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'Final Fantasy VII': The challenge of remaking a classic
Almost 20 years later, Final Fantasy VII is being remade. It's no prequel, sequel, gamified Advent Children thing. It's a proper darn remake. The short trailer shown first at PlayStation's E3 2015 event was fairly obtuse -- we don't even get to see the protagonists' face, but there's still a lot of excited people. A whole lot. How do you break the mold without breaking hearts? With some translation assistance, we asked its producer, Tetsuya Nomura, all about it.
'Kingdom Hearts 3' promises bigger, almost seamless, worlds
Blending different fictional universes together is kind of a thing now in gaming. However, Kingdom Hearts was fusing together the Final Fantasy and Disney universes back in 2002. Before chewing director Tetsuya Nomura's ear off about a Final Fantasy VII remake, we got some insight into the still in-development Kingdom Hearts 3. With a PS4 (as well as Xbox One) powering Sora, Goofy and Donald's cartoonish battles, it's already looking damn gorgeous. But aside from grander scale, Disney ride-based attacks and a likely head-spinning storyline, what else can Nomura tell us? And is there a stage where we can hum along to "Let it Go"?
'Final Fantasy VII' is getting a genuine remake on PS4
Final Fantasy VII is being remade. It's coming to PS4 (at least first) and it's all beautiful and goosebumpy. That all-too PC version? Well, that's probably coming too. But this is what I, er, you wanted. The trailer is suitably obtuse, but there are glimpses of a guy with a gun for an arm and some blonde guy toting an oversized "buster" sword. Whoever that is. Get ready to squeal -- well, a little -- after the break.
'Final Fantasy Tactics' hits Android
Final Fantasy players, lovers and haters, come together and rejoice: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has finally launched on Android. It hit iOS back in 2013, but now the playing field is leveled. This is a port of the 2007 PSP game War of the Lions, which was in turn based on the 1997 original PlayStation game, Final Fantasy Tactics. It's $14 on Android, so cancel your weekend plans and enjoy.
Seven times Kanye West dressed like a 'Final Fantasy' character
Apparently the Kanye West role-playing game, Kanye Quest 3030, contains an eerie hidden area involving a butterfly and a New Age cult called Ascensionism. We know, it's hard to believe that Kanye has a video game. Anyway, this secret game-within-a-game is weird, but it's certainly not surprising considering that, for years now, Kanye has been dressing like characters from one of the most nonsensical video game franchises of all time, Final Fantasy. We've collected a few of Kanye's standout cosplay attempts in the gallery below. Happy Friday, folks.
Star Wars villains get a moody re-imagining by Square Enix
Square Enix, the gamesmaker that gave us the Final Fantasy series (alongside plenty of other games), also has a sideline in fancy high-end action figures. Its latest collection tackles the Star Wars universe, well, the darker side of said universe. Alongside Darth Vader (which was teased late last year), Play Arts Kai (the brand Square Enix releases them under) has revealed two more additions: a particularly stoic-looking Stormtrooper and Boba Fett. But reimagining action figures (or perhaps licensing) ain't cheap: Each one retails for around 12,000 yen (roughly $100), but (but!) they can be articulated at 14 different points, with three joints on each arm for maximum dramatic posturing... not to mention reminding yourself (and younger family members) that these aren't for kids.
Why Final Fantasy XV's main playable characters are all men
Final Fantasy XV's playable demo confirmed suspicions that the long-awaited game's core playable characters are all, well, men. For those wondering, even just a bit, why the creators came to that decision when previous main titles featured mixed-gender teams, well here's your explanation. FFXV director Hajime Tabata sat down for an interview with GameSpot, where he revealed his reasons and shed light on the issue. Apparently, he wanted characters whose actions make you think "boys will be boys." He also believes that "an all-male party feels almost more approachable for players," and that even "one female in the group will change their [the four best bros'] behavior."
'Final Fantasy' composer on the pleasures of prog and Abbey Road
Nobuo Uematsu is distinguished amongst game soundtrack composers not just because of his work for Squaresoft in the '80s and '90s or his lustrous mustache. He's one of the few songwriters responsible for the way video games sound across the board, influencing other creators over 30 years. Square's Final Fantasy series, on which Uematsu was sole or primary composer for the first 10 games, molded how storytelling in games should sound. The synthesized minor key melody of series theme "Prelude," the ambient wash of Final Fantasy VII's "Opening/Bombing Mission," and hundreds of other songs are landmarks in gaming's aural landscape.
New 'Final Fantasy' game is a retro mash-up, coming to US smartphones
Are you ready to get those nostalgic Final Fantasy memories rattled back to life? Well, grab your rose-tinted glasses, because Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, coming to the US on iOS and Android in the next few weeks, pulls together all the FF heroes (and a few villains), melding it with heavy dose of background music and familiar game vignettes in a free title that's (unfortunately) littered with in-app payments. (It's not $16, we guess.) The game plays out in SNES-era style, with active time meters filling up before you can make your pixel-based move, whether that's magic, summons, or just whacking something with a five-foot sword. It's surprisingly less on-rails than we feared -- if you recall the Scorpion boss from Final Fantasy VII, and you see that its tail is up... just don't attack. Beyond the attack and defend flow, there's a dense amount of ways to upgrade your characters. It's definitely not a proper Final Fantasy game, but if you're looking for Chocobo-themed time sink, this could be it.
You'll be able to drive a car in 'Final Fantasy XV'
Timed perfectly for this year's Tokyo Game Show, Square-Enix's unveiled a new teaser for its next (long in development) Final Fantasy. There's boyband hairstyles, broody protagonists, big-ass swords... and a fancy car you drive around in. Watch, and wait -- FFXV's still coming.
Square Enix service lets you rent Final Fantasy games on your phone
Want to give Final Fantasy a try on your phone without paying a high price or buying specific hardware? It's time to book a flight to Tokyo. Square Enix has unveiled Dive In, a currently Japan-only streaming game service that lets you rent titles on your Android and iOS devices. Much like PlayStation Now, you pay depending on both the games in question and how long you want to play. If you plan to rush through Season of Mystery in three days, it'll cost you 150 yen ($1.41); if you're content with finishing Final Fantasy XIII over the course of a year, you'll pay 1,800 yen ($17). You can also play 30 minutes of any game for free if you're not sure that you're ready to commit. Dive In will be ready for Japanese fans on October 9th. There's no word on launches elsewhere, although it wouldn't be surprising to see some international expansion if the service catches on.
Joystiq Weekly: transferring destiny, final fantasies and light-children
Welcome to the Joystiq Weekly wrap-up where we present some of the best stories and biggest gaming news from our sister-publication.
Final Fantasy XIV's PlayStation 4 beta is now open to everyone
Fans of online role-playing games haven't had much to do on the PlayStation 4 so far, but that's all changing today. Square Enix has just opened up Final Fantasy XIV's PS4 beta test to everyone; from now until the morning of April 7th, you can battle monsters and ride Chocobos just by grabbing a free download from the PlayStation Store. This new beta phase runs on the same servers that PC and PS3 players use, so you should get a feel for real-world gameplay involving thousands of other adventurers. FFXIV doesn't officially arrive on the PS4 until the 14th, but don't fret about having to wait another week to play again -- if the game enthralls you so much that you've pre-ordered (or already have an account), you can start playing on the 11th.
Square Enix's streaming service uses virtual supercomputers to kill game latency
Streaming game services are nothing new, but Square Enix thinks they need a fix. Today, the company behind Final Fantasy and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (seen above) announced a new cloud gaming platform that it claims kills game latency dead. It's called Project FLARE, which it describes as a "technological breakthrough in cloud game architecture." It claims to harness the power of "virtual supercomputers" to offer powerful performance and incredible "Hollywood-level" animation that current streaming services just can't handle. Though Project FLARE is just exiting its R&D stage, Square Enix has already engaged Ubisoft as an early partner. It's currently shopping its technology around to other developers, and hopes to bring games to beta in about two years. Jacob Navok, Square Enix's director of business development, tells us the secret sauce behind Project FLARE is a technology that lets them run CPUs and GPUs in separate servers to turn up the graphic potential and efficiency of any game. In a hotel room in San Francisco, the company showed several demonstrations of this, such as incorporating video streams into Final Fantasy gameplay, real-time camera switching in Agni's Philosophy and the ability to dramatically increase the number of objects on screen in Deus Ex without affecting the game's frame rate. Since developers can now fill the screen with lots of items, Navok hopes this will result in far more realistic battle and crowd scenes in the future.
Producer: Final Fantasy VII on mobile is 'years away'
Just a few days after reporting that Final Fantasy VI will soon be heading to iOS comes word that Final Fantasy VII on mobile may be years away. In an interview with Shacknews, Square Enix director and producer Takashi Tokita explained why fans of the RPG series may have to wait a while for Final Fantasy VII to hit the App Store. "Unfortunately, it's not that it's not impossible for us to develop Final Fantasy 7 for mobile," Tokita told Shacknews. "It's that currently, space will be an issue. Phones won't be able to contain the space it takes. It's over a gigabyte. People are probably going to have to wait a few years." As it stands now, the maximum size for an iOS app is 2 gigabytes. So while it can be done, perhaps Square Enix wants to ensure an adequate ROI, something that might understandably be hard to achieve when many people struggled to make room for Apple's recent iOS 7 update.
Final Fantasy VI to arrive on iOS and Android this winter
Color us (not) surprised: after releasing FFIV and FFV on iOS and Android, Square Enix will follow up its mobile gaming efforts with Final Fantasy VI this winter. Veteran fans might miss the game's old school looks, as it'll come with sharper sprites and enhanced graphics similar to the FFV version for these platforms. Those who found the game rather grindy, however, will be glad to know that the game's battle system has been tweaked to make leveling up easier. The next FF port that's slated to come out is Final Fantasy VI: The After Years, but Square Enix's Takashi Tokita says the company might also work on fan favorite FFVII. That depends on whether the previously released games do well, though, so heed our advice: Don't count your chocobos before they hatch. [Image credit: Wikipedia]
Final Fantasy VI headed to iOS, VII may not be far behind
Several classic Square Enix RPGs have already seen new life thanks to iOS ports, and now the company has confirmed to Kotaku that Final Fantasy VI will indeed get the same treatment. The game will be a modified version of the RPG that originally appeared for the SNES back in 1994. The game will be tweaked for touchscreen devices with a refined battle system and sharper graphics. Square Enix director and producer Takashi Tokita also shed some light on the future of Square titles on mobile platforms. Now that Final Fantasy I through VI are taken care of, the next logical step would be to port the beloved PlayStation classic Final Fantasy VII to smartphones and tablets, but Tokita stopped short of making any promises, stating, "If this Legacy project works out well, we would like to one day be able to work with VII."
Final Fantasy V rolls to Android, still $16
Ardent old school Final Fantasy fans know: the mobile versions of classic FF games can be rather costly. Square Enix, the franchise's publisher, is well aware of how much your nostalgia values the series, and Final Fantasy V is no different at $16. Perhaps you've already got the game on Super Nintendo and iOS, but needed another platform to try it out on? At very least, the mobile version has some fancy new graphics and a handful of added job types to help ease the pain of paying so, so much for a far from new game. Head below for a trailer of FFV for Android in action.
PAX Prime 2013 and FFXIV relaunch event in pictures
This year's PAX Prime has come and gone, but during my trip I snapped a bundle of pictures we're pretty sure you're going to love. Enjoy some booths, crowds, games, and quite a bit of the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launch event. Even Jesus showed up for my photo shoot!
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions updated, on sale for half price
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions arrived on iOS a little while ago, and it's long been lauded as one of the best tactical strategy games out there. And there are two good reasons you should check it out right now if you haven't yet. First and foremost, the game just got updated. There are now better graphics in the game than ever before, all meant for higher resolution Retina Displays. The update also adds improvements to the game's animations, and iCloud integration has been improved as well. Square Enix says it's not quite working correctly on the iPhone just yet, but it should soon, and the iPad works just fine. And additionally, to celebrate the update, the series is also on sale (which is even more important when you consider how rarely Square Enix drops prices on its games). The iPhone version is down to $7.99, and the iPad version is only $8.99, both still pricey, but both half off of their usual costs. If you've been waiting to play this one, there's your chance to grab one or both.
