Final Fantasy XVI director Hiroshi Takai revealed at this year’s PlayStation Partner Awards that two DLC episodes are on the way for the game.
16.11.2023 - 16:51 / eurogamer.net / Square Enix / Yoshinori Kitase / Tetsuya Nomura / Naoki Hamaguchi / Will
Final Fantasy 7's remake trilogy will ultimately link up with Advent Children, making the film part of the remake canon.
Tetsuya Nomura, creative director for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, previously told The Guardian the games would link up to Advent Children. Now, speaking to Games Radar, producer Yoshinori Kitase confirmed once again the link to Square Enix's sequel film and discussed balancing the original story with new revisions.
«We are finally going to link up with Advent Children, that is going to be part of canon,» said Kitase. «The overall storyline, the developments, will not go wildly out in a way that will not add up to Advent Children in the end. I don't think anyone wanted that, that's not what we're looking to create here.
»[But] to make sure it doesn't become stale and people know exactly where it's going, [that it] doesn't just follow the original word for word, we add in extra elements which add that little bit of doubt. Getting the right balance of that is so key. Ultimately, we're not trying to change the Final Fantasy 7 story into something really different. The overall balance wouldn't really allow for that anyway."
Kitase also discussed the role of Rebirth as the second game in the trilogy in comparison to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
«You've got the setup, the setting, the characters, who they are, all explained in the first part,» said Kitase. «The real role of a second part of a trilogy is to deepen that, explore it further, go into the relationships between the characters and how they relate to each other a lot more, which is very much what we focused on here.»
Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi, meanwhile, added his own thoughts on the need for new twists and changes in each game in a trilogy.
«If we don't add in those changes and ramp everything up and make it that bigger and wider experience, then people just think they know what's coming,» he said. «I want to avoid that. We want people to keep wondering. That's very much how we have approached the change from Remake through to Rebirth, just making everything bigger, more expansive, deeper.»
Some of those changes are to the battle system, with Rebirth introducing new synergy attacks. Perhaps more fundamental is the move to an open world, which adds exploration, minigames, and swimming.
Cait Sith will also be playable in Rebirth and Vincent will join the party. As for Cid, the recent ESRB rating for the game hints at «characters smoking cigars» and some colourful language — who else could it be?
If you haven't seen Advent Children, it was a CGI film released by Square Enix in 2005 on DVD. It served as a follow up to the original game and has since inspired the extravagant battle visuals of the remake trilogy.
Final Fantasy XVI director Hiroshi Takai revealed at this year’s PlayStation Partner Awards that two DLC episodes are on the way for the game.
Square Enix announced in September it was working on two paid expansions for Final Fantasy 16, and in the absence of any details on what they will bring to the table, speculation has been in overdrive. There are, of course, some interesting doors left open for more stories to be told in Valisthea even after Final Fantasy 16’s story concludes, and in a recent interview with Japanese outlet Game Watch, director Hiroshi Takai offered some tidbits on what fans can expect.
Sorry folks, it looks like a Final Fantasy Tactics remaster isn't in the works.
Square Enix announced in September that it was working on two expansions for Final Fantasy 16, and while it’ll probably be a while before we’re able to play the new story content, it seems the action RPG is set to receive a new update in the near future regardless.
While rumours about Square Enix working on a remaster for seminal tactical RPG Final Fantasy Tactics have been going around for quite some time, the game’s creator, Yasumi Matsuno, has taken to social media platform X to state that there are no current plans to remaster the game.
Though the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is obviously Square Enix’s flagship Final Fantasy 7-related project right now, it’s not the only one, with Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis – a free-to-play reimagination of the PS1 classic and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 – also having been receiving its fair share of attention. The RPG launched for mobile devices in September, and Square Enix confirmed not long afterward that it would also be coming to PC soon.
The PC version of free-to-play RPG Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis will launch via Steam on December 7, Square Enix announced.
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia will shut down in February, it's been announced.
As Final Fantasy 7‘s release date draws nearer, Square Enix has been revealing more information about the highly anticipated game. In a recent Tweet, we found out more about Chocobo customization and Chocobo races.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake made it abundantly clear that Square Enix’s trilogy of FF7 remakes was going to have no qualms about deviating significantly from the original game’s storyline, but in the end, the trilogy is still going to link up with Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, the animated CG movie set after the events of the original PS1 title.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will bring a new twist to its difficulty options when the second chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 remake project arrives next year. Square Enix revealed Friday that in addition to easy and normal difficulty settings, Rebirth will offer a new “dynamic” difficulty that adapts to match players’ skill.
Square Enix has released a five minute recap video of Final Fantasy 7 Remake ahead of the release of Rebirth.