News

So, yes, we buried the lede by posting the mobile games first. This is a free service, suck it up. Today's biggest Final Fantasy VII news is big but probably pretty predictable in some ways: Final Fantasy VII Remake is itself being remade. Okay, not really, but that line was too good to pass up. What we’re actually getting is a new release on Playstation 5 called "Intergrade," which will allow users to either bump their graphics up to 4K with HDR or to lock the frame rate at a constant 60fps. It will also add in a dedicated photo mode, which my daughter will eventually love since she seems to spend most of her FF7 time trying to get good screenshots of Wedge’s cats and Aerith on the way to Corneo’s mansion. Check out this introductory trailer to see the upgrades and the other big surprise.Intergrade will be available as a standalone game for PS5, but PS4 users who bought the PS4 version will get a free upgrade (with some minor stipulations). The other big news about the PS5 release will also come free for new purchasers, and will be available as purchased DLC for PS4 upgraders - an entirely new scenario with Yuffie. It’s entirely new because it will cover her time before Cloud meets her as she mounts a raid on Midgar with thievery on her mind. The timeline of the DLC will overlap with the events of FF7R, so it should be nicely spoiler-free. IGN’s post of the trailer video says that the DLC will be available also for PS4, though the video itself does not mention this. Gematsu is instead reporting that Squenix have explicitly said that the Yuffie DLC won't be released for PS4, so that is unfortunately likely the case.

Also in news today for Final Fantasy VII Remake, Famitsu reports this week that Tetsuya Nomura will not serve as co-director for part two, handing the reigns fully over to Naoki Hamaguchi. Nomura will stay on board as the creative director for the title for all upcoming Final Fantasy VII titles, with the handoff being possible due to the robust framework laid down for the main game via part one.

Source: Gematsu, IGN

Maybe not the news you expected to see tonight (that's still coming momentarily to your trusty CoN), but Square Enix also announced two Final Fantasy VII mobile titles today, "The First Soldier" and "Ever Crisis." We mentioned the trademarks for these games last month; now we know that the former is, surprisingly, a battle royale-style game set at the dawn of the SOLDIER era 30 years before Final Fantasy VII. It looks to be exactly as described, a third-person battle royale shooter with all the trappings of FF7 including firearms, swords, magic, summons, and big mechs. It will be out this year.Ever Crisis is a bit of a stranger thing to describe. It looks a little bit like Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition, though not as overtly chibi; the overworld art style looks like a high-res version of the original PSX game but combat looks like a scaled-down version of Remake. It will be an episodically-released game that will cover the entirety of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, even including Advent Children. It will start releasing in 2022.

Source: Gematsu

Today’s Nintendo Direct described a number of games coming in the next year or two to their platforms, and while there were no new Square Enix characters coming to Smash, the company did appear with a few announcements. First, a remastered version of Legend of Mana will be coming in June to Switch, as well as Playstation 4 and Steam. The illustrated backdrops look pretty, and the sprites look nice and sharp.Also announced for Switch, Playstation 4 and Steam, plus iOS and Android, is a remaster of SaGa Frontier. Also originally for Playstation, this remaster re-adds some content that was previously cut from the original game. It will be out earlier, in April.

The third game announced in the Nintendo Direct is a brand-new title that should excite both fans of Final Fantasy Tactics and Octopath Traveler. Currently called by a working title of “Project Triangle Strategy,” the new game is an isometric tactical RPG set in the Octopath universe. Based on the announcement trailer, the game expands on the combat formula developed in FFT by adding in chained attacks among units, and multistage attacks shown in the trailer by creating watery tiles that can then enhance lightning damage. It also appears that the battle environments can be more destructively changed in battle, as a farm building on a battle map is shown being set ablaze more than once in the trailer video. On top of that, it appears that the game will offer meaningful choices that will change the course of the plot, which should create significant replay opportunity. This game is scheduled for release in 2022.

Source: Gematsu, Gematsu, Kotaku

And strangely enough, not on Steam! Square Enix announced yesterday that the Kingdom Hearts series would make its debut on Windows PCs via the Epic Games store. The games will be released on March 30 of this year, with eleven games to be released across four packages.

The four packages mirror the most recent versions released of each; HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX contains the first game, Re:Chain of Memories, the cinematics from 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts II, Birth By Sleep, and the cinematics from Re:Coded. HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue includes Dream Drop Distance, 0.2 Birth By Sleep ~a fragmentary passage~, and the cinematics for Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover. The Kingdom Hearts III release contains the Re Mind DLC, and then the final release is of the rhythm game Melody of Memory.

First, I hope you enjoy this news because it was a lot of effort to type out those wild game subtitles. Second, I hope that if you're interested you have deep enough pockets, because the preorder price is $50 for the first game compilations and $60 for each of the remaining three releases. Preorders are open now.

Source: Square Enix