Samantha Lienhard

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Remaster, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and More!

Jun 172022

Yesterday evening, Square Enix held a Final Fantasy VII anniversary celebration broadcast, and after the way they hyped it up as a must-see event, I was fully expecting Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 to be announced.

Well, we got that and more!

They began with the announcement that Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is now on Steam. However, they did so with a trailer full of scenes from the ending, so I suggest you don’t watch the trailer if you haven’t played the game.

Intergrade is the newer version that includes the DLC episode starring Yuffie, which I haven’t played yet since it never came out for the PS4. Eventually I’ll get Intergrade so I can play the DLC.

Anyway, they then showed off some merchandise and then showed off their mobile games. I couldn’t care less about the battle royale mobile game First Soldier, but I remain extremely interested in Ever Crisis, just like I was when it was announced.

I was half-hoping they would announce Ever Crisis is coming to other platforms, but it’s still a mobile game. A closed beta will be held later this year. I just hope its mobile game elements (apparently interviews last year confirmed it would have loot boxes) aren’t too intrusive.

As an episodic game that covers the entire compilation with ATB combat, Ever Crisis seems like the answer for people who wanted a more straightforward remake, so I really hope it’s good.

After the mobile games, they then announced Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, a remaster of the Final Fantasy VII prequel game Crisis Core. Some places have referred to it as a remake, but the official press release about all of these announcements called it a remaster, so I did the same.

I always wanted to play Crisis Core, but since I don’t have a PSP and there’s no digital version, I wasn’t able to. I’m thrilled to finally be able to play it, and it’s a multiplatform release, too! Crisis Core will be out this winter.

That announcement was leaked ahead of time, which took away from the surprise, but it was exciting to see it confirmed.

Finally, they closed with the news everyone was waiting for, the official announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2… or rather, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, as it’s actually titled, which I’m sure will cause absolutely no confusion whatsoever.

It looks beautiful. Not only that, but it looks like the Nibelheim flashback is still playable, which is the one thing I was hoping for confirmation of. I hope Sephiroth still fights alongside you in combat to do a ridiculous amount of damage.

Now, this trailer has caused a divide among fans yet again. Some have taken the trailer as a clear sign that Square Enix is doubling down on making significant changes to the story, but I didn’t take that away from it at all. In fact, I’ll admit that when the trailer asked, “What is fact and what is fiction?” my first thought was that my JENOVA theory is true, which was probably me jumping to conclusions too.

After listening to it again, the dialogue in the trailer actually fits events from the original game, so I don’t think this trailer told us anything about how much they’re changing the story.

Anyway, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be out “next winter” for the PS5. Since Crisis Core was announced for “this winter,” that probably means late 2022/early 2023 while Rebirth will follow in late 2023/early 2024. The confusion around this was increased, however, by the producer saying in a message to fans that it will be “approximately three years after the original Final Fantasy VII Remake released in April 2020.”

It’s probably still late 2023 at best, but we’ll see. I assume they don’t want it to be too close to Final Fantasy XVI’s summer 2023 release window. And it looks like now I have a deadline by which I need to get a PS5…

They also confirmed that this incarnation of Final Fantasy VII will be a trilogy, and development of the third game has already begun.

All in all, the Final Fantasy VII anniversary broadcast was well worth the hype! I’m excited for Crisis Core, cautiously optimistic about Ever Crisis, and can’t wait to see more about Rebirth. Meanwhile, Capcom held its Dragon’s Dogma stream at the same time and confirmed that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is in development. Since that’s all they said about it, I’m not sure why they didn’t include the announcement in their showcase.

So, what did you think about the Final Fantasy VII announcements? What are your hopes and fears for Rebirth? (For that matter, maybe you’d rather talk about Dragon’s Dogma 2, so feel free!)

New Kingdom Hearts IV Details from Interviews

Video games 6 Responses »

Jun 152022

It’s still hard to believe that Kingdom Hearts IV was announced just a few months ago, but now we have some additional details thanks to new interviews with Nomura.

In a recent interview from Game Informer, Nomura revealed several interesting things about the series and Kingdom Hearts IV in particular, including that Sora will always be the lead for numbered titles.

The part of the interview that stands out to me the most is what Nomura had to say about Quadratum. Nomura described Quadratum as “the initial base” and said “you spend time there and then go to different worlds and then go back there.” So it sounds like Quadratum will function as a hub world.

I love hub areas in games, so I like the sound of that. He also said we’ll get to see Sora’s “day-to-day routines” due to this approach in Quadratum, which is interesting.

(I still want a remake of 358/2 Days with the castle as a proper hub.)

Some other highlights are that the new enemy “has a lot to do with” the Foretellers, and that Nomura is trying to find a balance when it comes to including Final Fantasy characters. As someone who never thought the Final Fantasy characters were that important to the story, I don’t mind that, although I know a lot of people were displeased by their initial exclusion from Kingdom Hearts III.

Meanwhile, an extended interview with Nomura was also published by Famitsu, and translated by KH Insider.

One interesting thing to come from this interview is that when asked about the woman from the end of Melody of Memory, Nomura said it’s a secret as to whether she’ll appear in the game or not, but “there was a time when I wasn’t sure whether I would choose KHIV or VERUM REX as my next project. However, she is a central VERUM REX character.”

That sounds to me like we’ll probably get Verum Rex as its own game someday.

Nomura also talked about how Akiko Ishibashi, who worked on NEO: The World Ends With You, has joined the writing team for Kingdom Hearts IV. Meanwhile, Ruiko Fukazawa, who previously worked on FFXIV: Heavensward, is writing the scenario for the new mobile game Missing Link.

I can’t wait to see where they go with Kingdom Hearts IV, especially now that we know a little more about it. What do you think about the latest Kingdom Hearts IV interviews?

Not-E3 2022 Part 8: Capcom

Video games 5 Responses » Tagged with: e3

Jun 132022

Not-E3 2022 Schedule
Limited Run Games
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Summer Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox & Bethesda
PC Gaming Show
Capcom
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended

Capcom Showcase

The last Not-E3 showcase for now was Capcom’s. Now, I was initially thrilled when I saw Capcom had announced its own showcase, until I saw the description that said it would be about previously announced games. Nevertheless, other reports said there might be an announcement or two.

I tried not to hope, but I admit, I gave in and started hoping when I tuned in early and saw them advertising Ace Attorney during the countdown ahead of the showcase. Not only that, but the into once they began showed silhouettes of major Capcom characters, including Phoenix Wright!

However, there was no Ace Attorney news of any kind, so the best thing I can say is that at least they consider it important.

They began by featuring Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, the upcoming Monster Hunter expansion.

After that, they showed some trailers for Street Fighter 6, the Capcom Fighting Collection, and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.

The next major feature was Exoprimal, that action game about fighting dinosaurs. It’s not my sort of game, but I’m sure players interested in it appreciate how much time was spent on it.

Then they began talking about Dragon’s Dogma. Let me explain the situation here. I have never played Dragon’s Dogma, but I know its fans are hoping for a sequel. The game is now celebrating its 10th anniversary, and rumors of a Dragon’s Dogma 2 abound. Many people thought it would be announced tonight.

So when Dragon’s Dogma took center stage tonight, only for the announcement to be about a “10 Years of Dragon’s Dogma” video… well, we Ace Attorney fans might be disappointed, but at least we weren’t hurt like Dragon’s Dogma fans were hurt tonight.

Anyway, there was one thing I wanted to see from Capcom tonight besides Ace Attorney, and that was the Resident Evil Village DLC they announced last year. And yes, they showed it! …In a video that showed major scenes from the end of Village, so… maybe don’t watch if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.

Shadows of Rose is the story DLC, and the part I’m most interested in. I had significant concerns about where they might take the series after Village, but the DLC trailer has be curious. It looks like they could have some interesting things in store.

The DLC also includes new content for the Mercenaries mode, and a third-person view option. It will be out on October 28.

The multiplayer game Re:Verse will launch at the same time, but I don’t particularly care about that.

Finally, they showed the trailer for the Resident Evil 4 remake again and gave a few more details. Strangely, they kept referring to the enemies as “ganado” for the plural, even though I’m sure Ganados was the plural in the original. They also have apparently changed them to make them scarier, although they didn’t go into detail.

Resident Evil 7, RE2make, and RE3make are all coming to next-gen consoles, and that was the end of the showcase.

My Ace Attorney heart weeps, but at least I have Shadows of Rose. Dragon’s Dogma fans, you have my sympathies and I hope that video ends in a sequel announcement for you.

This concludes this year’s Not-E3 coverage, for now at least. Xbox did have an Extended Showcase, in which they featured Valheim, Redfall, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Starfield, Naraka Bladepoint, Ara: History Untold, Grounded, Microsoft Flight Simulator, High On Life, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pentiment, As Dusk Falls, Slime Rancher 2, Forza Horizon 5, Fall Guys, Minecraft Legends, and Stalker 2, but none of those interest me enough to cover in a post. So for now, we’re back to waiting for Nintendo to announce its Not-E3 Nintendo Direct!

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