course, the information could just be more details on Final Fantasy VII mobile titles, but I've been privately speculating to friends and Discord since the new Final Fantasy XVI trailer that we should now expect news on Remake Part 2 essentially any time. I was targeting the Tokyo Game Show window, but now would be a fine time too...

Source: Gematsu

Sony's latest State of Play just ended, and the final showing was a new trailer for Final Fantasy XVI! Here it is:



The PlayStation Blog was also updated to include more information about the game, including the reveal of the main team working on the game:

Producer: Naoki Yoshida
Main Director: Hiroshi Takai
Creative Director & Original Screenplay: Kazutoyo Maehiro
Localization Director: Michael-Christopher Koji Fox
Art Director: Hiroshi Minagawa
Combat Director: Ryota Suzuki
Character Design: Kazuya Takahashi
Composer: Masayoshi Soken

Immediately after the State of Play ended, KupoCon (the Final Fantasy fan convention) announced a launch tour will be happening for the game. More details will come later, but the tour will be held in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, with a virtual option for those who cannot attend in person.

Source: PlayStation YouTube Channel, PlayStation Blog, KupoCon Official Site

Square Enix is due to sell studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal to Embracer Group for an estimated $300 million USD. The deal still needs regulatory approval, but once given, should be finalized sometime between July and September of this year.

This sale will mean Square Enix will no longer own the properties of Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain, along with a back-catalogue of more than 50 games. Crystal Dynamics is already working on a new Tomb Raider game.

Square Enix has said that this deal was made so they could invest in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.

In unrelated news, Square Enix registered several new trademarks recently. These trademarks include Fear Effect and Relic Strike. The former was a game released by Eidos in 2000 for the original PlayStation, so there is speculation the series is about to be revived.

Other recent trademarks filed include Valkyrie Profile and Lenneth, which might indicate those games are to make their way to PS Plus Premium subscription.

Source: The Verge, PCMag, MP1ST

Distant Worlds has just announced a new concert series for the 35th Anniversary of Final Fantasy. Entitled FINAL FANTASY 35th Anniversary Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY Coral, this series will feature a track list specially curated by Nobuo Uematsu. Little else is known at this stage, including what "Coral" represents, and so far no special guests have been announced. The dates for the series are as follows:

• Tokyo, Japan: 06 Aug 2022
• Tokyo, Japan: 07 Aug 2022
• Hyogo, Japan: 13 Aug 2022
• Hyogo, Japan: 14 Aug 2022
• Chicago, IL: 10 Sep 2022
• Pittsburgh, PA: 20 Sep 2022
• Los Angeles, CA: 24 Sep 2022
• London, UK: 01 Oct 2022
• London, UK: 02 Oct 2022
• Fort Worth, TX: 12 Nov 2022
• Boston, MA: 19 Nov 2022
• Bangkok, Thailand: 17 Dec 2022
• Bangkok, Thailand: 18 Dec 2022
• New York, NY: 07 Jan 2023
• New York, NY: 08 Jan 2023
• Nashville, TN: 25 Jan 2023
• Barcelona, Spain: 03 Feb 2023
• Paris, France: 25 Feb 2023
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 03 Mar 2023
• Orlando, FL: 10 Mar 2023
• Orlando, FL: 11 Mar 2023

Source: Distant Worlds Official Site

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker continues to rack up the awards, taking three awards at SXSW this weekend.

The first award was for Excellence in Narrative: awarded to the game with the best storyline and dialogue. The other nominees in that category were:

• Deathloop — Arkane Lyon / Bethesda Softworks
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits — Ember Lab
• Lost in Random — Zoink Games / Electronic Arts
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix

The second award was for Excellence in Original Score. It was Masayoshi Soken's celebratory tweet that alerted this reporter the awards were happening this weekend! Other nominees in this category were:

• The Artful Escape — Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits — Ember Lab
• The Medium — Bloober Team
• Wytchwood — Alientrap Games / Whitethorn Games

The final award was for Video Game of the Year. SXSW's description for this award states: awarded to the game that exemplifies overall excellence and creates a distinct gaming experience across all platforms and genres. Other nominees in this category were:

• It Takes Two — Hazelight / Electronic Arts
• Psychonauts 2 — Double Fine Productions / Xbox Game Studios
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Resident Evil Village — Capcom

Congratulations to the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker team for the well-deserved awards! For those readers who may be interested in starting their own journeys in Eorzea: the Final Fantasy XIV Free Trial is now active again and lets you play through all of A Realm Reborn and its first expansion, Heavensward.

Source: SXSW Official Site