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!)