Operation Backlog Completion 2026

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

 Video games  10 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , ,
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!)

Final Fantasy XVI New Trailer, Resident Evil 4 Remake Confirmed

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , ,
Jun 032022
 

There was a State of Play yesterday, and it had a few nice surprises.

In particular, all I wanted was news about Final Fantasy XVI, and we finally got it!

Final Fantasy XVI now has a summer 2023 release window. That’s a bit further off than I was hoping, since I thought it might actually come out this year, but on the other hand, it gives me more time to work through my backlog.

(Especially with games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 coming out this year already.)

The release window came along with a new trailer. It’s age-restricted so you can’t watch it outside of Youtube, but I’ll embed it below so you can follow the link.

It’s now rated as “likely Mature,” so it seems this will be an M-rated game like was speculated before.

The trailer introduces some new characters, most notably a woman named Benedikta Harman, who is Garuda’s Dominant, and a man named Hugo Kupka, who is Titan’s Dominant. The official Final Fantasy XVI website has more details about these two, saying that Benedikta “crosses paths with a like-minded Clive and is forced to face her past” and Hugo amasses a fortune but “Benedikta Harman will teach him money and power are far from all the world has to offer.”

The website was also updated with some beautiful new screenshots, including the one I used in this post, so be sure to check those out. It looks incredible.

Getting back to the trailer, we also got a better look at combat.

Three main types of combat appear to be showcased. One type shows Clive up against a single opponent, with each of them having a large health bar. Boss battles, perhaps? We also see Clive facing several enemies with small health bars above their heads. One of these short clips has a different UI for Clive, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. Finally, we see several combat segments in which the player appears to be controlling an Eikon, fighting another Eikon.

Combat seems to be fast-paced and stylish, with special abilities linked to some sort of class system the player can switch between. Judging by the icons in the upper-left, this probably is related to the Eikons.

Now, much attention has been drawn to the fact that Clive appears to be fighting alone. There is no indication of party members in this trailer. However, one thing does stand out as odd, and that’s the UI difference I mentioned above. Most combat clips in this trailer show three class icons in the upper left beside the health bar. However, the clip at 0:49 instead shows Clive’s name there.

Showing his name in the UI suggests it might be possible to control someone other than Clive. On the other hand, that never reappears in any of the other combat scenes, so I don’t know what that means.

The other possibility of having a party, or at least companions outside of combat, is the way Benedikta and Harman are described. I wouldn’t rule out the idea of them traveling together with Clive. That could be linked to how he apparently gains power over multiple Eikons.

Anyway, there’s a lot we don’t know about Final Fantasy XVI, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Combat looks very different for Final Fantasy, but it has a strong team behind it, including the main scenario writer for Heavensward (which I greatly enjoyed), Kazutoyo Maehiro, as the creative director and screenplay writer. And while it was widely assumed already, it’s now officially confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV composer Masayoshi Soken is also the composer for Final Fantasy XVI.

So I’m interested. I want them to say there’s a party, but either way, I’m looking forward to more details about the game being revealed.

Before we finish up for today, the State of Play also included the official announcement from Capcom of a Resident Evil 4 remake for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Now, I haven’t made a big secret of the fact that I’m in the minority that doesn’t like Resident Evil 4, and I resent it for steering the series more toward action. But the interesting thing here is that the remake looks like it might have more horror elements. If they remake Resident Evil 4 as an actual survival horror game… yeah, I’d be on board with that.

The official Resident Evil 4 remake website also says it will have “a reimagined storyline,” so it sounds like it might be significantly different from the original. I’m not sold yet, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it. It’s set for March 24, 2023.

And those were the two big announcements from the State of Play that caught my attention. What are your thoughts on the new Final Fantasy XVI trailer and the Resident Evil 4 remake?

Small Development Updates on FFXVI and Yakuza 8

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Apr 292022
 

Okay… I really thought we’d have some sort of Yakuza news to discuss today, but no announcements were made at the Super Talk Stage event.

However, at least a small update came from it.

According to the translation here, the script and voice work for the next Yakuza game are in progress, and we should get more news later this year.

Unannounced projects are also in development.

Meanwhile, today also brought a tiny update on Final Fantasy XVI. As translated by Gematsu, Final Fantasy XVI is in the final stretch of development and will have a strong focus on story. Yoshida wants it to be the sort of game that brings back the enthusiasm of players who drifted away from Final Fantasy once they grew up.

(People are coming up with all kinds of strange interpretations of Yoshida’s quote, but that’s all it sounds like to me, or at most hinting that the story will have serious elements.)

So… is this the Final Fantasy XVI news we were told would be coming in spring? It doesn’t feel like that sort of big reveal, so I think we’ll have more news coming in the near future.

On the other hand, I was disappointed to not wake up to any Yakuza reveals this morning. Still, at least it’s good to know Yakuza 8’s development is going well.

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