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Square Enix have just launched a new microsite in the run-up to the 35th anniversary of the original Final Fantasy's launch in Japan, which will be on December 18th of this year. It's quite limited in content so far, though they did publish the site for both English-speaking and Japanese audiences. So far, it mainly has a message from Yoshinori Kitase and links to a couple Final Fantasy-adjacent games coming soon, Chocobo GP and Stranger of Paradise.

With nine months left until the actual anniversary date, the site promises more to come so there's a wide variety of things that could show up. Possibly even more Final Fantasy XVI news?

Source: Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary Special Site (English)

A bit of Final Fantasy XVI news leaked out during last night's "Letter from the Producer LIVE" for Final Fantasy XIV: Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, who has been translating Final Fantasy XIV for quite some time now, is also now working on the translation for Final Fantasy XVI.

Along with being one of the translators at last year's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, Koji Fox has also written the lyrics to the some of the most beloved songs from XIV, including To the Edge.

More news about Final Fantasy XVI is due to be released this spring.

Source: Final Weapon

Nintendo did their first Direct presentation of the year on Thursday evening, and Square Enix were a big part of it, with no fewer than six games/series being shown, starting with two that are coming in just a few weeks. Triangle Strategy is first up, with the game's release coming in just a few weeks on March 4. There's now a new demo that includes the first three chapters, and will allow savedata to carry over to the full release for those who try it out.

Chocobo GP is releasing just after Triangle Strategy, on March 10, and Nintendo opened preorders as part of Nintendo Direct. Nintendo talked a little bit about the first "season" of the game, describing the multiplayer rewards that players can earn by competing in the game's featured 64-player bracketed tournaments. The description is a little hard for me to follow, but it looks like you can start with the Lite version of the game and still collect rewards, and also can pay real money for additional rewards opportunities. That part doesn't sound as great.

There were rumors of a Chrono Cross remaster pretty recently, and this Direct made it official, with a release of Chrono Cross coming to Switch on April 7. It looks to track somewhat to some other remasters, with Final Fantasy IX coming immediately to mind for me, as the new version will have some enhanced graphics (but not all) and enhanced music, and some built-in trainers for users who would like a boost through the game. The "Radical Dreamers" text-based adventure will also be included, in its first official release outside of Japan.

Additionally, the first two Front Mission games are coming to Switch in the near future; the first will release sometime this summer, while the second has no release window as yet. The first game wasn't released in the United States until a Nintendo DS version, and the second has never come to the West officially until now. And speaking of, now for the first time, LIVE A LIVE will also be exiting Japan, releasing worldwide for Switch on July 22. And, finally, if you haven't ended up with Kingdom Hearts yet, the online-required Cloud version of Kingdom Hearts: Integrum Masterpiece also released during Nintendo Direct, offering all the games in a single purchase streamed online.

And as one final aside, the delayed release of Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster got its new release date: it will now be out on February 23. Thanks to Folklore for that reminder!

Source: Gematsu, IGN

Naoki Yoshida, producer of Final Fantasy XVI, posted a message through various official sources today that the development of the game has been delayed by roughly half a year due to COVID-19. Because of the need for teams to work from home, there's been issues with communication coming out of the Tokyo office, which in turn has caused problems with asset deliveries from outsourced partners. In extreme cases, those deliveries have been cancelled.

The news wasn't all doom and gloom though; Yoshida stated the next big news drop is due for Spring 2022. Additionally, he listed the tasks they are currently working on:

• Increasing graphic resource quality
• Refining combat mechanics
• Fleshing out individual battles
• Putting the finishing touches on cutscenes
• Conducting overall graphical optimization

So while there have been delays, the game sounds like it has progressed fairly well into its development cycle.

Yoshida ended with an apology for not delivering more news in 2021 as had been previously stated, and thanked fans for their continued patience.

Source: Official Site

Chocobo GP, the Mario Kart-alike announced recently, got a news update from Square Enix today announcing both a "Lite" version and a release date of March 10, 2022. The game will be released simultaneously worldwide for Switch.

The "Lite" version, just announced, will be similar to a wide-release demo and will be free to play. While the full game will have a "story mode," which serves as the game's progression mechanic for unlocking characters and abilities, the Lite version allows the player to sample only the prologue and take part in some local and online multiplayer. Any saved data from the Lite version will port into the full version when purchased.

The new trailer also shows a bit more of the game's unique features like the 64-player knockout tournament online mode, so if you're interested in at least the Lite game it's worth a quick watch.


Source: Gematsu

The 2021 iteration of The Game Awards, the awards show for games that is kind of... I guess an awards show for games that also kind of wants to be E3-light, happened last evening. My assumption is that the "E3-light" part is really the more interesting for folks, though, and in that regard Square Enix did show up with a couple nice treats.

The biggest and most immediate news we already suspected: a release of Final Fantasy VII Remake for PC. That was confirmed last night, and not only that, it was confirmed for next week and also confirmed to include Intergrade. Unlike the PlayStation 5 release that pretty much nobody has gotten to play because nobody has a PS5, this one will not be able to be upgraded from a previous PS4 purchase. That said, the PC version will still play at up to 4k with a good enough rig, and the specs to play at 1080 seem quite reasonable aside from perhaps the 100GB space requirement! The game will be available on the Epic Games Store only, at least for now.

Forspoken, the game long known as Project Athia, also got a new trailer last night and, I believe, the first specific announced release date: May 24, 2022. The game will be released only for PlayStation 5 and Windows. The new trailer is below for your enjoyment.


On top of that, if you are interested in the awards themselves, Square Enix as a developer and publisher won five. Two were for Final Fantasy XIV, and one each for Life Is Strange: True Colors, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Nier: Replicant.

Source: Square Enix Blog, Wikipedia