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Weapon Raid

A new trailer dropped for Final Fantasy VII Revelation during gamescom Opening Night Live, focusing on the threats facing our heroes in this epic finale.

What’s going on:

• The gamescom trailer features Rufus addressing the people of Midgar, promising Shinra will “reign supreme” over heaven and earth, despite the terrifying monsters attacking and the Meteor looming overhead

• The stars of the footage are the Weapons, most of whom are officially named on screen: Ruby Weapon, Emerald Weapon, and Ultima Weapon

  • Still no official name for the one attacking Mideel (the one who bears a passing resemblance to Sin, and may have even appeared in Rebirth?), even though it appears again, dropping lasers from above

  • And yup, here the monster is called Ultima, not Ultimate

• Vincent claims “the Planet sees us as another threat to her wellbeing… and rightfully so”

• The official press release claims that some of the Weapons “appear in ultra-challenging endgame battles as an homage to their original forms“

• Not only do we see Emerald for the first time here, but there’s also a glimpse of a battle sequence against it: seemingly in the submarine

  • The submarine launches torpedoes against it at one point, and dodges lasers shot from its hip—perhaps a version of the Emerald Shoot attack

• There’s a sequence of the Highwind pursuing and attacking a Weapon… but oddly it’s one of the new variety, not Ultima

• We also see the debut of Typhon as a summon, called by Tifa against what appears to be a redesigned/updated Zombie Dragon

• Beyond gamescom, eagle-eyed fans noticed the ESRB score on Revelations’ store pages was, at one point, listed as “rating pending, likely Mature 17+”, causing a storm of speculation

What we thought:

• Vincent’s line about the Weapons could be some early proof that Revelation will do a much better job about explaining the stakes than the OG did

• We’ve now seen the whole gang from FFVII: Sapphire (in the Summer Game Fest trailer), Ultima, Diamond, Ruby, and Emerald

  • No name as of yet for the Remake trilogy-original Weapons, which were described in the Rebirth Ultimania as being in a larval form—will these be vessels for obtaining the Big Materia? Or will they evolve and transform into full-fledged Weapons, either familiar or brand new?

  • No sign yet of the Jade (Before Crisis) or Omega (Dirge of Cerberus)

• As for Ruby and Emerald: their reveals in cutscenes shown during reveal trailers almost suggested they’d be part of the story, but the press release specifically says “the Weapons return in reimagined glory as standout battles […] some of which appear in ultra-challenging endgame battles as an homage to their original forms,” which all but certainly refers to Ultima, Ruby, and Emerald (as only Diamond is a mandatory battle in the OG1, and Sapphire wasn’t fightable)

  • Will Emerald be fought in the submarine? Recreating the original fight on the sea floor would look a little weird in the Remake’s realistic perspective (and potentially undermine the whole trilogy’s aesthetic), but that was such an iconic look… for potentially the most terrifying moments of a player’s life

  • Also it seems like they’re fighting Emerald near some kind of underwater structure, maybe the reactor or a repurposed Gelnika, or something original

• Each of these big bad superbosses is looking pretty sharp in their redesigns, especially Diamond, who’s literally looking sharp with its metallic “hide”

• While I never really used Typhon in the original game, it’s still neat to see how an older design is translated into the modern Remake style, and it seems they’ve wonderfully recreated its Disintegration attack (right down to the weird second face on its backside)

• That being said, considering the buildup to this trailer, it really didn’t show a lot of new footage—a reasonable amount, without giving too much away, but for those who watched Opening Night Live, the hosts’ constant reminders that “FFVII is coming up” risked overhyping it

• I wouldn’t put too much stock in the ESRB rating guess just yet; it would be strange if the third game suddenly jumped up one level, potentially affecting sales

  • This long before launch, these notices are placeholders and may not be exactly accurate

  • The big assumption many jumped to is that the notorious scene between Cloud and Tifa beneath the Highwind would be the reason for the upgraded rating… but that would be uncharacteristic for the series

  • If anything, I’d believe that violence or even an F-bomb would be more likely to drive up the rating than some kind of gratuitous scene with Cloud and Tifa, as many posts assumed (whether seriously or in jest)

What’s next? The Tokyo Game Show is just a few weeks away—could we get another peek at the game then? Perhaps showing a better look at the expanded Wutai segment? In the meantime, you can now wishlist Revelation on all platforms.

A New Year Rises in Final Fantasy XIV

It’s late August, which means it’s time for The Rising event in Final Fantasy XIV, commemorating the release of A Realm Reborn. In other words, ARR has turned 13, and it’s time to party.

When: Now through Thursday, September 10, 7:59am PDT

How to join: Seek out Yoshi-P the Wandering Minstrel in Limsa Lominsa’s Upper Decks to commence this year’s quest, “The Symphony of Life” (min. level 15)

The prizes: a Wind-Up Wuk Lamat minion, decoration items featuring Rising banners from the last two years, and 3 Orchestrion Rolls of tunes from the Modulation album (Matoya’s Cave, Eternal Wind, and Zanarkand, rebuilt and remixed by Uematsu)

What else? The anniversary brings with it a massive sale on the official Online Store for those who may have had their eye on some glamour items.

Final Fantasy XI Wants You To Come Home

Soon FFXIV won’t be the only “expanded free trial” in town, as its ancestor is about to open the door a little wider for newcomers too.

What’s going on:

• Final Fantasy XI’s free trial is loosening its restrictions, meaning players will be able to play the base game up to level 75, with no time restriction—take as long as you want to get there

• This is a considerable bump up from the current cap of level 50, with only 14 days to get there

• However, most other restrictions remain on free trial players: maximum gil capped at 100k, limited chat functions, no World Transfer, no Auction House or trading, etc

• The limit remains set at 3 characters per free trial account, if you want to mess around with an alt or two

What we thought:

• Good riddance to the two-week restriction, as shotgunning 50+ levels of an MMORPG within a fortnight is not exactly fun

• FFXI is clearly taking some notes from FFXIV, whose free trial is one of the most generous concessions in the industry, but it could stand to take a few more notes

• FFXIV’s trial now allows free players to go up through Shadowbringers, three expansions deep beyond the core game—content from 2013-2019

  • FFXI, however, restricts people to the core game content… which is content from 2002

  • The only way to straight-up buy the game now is with the complete edition, or more specifically the Seekers’ Edition, which includes all 5 expansions—would it be so bad to let people into Rise of the Zilart content with the free trial, if it would help further entice them in to the game’s walled-off garden? They’ll technically end up paying for it if they’re sufficiently hooked on the game after the trial

What’s next? The change will go into effect sometime in September, so if you’re curious about this long-running MMORPG and finally want to give it a shot, just hold on a little bit longer.

Around the Union

“Final Fantasy IV Has Some Weird Secrets,” and this week we’re shedding some light on them—from hidden multiplayer functions to the ravages of age. Were any of these a complete surprise to you? Let us know in the comments!

Over at Datalog, we investigate “The Curious Case of Xenogears 2,” and how Square fumbled a good thing.

And finally, in the Kupo Chronicle, we muse on the nature of worldbuilding, and taking the right inspiration or perspective from the younger generation.

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Final Fantasy can be one of those intellectual properties where things may not be quite as deep as they may seem. Considering the series’ strong pedigree as a foundational work of fantasy in video games, and the bestselling fantasy RPG series in the world, one may be disappointed by the amount of actual storytelling there is.

Recently we looked at how the various games’ worlds aren’t really all that thought out logistically—anthropologically, geographically, many of them don’t make sense when we look at things such as, “where do the people get food from?” or “why did civilizations develop here?”

But if we pull back from this aspect alone, the lack of support goes even further. Often when researching the lore for our trivia or mythological deep dive videos, we find there’s… just not a lot of meat on those bones, in terms of what the games and official sources give us. There was a war between this triad of gods, sure, but are they the only gods in this world? If not, where were the others, and how do they feel about espers and humans?

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The Job Master Hunts In Tokyo

Next week the wind will lead a familiar warrior to a new world, as Final Fantasy V’s Bartz arrives in Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy—which is about to observe its “half” anniversary.

What’s going on:

• Bartz will be added in an update on Tuesday, August 25, as a melee fighter with a kit that draws upon the best of FFV and his previous Dissidia appearances

  • His passive ability is Job Master, which grants him stars as he uses attack abilities; each star increases the damage he does with those abilities

  • His unique ability is Goblin Punch, drawing on his Blue Mage side for a charging attack that crosses a sizable distance

  • His first UR, Dragon Cross-Slash (pictured above) combines dragoon jumps with a mimicry of Cloud’s Cross-Slash—a leaping attack that stuns foes

  • His second UR, Rapid Twin Thundaga Spellblade, benefits from Job Master; it starts as a straight-facing attack for medium damage, graduates to severe damage at 2 stars, and adds a 5-second stun at 3 stars

• Alongside Bartz comes two new limited-time UR abilities based on FFV:

  • Boko/Chocobo Dash greatly increases movement speed for 24 seconds

  • Lenna & Faris/Tempting Tango is a low-damage AoE attack with a short stun

  • Later in September, two more will arrive from different games: Shantotto/Stone (high damage + launch), and Shiva/Deep Chill (decrease damage taken by 60% and nullilfy status ailments) from FFXVI

• With Bartz comes a new map, this time drawing on the Big Bridge—specificially a “corroded” version where the game world is bleeding into the real world, like the Zanarkand map

• Where Bartz goes, Gilgamesh follows, becoming a new boss

• Krile will receive a third outfit called “Mog & Me!”, featuring an adorable moogle backpack

• Duellum’s half-year anniversary will be observed with three waves of missions, 10 free draws every day (up to a total of 200 free draws), and a Red Sealed Ability Crystal after the ranking period ends, offering one guaranteed character-exclusive UR for one of the 16 base characters

• Also in the update is a series of buffs and nerfs:

  • Lightning will be nerfed, alongside a small handful of abilities including Ramza/Shout and Minwu/Warp

  • WoL, Firion, Kain, Krile, Celes, Rikku, and Iroha will be buffed, alongside Memoria abilities, URs for WoL, Rinoa, and Lightning, and a smattering of SRs

• A second album was announced as well: Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack PLUS will launch in fall 2026, featuring the original 33 songs from the first iteration (which shipped alongside the game’s launch) as well as the themes for characters released since then, up to the soundtrack’s release

What we thought:

• Bartz’ design is like a love letter to FFV, between the job mastery stars, the Blue Magic, and the Spellblade homage

  • For the uninitiated, there’s an epic strategy where players combine Rapid Fire (ability that deals 4 attacks), Dual-Wield (turning 4 attacks into 8), and an Elemental Spellblade ability like Thundaga to cheese most late-game bosses—so his second UR is literally FFV’s cheese strategy, folded into one attack

  • Goblin Punch is a surprisingly potent attack in the original as well, especially if used in the right circumstances, since it uses 0 MP and ignores row ranges

• Beyond the allusions, Bartz seems like an interesting frontline fighter—almost as a good complement to Onion Knight, as both get stronger as the battle goes on, while his stunning abilities will create openings for teammates

• And of course, how can we have Bartz without Gilgamesh and/or Big Bridge?

  • It will be interesting to see how they handle boss fights against Gilgamesh, given this is the first boss type who is a character and not a recurring monster

  • Gilgamesh’s crossover rate remains untouchable, adding another FF appearance to his long record

• One of the best parts of Duellum is seeing the new original art commissioned for most of the abilities, and the Boko and Lenna/Faris portraits are no exception

• Duellum is showing a very soundtrack-forward approach that I would love to see carried over to other games, where the OST was released alongside the game and now, six months later, we’re getting all the new music since that point

  • Of course, the first one still isn’t on streaming platforms, but at least it’s out officially somewhere

  • It seems unlikely but it would be nice to see some kind of discount or upgrade for those who bought the first version

• The half-anniversary (man, that just sounds weird) should be a good time to hop on the game if you’ve been holding out—all of those freebies are nothing to scoff at, and can go a long way to building up the characters you may want to play as

What’s next? The next character, arriving at the end of September, will be a Final Fantasy IX representative, while the end of October will bring a familiar face from Final Fantasy XIV. This goes against the timeline previously speculated by dataminers, but whoever the character is, they’ll be arriving just in time for the Japanese Fan Fest for FFXIV. (This also means it’s likely the second “ghost” from FFXIV could have their theme music on the PLUS soundtrack.) From there, it seems there may be no new character in November as the team takes a short break from the monthly cadence.

Thundaga Round!

• The advertising campaign for Final Fantasy Resonance has been teasing the returning FF characters who will be summonable with a series of short trailers, briefly introducing their characters and stories, and showing off their special summon animations

  • So far we’ve seen Warrior of Light, Cloud, Shantotto, Noctis, Onion Knight, Lightning, and Bartz—an interesting order, neither progressing through the series not necessarily putting the most mass-market-recognizable characters at the forefront

  • To their credit, the trailers are very clear that the core gameplay is HD-2D, and the 3D animations break out of the regular visual status quo, avoiding giving false expectations

  • We’re now two months away from Resonance’s launch, and so far the marketing campaign seems to be doing a good job of getting the game in front of people and making its case—time will tell how that translates into sales and commercial success

• Naoki Hamaguchi and the English voice cast of Final Fantasy VII Revelation will appear live on stage at New York Comic Con, on Thursday, October 8

  • This will mark the first time the entire main cast will appear together live

• Before that, FFVII Revelation will be shown at gamescom’s Opening Night Live on Tuesday, August 25

  • A schedule briefly listed FFVIIRev to appear as a playable demo in one of the halls, but has since been edited

  • Hamaguchi will be in attendance at gamescom for an autograph session, and will apparently be making some kind of presentation on the game, stating online that he is “looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on with everyone“

• …and as if the director isn’t busy enough, he’ll also be in attendance at PAX West, hosting an official panel for Revelation

• Final Fantasy Trading Card Game has released its new set, Blissful Eternity, and announced even more products in its pipeline:

  • Blissful Eternity features FFX on the packaging with a stunning new illustration of Tidus by Yukihiro Kajimoto, illustrator on The Adventures of Elliot and Star Ocean: Divine Force

  • October will see the release of a FFXIV-themed Starter Set deck, specifically based around Heavensward—thus featuring special illustrated cards of Alphinaud, Haurchefaunt, Tataru, Estinien, and Ysayle

  • The next set, Memories of Life, will (as the name suggests) put FFIX in the spotlight with its anniversary art, when it launches in mid-November

  • In December, a Final Fantasy X 25th Anniversary Special Collection will arrive in stores, including a curated set of uniquely foiled cards drawn from FFTCG’s history… and printed in Al Bhed

    • The set contains 13 cards, including each playable character with the original CG art, the original and HD Remaster renders of the “Suteki Da Ne” sequence, the new art of Tidus and Yuna for the 25th anniversary, and Kajimoto’s art of both from Blissful Eternity

  • A special “Anniversary Collection Set 2027” is on the way in January 2027, featuring a 58-card preconstructed deck, 3 new premium cards of Cloud, and 189 reprinted, competitive-oriented cards drawn from Opus VI through Journey of Discovery

    • The 2022 edition of this product gave us some excellent original art of Squall, and offered quite a good value (if you could find it)

  • FF TCG is still going strong, it seems, despite seeming to have an eternal “overlooked” status by comparison to other TCGs

• At D23 last weekend, Tetsuya Nomura appeared in person to discuss Kingdom Hearts’ past, and the ongoing development of Kingdom Hearts IV

  • Nomura was very adamant that KHIV will launch in late 2027, suggesting that while we haven’t seen very much of it yet, development must be progressing well behind closed doors

  • A new world based on Disney’s Coco was shown, along with some other glimmers of gameplay and hints at the overarching scenario with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy—a pleasant change of pace from the rather sterile environment seen in both prior trailers

  • The host brought up how cool it was to encounter Final Fantasy characters (and particularly Sephiroth) in the first games, but nothing more came out of the name drop—not that I expected anything, but it would’ve been nice to hear Nomura address that waylaid element of KH as the series moves toward a new era

Around the Union

Between Duellum and Resonance, it’s the closest Bartz has come to a personal renaissance since the first Dissidia… so it’s a great time to catch up on the fascinating story of his debut, in “The Complete History of Final Fantasy V!” Withheld from western gamers for several years, FFV really is something special—is this one you’ve crossed off your to-play list?

Meanwhile over at Datalog, we crack open the chronicles of the console wars to examine “The Forgotten Battle For RPG Supremacy” between Sega and Nintendo! Sure, Sega could “do what Nintendo’nt,” but did this bold marketing strategy and challenger spirit hold up for them in the turn-based arena?

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Allusions Unfulfilled

Every so often, an event occurs which stirs the mists that obscure the hypothetical “Final Fantasy IX Remake” which may or may not exist (or had existed) in some form in some secret corner of the Square Enix office, perhaps hidden away by top men, as in Indiana Jones. This week saw such an event, as new insight revived speculation on the status and legitimacy of the project.

What they’re saying:

• Journalist Alex Donaldson of RPG Site dropped the curious information in a thread on the ResetEra forums on July 28, which has slowly trickled out to the greater awareness of the rest of the internet

• Speaking to Yoshi-P’s recent comments about remaking Final Fantasy VI, Donaldson suggested that the producer’s methods for teasing content and sussing out the community’s response are somewhat predictable:

  • “Yoshida has a strategy he deploys for managing fan expectation where he speculatively says things he knows to be true“—as in, he may have brought it up because he knows there’s something related to a FFVI revival in the works, but obviously can’t announce it

• “There was an FFIX remake, and it was a single game, and it was very far along. Yoshida even made some vague comments like these hinting at the fact around [Dawntrail]’s FFIX tribute content. So, it is possible, with the right scope, which to be clear is obviously a smaller scope than FF7R. However for various reasons - surely a story for another day - that project stalled out, and it’s no longer moving forward. And Yoshida makes comments like this to manage fan expectations“

• The project may be dead or stalled… for now, but could be revived again

  • “The thing is, the path can always change again. [Dissidia Duellum] spent the better part of a year effectively cancelled before being revived, for instance”

  • “Though I did feel the game was truly dead when illustrations created as potential box art and as key art were just tweeted out for the anniversary“

• “It’s the same with Yoshida’s teasing comments about Hamaguchi on FFXVII—he doesn’t say that unless he knows that’s the current plan. It’s how he rolls. But also, the thing about these teases is the plan is the plan until it isn’t the plan”

What we thought:

• So in other words, the FFIX remake was allegedly real, on a more realistic scale than FFVIIR, and might’ve coincided with the content in Dawntrail that draws heavily from FFIX (just as elements of Evercold will be drawing on FFVII around the time that the remake trilogy ends)

• And furthermore, Yoshida may have brought up the prospect of remaking FFVI or Naoki Hamaguchi working on a hypothetical Final Fantasy XVII because those are things that may actually exist/be in the works behind the scenes

• Granted, this doesn’t mean that everything Yoshi-P may discuss along these lines should be taken as evidence that something exists; if he name drops, say, Onion Knights, it’s not proof that a FFIII revival is in the works

• Nonetheless this does line up with what we’ve seen publicly, and what others have alluded to about the FFIX remake; there’s zero doubt in my mind that they were cooking something up (besides that cartoon), and are now sitting on it for whatever reason

• Despite that grand sacrifice of several different unannounced Square Enix projects last year, and the unflattering precedent of Versus XIII and FFXV, I still feel that whatever they were working on could still see the light of day

  • The game’s anniversary window has unfortunately passed, but the calendar doesn’t need to line up to justify releasing a remake—and the series’ 40th anniversary would be just as good an opportunity to re-release one of its most beloved entries

  • They could’ve pushed the project out to market regardless and done the brand and original a disservice, if it wasn’t ready; and if there was some flaw worth holding it back, I’m glad they didn’t move ahead bullishly

• While Donaldson claims here that Yoshida uses this strategy to tease things that are happening behind closed doors, I think he mentioned Hamaguchi possibly directing XVII more to take the community’s pulse

  • Seeing how people react before these decisions are made, so they know whether or not they should make those decisions, is pretty clever

  • Not that Hamaguchi’s reputation is really in question from the community standpoint—while the remakes may not be selling to expectations (who knows whether they really are or not, when there are no numbers to work with), fans have welcomed “the other Naoki” with pretty open arms

What’s next? Evercold is more prominently drawing on FFVII allusions, yet there are also some FFXIII connections… and those are passing by with less attention or highlighting from Yoshida. Does this make the prospect of a FFXIII remake/remaster more or less likely? Time will tell…

Quarterly Quantification

Quarter by quarter, one might go far. Square Enix’s financial report for the first fiscal quarter of 2026 (April-June) arrived this week with more positive tidings than usual, and as always there’s a tale beneath the numbers.

What’s going on:

• Comparing Q1 2026 to Q1 2025, the company reported:

  • Sales up 32.3%

  • Operating profit up 88.6%

  • Net profit up 175.7%

• Departmental breakdown (again, year-over-year):

  • Digital Entertainment (ie. all games): sales up 51.8%, operating profit up 91.8%

  • Amusement: sales up 3.8%, operating profit up 7.8%

  • Publishing: sales up 11%, operating profit up 17.7%

  • Merchandising: sales up 22.3%, operating profit up 28.7%

• The performance of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on new consoles, The Adventures of Elliot, and back-catalog titles were cited as driving factors for HD Game division

• The announcement of Evercold in April helped inspire an upward trend for Final Fantasy XIV, and thus the whole MMO division

• Amidst the report, the company indicated that in this quarter, 90% of game sales were digital

• For the end of the current fiscal year (ending March 2027), Square Enix projects only a modest 0.1% increase in net sales year-over-year, a 10.5% decrease in operating profit, and a 4.7% increase in net profit

What we thought:

• For starters, how pleasant and rare to have a report that doesn’t spell some degree of doom and gloom

  • The mood seems reservedly pleased; this isn’t a parade-worthy win but in an industry where all the news seems to be negative, any win is a win

  • I can’t recall the last time there was a report with practically all gains

• That being said… the phrasing is somewhat selective in how it frames the story, since we’re looking at results year-over-year

  • While the company’s various divisions are all posting wins, it’s a specific sort of win, compared to where they stood one year prior

• If we look back to the results from around this time last year…

  • Decrease in net sales (15.2%) and operating income (16.8%)

  • Digital Entertainment, Publication, and Merchandising declined in sales and profits, while the Amusement segment held the line

  • There were few games released in Q1 2025, whereas Q1 2026 has seen at least two notables, and FFXIV’s cycle is trending back upward again

  • The pleasant upside to having a down quarter is that it looks good when you get back on your feet… so as good as these numbers seem, they’re not exactly being compared to the company’s Best Quarter Ever

• 90% digital sales in a quarter is a strong number… but it’s worth noting that this quarter saw a surge in sales for many back-catalog titles—so people buying games off Steam and other digital storefronts, especially when they’re steeply discounted

  • It’s indicative of the overall trend toward digital games… but there really weren’t many things pushing physical sales in this timeframe either

  • I’d be curious to see what this statistic is in early 2027 when Final Fantasy VII Revelation drops

• As for the annual forecast, the company is already a quarter of the way to that sales goal (¥78 billion of ¥298 billion), so… all according to plan, I guess

  • The fiscal year will include the launch of Final Fantasy Resonance and Evercold, at least, plus the Kingdom Hearts collection re-release, so they’re being surprisingly reserved (especially for a company that’s known for impossible expectations)

  • The fact that the estimates aren’t higher may suggest that Revelation is not being eyed for release before April

What’s next? All told, the fiscal year is off to a good start, but it’s all relative, and the industry is still on fire, so we’ll see where it goes from here. In the meantime, don’t forget about the Square Enix 2026 Consumer Survey we’re conducting!

Around the Union

To ease the wound of FFIX’s revival being stalled out, let’s look back to more optimistic things and dig deep into “50 Lore & Story Secrets In Final Fantasy IX!”

And over at Datalog, we examine “The Complete History of Dragon Quest IV!” How could Enix build upon the industry-defining success of the Erdrick Saga’s finale? What made this sequel’s production last longer than the rest of the series combined? Join us to find out! (And boy, doesn’t that story structure sound similar to a certain Switch 2 game coming out this fall?)

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Lost Episode, Found

Game preservation scored a much-needed win this week, as a piece of Japan-exclusive bonus content from a Final Fantasy game has been restored and backed up for future generations.

What’s going on:

• Game preservationist Yuvi has restored Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII, a mobile game spin-off to the PS2 spin-off

  • Lost Episode is set during the story of Dirge of Cerberus, showing Vincent fighting Deepground on his way to the Shinra Mansion, after his helicopter crashes en route (around chapter 5)

  • Originally, this title was made for Japanese cell phones, like other spin-offs at the time, such as Before Crisis

• You may recall that Yuvi has also been involved in the preservation and backup of Before Crisis—an ongoing project which has been chipping away at the game’s various chapters and systems—and other keitai games (referring to these sorts of games, on those Japanese cell phones, from the mid- to late-2000s)

• In 2024, Yuvi came into possession of a copy of Lost Episode, provided by a user who had dumped their SD card from their phone, but that SD card was encrypted, but until recently was unable to get through that encryption

  • Keitai games, as Yuvi explains, “had no standard system for storing data,” so exploring the data for each game is a unique case

• The only real route available was to brute force the encryption, generating different combinations of bytes against the encryption… for all 16 files they had to crack

  • Suffice it to say, it would take a powerful GPU like a RTX 5090 a full week of non-stop work, generating 130 different combinations per second, to crack the code for only 1 file… or so he thought, until further complications arose

• Ultimately, Yuvi ended up assembling a “GPU farm,” with “over 90 GPU servers,” “to the point that I had over 125 active clients crunching away […] well over 70x as fast as my single 7900XTX could put out”

  • With some optimization in how the calculations were shared, the process ended up finding all the decryption keys they needed in about 72 hours—far shorter than some of his initial estimates with much fewer computers

• This came at quite a hefty and literal price: “I’m not going to lie and say it was still cheap; in total, this endeavor to save one game cost me well over $900 dollars, all said and done. But in my books it was well worth something we may have never had the opportunity of getting again“

• You can now view a 15-minute video of the game on Yuvi’s YouTube page

What we thought:

• This is a pretty phenomenal achievement—both the engineering involved, and all the other factors involved in getting the game into the right hands

  • By all means, this game could’ve been lost to the sands of time, memorialized only in a couple of bad screenshots in magazines and the firsthand accounts of a small group of gamers

• That being said, it’s not like Lost Episode is much of a spectacle by modern standards; it’s more valuable to preserve as a piece of history than as a qualityh gaming experience

  • For its time, this could’ve been a really cool time: Vincent can transform, you can shoot in first-person, and there was even voice acting and cut scenes including the Dirge cast

  • It may look janky and simple by today’s standards, but it’s more impressive than anything I ever played on on my various flip phones in the 2T000s

• Given Sony’s controversial move to stop producing physical games in 2028, a case like this helps illustrate just why it’s important to hold onto such media where possible

  • This process was possible only because someone still had the SD card from their old phone, and look at the effort that went into restoring it 20 years later

  • Is Lost Episode a thrilling overlooked diamond in the rough? No; is it important to preserve it anyway, as the work of a team of people and a piece of the FFVII Compilation, and a game from a niche console most people never experienced? Certainly

  • This is the sort of access we take for granted now, but may soon lose, when companies like Sony can yank licenses and files—20 years from now we may be unearthing lost games from the aging hard drive of someone’s PS5

• That title was really on the nose though, huh? Do you think the devs ever wondered if Lost Episode would be lost when those cell phones went out of vogue?

What’s next? You can read Yuvi’s full account if you’re interested in the finer technical details of this task, while their work on cracking Before Crisis is still ongoing. In the meantime, Ever Crisis will adapt Before Crisis’ story before its service terminates, and elements of the entire Dirge saga could end up being adapted into Final Fantasy VII Revelation (and its potential DLC).

Or, if you’d like to learn more about the ongoing work of archiving video games and their related media, check out the Video Game History Foundation, or the Game Preservation Society.

A Realm Reborn… On A New Frontier

Whether you’ve heard of it or not, the critically-acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV now has not only an expanded Free Trial up to the award-winning expansion Shadowbringers, but a version for the Nintendo Switch 2 which you can take on the go. The long wait for a Nintendo version ended this week—here’s how it’s going.

What’s going on:

• FFXIV went live on Switch 2 on Tuesday, and initial reactions from players were pretty positive for the most part

  • The biggest drawback to this iteration is the loading times, which were markedly longer than the PS5 and PC versions—some players reported considerably longer times, up to 20 seconds, while others had a more reasonable 5-10 seconds, but there are a lot of variables at play there

  • Frame-counters will be disappointed, as this port is just not going to be running perpetually at 60fps

• Joy-Con 2 mouse controls are supported, as well as some (basic) touch-screen utilization when in handheld mode

• The game itself is free on Switch 2 for the time being if you take advantage of the free trial, as subscription fees are waived for the first month for stability testing

• Once the stability grace period ends, players will need “FFXIV Coins” to manage the second subscription required for Switch 2

  • Players with the Standard membership tier will need 1500 coins ($14.99 USD, so about $1/coin) for 30 days of game time, on top of the subscription fee; players with game time from other platforms get a 50% discount, so 750 coins

• There’s already a hotfix in the works for the Switch 2 to address the loading time issue, which is “especially noticeable” in certain cases like teleporting to a different map in an instanced duty

What we thought:

• Though I haven’t had as much time with this port as I’d like just yet, I was pretty happy with how seamless it was to hop in as an existing player

  • Almost seamless, anyway, as I forgot to download my configurations from the character select screen before getting into the game, but still

  • I was able to hop right back into the post-Dawntrail MSQ where I’d left off, and almost straight into a Dungeon with Trust support; both the city area I was in, and the duty, loaded well, but there’s a noticeable drop in frame rate in the busier cities like Limsa Lominsa

  • I also didn’t get to experiment with handheld play or mouse controls as of this writing, unfortunately; I’m more optimistic about the prospect of the former

• Performance-wise, and giving the loading time issue some slack, this is a pretty capable port; it struggles in the same spot where other ports struggle, and doesn’t hit too low

• The subscription situation is still unfortunate, but though the coins idea sounded a little obtuse upfront, it may prove to be an efficient way to handle the Switch 2 as a second platform—an add-on you may not want to keep active every month

• Existing players will take to this port faster if they already use a controller on PC or another console, while there have been some interesting reactions from PC mouse-and-keyboard players adjusting to the controller life

• Communicating while playing with a controller is just as inconvenient here as it is in any other controller instance, unfortunately, but you can still hook up a keyboard to your console to help with in-game chat

What’s next? All things considered, the Switch 2 seems to support FFXIV better than many suspected when it was first announced at the Anaheim Fan Fest. Though it won’t win over the highest-end players for the most demanding content (kudos to whoever becomes the first to clear Kefka Savage on this version), this is a pretty solid way to get through most of this hefty experience, ideal for the MSQ long haul and crafting or gathering tasks. If you can stomach paying 50-100% more of a subscription fee, it’s a capable companion.

Around the Union

Once again we’re looking at overpowered spells, but this time around, it’s your picks for the 7 Overpowered Spells That Broke Final Fantasy Games! How do the commenters’ picks compare to our own? Check it out and let us know if your favourite cheese spell still hasn’t cracked the list.

In a unique twist, we’re conducting a survey alongside a handful of other YouTube channels and fan communities: the Square Enix 2026 Consumer Survey. Inspired by a recent survey of shareholders conducted by everyone’s “favourite” investing group, we’re checking the consumers’ pulse on their current satisfaction with Square Enix. We’d love if you could take a few moments to fill it out and let us know how you feel about some of these issues.

And lastly, over at Datalog we turned back the clock to 1989 to explore all the events that helped change the face of JRPGs forever:

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Replaying Final Fantasy X on the Switch 2 recently brought me a bit of clarity on the nature of re-releasing older games, and then Naoki Yoshida said something at the European Fan Festival that really drove that point home. Speaking to Naoki Hamaguchi about the prospect of remaking FFVI, Yoshida said:

Yoshida is implying that to do those games on the scale of the FFVIIR project would also require multiple separate releases—which is an unfortunate truth. Compare the worlds of VI-IX, and you can see how it might be a herculean task to render them in the same dimensions and realism that’s taken them a decade to produce for FFVII.

However, this is where there seems to be some heavy miscommunication and/or assumption going around. This response has been levied several times by several Square Enix creatives, like Yoshinori Kitase. No one really wants to commit a decade of their lives to another Midgar-sized remake, which is irrefutably fair, especially when many of those creators are approaching retirement age.

But, they also appear to be assuming that people want more remakes on the scale of FFVIIR, and that just isn’t the case either. Those who don’t like the trilogy don’t see the point, and even those who love the adaptation and/or new gameplay seem inclined to disagree that such an undertaking would be necessary for any other game. It’s precisely the kind of ill-advised gamble that Square Enix can’t take in this day and age. And no one’s really asking them to do that.

So what are we asking for? There’s no universally applicable answer to that, but, there may be a solution that would work for the most amount of people, including fans and the company. We just need to break that re- prefix off of “Remake” and attach it to a different word instead.

But First, An Aside

Let’s linger on the sentiment Yoshida shared for just a moment, because deconstructing the misconceptions might be illuminating.

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Building A Bastion

Final Fantasy XIV’s European Fan Fest has come and gone, leaving us with a fresh cache of information on Evercold to unpack—including the identity of the next Tank class.

What they’re saying:

• As has become tradition, this second stop on the Fan Fest tour brought an extended version of the upcoming expansion’s trailer, building upon the previous scenes to introduce new elements of the setting—in Evercold’s case, The Fourth

  • The land here has fallen into ruin, succumbing to a “relentless ice” and the onslaught of massive beasts, driving people to live on massive Realmships

  • Each of the ships, also known as the Five Firmaments, seems to have a different element and/or theme, like Hringhorni, the Realmship of Fire, or Naglfar, the Realmship of Water

  • On one such ship we see the new class in action: the Bastion, a Tank who fights (as theorized) with a large shield on each arm, which can (as not expected) also convert into machine guns(?!)

  • The Warrior of Light is further shown fighting as a Reaper alongside our new Bastion friend, right before one of those beasts shows up

  • A new Miqo’te character with pink hair is shown as well, and according to the keynote her name is “Vissna”; they handle some kind of tool while a bird-like creature chirps at them, and a magical glyph appears between them—perhaps hinting at the second class

• Naoki Yoshida took to the stage for nearly three hours dressed as the Bastion class (in a costume designed by creator littlejem) for the keynote

• A Bastion’s weapons are a twin shield called Skyltborg—offering protection, offense, and both defensive and curative boons

  • Like the Sage’s nouliths, these weapons are powered by aetherology; they can be used for either high-speed melee or long-ranged attacks

  • It’s worth noting, though, that this class (and the ranged melee class, TBA) will only be available in the new “Evolved” combat mode

• Evercold will experiment with branching paths; after the initial “onboarding” quests, you’ll be able to choose the order in which you tackle the next steps

  • In the example given, everyone starts in “Town A,” then can choose which order they go to points B, C, and D; and once those are all complete, the story reconvenes and continues at the next point

  • The order doesn’t change the story’s outcome but the order will change your context… and discussions with other players

  • This will be partly attainable with new “auto content balancing” for a handful of areas affected by the branching narrative—so don’t worry about jumping into a point that’s too dangerous for your level

• The previously mentioned “Season” system was elaborated upon:

  • This will change players’ focus from a daily rotation to weekly, with the goal of suiting the game to the way each player plays

  • This will include new ways to raise item levels

  • Players who finish all of the week’s tasks can then go back to earn points from tasks they didn’t finish in previous weeks

  • Again, it is not like the seasons found in free-to-play games—Yoshi-P stressed this is not additional fees

• Progress on the Evolved system is said to be progressing smoothly; they acknowledge that fans are eager to see how their job will change, and promise they’ll cover it when the time is right

• More elaboration on the shift toward character-focused design:

  • After reaching the level cap of their current job, players will be able to copy their highest item level gear to the another job which has also reached the level cap—allowing players some flexibility in the jobs they choose

    • For those who really want to upgrade their equipment to the max potential, this item copying does not scale to things like materia, so they can still put the work in here

  • Character Action Skins will be added, allowing players to customize actions like Teleporting or Job-specific moves—starting with general actions in 8.0, then beginning waves of job-specific actions in later updates (this is something that will grow over time, not start all at once)

  • Further customization for smaller details on more diverse races, like Au’ra, Lalafell, Viera, and Miqo’te

  • Yoshida was previously adamant that lore should dictate how players customize their characters, but has come around on this point

• Through the 8.x patch series, an auto-pathing system will gradually be implemented, allowing the option for players to have their character move to their next direction automatically

  • This isn’t an instant warp; you still have to travel, following the “breadcrumbs”

• A new difficulty for 8-player raids, offering an alternative to “Normal” or “Savage,” roughly equal to the “Extreme” difficulty in other content

  • There’s currently a massive disparity between the two: Normal raids have a 85% completion rate, while only 14-20% of Savage raids are completed, and the rewards are a world apart

  • This difficulty will feature prominently in the new weekly rotation, offering gradual upgrades through seasonal rewards (whereas Savage offers raid gear, and therefore instant rewards)

• 8.1 will introduce the ability to bring chocobos into dungeons—enabling light parties with 2 players and 2 chocobos—while 8.2 will change chocobo breeding

• As for the Evangelion alliance raid series, Ghosts of Desire, Mahiro Maeda was announced as a special guest artist and designer

• Naoki Hamaguchi joined Naoki Yoshida on stage to announce another 8-player raid, Beyond the Lifestream, as a collab with the Final Fantasy VII Remake series

  • This will begin in patch 8.01 and unfold through three tiers of raids, with story overseen by Kazushige Nojima

  • A FFVII-themed typing minigame is coming to the Gold Saucer on October 28, called Keybound Brawler, and players can earn Barret and Tifa cosmetics

• The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV will launch on August 4, next Tuesday, as a month-long free trial and a test period for the servers

  • After that, Switch 2 players will need to pay their usual FFXIV subscription and a second Nintendo fee

• The Collector’s Edition of Evercold was revealed: the physical version will include a massive statue of the WoL as a Reaper, a Tapestry of the Fourth, new art by Amano, and a mini plush of the adorable new Köttr race; the digital goods include a “entreat crystal” emote, special skyltborg skins, and… a mount of FFXIII’s Odin?!

• After the keynote, during the Live Letter, Yoshi-P and lead battle content designer Masaki Nakagawa had a deep dive into the new Beastmaster class and its associated minigame, Crucible of the Unbroken, coming in patch 7.56

• On Sunday, Hamaguchi joined Yoshida on-stage again for a meeting of the Naokis, and a more informal chat about their careers, games, and the overall series…but that led to a whole different kettle of fish

What we thought:

• There was something delightfully ironic about Yoshi-P describing a world locked in ice while sweating on-stage in a heavy costume

• Also, given the time difference, when I woke up and checked the livestream, I did not expect the first thing I’d see is a FFVII-themed typing minigame, but hey, isn’t life strange?

• This information rollout style does a good job of distributing info, spreading out which audiences get which reveals, and keeping the developers’ promises in touch with reality… but it’s also very teasing, like slowly ripping off a bandaid

• The Fourth is a fascinating concept for a setting, and it’s interesting to see the Norse inspiration coming through all the more

• The Bastion is definitely a unique-looking class

  • This reality is more convincing to me than the speculation beforehand about a class having two shields—because they aren’t just shields, they’re… shielding, punching, guns

  • Though as a Tank player, I’m not personally jumping at the concept; I’ll reserve judgment until the class is actually playable

• The more I hear about the upcoming changes (Evolved Combat, empowering customization on many levels, etc) the more excited I am; these changes seem a net improvement and could be just what the game needs to stay relevant

  • I also appreciate that this is a starting point, and the growth will continue through the patch series, like with the ongoing chocobo overhaul

  • A few seeds that were planted a while back (like the graphics overhaul in Dawntrail) are beginning to bear fruit, and they’re still planting more

• There have been takes going around that “FFXIV pressed the ‘in case of emergency’ button to do a FFVII collab” (or even vice versa), but I don’t think this is necessarily the case

  • True, both games could use a bump from appealing to the others’ fan bases

  • Yoshida said they had been holding off on doing FFVII-related collabs until the Remake series was done, which it almost is now

  • Both games are also coming out in a similar timeframe (January and “spring” 2027) so cross-promotion makes sense

  • Plus, the whole “Naoki squared” angle was a fun approach to Yoshida’s day 2 panel—at Anaheim they played the “game show” with audience questions, and a more informal chat between two of the leading devs of the series today (who happen to share a first name) was a nice change of pace this time

What’s next? The upcoming patch 7.56, due September 8, will shed further light on Evercold’s scenario before the last pieces of the puzzle are shown at the third Fan Fest in Tokyo at the end of October. Meanwhile, we’ll dive more into what Yoshida and Hamaguchi have been saying next week…

Around the Union

In lieu of a new video this week, and to celebrate the reveal of the Bastion, we’re throwing back to their buddies in Tankdom, the Dark Knight! This is more than one of my personal favourite classes in the series and my main FFXIV job, it’s one of the iconic Jobs of the series and a title held by many classic characters (long before that other Christopher Nolan film stole its name). Are you looking forward to the new shield-and-gun tank? Let us know in the comments!

Meanwhile over at Datalog, we peer into “The Complete History of Sword of Vermilion!” This unusual title was a gauntlet thrown down during the early Console Wars, and has a unique place in Sega history—join us and find out more!

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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The General Joins The Duel

She’s not some opera floozy—she’s the next playable character. Celes Chere from Final Fantasy VI joins Dissidia Duellum on July 28, just in time for the game’s summer event.

What’s going on:

• Announced in the latest livestream this morning, Celes will be available as a “limited character” from July 28 to August 24

  • Progress the Season Pass to unlock her, or take a spin with Character Tickets

• As a Support, Celes is geared toward tanking and buffing the rest of the team:

  • Her Unique ability, Regen, heals all allies continuously

  • Her Passive, The Invincible General, grants her bravery as she takes damage from enemy players

  • From the gacha side, her UR ability Runic essentially extends her passive to all allies, grants them bravery as they take damage from rivals for 20 seconds, while her other UR, Spinning Edge, draws in monsters and rivals into a tornado of slashing attacks

• A new Memoria (a Support-only ability for boosting stats) based on the iconic opera scene while be obtainable from Season Reward Sealed Ability Crystals

• Locke and Kefka are portrayed in new art as limited-time UR abilities

  • Locke’s Phoenix’s Magicite heals all allies by 60%

  • Kefka’s Havoc Wing attacks enemies in front and drains their HP

• Terra gets a new outfit, in similar fashion to the new third outfits recently added for Cloud and Rikku

• Later, mid-August, a special draw will be held for Swimsuit Outfits, featuring Rinoa, Gaia, and Onion Knight

  • This draw will required special event tickets; spend 1 ticket to make a draw, or spend five to unlock one outfit directly

• Around the same time, special draws will be held with huge Growth Egg payouts, on top of a 100,000 Growth Egg giveaway

• Next up on the road map in late August (given their schedule, presumably on August 25th), will be a new character from Final Fantasy V, as well as a new stage and boss, followed by a new character from Final Fantasy IX in late September

What we thought:

• Celes is a great addition as a character, and her skillset sounds like a fitting addition to the game’s current balance—countering PvP heavy characters like Sephiroth and Balthier

  • Opera Omnia was so impactful at first because they didn’t stick to only using the main, poster-boy characters of each game, but rather pulled characters from the mid-roster, so I can appreciate that they went with Celes here instead of Locke, who’s often considered the second protagonist of FFVI

  • …and to that point, they chose her over more mainstream, recognizable characters from flashier, more modern games, choosing to balance the representation instead of rushing for the cash-grab—a trend that’s continuing with the FFV pull for August’s update

  • Her regular “everyday” outfit is probably one of the more realistic and grounded outfits in the game so far, especially compared to some of the more outlandish fits on other characters

• Now that the FF mobile division is down to Duellum and the Japanese version of Record Keeper, hopefully Square Enix will devote some more energy to supporting this game—giving the resources they need to succeed, and clearly communicating updates and events such as this

• To that end, the game’s keeping a pretty solid pace, which is nice—I’d like to see a little more, but it seems they’re taking care to balance the “meta” with each new addition

• On a personal note, I’ll forgive them for giving my boy Onion Knight such a dorky snorkel in his Swimsuit Outfit, since they put in some other fun allusions (particularly the doodle of the Nautilus on his swim trunks)

What’s next? Despite the “limited character” term, Celes will all but certainly return in future draws; it remains to be seen how the timing will work out, but I imagine these characters will re-run after about 6 months or so.

IV and X

Last weekend marked two big birthdays within the series: the 35th anniversary of Final Fantasy IV, and the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy X. For the occasion, a conversation was shared between the two games’ major creators, Takashi Tokita and Yoshinori Kitase, to share reflections and insights on their developments.

What they’re saying:

• FFIV started development in April 1990—which Kitase remembers because he joined Square in March 1990, where he was tasked with going to retailers to thank them with prepaid telephone cards ahead of Final Fantasy III’s launch

  • He saw a tech demo for the Super Famicom’s Mode 7 technology alongside Sakaguchi, who immediately wanted to utilize it for FFIV

• Tokita recalled that development on FFIV started in 1989 for the Famicom, before shifting to the Super Famicom “instead due to some unexpected changes”

  • Development finished around March or April 1991; subtracting the time spent on the 8-bit version and the longer time needed to create ROMs, it took just about a year to develop

• The new console was promising, but still difficult to use to its full potential

  • They refrained from using all the colours at their disposal, with a few exceptions, because utilizing the full pallet was still taxing on processing

  • As Kitase muses, back then programmers had to manually allocate data usage, whereas today programs automatically handle this and programmers only need to worry about the overall size

  • They’d use computers (like the PC-88) to type text, convert it, write it for the SNES, then run the game to check for errors—a tedious process which yielded some unexplainable quirks

  • For later generational jumps, they had moved on to more sophisticated programming languages, which mitigated this tedium

• At that time, Kitase was working on Final Fantasy Adventure (aka Seiken Densetsu or the origin of the Mana series), and his team’s desks were in a corner of the office between the FFIV and Final Fantasy Legend (or SaGa) teams—and Kitase and Tokita would play Dr. Mario together in the break (or “refresh”) room

• Later, development on FFX began in 1999, following the launch of FFVIII, and that team was divided to work on either FFX or Kingdom Hearts (Nomura, of course, split off to begin work on KH, mostly assisting FFX as character designer)

• Tokita and Kitase were then on separate floors of Square’s office in Meguro, but still crossed paths in the refresh room… which “sold beer and fish sausages”

  • Tokita: “Since there weren’t many places open 24 hours where people could buy alcohol at the time, people would go there to buy drinks to take home“

• They explored different settings for FFX, but once they learned the Lord of the Rings films would be out around the same time, they prioritized a fantasy setting

• Water became a prominent element/theme because the PS2’s technological advancements allowed them to simulate fluid more easily and realistically

• Like the Super Famicom, the jump to the PS2 forced them to a technological crossroads, where they had to choose between a lower resolution and more colours, or a higher resolution with fewer colours

  • They chose the lower resolution, and FFX is still known today for being vibrantly colourful…

  • …but they later regretted not chasing the higher resolution instead when they saw other companies going that route

• Kitase: “A Final Fantasy title has the power to influence subsequent FF installments and even shape the gaming world itself, so it carries the responsibility of creating a brand-new format that sets the standard“

What we thought:

• As you know, around here we love little insights into the personal dimension of game development, like the prospect of these two legends of the series competing in Dr. Mario to blow off steam (…or getting buzzed at work?)

• It’s somewhat surreal to think of Kitase, the current Brand Manager for the series, as a fresh-faced new hire going door-to-door as retailer support

  • Also bizarre that employees could buy drinks at their office to take home… but then again, given how development was a decade prior, it’s also impressive that they got to go home

• These insights really go to show how the hardware (and its limitations) is every bit as important to game development as the actual artistic visions of the creators

  • Both games were shaped by being the first installments on new hardware, and carrying that torch into a new frontier informed so much of their identity

  • Given the response to the Airships in the 8-bit era, it’s easy to see why Sakaguchi would’ve been salivating at the prospect of Mode 7—without which FFIV would be a very different game, visually

• As much as people praised FFX for its graphics back then, imagine what might have been if they’d gone the opposite direction, prioritizing resolution over style

  • You’d probably see a lot fewer yellow overalls, for one thing

• As Kitase says, each mainline game sends ripples to the next game, and through the larger industry, since FF has had a strong influence for a very long time

  • While there was some awareness of that during FFIV’s development, it was certainly more profound during FFX’s, and one has to wonder if being aware of this effect is detrimental—as in, could they perhaps overthink their responsibility or stress about it too much, leading them to subpar decisions?

What’s next? Both FFIV and FFX are available on all modern platforms, if you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing either. And on that note…

Quick Hit: Final Fantasy X/X-2 on Switch 2

Before we go this week, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster received a native port for the Nintendo Switch 2 this week, and if you’re debating whether or not you should pick it up, here’s a quick rundown:

Pros:

• Load times are smoother than ever

• A slight, yet noticeable glow-up compared to the Switch 1 version

• Gameplay boosters, should you feel so inclined to use them—in FFX, hold down ZL and press the D-Pad buttons to toggle gameplay speed, encounter rates, a god mode, or auto-battle

• Two amazing, epic JRPGs in one collection, plus their International bonus content

Cons:

• No cheap upgrade OR save file transfers for Switch 1 owners—you’ll start from scratch in every way, including buying the game full-price

• At the end of the day, it’s the same HD Remaster that came out in 2013—so the things the Remaster broke and/or didn’t fix, remain broken (like the different face designs, and the inability to skip cutscenes)

• No physical version (unless imported)

Should you buy it?

• In some ways this is the best console version of the remasters—faster than the PS4 and Xbox builds, and includes the boosters, which were only on PC before

• If you’ve never played FFX for yourself, this is as good a chance as any

• However if you’ve already played this collection, and especially if you own it on Switch 1, you might want to wait for a sale… or until the desperate urge to replay the stories overtakes you

If you do… Remember this is the International Edition of FFX, so don’t miss the bonus items in the Cloisters or you’re gonna have a rough go in the endgame bonus content. (Those gameplay boosters, in theory, could help counteract the problem I ran into on the PS4 version—running into the Dark Aeons while trying to go back to Besaid… but what’s the fun in beating superbosses with god mode?)

Around the Union

Speaking of superbosses, is there anything more satisfying in a FF than taking a powerful enemy to task with an ability that seems too strong? Some of the tools at players’ disposal are almost unfair, and this week we explore some in “7 Overpowered Abilities That Broke Final Fantasy Games!” Did you discover the appeal of any of these formidable abilities as a happy little accident? Let us know in the comments!

To those of you attending Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Berlin this weekend, have a great time and enjoy the festivities! We’d love to hear how the experience went—swing by the Discord to share your highlights.

And lastly, to follow up on last week’s poll: How often do you buy a NEW game per year?

44% - 3-5
29% - 0-2
14% - 12+
10% - 6-8
3% - 9-11

Interestingly enough, this aligns more closely with Circana’s buying habits survey than I might’ve expected. It’s always worth gaining some perspective on how others engage with the same hobby, so thanks for the input!

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Final Fantasy X turned 25 last weekend, and for the majority of that quarter-century many people have discussed the inevitable specter looming over it: the prospect of a third game. It was unprecedented for a FF to get a sequel (in game form) until FFX broke the seal, and since Final Fantasy X-2 and its accompanying epilogues dropped, a third game seemed to be in the cards—despite the harsh reality that the particular course Square Enix was charting could undermine the whole Spira saga, and has been the butt of internet memes for years.

The hypothetical Final Fantasy X-3 exists only as a concept and outline for the time being; though it will occasionally spring back up in conversation, usually thanks to Tetsuya Nomura and/or FFX scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, Square Enix themselves have never committed to making it. As more time passes, it begins to feel less likely… and yet it doesn’t really go away either.

This story Nojima was seeding years ago is not a solid foundation to build upon, even if there are some decent pieces buried within. However, there’s a suitable option available if Square Enix really wants to make a third game in Spira, waiting right under their noses, and it’s something fans have wanted to see for 25 years: a prequel. The more prudent path for “Final Fantasy X-3” is actually to go back… and do a “Final Fantasy X-0.”

This Is His Story

Making a prequel to FFX is not exactly a new concept; the original story sets us up to wonder about the events of the previous High Summoner. Yet, there’s a particular notion suggested way back in the Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania Guide that truly gives a prequel fertile ground to plant its seed.

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Onward to the Occult Crescent

With a week to go until the European Fan Festival, details on Final Fantasy XIV’s next patch, 7.55, are beginning to drop ahead of the festivities.

What they’re saying:

• After Fan Fest on the weekend, patch 7.55 will come on Tuesday, July 28

• The patch will bring…

  • The finale of Dawntrail’s Allied Society Quests

  • The Occult Crescent: North Horn, the next zone in the level 100 field operation, containing the new 48-player raid, The Forked Tower: Magic (and its Extreme variant)

  • The coordinating Relic Weapons will launch alongside the field operation, the Phantom Weapons’ “Occultum” tier (Item Level 795), while Phantom Armor will also be upgradable

  • And, would you believe it? Further Hildibrand Adventures

• Being an “off-patch,” so to speak, 7.55 won’t include new Main Scenario Quests

• The Forked Tower: Magic is meant to be a less intense encounter than The Forked Tower: Blood—suitable to groups of random players, instead of requiring thorough coordination with allies

  • Also, this appears to be bringing clothing options inspired by Bartz, Lenna, and Faris from Final Fantasy V

What we thought:

• This is kind of a softball patch, and a bit of a light update to immediately follow upon the second Festival of the year, but should still offer a fun challenge to late-game players

• The stretching we’re seeing here will hopefully be some of the last we see from the pandemic/Endwalker era—updates have been slower and sparser through the Dawntrail era as the game’s development recovered from those challenges and geared up for the Evercold era

  • The revamped pacing and the “Season” system could be a very welcome addition by comparison, if only because the pace may pick back up in a more sustainable way for everyone

• Given we’re now halfway into July, we should be hearing more about the Nintendo Switch 2 version’s launch—it’s scheduled to begin service in August, with approximately one month of “Early Access” before the official launch

  • Likely this will be covered in the keynote, but the exact timing of the early access and the “official launch” was a little vague at the Orlando event

What’s next? Saturday, July 25 is day 1 of the European Fan Festival, and its 2-hour Keynote address from Yoshi-P (which will surely be chock-full of further Evercold info) will be begin at 9AM London time (4AM New York time, or 1AM LA time). The Development and Community panels will follow throughout the day, followed by the next Letter From The Producer Live broadcast.

Resonant Pixels

We learned a little more about Final Fantasy Resonance this week, thanks to a new “Pixel Trailer” and an interview with producer Keisuke Nakashima from French website FFDream.

What they’re saying:

• Development on Resonance began about 5 years ago, starting with a debate over which art style they should embrace—ultimately deciding upon HD-2D with more 3D elements and a more dynamic camera, to help set the first HD-2D Final Fantasy apart from other Square Enix titles

• Nakashima specifically called Final Fantasy V an aesthetic inspiration

• The story isn’t a 1:1 retelling of Brave Exvius’s first season; Nakashima claimed the ending has been reworked to make Resonance’s conclusion a satisfying one, while dodging confirming any plans for season 2 or 3

• There will be 26 “Visions,” which are comparable to Jobs; 17 of these will be the protagonists of the mainline games plus Sephiroth

  • Yes, this does include Clive, who can be seen in the trailer

  • No, this does not include Katy Perry or Arianna Grande’s FF personas

  • However there are no plans to expand this number via DLC, due to the challenge of balancing the game

• Additional content was developed to flesh out the game from its mobile origins; it’s estimated to take 30-40 hours for the story, or 50-80 hours when completing the side quests and such

• Apparently the Six Jurors of Paladia and the Eight Sages of Hess will be present, while Nakashima confirms the War of the Visions “universe” is also considered canon and its continent of Ardra will be involved

• Chain Combos have been removed, as they were deemed unsuited to a console game

What we thought:

• As cool as Resonance looks, that 5-year development time is somewhat concerning; it’s nice they took the time to apparently do the game right, but game dev times are truly inflating

• While it sounds like Resonance has been planned to be self-sufficient, they’re clearly dancing around the possibility of adapting further seasons beyond the first

  • This is a smart call, especially given that development time: make the game right and able to stand on its own two legs, because you can’t guarantee that there will be the time and resources to make two more games

  • But if we do get Resonance 2 and Resonance 3… I wouldn’t complain

  • Much like the FFVII Remake trilogy, now that they’ve laid down the ground work with this game, adaptations of season 2 and 3 (and maybe WOTV?) could be developed much faster

• The overworld is so back, baybee—but who would’ve known that the most traditional-looking game we’d get, with the actual Final Fantasy name, would be an adaptation of a mobile title?

• The estimated length is perfect as well, falling into a similar sweet spot as the golden era titles

• I was never able to get into Brave Exvius, but Resonance has truly caught my attention and became one of the most intriguing things on this year’s radar for me

What’s next? Nakashima related that the game’s logo was largely Yoshitaka Amano’s call; they asked him to make something involving Fina and a crystal, and even the producer isn’t wholly sure of the meaning behind Amano’s artwork.

Around the Union

Forget flashy hats, Final Fantasy’s iconic mages don’t all need iconically headwear to stand out—some arcane masters wear masks and capes instead. This week we explore an unorthodox Final Fantasy original, “The Complete Evolution of Blue Mages!” Delve into this class which turns the enemy’s signature attacks against them, and let us know who your favourite is in the comments!

Over at Datalog, things take a horrifying twist as we explore “The Complete History of Sweet Home”—the roleplaying game that unknowingly started survival horror! Another storied developer has entered the ongoing tale we’re weaving of RPGs’ history…

And lastly, we recently asked about your physical vs. digital game buying habits, in light of the potentially discless future in front of us, and it seems the majority are still invested in the physical space:

How do you buy your games?

68% - Mostly physical
14% - Mostly digital
18% - Digital +special games physically

This skewed a little higher toward physical than I expected, to be honest. As a quick follow-up for Science: Circana, the group tracking game sales in the US, who reported physical game spending ticked upwards last year, also recently reported that 63% of gamers buy two or fewer new games per year. To cross-reference across our own community, and based on your rough estimate of the past couple years…

Obviously there are a lot of factors at play here, such as the variety of games being released, but I thought it would be interesting to see how close we come to what Circana’s Mat Piscatella calls the “hyper-enthusiast” range: the 14% who buy a new game monthly or more.

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Ever Ends

…and then there was one. This week brought the bitter news that Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis will not last forever, or even to the end of the year.

What’s going on:

• Square Enix announced Ever Crisis will end on October 6, 2026, at 11PM PDT

  • Further sales of red crystals suspended immediately

• They’re going out with a bang in the meantime, according to a road map for the remaining months:

  • Story content for Before Crisis will roll out in three waves, one per month, starting and concluding that storyline just in time

  • The remaining two chapters for the original FFVII will arrive in August and September respectively, bringing that storyline to a close too

  • The “Beach Festival Fun” event kicks off this month, and a “new event” will follow in August and September each

  • Various “Festival of Gratitude” draws, gifts, and log-in bonus will be available for the duration of service

  • Guild Battles will persist monthly

  • The last month of service will bring third anniversary festivities, ironically

• Producer Shoichi Ichikawa, in a letter shared in-game, said “after careful consideration and countless discussions within the team, we determined that it would be challenging to maintain a level of service that is expected of a game with the Final Fantasy VII name in its title, and have come to the difficult decision to end the service of this game”

  • “Striking an ideal balance between visual quality and development costs, while also maintaining gameplay balance that encouraged greater party diversity, presented ongoing challenges”

  • “Having to share this news less than three years after launch is incredibly difficult for the operations team as well. We’re grateful to all of you for supporting and loving the game, and we’re sorry that we can’t continue delivering the experience you deserve through to the end”

What we thought:

• As neither the current mobile game landscape nor the game’s recent performance aren’t exactly inspiring, it’s not surprising that Ever Crisis is drawing to a close… though it does feel a little early somehow

  • With Final Fantasy VII Revelation coming in early 2027, it would have been fitting to end the mobile remake on the same day as the remake trilogy hit store shelves, just as Opera Omnia went offline on Rebirth’s release

• With the amount of content they’re putting out in the next three months, they could’ve spaced it out—similar to the slower cadence the game has had

  • Or, if the game had been a little more lively like this, it might have lasted longer

• On the other hand, the entire story will pretty much be told by the end: FFVII is wrapping up; Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and First Soldier are done; Advent Children was (hastily) covered; and now Before Crisis will be wrapped up as well

  • Its course has essentially been run, and going on would require more original content… or somehow re-adapting the Remake trilogy

• On top of that, Ichikawa’s phrasing makes it sound like the game was struggling to remain viable on the company’s end and balanced in the player experience

  • A classic case of corporate purse-clutching getting in the way?

• So, is this good or bad news for Dissidia Duellum? Probably a bit of both

  • Duellum has more long-term potential, where EC had a limited amount of base content

  • As the only remaining FF mobile game (aside from Record Keeper in Japan), Duellum theoretically may have more budget space to work with… or, it may have had its days numbered too

What’s next? If you’d like to experience the story chapters of Ever Crisis, there’s probably still time to get through it in three months—the story chapters have a forgiving difficulty and gems are being thrown around as consolation, so it should be easy to get a team together to whip through.

Expanding Revelations

A new finding suggests that the revelations could keep coming for a while post-launch, as Final Fantasy VII Revelation might be getting DLC (and more of it than anyone may have expected).

What’s going on:

• As reported by RPGSite, FFVII Revelation’s page on EpicDB temporarily listed a sizable list of previously-unannounced DLCs for the game

• The listings include:

  • Variations of the game itself, like the base game, the base game with pre-order bonus, the premium edition and the premium edition with pre-order bonus, etc

  • Vague entries called “DLC1” through “DLC9”

  • A “Digital Contents Pack”

  • A “Story Expansion Pass”

• Since the news broke, the EpicDB page has been updated, and the DLC listings removed

What we thought:

• As we learned from the Nvidia leak, these sorts of incidents aren’t exactly gospel

• A good portion of the entries were known variations of the game, so no surprise or spoilers there

• Speculating on the remaining items can either be very simple, or very grand

  • "The “Digital Contents Pack” could refer to simple bonus items of some kind, like preorder bonuses or other purchase incentives

  • DLC1-9 could likewise refer to things like downloadable costumes, weapons, etc… or it could refer to actual playable content?

  • The “Story Expansion Pass” is the clearest suggestion here, but even then, it begs the question: what does a Story Expansion Pass for this game look like?

• If we assume these are genuine listings (and to be clear, I don’t yet), it could mean that there will be some story beats held back from the main game to sell some digital add-ons… or hey, maybe they’ll be original stories, or side events drawing upon lesser-known canon entities like “Tales of Two Pasts”

• The prospect of DLC was already publicly announced by director Naoki Hamaguchi, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility… but at this point in development, chances seem somewhat slim that they’re already working on post-launch campaign to this extent… but time will tell for now.

What’s next? Proper announcements of real DLC could begin as early as the next trailer, or at least once the release date and different editions of the game are confirmed. Either way, a leak like this isn’t the way that devs would want to reveal new content.

Around the Union

This week we examine “7 Final Fantasy Mistranslations That Changed Everything!” A good translation can make all the difference… and so can a bad one. Across the history of Final Fantasy games, we’ve seen a fair share of both, and the ripple effect from a spotty job can profoundly impact how we understand a plot. Join us as we discuss some of the most egregious examples and let us know if any other moments stand out to you (and yes, we all know, “this guy are sick!”).

Over in the Kupo Chronicle, we take a look at the moment in a FF hero’s journey where they must confront the truth:

And lastly, get a taste of Datalog’s Season 3—exploring “The Weird Games That Build The Future!”

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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“Defiance of fate” is a prominent theme in Final Fantasy—usually by the time the party stands at the final boss’ precipice in a mainline game, the heroes have looked death and the end of all things in the eye and said, “not on our watch.” This moment can take many different forms: opposing a curse that would otherwise turn them into crystal, breaking a sorceress’ time loop, or even confronting the embodiment of death and the very concept of entropy.

(One could even argue that “fighting fate” is another layer of meaning on the “Final Fantasy” name. Back in 1987, Sakaguchi and co. wanted to name their Famicom RPG something that could be shortened to “FF,” or “effu effu,” and since then this theme has become a core element of the series they spawned.)

For me, it was the prominence of that very theme that finally drove home that Final Fantasy XVI, despite its action gameplay, was every bit a mainline Final Fantasy, and one of the purest examples of its thematic strength. Since it still feels too soon to me to discuss major endgame plot points in the intro of a newsletter, suffice to say that Clive’s refusal of the plot engineered for him firmly planted him in the pantheon of FF protagonists.

But before a hero can defy their fate, typically they require a moment of epiphany, or disillusionment. The wool is pulled from their eyes dramatically and they see the truth of the world, beholding what they need to unlearn before walking their real path. Clive has his moment very early on, and then endures several aftershocks throughout the course of the game, while for others, this pivotal moment comes right before the finale, or the point-of-no-return.

The Hero’s Illusion

Noctis spends most of his life lost in escapist tendencies. He knows the weight of his family name, and the inevitable duty that awaits him, but we have to spend the majority of Final Fantasy XV’s runtime helping him escape or defer his inheritance. He simply isn’t ready to shoulder that burden until he’s evaded it first. But at the same time, it’s the journey he goes in while evading his destiny that makes him strong enough to embrace it. The Noctis we meet at the start of the game would not have had the will to achieve what endgame-Noctis does. And once he does shirk off his old way of seeing the world, FFXV really comes into its own.1

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A Collector’s Nightmare

Sony sent tremors through the games industry this week when they announced that as of January 2028, they will cease producing physical copies of PlayStation games. Let’s take a moment to talk out what this could mean for Final Fantasy moving forward.

What’s going on:

• “In response to shifting trends in consumer preference,” PlayStation games will be sold through the PlayStation Store and retailers “in digital form only”

  • This will apply to new games released in or after January 2028; presumably older games will continue to be produced as needed for some time, while new games at retailers could be “code-in-box” or just straight-up codes

• The decision comes just one week after Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto VI will release in digital formats only, with physical copies being code-in-box

  • This is a desperate measure taken to protect the game from being spoiled prematurely, as often major releases like this will end up on store shelves (especially at big box stores)

• The timing may be somewhat coincidental, as digital has been overtaking physical sales for years now—in the US, sales of new physical games have been declining year-over-year since 2009 (and ironically, Circana just reported last week that physical sales had increased over the previous year for the first time since 2009)

• In a bittersweet coincidence, this means that the first Final Fantasy released on disc form on PlayStation was Final Fantasy VII, and the last very well could be Final Fantasy VII Revelation (unless Square Enix has something else planned for release in 2027)

• Presumably this also kills any hope of carrying physical copies of games forward to the hypothetical PlayStation 6, whenever it arrives, meaning your existing FF discs will need to be replaced with digital codes if you want to play them on the next gen (which, I cannot stress enough, I hope is very far away)

What we thought:

• Frankly, though the industry has been moving in this direction for some time (in many regions, Xbox has already virtually abandoned the physical market, and it’s been hard to find the PS5 disc drive add-on peripheral for digital consoles), this steep cut-off date feels abrupt—and like an anti-consumer decision

• The physical versus digital debate is complicated, yes, but to simply do away with the old method of distribution with 18 months’ notice (forsaking $1.6 billion dollars of sales in the US alone) is radical

  • Physical games have become an imperfect solution, since a) many discs function like DRM keys that allow you to access the game itself, b) most games have decent day one patches so you can’t just pop in a new game ASAP on launch day and play it properly, and c) substantial game updates can result in “Ship of Theseus” situations, where the game you bought and the game it becomes may have drastically different contents

  • A great example of this is Final Fantasy XV—the PS4 copy I bought on launch day now grants me access to a considerably different game, with whole chapters of the game rearranged and new DLCs stapled on the sides

  • Yet, physical games still offered something tangible, which could be traded or exchanged or lent, giving the consumer something to show for the money they spent—and this option is being yanked away, benefitting only Sony

• How many of us experienced Final Fantasy, or at least an individual game in the series, by borrowing a copy from a friend? Or how many of us have been to one to introduce a friend by lending them a disc?

  • Personally I wouldn’t have had my introduction to the series without the time-honoured tradition of game swaps, and without that experience I might have overlooked FFVII many years later

• And by the same token, how many of us have PS4 or 5 copies of Final Fantasy games in our collections already, waiting to roll with us from one hardware generation to the next? Those will be useless on the inevitable PS6

  • This move burns third-party companies like Square Enix, who have fostered robust software catalogs on the PS Store for over a decade—sure, some customers may repurchase beloved games from their favourite series, but those gains don’t outweigh the damage done to the entire platform (as many people will be driven instead to either total detachment from the hobby, or outright piracy—to quote the Kupirates in World of Final Fantasy, ”avast, ye kupo!”)

What’s next? Sony has been getting read to filth (rightfully) over this decision, with even fast food brands like Domino’s taking cheap shots at them. With enough pushback, maybe it’s possible they’ll reverse the decision, or at least postpone the inevitable for a while… but that’s a long shot. This doesn’t bode well for the next generation of consoles, and could make FFVII Revelation all the more bittersweet, as the end of an era in another sense…

Blitz Off In Duellum

Just in time for the 25th anniversary of his game, Tidus has joined the roster of Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy, kicking off a new season of Blitzball ranked play.

What’s going on:

• Tidus is now available as a limited character, meaning players have a limited time to attempt to unlock him and his abilities from the gacha

  • The term “limited character” has been causing some confusion: this means they’ll be available from the featured draws for a limited time, and will likely return at some regular interval; but, if you pull him, you can continue to use him indefinitely—the character isn’t being yanked away, only the chance to obtain them in the first place

  • By contrast, the original 16 characters are not limited and can appear in the regular draws

• Tidus is an agile type, with the “Dash & Quick Hit” unique ability, and a passive ability that reduces cooldown on melee abilities… but currently, none of his abilities have that melee tag (while ironically, the Yuna-themed ability Holy does)

• This month brings a new stage to go with Tidus, called “Corrosion: Zanarkand”

• His casual or “real-world” attire is a beige jersey-like top with some Zanarkand Abes logos and… “Besaid Aurochs” on the back, where the player’s name would traditionally go

• A handful of balance updates have been implemented as well, and the Final Fantasy Resonance collab is entering its final days

What we thought:

• Adding Tidus now is good timing, given the summery vibe of FFX, its 25th anniversary, the prevalence of the World Cup… etc

• …but I still would rather have certain other characters instead (but whatever)

• Personally it’s always been a little weird hearing his Japanese voice actor instead of the English, as there’s a pretty substantial change in tone that goes against my sense of his personality

• This is also one of my personal least-liked original outfits in the game so far

  • It suits him well enough, I just don’t gel with it for some reason

• Likewise, the new stage looks fantastic visually, but the layout of the crystals is odd; players who thrive on knocking out the competition could have a field day with this configuration in Zanarkand’s streets

• All that being said, the game still feels fun to me, picking it up to play a round or two each day—the balance patches may just be working out

What’s next? Be sure to log in each Tuesday in July for a free 25x draw—and check out FFU’s community in-game if you haven’t already!

Around the Union

In lieu of a new video to highlight this week, check out this classic supercut from the FFU archives: “50 Lore & Story Secrets in Final Fantasy X!” What better time to explore the finer points of a classic game than at its quarter-century birthday month? Be sure to share with a friend if any of these tidbits are news to you!

In regards to our top topic this week, for the sake of science, we’d like to1 know: how do you buy most of your games these days? Do you buy the majority digitally or physically? Or if digital, do you still pick up special releases (like say, a Deluxe Edition of a Final Fantasy)? Let us know in the comments how you feel about this potential paradigm shift for the industry, and to the physical game collections we fans have accumulated.

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Considering Chocobros

A year since its launch, the Nintendo Switch 2 is proving its worth and hosting some prominent titles that previously skipped the original Switch (or other earlier consoles). Now, could another Final Fantasy be due for a trip to Mario’s neck of the woods?

What they’re saying:

• During a recent investor Q&A, one shareholder asked, “will a remake of Final Fantasy XV be released on Nintendo Switch?”

• …to which the official company reply was, “there are hardware constraints, but from a specification standpoint it is not completely impossible, so it is under consideration”

• Most other shareholder questions revolved around Dragon Quest, with one claiming that Dragon Quest XII starting over from scratch despite being announced in 2021 is like flushing development costs

• Another asked if DQ would have a “collaboration with analog games” comparable to the MTG x FF set, and SE had no real response to offer other than “we’re looking into it”

What we thought:

• Both of these questions and answers feel weakly worded

• FFXV doesn’t necessarily need a remake, but it should certainly be on Switch 2

  • If a) FFVII Remake can run so well on Switch 2, b) Rebirth can run pretty well, and c) Revelation will debut on the system day 1 alongside the other consoles… what “hardware constraints” are there in bringing a 2016 multiplatform title, really?

  • After all, NieR: Automata originally launched about six months after FFXV, yet it got a solid version for the Switch 1, four years ago

  • That being said, sometimes there are unique problems stemming from the original hardware that hold back some games—perhaps most infamously, Metal Gear Solid 4, which was reliant on the PS3’s unique Cell processor… but even that game is finally being lifted from its PS3 purgatory later this summer

• To blame it on hardware considerations comes across as a bit of a deflection; the true “constraint” is the question, “who’s gonna work on it?”

  • Even the most straightforward port requires some work and engineering, and that requires having staff available to work on the project and someone to oversee it

  • And well, it’s not like director Tabata or much of the original team from Luminous Productions is around anymore to champion its cause

• To be clear, having the FFXV Royal Edition alone would be welcome… but if someone wants to attempt to sand off the rough edges Tabata left behind and make something akin to Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, well, I’d love to see Noctis and company get a little redemption

  • “Fixing” FFXV would require some pretty dramatic reconstruction, so let’s not hold our breaths on this one

• Shareholders may be right to fuss over the DQXIII situation, but Square Enix knows a thing or two about restarting a project to make sure it’s going well—they infamously threw out the progress of FFVII Remake after CyberConnect wasn’t proving itself

  • Considering the stakes for DQXII, as the last game to feature work by two of the series’ original visionaries before they passed away, you’d think the shareholders would be more concerned about the product being good enough, no matter how long it takes

• Square Enix (and Wizards of the Coast) should be wary about jumping into a DQ-themed set, if that’s what’s being considered behind closed doors—FF had bigger, broader fan appeal than DQ does, and MTG players are widely growing frustrated with the number of Universes Beyond crossover sets

  • DQ would be better-off going with an original card game of its own, like Final Fantasy TCG, or collaborating Universus or Union Arena, two games that are essentially “plug and play” when it comes to melding different IPs

What’s next? Soon Final Fantasy XIV will join the Nintendo family, which will leave only XI, XIII, XV, and XVI of the mainline games missing from the Switch 2’s library (and in some cases, the other consoles as well). FFXI is almost certainly not going to re-expand beyond PC (unless it gets an offline reimagining) but FFXIII and FFXV are sorely missing. FFXVI could be trickier to port; you’d be looking at a Rebirth level of quality, which would sting more in an action-heavy game like that. Still, there are surely lots of people who’d love to see these mainline games get a new lease on life, especially with the series’ 40th anniversary festivities starting next year.

(Also worth noting: it seems 3D Investment Partners wasn’t stirring the pot… this time.)

Water Is Wet

FFVII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi is eternally fielding questions from inquiring fans and press who are hungry to learn more about the upcoming third game, and sometimes those questions already have pretty clear answers—like one story that was making the rounds this week.

What they’re saying:

• At a fan event in Shanghai, Hamaguchi was asked if characters from the other FFVII titles will appear in Revelation

• …and naturally, he couldn’t truly confirm or deny particular examples, but he did reiterate that yes, side characters from other Compilation games will appear

• The Remake trilogy is “not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy VII that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core“

• Hamaguchi noted that people at events particularly ask him about Cissnei, of all the larger Compilation’s cast

What we thought:

• Did we even need to ask?

• There have already been Compilation characters used in the first two parts, especially Deepground in Remake Intergrade and Cissnei in Rebirth, so… in a way, the question was answered back in 2020/2021

• On one hand it’s surprising that Cissnei is brought up most often since she had a relatively smaller role; on the other, she’s a perfect opportunity to expand the FFVII lore, since Crisis Core underutilized her as a Turk and one of the last people still alive who spoke to Zack after Nibelheim

• Some of these characters seemed to be building up to bigger payoffs in the third and final game, like the potential to encounter more Deepground elements during the return to Midgar segment, or for Cissnei to play a role as Crisis Core elements come to light

  • Plus, Vincent hasn’t been involved too much until now, so some Dirge elements could be trickier to implement with him so far in the background

• To just simply abandon these plot threads in the third act would be crazy (right, Kingdom Hearts 3? You wouldn’t do that, would you?)

What’s next? What Hamaguchi may be avoiding acknowledging are certain characters who haven’t yet appeared, particularly Genesis and Angeal. These two bring some considerable baggage with them, though Square Enix did specifically remaster Crisis Core to make the story accessible to Remake players, so… we’ll have to wait and see what the future brings for them. (Hopefully not wear, tear, and rust.)

Around the Union

Did you know that before there were the Gullwings in FFX-2, you could count seagulls on the S.S. Winno in FFX? Or that there’s a science behind how talkative your team is during battle? This week we explore some of the weird secrets of Final Fantasy X! (And if you ever wanted to be a blitzball when you grew up, be sure to leave a comment or share with a friend!)

We’re so happy to announce that the Kickstarter campaign for our third book, The Defenders of the Crystal: An Unofficial Guide to Final Fantasy Jobs, has now closed… and with 2202 backers, the project is 2552% funded! Thank you to everyone who pledged or helped share the word!

And lastly, speaking of the chocobros, in this week’s Kupo Chronicle we look back to an interview with FFXV director Hajime Tabata (and Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada?) in the months before the game’s launch and learn what he thought was wrong with the state of Final Fantasy… and see if the idea bears weight.

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Looking the Part

In May 2016, shortly after the “Uncovered Final Fantasy XV” event where FFXV’s original release date was revealed, Japanese outlet 4gamer ran an unusual interview between the game’s director, Hajime Tabata, and (all people) Katsuhiro Harada, producer of Tekken. Harada had named Tabata as a creator he would be personally paying attention to in 2016, and 4gamer arranged the interview as a new feature where Harada would speak to various creators he respected.

A mutual peer who had worked on Tekken before joining FFXV had introduced them previously, and Harada said that Tabata had been expecting someone a little different:

Harada: If you’ve worked in this industry for a long time, no matter what kind of creator you are, when you meet [another dev] you can get a sense of what kind of “abilities” they have […] but what I felt when I talked to Tabata-san was... at least, that he wasn’t an FF guy (laughs). […] When you think of “the director of a FF game,” I think there’s a preconceived notion or image that they’re someone with a delicate and stylish sensibility. But I don’t see that in [Tabata]. […] If I had to say, I get the image that he’s going to make a really unconventional game. […] I think there are a lot of FF fans who feel the same way as me. "Where did this person come from, and how did he end up leading the development team for a monster title like FF?" And, "Is it really okay to entrust it to him?" Today, I came here to clarify that point, even though I know it's very rude of me. […]

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The response has been incredible again, so a huge thank you to everyone who has supported so far. But the campaign still is not over, however so…

Back: The Defenders of the Crystal on Kickstarter <3

Achievement Unlocked

As a thank you to everyone who has chosen to support the project, we are going to be giving away this stunning A5 Art Print by Guy-Pascal Vallez for free. You just have to make sure you back the project before the campaign officially concludes tomorrow.

This piece is a modified version of one that will feature towards the start of the book as a two-page spread, and it looks incredible!

If you want extras, however, then you can also include more as add-ons within your pledge.

Extra DEDICATION Editions / NARRATOR Still Available

Due to demand, we also opened five extra DEDICATION EDITIONs.

This will come with a personally inscribed book, and a dedication at the start!

For the Narrator Edition, will this is a little bit different! You’ll get invited to a read along with Darryl and the opportunity to attend an intimate Q&A session. Alongside this, you’ll also get a an A4 Holographic RED MAGE Art Print designed and leafed by Tholia Bentz, also signed by Darryl.

Act fast to ensure you don’t miss out on either! Back here: The Defenders of the Crystal on Kickstarter

What Happens After?

After the campaign ends, the Kickstarter will remain open and Late Pledges will be activated for 1-2 months before we then start to think more seriously about entering into production.

So, if you aren’t able to back before the Kickstarter ends there will still be opportunities either via Late Pledges, or the Pledge Manager phase.

Whether you choose to support the Kickstarter or not, however, your support of Final Fantasy Union in general is very much appreciated. We wouldn’t even be able to do this kind of project if there weren’t still people who enjoy our content in general, so thank you for everything.

Kind regards,

Darryl

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Further Revelation Roundup

The shockwave of Final Fantasy VII Revelation’s… revelation continues to ripple, now two weeks later. Let’s continue picking through the details left in director Naoki Hamaguchi’s wake, trickling in from various sources.

What’s going on:

• The subtitle is not a nod to the biblical Book of Revelation (as in, the big end of the world section), but rather a message to fans that this is the end of the line and all answers shall be revealed

• The colours in the logo were deliberately chosen to echo the Meteor symbol in the original game’s logo (where Rebirth and Remake went for darker hues)

• Costumes from Rebirth will remain available from the start of Revelation, and players will be able to pick their preferred skin while utilizing the benefits of different FITS jobs

  • Or in other words, there’s essentially a glamour option

• Alternate ringtones for Chadley can be unlocked by completing quests, so hopefully that’ll mitigate some of his annoyance

• Meanwhile the relationship mechanic from the previous games will not be included this time around, as its purpose was fulfilled by the end of Rebirth

• Speaking of purpose, Zack’s role will continue to increase, showing a different perspective and serving as a symbol of the multiple timelines at play

• The level cap will finally hit level 99 this time around

• They wanted to discourage players from focusing on only one specific character during battles, and think of everyone as protagonists, not just Cloud

• Postlaunch DLC is on the table, if there’s enough interest/demand from the fans—covering things that won’t be quite fully explored in the game or even branching into other spin-offs

• That being said, when asked specifically if Revelation will tie into Advent Children, Hamaguchi crossed some wires:

  • “I don’t believe we’ve publicly claimed or stated it’s going to be exactly that, so I’d like for players to play Revelation and see for themselves, what the conclusion of the journey holds, and see about that“

  • Compare to Yoshinori Kitase in 2023: “We are finally going to link up with Advent Children, that is going to be part of canon. 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“

What we thought:

• The “revelation” connection hadn’t occurred to me at first, though it’s ironic that the allusion wasn’t at least somewhat intentional, given one of Safer-Sephiroth’s moves in FFVII is Pale Horse, a non-elemental attack that inflicts Frog, Sadness, and Small and alludes to one of the most famous lines of the Book of Revelation: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him”

• Having the glamour option is a solid quality of life choice; can we extend it to the weapon system too?

  • I know I’m not the only one who can’t resist going back to the Buster Sword immediately after learning the ability from a new sword

• It makes sense that the relationship mechanic’s time is done, given the different changes to the party lineup through FFVII’s “disc 2” plot—and there’s really only one scene left to adapt that relied on it, the “under the Highwind” scene

  • Come to think of it, that scene’s going to cause some capital-D Discourse when it arrives, regardless of how they adapt it

• Zack’s role was going to be inherently larger this time regardless, given this stretch of the OG was where he was truly relevant (and where the legendary bonus scene that launched half the Compilation originated from), but it’s how they’re going to resolve that little side-story from Rebirth and its impact on the main Remake continuity that truly concerns me

• By the same token, the story of the OG will heavily and inherently influence people to explore using other leaders beside Cloud, but the team has room to truly lean into that opportunity

• Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children keep coming up in discussions about possible DLC—which is natural, given they’re sequels—but the real opportunity here is to lean into Vincent and Cid

  • Yuffie got to star in Intermission, somewhat alluding to her status as a secret character in the original, so why not give the other secret character his own turn too?

  • It’s unclear if the main story will get into Vincent’s backstory with Lucrecia—the OG didn’t need those details, and debatably the Remake trilogy doesn’t need them either, but if they don’t get into the main game, they’d be my top DLC request by far

  • Similarly, if any Rocket Town content doesn’t make the final cut, DLC could offer a chance to fix that oversight; it really depends on what makes it into Revelation’s massive story

  • Adapting AC or DC as DLC for Revelation seems tricky from a structural standpoint—they’d have to be beefy and somewhat standalone DLC chapters, comparable to Final Fantasy XVI’s season pass, in order to do them justice while fighting into the main game

• The elephant in the room is the “link to Advent Children” point

  • One running theory is that the Remake trilogy is actually a sequel to AC, coming after it through multiverse/multiple timeline shenanigans; if it proves to be true, then yeah, the movie won’t be altered or retconned

    • We could find out just how serious Sephiroth was about the whole “I’ll never be a memory” thing, as he could literally infect other universes with his presence

  • What Kitase said back in 2023 was essentially, “the Remakes will not retcon Advent Children,” as in, the events won’t outright contradict each other; despite the vastly different roads they’re taking to get there, the Remakes and AC are heading to the same point

  • That being said, the Remakes are so much more fleshed out than AC, with more characters and a bigger Midgar—AC was based on the skeletal framework of OG FFVII, and the Remakes put a lot of meat on those bones

  • It’s also possible that plans have changed since late 2023, or Hamaguchi forgot he was in the same interview with Kitase when that was said

What’s next? Knowing Hamaguchi’s busy media schedule, we could have further confirmation (or an outright contradiction of what we were told previously) within months from now.

Thundaga Round!

• In a surprising twist, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles got a decent upgrade this week, adding a New Game Plus mode and a host of small quality of life changes like charts for Zodiac compatibility, a cursor memory option, or my personal favourite, the option to turn the Ability Incantations to “always on”

• Nearly drowned out in the SGF shuffle last week, Final Fantasy X/X-2 is getting rereleased again, on July 23, this time as a Switch 2 edition—available digitally everywhere (with a physical version only in Japan) this edition will have an enhanced audio-visual experience over the original Switch version, plus quality of life additions from the PC version that have been missing from the console versions like the ability toggle random encounters, or turn on a high-speed mode

• Speaking of FFX, Squeenix has announced some further 25th anniversary festivities and merchandising for the game:

  • The anniversary has its own official logo, including new art by Nomura

  • Art books: “Eternal Spira,” an artbook compiling “all the artwork released to date” including original illustrations for the Kabuki play and the audio-drama Will; and “Final Fantasy X 25th Anniversary Memorial Album (HD Remastered Version),” a “reconstructed” version of the Memorial Album published in 2002

  • New albums: “Eternal Calm,” a 2-LP vinyl album featuring 20 curated tracks from the original background music (with download code); “Compilation Album—In Zanarkand,” featuring 15 different arrangements of the iconic theme from previous releases; and “Final Fantasy X House Grooves,” featuring 12 tracks rearranged in house style

  • New chibi plushes, TCG accessories, knick-knacks, bags, and other assorted merch

  • Square Enix is collecting fan art submissions for some kind of project

  • Pop-up shops in Japan will carry these items and more, plus an additional pop-up shop in collaboration with the department store Daimaru Matsuzakaya with exclusive apparel

  • Tidus stars in key art for the next FFTCG set, Eternal Bliss, due out in August—while we know FFX is about to get a new representative in Duellum next month too…

• Speaking of Dissidia Duellum, a collaboration with Final Fantasy Resonance will begin on June 23—similar to the Record Keeper event, this will introduce four exclusive abilities and cosmetics inspired by the game, available as free rewards for a limited time (likely followed the next week by the FFX event)

• At a Distant Worlds performance at Carnegie Hall in New York last weekend, the maestro himself, Nobuo Uematsu, joined the choir to sing “One-Winged Angel”—not the first time he’s done so over the years, but who can’t help but smile seeing how happy he is between the “Sephiroth” chants?

Around the Union

This week we explore “7 Final Fantasy Jobs Even Hardcore Fans Probably Forgot Existed!” Everyone recognizes a Black or White Mage, but there are some fringe jobs in the series’ history that have fallen to the wayside, so join us as we cast a light on these dead-raising, air-slashing outcasts.

(And if you want to learn more about all the Jobs in Final Fantasy, there are 5 days left in the Kickstarter campaign for our third book, Defenders of the Crystal: An Unofficial Guide to Final Fantasy Jobs!)

It’s also time for a crawl, as we delve into the “Hardest Dungeon In Every Mainline Final Fantasy!” These are the ultimate grinds in their respective games, but how many have you conquered? Let us know in the comments!

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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Remake, Rebirth… Revelation

Many speculated, many doubted… but last week’s Summer Game Fest showcase ended with the official grand reveal of the third game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. There was a lot shown at the event, and even more clarified in the days that followed:

What’s going on:

• Part three is officially titled Final Fantasy VII Revelation, and will release in “early 2027” simultaneously on PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch 2, and XBOX Series

• The reveal trailer, and a longer gameplay breakdown, showed us a LOT:

  • Meteor hanging in the sky

  • The Weapons awaken, including most from the OG and one new design

  • Our heroes at the Northern Cave, the Mideel archipelago, and Wutai

  • The Highwind—and our heroes parachuting off its deck

  • Vincent and Cid in battle, finally

  • A brand new system called FITS (Function-Integrated Tactical Suitwear) that imparts some Job-based gameplay elements, allowing characters to specialize in certain types of abilities (like Warrior or Black Mage)

  • That new Weapon attacking Mideel

  • Sephiroth holding a surprising materia

• Further details adding during a flurry of Hamaguchi interviews at various places:

  • Sephiroth has been recast in the English version; due to scheduling conflicts Tyler Hoechlin was not able to return, and Travis Willingham (Critical Role, Fullmetal Alchemist, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, various Marvel productions as Thor) has taken up the mantle

    • And yes, he has played Superman, so the “Supes to Sephiroth” voice actor streak continues

  • Vincent’s playstyle has two modes: ranged attacks with his signature gunslinging, and melee fighting in his Galian Beast form, and unlike the OG this will be toggled at-will, not just a limit technique

  • Cid excels at aerial combat, meanwhile, and supporting the party

  • Some story beats will be rearranged and reconfigured for a better impact—for example snowboarding will be available as a minigame at the Gold Saucer, and will appear as “a pleasant surprise” in the story

  • The Highwind will be accessible after about 4-6 hours, and will function as both a hub for the player and a mode of transport

    • The interior can be explored, where you’ll find your teammates and Chadley (instead of having him turn up everywhere you go)

    • Parachuting was incorporated because actually parking the Highwind anywhere would’ve been difficult

  • With the Highwind, about half of the world map is immediately available, and the rest opens as you progress through the story

    • Though the main story must be approached in order, you can tackle side quests more freely

    • Virtually every region from Rebirth is included, but things have changed in certain parts of the world, so they won’t be exactly the same

  • Meanwhile you’ll only have Piko as your sole chocobo mount, instead of a different-coloured chocobo in each region; he’ll adapt the different abilities

  • The main story will NOT have multiple endings; however, the way you conclude side quests will change the outcome of those storylines themselves

  • Once again you’ll need to use Chapter Select to experience everything, as it’s not possible in one playthrough

  • There will be more postgame content, including optional Weapons and Knights of the Round, to once again offer bigger challenges than the final boss

  • Having save data from previous games on the same system will unlock summons again: Chocobo & Moogle for Remake, Phoenix from Rebirth

  • Queen’s Blood is being tweaked, will have its own area in the Gold Saucer, and Red XIII will be the “protagonist” for its storyline this time

  • In the FITS, each character has four potential jobs, all available at the start

  • The Scarlet slapping scene, the underwater sequence, Rocket Town, and Knights of the Round are included, but the Bone Village minigame is cut

  • Minigames will have Easy and Normal difficulties (or an option to skip them), but there are further rewards to earn from them

• The current build of the game is fully playable from start to finish, and they’re now deep in the polishing stage of development; as the PS5 and PC versions are wrapped up, the Switch 2 version (and presumably also the Xbox Series S) will get further optimization, so the game will likely be finished for some platforms some time before the actual launch day

What we thought:

• To sum up my initial thoughts on everything we’ve seen and heard so far, Revelation is upping the game from both the OG and the rest of this trilogy

  • Take disc 2, put it through the Rebirth template, and expand it further

• It sounds like Vincent and Cid will complement Yuffie and Red XIII, specifically

• The Highwind’s functions sound very similar to the OG, where you could explore the ship, rest and shop, and talk to your teammates

  • This seems an ideal solution for giving players the iconic airship, exploring the vast world, and having a “hub” space for the party

  • Hopefully the trainee pilot is included too!

• As for the one firm ending bit: this was the case in the OG

  • How you handled certain things in disc 2 (especially the Huge Materia missions) impacted how people in the associated regions spoke to you (especially in Corel), but these variables did not change the final outcome

• It’s a shame that we won’t get to hear more of Hoechlin’s Sephiroth, especially with the sheer gold content that remains for the character at this point in the story, but Willingham is an unexpected and fitting choice to replace him

  • He’s only got one line of dialogue in the trailer, but I’m impressed

• If we had to have something from the original cut out, I’m glad it’s the Bone Village minigame—it felt a little wishy-washy to me before, and at its point in the story, it throws things over narratively, so it’s a very fair sacrifice to make

• I didn’t expect to see the reveal at SGF, but I’m personally very happy with just about everything we’ve seen so far—assuming they aren’t writing cheques they can’t cash, it’s incredible that they’ve achieved so much in a relatively short time

What’s next? There’s been an absolute whirlwind of tiny confirmations since the trailer debuted only one week ago, so we’ll continue catching the stray bits (and new ones) next issue. In the meantime, FFVII Rebirth was off to a great start in Japan on Switch 2, selling 30,000 physical units in its first week—perhaps due to new game reveal hype?

Tifa Takes It To The Street

Hamaguchi was on stage just before the big reveal to help announce that Tifa will be joining the roster of Street Fighter 6 in its Year 4 season pass. While only a brief animated trailer was shown so far, materia will be “reimagined as a new gameplay system” as part of her skillset, while they’ve ”adapted [another] iconic Final Fantasy element to the battle experience.”

Tifa will be added to Street Fighter 6 in “early 2027” as the third of four characters in the season pass.

Brave Exvius Still Resonates

And as if that wasn’t enough, Square Enix debuted another new FF during the Nintendo Direct on Tuesday: Final Fantasy Resonance. While it’s the first HD-2D FF game, it may also look a little familiar…

What’s going on:

• A rose by any other name is just as brave: Final Fantasy Resonance is based on the first “season” of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

  • Therefore it adapts the story of Rain, Lasswell, and Fina into a new form, using the company’s signature HD-2D style to offer a new saga involving crystals

• Resonance arrives on all main platforms on October 22, 2026

• Already the marketing campaign is pushing the fact that this is the first Final Fantasy in HD-2D, asking “what if Final Fantasy had continued to push the limits of pixel art?”

• It’s also the first brand-new turn-based game FF has seen for some time (though not quite as long as some are claiming)

• The Visions system returns, allowing players to summon “echoes of beloved characters” and utilizing the beautiful CG animation sequences from the mobile game

• It appears FFBE co-developer Gumi is not involved in the project, which may help explain the name change

• Resonance producer Keisuke Nakashima shared that he wrote the first proposal for the project in 2020, well before its end-of-service in 2025, but the game itself was developed in a “much shorter” period—it didn’t take 6 full years

• (View the trailer here)

What we thought:

• Dropping the BE name for something as little more universal makes practical sense, while also slightly risking that they’ll alienate actual BE players

• While I’ve been championing the prospect of converting mobile games to offline forms, I didn’t expect to see it happen anytime soon, nor to lead with Brave Exvius

• Not only was Brave Exvius still online when they first conceived of this game’s idea, all the other mobile games were too (with Mobius ending in June that year)

• The HD-2D effect here looks every bit as beautiful as other Square Enix titles, like a step-up from the Dragon Quest 1-3 remakes and elevating the presentation of Octopath Traveler

  • Given the difference in scale between FF and OT, this is a natural evolution; Octopath has a more grounded tone, while FF can be bombastic and broad

• I think we’re going to see a lot of people calling for two things, if this does well: more adaptations of the lost mobile games, and HD-2D remakes of FF1-6

• I will say, though: as someone who couldn’t get into Brave Exvius, this one immediately has my attention—Final Fantasy deserves to play in the HD-2D dimension too

• This could have some broad appeal, too, with its classic inspirations, modernized presentation, and throwbacks to other heroes in the Visions system

What’s next? If this does well, we could see not only the other mobile games get the same treatment, but potentially several sequels adapting the other parts of BE stories—potentially Final Fantasy Resonance II or III are in our collective futures?

Around the Union

We got out the magnifying glasses so you don’t have to, combing through the new trailers for a full frame-by-frame analysis of Final Fantasy VII Revelation’s big reveal. Join us to see everything we found, and if you’re feeling the hype, be sure to share with a friend and let us know what you’re most excited about in the comments!

Seven may get all the attention most of the time, but this week we also explored “The Curious Case of Final Fantasy VIII Remake!” (And no, we don’t mean the Remastered edition.) Let us know what you think about these prospects in the comments!

And lastly, in this week’s Kupo Chronicle, we consider the pros and cons of titles and continuity, and how they may be holding Final Fantasy back instead of making new games more inviting to brand new players. (Wark #261, Kupo #61; a satisfying coincidence, don’t you think?)

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

Join the discussion on our Discord!

Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |

Until next time, kupo!

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One burden that comes with making a long-running game series is that eventually, you need new players. Old players only stay invested so long and may drop out of games altogether for any number of reasons. You’ve got to be conscientious of how new cohorts of players will approach your game, and that starts with the title. It needs to be engaging and give them something to latch on to. If it seems inaccessible, they simply won’t try to access it, and will move along.

That applies to the content too. Someone coming in fresh can’t be dragged along by their ankles over fields of established lore and required knowledge. Making a new installment in an old series like Final Fantasy is a precarious balancing act, weighing new, modern design against years of nostalgia, worldbuilding, and expectations. And well, over the back half of its history so far, Final Fantasy has lost its way (and at times, its self-esteem or convictions) in both departments, running the risk of alienating players new and old.

Numbers & Nomenclature

Last month, Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy producer Naoya Matsumoto and Tetsuya Nomura spoke about the game’s origins with Famitsu, and in the process, they confirmed the new game has only the slightest connection to its predecessors’ stories:

Nomura: In terms of setting, it naturally follows the flow of the first Dissidia game, incorporating the structure of a "war of the gods." So, it's not that there's no connection.

Matsumoto: However, at this point, we’re deliberately not emphasizing that continuity too strongly. For example, [Dissidia] NT takes place in the timeline after the 13th cycle on the PSP, but if we were to continue from there… it would end up being something that “you wouldn’t understand unless you’ve played the previous games.” This time, to make it more accessible to new players, we’ve toned down the direct connections to previous titles. So, while this game is part of the Dissidia series, the characters don’t retain memories of past Dissidia games.

Earlier in the interview, they discussed how it took a while to debate names and settle on “Duellum,” which they later realized abbreviates the same as Dissidia Duodecim—they wanted something which would convey that combat is at the forefront, as opposed to Opera Omnia, which was more story-driven.

Typical game dev (and Nomura) speak to an extent, right? But at the same time, it raised the specter of a problem that has been plaguing Final Fantasy for some time: naming conventions.

Back in 2023, in the lead-up to Final Fantasy XVI, producer Naoki Yoshida told GQ that there have been discussions at Square Enix about getting rid of the numbers on future mainline titles:

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Reborn Summer

It’s a double whammy of expectations for Final Fantasy fans this week: June is here already somehow, bringing the ghost of E3 Summer Game Fest and the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on remaining consoles. All eyes are peeled for some kind of news…

What’s going on:

• Square Enix was a no-show for Sony’s State of Play, showing neither the FFVII Remake part 3 reveal nor anything else

• This puts the “pressure” on the main Summer Games Fest showcase as the next likely place to see part 3, or anything else from Squeenix

• …or failing that, the Nintendo Direct that usually gets announced in the wake of SGF

• FFVII Rebirth has now launched on Switch 2 and the Xbox Series, alongside updates for the PS5 and PC versions to bring them in line with new Streamlined Progression and Head Start features in the new ports

• Director Naoki Hamaguchi has, of course, been making the rounds, reiterating some of the more prevalent points from the ports’ entire media tour, but for a few highlights from Famitsu and Nintenderos…

What they’re saying:

• One main, guiding principle they’ve identified is that “‘users want to experience the excitement at the same time,’” hence the shift to multiplatform (well, that and the fact that corporate mandated it)

• In developing the ports, his team has come to believe “today's game fans are no longer ‘divided by platform’ as much as [the industry] thought […] The idea that ‘Switch users are casual’ and ‘PC users are hardcore’ might be becoming a bit outdated“

• “We've structured the narrative so that the central question—whether the protagonists' fates will truly change—remains unresolved until the finale. However, this doesn’t mean ‘everything can change.’ From the beginning, we decided that we couldn’t compromise the emotional core of the characters (the reason FFVII has been loved for so many years) or the fundamental themes the story presents to players“

  • “We deliberately chose to make change and preservation coexist. While introducing changes to shake up expectations, we protect the core that must remain until the very end“

• Zack’s inclusion was part of the premise from “a fairly early stage,” given his popularity from the spin-offs; “we’ve taken the approach of allowing players to intuitively perceive [significant changes from the original] through [him]”

• Regarding the debates over fan speculation and theorizing, Hamaguchi found “fans were delving into and debating the premises and underlying meanings of the story, much more than I had anticipated“… though “The moment we start [responding to and evaluating those theories], the story ceases to be an experience to be received and becomes a search for the ‘right answer’“

  • “The fact that this has generated so much discussion among fans is, to me, a clear sign that this design is working as we intended“

What we thought:

• Now that the remake trilogy is no longer technically exclusive, Square Enix wasn’t obligated to use Sony’s stage to debut the next game, but it would have made sense if they had

• The elephant the entire games industry is dancing around is in full effect here: Grand Theft Auto 6

  • Companies are scared to release near it (in November of this year, if Rockstar are to be believed), and with a very real chance that a new trailer could be shown at the main SGF showcase, publishers may be loathe to have their trailer compete with whatever Rockstar could show

  • After all, Geoff Keighley’s shows charge a pretty penny for the privilege of screen time, so why spend that much if GTA6 might hog all the oxygen? The price is already prohibitive as-is

• All the talk is about FFVIIR part 3, but there are plenty of other interesting projects Square Enix could be cooking up as well, from other remasters to original games (and I’d still love to see XVI hit the Switch 2 with the next Nintendo Direct)

• And at the same time, no news isn’t necessarily bad news either! Aside from the cost of paying into a SGF show, and the prospect of competing with the (commercially) biggest game of the decade, there’s nothing wrong with SE and Final Fantasy getting out of the way if there isn’t something ready to show

• The assertions that “fans want to experience the new game at the same time” and “the console wars aren’t as big as people think anymore” feel contradictory in a way; Hamaguchi surely sees plenty of evidence in his Twitter mentions to disprove the latter

What’s next? The main Summer Games Fest showcase is later today (Friday), which is the most likely place we’ll see part 3 if it’s being revealed at all. Consider our fingers crossed for that, or something else intriguing from Square Enix.

Review: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Switch 2)

The next phase of the FFVII Remake trilogy’s staggered releases has arrived this week, bringing FFVII Rebirth to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S. After hands-on time with the Nintendo version, here’s our verdict…

Pros:

• Everything that made the original game a GOTY contender remains

• The Switch 2’s form factor is a great fit for this game, allowing you to take the open world or minigame segments on the go, etc.

• Cheaper price tag than at launch

• Physical copy comes with a slick MTG promo card featuring Nomura’s artwork of Zack (taken from the cover of the game’s Ultimania)

Cons:

• Considerable draw-in at times for environmental details such as plants and other noninteractive elements, or textures (usually less essential textures, sometimes more important ones, like during the outfit change screen in Costa Del Sol)

• Notably less visual fidelity, detail in hair, fur, water, etc

• Something this demanding will considerably drain the system’s battery in handheld mode

• Physical copy is a Game Key Card (meaning the physical card unlocks the game download, and is required for play [like any other physical cartridge])

What we thought:

• To sum this port up in a word, it’s “compromise”

• FFVII Rebirth was a technical marvel on the PS5, so to diminish it stings a little… but it’s a small hit for a massive game

• In the grand scheme of things, this should be a pretty fair compromise for most players; if you’re super invested in high fidelity graphics and the best framerates, this isn’t the version for you (and realistically, you’ve probably already tried Rebirth on PS5, PS5 Pro, or PC by now, if that’s the case)

• If you can look past some temporary visual blemishes, the game runs really well otherwise—no slowdown, and the load times are pretty good (not SSD-fast, but certainly nowhere near “Animal Crossing on Switch 1” load times)

• It’s been two years since the original launch (holy crap, really?!) so this was a great chance to re-experience the story before the advertising campaign for part 3 can begin

  • Getting a refresher on events was welcome, especially when I noticed little hints for things that could arise in the finale—especially everything to do with Cloud’s big, pending epiphanies

What’s next? While this particular experiment has worked out pretty well, I can’t say I’ve been dissuaded—it still seems more prudent to focus on the core game experience itself and polish it on one platform and then port it, instead of juggling 3-4 platforms at a time. I’ll definitely be playing part 3, when the time comes, on the PS5… but at least, if Rebirth on Switch 2 is any indication, there won’t be a staggering difference between the platforms when it comes to game content.

(And really, if we can have a 2-year-old PS5 game running this well on the Switch 2—especially if modern-day Konami is releasing Metal Gear Solid 4 from the infamous PS3 Prison later this year—there should be no real technical reason we can’t have the rest of the series on here as well…)

Around the Union

Fortuitously timed with the pending release of Square Enix’s new original game, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, this week we delve into “The Complete Evolution of Red Mages!” Jacks of all trades yet masters of none, the Red Mages are the third part of the series’ Iconic Mages Trio (and a personal favourite)—learn about their history here and let us know which version is your favourite!

We also offer a renewed “redux” version of the “7 Overpowered Jobs That Broke Final Fantasy!” A few visual flaws with the original have been corrected, and a couple of new goodies added as a bonus!

Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!

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Until next time, kupo!

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