Operation Backlog Completion 2026

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.

Final Fantasy VII Remake 2 News Could Come This Year

 Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 312022
 

Today is the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, and Square Enix revealed special 25th anniversary logos.

The anniversary logo features Cloud, Sephiroth, and Zack and is reminiscent of the 10th anniversary logo, which also featured those three.

Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura both had messages about the anniversary as well, which curiously mentions “even more new FFVII projects that started up after the remake.”

New projects? That sounds like something outside of the remake, First Soldier, and Ever Crisis. Maybe we’ll get a Crisis Core remaster at last.

Square Enix also held a live stream today to give updates on First Soldier. That’s the mobile battle royale game, so it doesn’t especially interest me. However, as reported by Gematsu, Kitase said during the live stream that he hopes to share more details about the Final Fantasy VII Remake this year.

That’s far from a guarantee, but it’s still exciting! I’ve been dying for a glimpse of Part 2, so maybe it will finally come in the months ahead.

The live stream also included a small clip from the Ever Crisis opening movie. It’s caused a fair amount of confusion, since it features characters from First Soldier. However, if you recall, Ever Crisis is supposed to cover the story of the entire compilation.

First Soldier’s story being included in Ever Crisis was announced from the start, so that’s presumably what we’ve gotten a glimpse of here. Since it was a First Soldier live stream, it makes sense that they’d focus on that part. I’m very intrigued by Ever Crisis, and I hope we learn more about that soon as well.

So we’ve got a few tidbits of Final Fantasy VII news and the potential for Part 2 to be revealed later this year. What are you hoping to see?

An Epic Adventure in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

 Reviews, Video Games  10 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 282021
 

It’s been two years since I beat A Realm Reborn, and yesterday I also finished the first Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Heavensward (which is now included in the free trial).

Heavensward gets a lot of praise from fans, and the quests building up to it after A Realm Reborn started out slow but then reached levels of suspense where I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.

(In between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, I also met Hildibrand, a character at the center of the funniest quests I’ve seen in the game so far. That was definitely a highlight.)

And of course, Heavensward is set in Ishgard, the land of holy knights and dragons, so how could I not be interested?

I enjoyed the plot of Heavensward much more than the plot of A Realm Reborn, and it felt like there were less times where I had to run back and forth on busywork quests instead of actually advancing the story. It also gave me a new favorite Final Fantasy XIV character and some pretty exciting moments!

While I wouldn’t rank it up there with my favorite Final Fantasy games like some people do, it was still really good, and my enjoyment of the story might have been hindered slightly by how long it took me to complete.

(I’ll try not to drag out the other expansions quite as much.)

I’ve stuck with my same class through my entire playthrough so far, but in Heavensward I finally improved my own gameplay by switching over to gamepad controls, which I found to be more intuitive for combat. Making a few small changes like that also helped me enjoy the game much more.

Meanwhile, there have been plenty of entertaining seasonal events and other optional parts of the game that I enjoyed quite a bit. Most recently, I did a special event quest at the Gold Saucer that makes you investigate a crime without any quest markers, so you have to search for the information you need to piece together the correct answer.

I intended to take a break from serious Final Fantasy XIV playing after finishing Heavensward, but it ended on a note guaranteed to drive me forward to see what happens in the patches!

And so for the foreseeable future, it looks like my Final Fantasy XIV adventure will continue! Here’s hoping for exciting stories ahead!

 Older Entries  Newer Entries