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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!

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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Stranger of Dissidia

With Sephiroth added in this week’s update, Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is shifting gears into a new era, but first, Famitsu spoke to producer Naoya Matsumoto, planner Yuki Mizuno, and creative producer Tetsuya Nomura about the project’s unlikely origins (or should I say, the stranger project it could have become).

What they’re saying:

• Mizuno’s bio on the article highlights that he’s been involved with Dissidia since working on debugging for Duodecim, and has been involved in the Arcade game and Opera Omnia

  • As planner, he describes himself as a jack-of-all-trades, working closely with creators and co-developer NHN PlayArt to supervise the creation of concept art, skill illustrations, character-specific details, and so on

• It was Matsumoto who found the seed that would take root as Duellum—desiring to create a competitive game for smartphones, he realized there were few “casual competitive games optimized for smartphones,” and in workshopping ideas, the notion of using an existing Square Enix IP arose

• Matsumoto initially floated Nomura the idea of a competitive action game based on Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, of all things, but Nomura felt that title was too specific and constrained… and suggested Dissidia instead

• The exact tone of the gameplay was a subject of great debate, considering elements like dodge mechanics to the speed at which players move across the maps, but Matsumoto wanted to ensure players who aren’t great at action games could still win

  • Mizuno believes they reached a point where it’s possible to win “through strategic ingenuity” instead of pure action game instincts

• The 3-on-3 format and the idea of fighting bosses were incorporated from a very early point, but it was NHN PlayArt who proposed melding the two into the PvEvP format we now know

  • Initially, they tested a version where players couldn’t interact with other in battle, but quickly realized this worked against the game format

  • The Brave system was also very different at one point, allowing players to activate Burst at 3000 or 5000 Bravery instead of just 9999, and the more Bravery when activated, the more damage dealt—but this was deemed too complex for a smartphone game, and Mizuno knew Dissidia fans wouldn’t abide the loss of a defining mechanic like that

  • MP was also incorporated for a while, but didn’t survive the experimental phase, as it was overly complicated

• In terms of the Dissidia series’ continuity, NT comes after the PSP games, and technically Duellum comes after that… but they didn’t want players feeling they couldn’t follow Duellum without playing older (and largely inaccessible) games

  • Mizuno specifically adds “Duellum is a sibling to the Dissidia series, but the characters don’t necessarily retain memories of past Dissidia games”

• The main scenario was written by Mimei Tsutamachi, a freelance writer who previously worked on Opera Omnia and NT, as well as NieR Re[in]carnation

• Again, they knew the story couldn’t be abandoned in a Dissidia game, but didn’t want to settle for the same visual novel-style approach used by so many mobile games, after the richer cutscenes of the PSP games

  • The chat scenes were devised to fill in the gaps and show more character interactions, while still avoiding that familiar mobile presentation style, and leaning into the modern world setting—they’re easier to produce and don’t need voice acting

  • The success of Opera Omnia’s story, and the failure of NT’s, helped convince them that story (and the interactions between characters from across the series) needed to be a priority

• Featuring Clive is part of Dissidia’s long-standing tradition of featuring the hero from a brand new entry—just like Lightning in Duodecim and Noctis in NT (but they also had to include him early to have all 16 main games represented)

• As a smartphone game, they can’t implement an additional summon system that would allow players to call a summon, as in previous games

• The initial release schedule for new characters was accelerated to commemorate the game’s launch; Matsumoto would like to add characters each month, but they have to ensure the balance of competitive play is maintained whenever a new character is added, and they take time to fully bring to life in-game

  • Balancing gets increasingly harder every time a new character is added

  • NHN PlayArt has the responsibility when it comes to balance adjustments, not Square Enix

• If the notion of “ranked play” can sound daunting, they intend it to mean “playing against players of the same rough rank”

• Nomura: “Quite a while ago, I was playing an online game that wasn't related to Final Fantasy, and I asked other players, ‘what kind of games do you usually play?" At that time, no one mentioned Final Fantasy. When I asked [about that], everyone said, ‘It's too difficult’”

• Meanwhile, a livestream was held last Saturday detailing many of the changes coming over the next few months, and it seems we’ll get a FFX hero in June, a FFVI hero in July, and a FFV hero in August

What we thought:

• Mizuno is quite possibly one of the biggest potential champions for the Dissidia subseries at Square Enix right now, with his experience

  • A hypothetical remaster of Dissidia Duodecim (or even an offline revival of Opera Omnia and its sprawling story) would need someone inside the company to spearhead the initiative, not just fans clamouring from the outside

• As odd as Duellum has seemed to a lot of people since its announcement, it’s pretty clear that… it could’ve been a lot odder if it had thrown out conventions like Bravery or added MP to the Dissidia equation

  • I didn’t really appreciate this detail until this interview, but having the same sort of “talking heads” cutscenes as many other mobile games would’ve been quite detrimental to the overall tone; even Opera Omnia incorporated full cutscenes with its chibified character models

  • Experimentation is good, and it does seem like they’ve landed at a pretty unique final product

• A Stranger of Paradise spinoff, though?

  • We’re still left to doubt that Jack Garland will ever see any kind of proper sequel or follow-up, so it’s surprising that someone even threw out the idea of a spinoff of a spinoff (and was actually being serious about it)

  • Again, as hard as it’s been for Squeenix to sell people on Duellum, a mobile Stranger of Paradise could have been actually harmful to the brand PR—regardless of its actual merits, Stranger became a running gag in many corners of the internet (especially the more pessimistic corners), and a mobile spinoff never would’ve survived the “end of service in a month” jokes

• Several points in the interview, especially Nomura’s anecdote, raise a lot of old debates about the nature of Final Fantasy games and their relationship with difficulty levels

  • It’s one thing to make big, conscientious moves to keep Duellum easier to learn and master for mobile players, but it’s also possible to take that too far; smartphones have stricter limits, yes, but it seems they could risk dumbing things down to a detrimental degree

  • To dismiss the whole series as “too difficult” is a big take—Final Fantasy has never really had the reputation of being super hardcore, and can’t hold a candle to more popular punishers today like Elden Ring and Hollow Knight

  • Meanwhile, it seems the company’s concerns over the titles will never go away

  • Sure, don’t discourage newcomers by linking the new game to some older titles, but do go ahead and call your game Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy, which sounds perfectly normal

  • And hey, if you don’t want potential newcomers to feel like they’re missing out… you could always just remaster Duodecim… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What’s next? Mizuno closed the interview with the promise that “many more FF characters will be joining the fray in the future”—and hopes that those who are on the fence will give Duellum a shot, “come meet the characters,” and “relive the days you spent running and fighting alongside them in their original games [or previous Dissidia titles].“

Meanwhile, Jack Garland would be great to see in Duellum, especially with this bit of deep lore now public… but judging by new conversations added to the game’s chat messages this week, it seems the classic “stalwart” Garland may be making his presence known soon…

Review: Vivi & Grandpa’s Memories For The Sky

A long-awaited new book has finally been localized in English, featuring everyone’s favourite Black Mage, Final Fantasy IX’s Vivi—but what’s it all about?

What is it:

• A picture book written by Kazuhiko Aoki (FFIX event designer) and illustrated by Toshiyuki Itahana (FFIX character designer), originally released in commemoration of FFIX’s 25th anniversary

• The book is essentially Vivi’s prelude to FFIX—the story of where he came from (mostly), his time with his “Grandpa” Quan, and the start of his journey to Alexandria for the start of the game

• Narration passes between Vivi and Quan, taking a slightly philosophical turn and reflecting on the nature of life and legacy briefly

• Along the way the origin of Vivi’s name is revealed, and there’s a light retconning of how he came by his fake ticket to I Want To Be Your Canary

What we thought:

• Aoki and Itahana collaborated on a similar picture book, Chocobo and the Airship, so I was excited to see them team up again—Chocobo was a hit with my youngest a few years back

• This one’s a little bit more for the grown-ups, actually; the story is fine on its own, but you’ve really got to be familiar with FFIX to appreciate it

  • I read it to my kids, who have seen parts of Vivi and Quina in FFIX, and they were neither bored nor really feeling it

  • That being said, the bits about life and memory can resonate regardless

• Aoki latched on to one detail about this story that was originally given in FFIX, that Quan stopped eating toward the end of his life, having learned “art of fulfillment without eating food,” which is a very philosophical concept that will probably fly right over kids’ heads…

• …but also, one illustration heavily implies that Quan may have been undone by one of his own culinary experiments, involving a sushi ball and a literal cannon?

  • In the game Vivi only claims that Quan passed away without going into anything more specific, which I always took as a natural passing (or starving from his “imaginary eating” experiments), so this was quite a surprise

• The price tag is a little steep for the content (£17, $18 USD, $24 CAD)

• That being said, there’s a lot to enjoy here for fans of FFIX (and especially Vivi)

What’s next? If that FFIX cartoon ever sees the light of day, Vivi & Grandpa’s Memories for the Sky could be a nice way to enhance the story of Vivi’s descendants. In the meantime, though, I’d still recommend Chocobo and the Airship for young kids instead—there’s more of an actual story, with even more cute artwork and a thrilling tale.

Around the Union

The big day has come and our third Kickstarter book campaign is now live! And not only that, it’s well over 1000% funded already! The Defenders of the Crystal covers over 80 jobs across the sixteen mainline Final Fantasy games, detailing their in-game lore, their gameplay functions, their real-world inspirations, and the way they’ve evolved over time. The book also features exquisite original art commissioned from the talented artists in the Final Fantasy community, who put their own spins on their favourite classes.

You can pledge now on Kickstarter to receive The Defenders of the Crystal and help us bring it to life, and if you missed either of our previous books (or want to buy a copy for a friend perhaps), you can also add those on!

In the meantime, this week we examine “7 Overpowered Weapons That Broke Final Fantasy Games!” while over at Datalog, we outline even more hidden RPG gems in “7 Incredible SNES JRPGs You Probably Haven’t Played (Part 2)!”

And lastly, but not least, in this week’s Kupo Chronicle we explore the trajectories of two long-running Final Fantasy games… and how they’re still chugging and reinventing themselves while a more recent online game is abruptly burning out.

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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In last week’s gaming industry news, we saw two stories about games from very different eras and genres, which contrasted each other in a unique one. One game is old and mostly-retired, yet still maintaining relevance; the other game is a third as old, still in active development, and as we learned last week, about to be abruptly retired. The former game also has a younger relative, of an age between the two, who climbed out of the ashes of a disastrous launch to become the top of its genre, and now faces the need to reinvent itself.

I’m referring, of course, to Final Fantasy XI, Destiny 2, and Final Fantasy XIV. Despite being intended to become a sort of living museum of itself, FFXI has remained relevant enough that its dev team is considering adding new content to a early-PS2-era game. At the same time, Destiny 2 (a mid-PS4-era game1) is about to be put into the same kind of living stasis (or Maintenance Mode, if you will) next week—unceremoniously cancelling two planned expansions, almost certainly leading to a devastating swath of layoffs at developer Bungie, and leaving no current plans to continue the IP. And while these two games dance around the metaphorical drain, FFXIV still stands (mostly) tall, 16 years after its initial launch and 13 since the unprecedented 180°-turn that saved it from disaster; though it’s still one of the biggest MMORPGs out there, it stands upon a precipice of its own right now.

So how does a long-running game stave off death, reinvent itself, or earn a brutal coup-de-grace from its own developer? Let’s examine these outlying examplars of the online genre to see what lucky aces Final Fantasy has up its sleeves.

Diverging Paths Through History

To fully discuss the history of any one of these games could be a whole issue in itself, but we must set the table with a brief summary of their epic development sagas.

Final Fantasy XI was first announced at the Square Millennium Event in January 2000 and released on PS2 in May 2002; expansions followed in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2013, peppered with extra scenarios in between. The Rhapsodies of Vana’diel storyline effectively served as the last main content in 2015. Since April 2016, it’s lived in a retirement state, with minor updates to address bugs and stability…

Read more

Just one day after launching, The Defenders of the Crystal has already smashed through its Kickstarter funding goal and is now over 700% funded.

We cannot thank you enough <3

Honestly, the response has been unbelievable, as we’ve surpass what we even achieved with our previous book, The Guardians of the Crystal, and we are so grateful to everyone who has backed the campaign, shared it, or helping to spread the word in other ways.

For those of you who have no idea what this is all about though, after the success of our two previous books, we’re back with The Defenders of the Crystal, which is all about Final Fantasy jobs. There are three cover variants (see below) and it will feature over eighty jobs from across the mainline numbered Final Fantasy games, and their sequels and re-releases. Jesse Cox is also lending his voice, as he’ll be writing a foreword about his own personal experience with Final Fantasy jobs over the years!

Even though the book is already funded, backing during the campaign is still the best way to secure your copy. So, choose your preferred edition, and let’s see how far we can go!

Which cover will you pick? Back The Defenders of the Crystal on Kickstarter

Limited Tiers Running Out

As with the two previous campaigns we have some special tiers for superfans, but they are running out.

• DEDICATION [All Gone]

• CREATOR [5 out of 10 claimed]

• NARRATOR [3 out of 10 claimed]

• PRODUCER [0 out of 1 claimed]

Each offers a unique way to further experience the book, with the NARRATOR TIER allowing you to join Darryl for an exclusive read-through of the book before it’s sent out to everyone else… and the PRODUCER TIER allowing you to work with Darryl to produce a video that’ll go live on the Final Fantasy Union YouTube channel.

Thinking about a limited tier? Back ASAP: The Defenders of the Crystal on Kickstarter

Future Plans

With so much time still left to run on the campaign, there’s plenty of time for surprises.

We’ve just put live the MAGE TIER, which allows you to purchase all three book cover variants, alongside five mage-themed art prints that will feature inside the book itself.

We’ve also introduced some new add-ons, so if you missed out on the commemorative coins from the previous two campaigns, they’re now available. Likewise, if you’d like to back Defenders, but just want a Digital PDF of the two previous books, we’ve got you covered there too!

This is just the beginning though, so if you’d like to keep an eye on what happens throughout the campaign, make sure you follow the project, even if you aren’t ready to back yet!

We are so privileged to have such an incredible and supportive community, and it’s what drives us to keep on trying to deliver top-tier Final Fantasy content, irrespective of the format. So, thank you again for helping to make this all so special.

~Darryl

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Inconceivably Further Vana’diel Adventures

Final Fantasy XI’s 24th birthday was last weekend, and the series’ first MMORPG got more than just a token cake and card. In an interview with Famitsu (via Automaton), director and producer Yoji Fujito reflected on the game’s ongoing popularity and, despite its semi-retirement, its possible future.

What they’re saying:

• The team expected the Final Fantasy XIV collaboration (the Echoes of Vana’diel raid series) and other incentives to bring some new and returning players to FFXI, but they didn’t expect many of those people to stay

  • “Overall, the player count remained stable at a high level, and we never saw the kind of sharp decline we had anticipated, so honestly, the outcome exceeded our expectations and came as a surprise”

  • “We feel like we've reached a segment of the audience we hadn't reached before. And I think the key point was that there were many streamers among those we reached. In today's world, online video streaming has tremendous advertising power, and I think that Warriors of Light who play FFXIV wondered, ‘what kind of game is FFXI?’ through Echoes of Vana’diel, watched FFXI video streams, and then thought, ‘I'll try it myself’”

  • They also weren’t expecting to be forced to stop accepting new players on their three largest servers, but Asura, Bahamut, and Odin started to bust at the seams, threatening the overall stability

  • Releasing the Mog Bananza Weapons near the second Echoes of Vana’diel also helped whip players into a frenzy

• If nothing else, FFXI will remain running for the foreseeable future; Fujito and co. would love to explore bigger possibilities, up to and including story expansions, but pulling off something that grand is tough under their current conditions

  • Older, limited hardware and a skeleton crew heavily restrict their ambitions

  • Notably, Fujito mentions that the staff who handled story content like the recent “Voracious Resurgence” are occupied with other work at Square Enix

  • That being said, some technical work is being done on the backend which would enable them

• In the meantime, their priority in 2026 remains making the game easier to play alone or in small groups (which isn’t hurting that player retention rate either) with things like the Trust system

What we thought:

• The news yesterday about Destiny 2 being retired really recontextualizes this story, since FFXI has been coasting in semi-retirement for some time now—not only surviving, but still bringing people in to some degree

• At this point it truly seems like it’s not a matter of “will FFXI get new content,” it’s a matter of “when will FFXI get new content”

  • It would be a shame if nothing new came out of this late resurgence in popularity and the consequent investment in futureproofing the game’s literal, server-side hardware

  • Future content would likely resemble the Rhapsodies of Vana’diel or Voracious Resurgence story series from a couple years ago, rather than a full-blown expansion like Rise of the Zilart or Seekers of Adoulin… but who knows?

• It’s not mentioned directly, and FFXI had only a bare minimum representation, but it may be safe to assume the MTG crossover also played a small part in this phenomenon… but nothing on the impact of FFXIV

• Given that it can be daunting to even get into the game in its current iteration—between the subscription fee and the infamously archaic tutorial—it’s truly impressive that a 24-year old MMORPG is attracting and then retaining such numbers of new players

• If there was some kind of cross-promotion between XIV and XI, where having one subscription fee could include access to both MMORPGs, the numbers would’ve climbed considerably higher from the Echoes of Vana crossover…

  • It’s hard to justify paying for two MMORPGs when one alone can be so time consuming

  • That being said, FFXI’s subscription fees no doubt allow them to keep the game chugging along as-is, and they likely couldn’t afford to split their fees with FFXIV and survive

  • Even a discount for those who subscribe to both could be helpful, though

What’s next? FFXI keeps on chugging, and one has to wonder if the hype will die down at all before they can manage to get this new content out the door. Time will tell when the next new adventure will unfold… and what those designers are currently working on for Square in the meantime.

New World Intel From Hamaguchi

Naoki Hamaguchi has his hands full these days, but keeps finding time to check in with various publications and talk up the pending ports of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, as well as the mysterious final part of the trilogy. In an interview this week with Restart.Run, he spoke about a peculiar playable character theory and the finer points of working with the Switch 2.

What they’re saying:

• When asked (in a follow-up to a previous conversation) if Chadley would be playable this time around, Hamaguchi diverted with a “we’re unable to comment on [that] at this time” but added “Chadley will continue to play an important role even in the final installment of the trilogy”

  • “His strong curiosity and tendency to talk a bit too much—inherent traits that he’s aware of and somewhat self-conscious about—will be further explored”

• Specific minigames for the Joy-Con 2 controllers, or the use of their mouse controls, was ruled out right away—not because of the inherent worth of the controllers, but because they wanted to prioritize sorting out the overall experience instead of adding further minigames, or adapting minigames to suit them specifically

  • Hamaguchi claims they “want to keep a pulse on future Switch 2 titles” and potentially use these control schemes “where they provide clear value”

• Hamaguchi reiterated and further elaborated on the challenges of porting the game to the Switch 2—the biggest individual problem being “the fact that the volume of simultaneous world map data that needed to be processed within a single frame increased dramatically compared to [Remake]”

  • The tighter corridors of Midgar allowed them to hide some of the loading processes until they properly came into view, but the open world is objectively more complex

  • “Rather than cutting content, we chose to reconfigure the structure of the game itself, holistically reviewing the world map and assessing how to display elements and distribute the system load”

  • “From distant scenery to the player’s immediate surroundings, we organized visibility and processing load in phases, carefully controlling rendering range and comprehensively rebuilding the open world to work as a cohesive system, rather than doing so in piecemeal”

  • This approach still required a lot of individual fine-tuning in different areas

• As for his biggest lesson learned from Rebirth? “Even within a multi-title project, simply recycling the previous game’s design isn’t enough to sustain player excitement for the next installment”

  • “This remake series has never been about repeating the same experience“

  • Where Remake focused on the story-driven experience and Rebirth on the open world, in part 3 “the game evolves even further, expanding its scale through the Highwind“

What we thought:

• While it could be easy to take the playable Chadley thing and run with it, it clearly harkens back to a previous conversation between the interviewer and Hamaguchi, as more of a joke than anything; Hamaguchi has to play the “no comment” defence but it’s highly doubtful, given the character’s role, that he’d be considered for such a promotion

  • There are plenty of strong feelings out there about Chadley, but they usually aren’t very positive, given his tendency to interject on the gameplay in Rebirth

  • That being said, I’m looking forward to whatever happens with him in part 3, as it seems they’re cooking something up to capitalize on his connection to Shinra

• While it’s a shame, in a way, that we can’t play Queen’s Gambit with the mouse controls, prioritizing the main experience over gimmicks makes sense—and by extension, doesn’t give one port content that the other platforms won’t have

  • Is there a slight chance they could incorporate the controls into the third game somehow? Hard to say

• Considering the work involved, it’s almost shocking that Rebirth’s port is coming out on Switch 2 so soon, two years and two months after the initial release

  • That they were able to pull it off this fast while still working on part 3 is an achievement in itself… though we’ll have to wait a couple more weeks to see how the fruits of their labors matured in the final product

What’s next? Rebirth drops on Switch 2 and XBOX Series X|S in just under 2 weeks, on June 3rd… which we now know falls right between a Sony State of Play on June 2, and Summer Game Fest’s kickoff on June 5. Could the reveal of part 3 be right around the bend?

Around the Union

There’s no new video for Final Fantasy Union this week…. but over at Datalog, it’s a momentous week, as we present this season’s Out-of-Order history, “The Complete History of Chrono Trigger! Before Square Enix, Square and Enix formed an unlikely alliance, merging the creative terms of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Dragon Ball. If you learn anything new, or just feel like sharing the joy, pass this along to your friends and help spread the word!

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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Stable Ground

Get out the Monopoly tokens and green banker visor, because Square Enix has released their financial results for the fiscal year which ended March 31, 2026, and the performance of games like The Ivalice Chronicles (and a certain crossover) helped foster one of their more stabilized outlooks in recent memory.

What’s going on:

• Compared to the previous fiscal year, net sales were down 8.3% but operating income was up by 34.9%

  • This is close to the previous year’s results: down 8.9% and up 24.6%

• The company “is continuing determined efforts to strengthen the competitiveness and profitability“ in its four key business segments

• As for how those four segments fared compared to last FY:

  • Digital Entertainment: net sales down 16.3%, operating income up 28%

    • HD Games fared comparably to the previous year thanks to “steady sales” of new titles like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, plus “higher sales of catalog titles”

    • MMO Games saw declines, as the previous year had benefitted from the “new expansion bump” when Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail launched

    • “Diversification of payment methods” pulled the Smart Devices/PC Browser subsegment’s fat out of the fire and led to increased income, though net sales were down “due to weakness in existing titles”

  • Amusement: net sales up 1.3%, operating income up 13.1%

  • Publication: net sales down 3.4%, operating income down 10.3%—”due to lower sales of comic books”

  • Merchandising: net sales up 31.4%, operating income up 85.2%—oddly no specific reasoning was called out for this, the most remarkable gain in the report, except that it was “driven by the recognition of royalty income from key IP“, but it’s safe to assume a large part of this stems from the arrangement with Magic: The Gathering for the Final Fantasy set

• For the future, Square Enix’s report acknowledges that the market is in a strange and volatile position, and promises they’re trying to “develop content” and “diversifying its earnings opportunities” to accommodate shifting consumer habits

  • Hence the shift to a multiplatform strategy, in other words

  • As the report puts it, the console game market is expected to keep growing thanks to technological advances—but “In the market for new releases, popularity tends to concentrate on a limited number of major titles, resulting in increasingly pronounced differences between successful and unsuccessful titles“

• Given all this, they’ve identified three financial goals:

  • By the end of the current FY, “achieve stable profit generation“ from the Digital Entertainment division and a 15% consolidated operating margin

  • Earmarking “a maximum of ¥100 billion for total strategic investments (growth investments or shareholder returns) over a three-year period”

  • Achieve a Return On Equity (ROE) of at least 10%, “shifting to a management approach mindful of capital efficiency”

  • …or in other words, “do better and make shareholders happy”

What we thought:

• As recent financial reports go, Final Fantasy’s stewards are doing okay, holding stable or even growing in most areas

  • May not be the resounding success you may hope to see, but it’s not bleak either, and hey, that’s something these days

• For a fiscal year that didn’t see very many big, new blockbusters, the HD Games division did pretty well with a smattering of remakes and remasters like Ivalice Chronicles—without a big tentpole release, they returned a decent growth in income (and it’s understandable that sheer sales may’ve been lower as a consequence)

• Calling out a “weakness in existing titles” for the mobile subsegment harkens back to last issue and the talk of Dissidia Duellum and Ever Crisis’ earnings; buried in the business-speak you can almost hear them throwing their hands up in frustration over the state of that “market”

• Publication continues to struggle as of late, seemingly as the company struggles beneath changes in reader habits—physical sales are lower, while more readers are getting their manga online (or, while the report doesn’t mention this, “stealing” it digitally)

  • The company holds rights to a surprising array of potentially popular manga series, but sometimes doesn’t seem to know how to push it out in front of people

• The goals laid out seem to be in direct response to the activist investors, with their focus on increasing ROE and earmarking funds for shareholder returns

  • This is a very Business document, so of course they’re embracing the Business of it all instead of making proposals for new games… but it still feels a little extra icky to be indirectly humouring their demands

• The MTG crossover has made a big, big impact and proven to be a successful collab for both sides… so will they do another one down the line? This year will see a set based on The Hobbit, following the Lord of the Rings set from a few years ago…

What’s next? Next fiscal year will see the arrival of Evercold to FFXIV, which usually helps spur the MMO division higher… but what will the mobile game landscape look like? Will Duellum or Ever Crisis remain standing?

Our Adventure Never Ends

Final Fantasy XI released a short animation this morning to commemorate the game’s 24th anniversary. Animated by “long-time adventurer” Waboku, “Our Adventure Never Ends” highlights some of the memorable characters and events from the MMORPG’s epic history.

It’s a charming little video to observe the anniversary tomorrow, teasing “Major Updates Await You In Vana’diel”—we’ll have to wait and see whether that’s referring to something new in the pipeline, or just the updates over the last few years that many players might have missed. But for now, it’s a nice gesture which may build to a bigger spectacle for next year’s 25th, and a capstone to the recent release of the third Vana’diel Alliance Raid in Final Fantasy XIV.

Duel Keeper

Speaking of mobile games and “remaining standing,” Dissidia Duellum has announced its first collaboration… and it’s an unexpected choice.

What’s going on:

• Beginning May 19 (UTC), the crossover will feature Final Fantasy Record Keeper via four exclusive collaboration abilities

• Special tickets can be earned through login bonuses or missions, for use in the collaboration draw, as well as profile icons, wallpapers, and music

• There will be no new character as part of the collab though (so sorry to Tyro, Elarra, and Dr. Mog at this time)

• The event comes as a delayed update for this week, breaking the launch window-trend of having two new characters every two weeks

What we thought:

• Of all the properties they could have used, Record Keeper is not the most “glamourous” pull they could’ve made

• While unconventional, it does make sense, still

  • As discussed last issue, Record Keeper is a small but consistent presence for FF in Japan, so this could get the attention of some players in that region

  • Meanwhile, even though FFRK Global is gone, there are plenty of people who used to play it, and still bear some love or nostalgia for it

  • The current roster is small, so it’s safer to save bigger collabs (like NieR, NieR crosses over with eeeeeverything) for when there are more characters to utilize for things like alternate costumes

• Also, it’s not like they can copy Ever Crisis and cross over with games like FFVI or FFXIII, since it’s already a cross-FF game—they have to think outside the main line

• It also begs the question… why a collab now, two months into the game?

  • As much as I love FFRK, there isn’t high potential for this to reap a lot of revenue or engagement, since it’s a low-stakes event with a low-recognition property

  • Perhaps it’s more of a stalling technique: holding the next characters at bay just a little bit longer while not starving the player base in the meantime

What’s next? The collab has fans of other discarded mobile games, like Mobius, intrigued by the possibilities, though this shouldn’t necessarily mean that the floodgates are open for all the Ghosts of Gacha Past to come back. If anything, Mobius and Brave Exvius probably have about as much chance to return to Dissidia with legitimate characters as they do in such “collab” events.

Around the Union

Unfortunately, our production lineup has been slightly affected as Darryl suffered a shoulder injury recently, but in the meantime this week we have the supercut of “Every Major Final Fantasy Logo Explained!” The story and symbolism behind these iconic illustrations can sometimes be elusive, but we’re here to help with the full trivia masterclass!

And over at Datalog, we can now present the “The Complete History of JRPGs: 1988 Edition!” The forefathers of JRPGs began to truly take shape here with the monumental Dragon Quest III—and plus, FFU’s Complete History of Final Fantasy II is included here as well, for the full context!

And last but not least, in this week’s Kupo Chronicle Takashi Tokita tells the story of the early days at Square, to see how Final Fantasy helped foster Square’s spirit of experimentation—and compares the first era of game development to The Beatles.

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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We recently delved into Takashi Tokita’s approach to the Final Fantasy IV 3D remake on Nintendo DS—how the veteran dev handled updating the foundational epic for a new generation. But Tokita’s insights can go so much deeper. As one of the original generation devs, Tokita experienced firsthand the earliest days of Square, the rise of Final Fantasy, and the company’s further experimentation on the PlayStation. And thanks to an interview Tokita did in 2013 for John Szczepaniak’s Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, we can gain some insight into the machinery of Square and Final Fantasy as the golden age of RPGs unfolded.

The Early Days

Tokita joined Square in its earliest days, when the company was throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. One of those proverbial noodles was Aliens: Alien 2, but he also worked on graphics for Highway Star (or Rad Racer - the modest racing hit Sakaguchi’s team made right before FF), Cleopatra no Muhou (a more Ultima-like, first-person adventure/RPG based on Egyptian history/mythology), and Square’s Tom Sawyer (one of the more oddball games in Square history, which is saying something).1

Reminiscing on photos of his coworkers from those days, Tokita highlights a key difference between the games industry in the 80s, and in the mid-2010s: “What stands out to me is that everyone is in their 20s. In today’s game industry, it’s mostly the mobile games that are being created by people in their 20s. I think people of that age, who have the freedom to make whatever they want, create the most interesting games—the games that set the tone for each era of gaming.”

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Once More Unto Kalm

The launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S is now just under a month away, which means it’s clearly time to check back in with director Naoki Hamaguchi to see how things are shaping up in Cloud’s neck of the woods.

What’s going on:

• Square Enix dropped a demo for the ports of Rebirth last week, giving us a taste of how the PS5-original will play on Nintendo’s scrappy hybrid console

  • The demo contains the first two chapters (and, unlike the original PS5 demo, the intro scene that precedes them)

• Hamaguchi spoke to Nintendo Life about the process of porting Rebirth, and claims that the two ports were more like one smooth, integrated product

  • “Rather than saying we developed Rebirth in parallel, it’s more accurate to say that we were operating with the assumption that we’ll continue this path forward from the moment Remake proved to be viable on the Switch 2“

  • “Of course, this doesn’t mean we were developing two entire titles simultaneously. However, the optimization insights we gained from Remake and our growing understanding of the Switch 2 hardware were fed back into Rebirth from a fairly early stage. As a result, [both] ended up releasing on the Switch 2 within a relatively short time span”

  • “This wasn’t because we prioritized speed, but rather, it was a decision driven by our top priority of avoiding a fragmented experience“

• This allowed them to put both ports out with an incredibly small gap: “We want to capitalize on this cadence and moment to tie the experiences together without any gaps, from Remake to Rebirth to finally the third instalment that lies beyond them“

• The power gap between the two platforms necessitated some systemic changes:

  • “Because Rebirth features large-scale fields with heavy processing loads on rendering and streaming, it couldn’t be ported to the Switch 2 as is. That led us to take a step back and reassess things, from our approach to rendering techniques, to lighting, and background streaming“

  • “We were especially keen on ensuring that switching between handheld and docked modes never made players feel like they were playing a different game. We prioritized stability and consistency of experience“

  • “Because Rebirth adopts an open-world structure with a much larger field scale, it’s a title where the amount of information being rendered at any given moment is higher. As a result, rather than making significant changes to lighting in isolation, our approach focused more on how to balance the overall rendering load. The use of DLSS was indispensable in that regard and was readopted in Rebirth as it was in Remake”

  • “Neither of their modes relies on fixed resolutions and is instead designed based on dynamic resolution. In handheld mode, the internal resolution ranges between a maximum of 1344×756 and a minimum of 672×380. In docked mode, it ranges between a maximum of 1920×1080 and a minimum of 960×540, the same as Remake”

  • An alternate approach had to be used for hair rendering, applying “subtle blur adjustments based on hair direction and density, aiming for the most natural balance possible under restricted conditions”

• The biggest hurdle was Rebirth’s far bigger scale (the overworld vs. Midgar’s tight streets in Remake)

  • In order to maintain 30fps, “the background models themselves were optimized specifically for the Switch 2 in the port”

  • “We didn’t simply reduce the polygon counts; we made adjustments to the overall game structure by redesigning from the LOD (level of detail) stage, and reevaluating materials with heavy rendering loads from the ground up, etc”

  • A similar approach was used for background details, testing and refining where/when elements are loaded and rendered to optimize the experience

• And all the while, work on the third installment goes on, and Hamaguchi remains optimistic about their progress despite the heavy weight on his shoulders

  • “We’re very excited about how [part 3] is currently progressing. I have already completed over 40 full playthroughs!”

What we thought:

• Based on the demo, Rebirth is running pretty well on the Switch 2; it’s not hard to detect some compromises or steps down from the PS5 version, naturally

  • One of the most noticeable changes so far is the amount of items popping up in the world—for example, a table that once had several everyday items on it in the PS5 and PC ports is completely bare on NSW2

  • I noticed some items (like vegetation elements) “popping in” in the field, at a closer distance to the player than some may prefer to see; nothing exactly game-breaking, but a definite step down in sheer technical power

• Considering the power gap that has always existed between Nintendo and Sony’s platforms, though, it’s impressive in context

  • The two companies’ approaches diverged wildly after the PS1/N64 generation, with the PS2 prioritizing power and multimedia while the GameCube continued to prioritize fun and creativity with limited tools

  • That a Nintendo platform is getting such a technologically-advanced game within the same generation is impressive in itself, even if there are some compromises under the hood to make it happen

    • And all the more poetic, it’s happening with a reimagining of FFVII, “the one that got away” from Nintendo following the company’s awkward break with Square after the 16-bit era

• The bottom line is, simply downgrading assets to make it work on lesser hardware would yield a much less impressive final product, so it’s a good sign that they’re taking great lengths to custom-build the port for the platform—looking at you, Kingdom Hearts Cloud Version

• Hamaguchi’s comments about the gap between the titles is potentially intriguing; is he hinting that there won’t be a very long gap between this port and part 3?

• Forty playthroughs of part 3 is quite the… interesting number

  • One has to wonder if that’s a concrete number or just something big he pulled off the top of his head for emphasis

  • If he has sincerely pulled off multiple playthroughs, that could imply that the game currently exists in a substantially complete form

    • Based off prior comments, that’s not so far-fetched; they seemed to be leaving lots of time for tweaking and polishing, so it would fit if they are indeed aiming to launch sometime next year

  • Rebirth is a 60-80 hour game in itself, so… where is Hamaguchi finding the time to sleep?! (He did mention “it’s rare for me to make downtime with the intentional goal of ‘relaxing’“ after all)

What’s next? Rebirth’s port arrives on June 3rd, an unusual Wednesday release… which happens to be right before Summer Game Fest that weekend… hmm…

Meanwhile In Fantasy Shibuya

Now that Dissidia Duellum has passed its first month and official season, how fares the new kid on the block and its unexpected take on Final Fantasy?

What’s going on:

• With Clive and Rikku joining the game and Golden Week promotions, last week was a good week for the latest FF mobile game

  • Focused banners helped bestow the new characters and their abilities, while a free daily multi-draw dropped plenty of other abilities at no cost

• Another balancing patch was implemented this week, increasing speed on Agile characters, and helping Krile, Terra, and Iroha stay in the fight a little longer

  • Poor Zidane got another buff, this time to his speed, but he hasn’t yet kicked his reputation for being the least potent character in the roster

• According to GachaRevenue and Sensor Tower, Dissidia Duellum pulled in 3 million USD in April 2026, up from 1.8 million in March (or more realistically, the last week of March, as it launched on the 24th)

  • This is a consolidated total for both iOS and Android platforms (iOS accounts for 2/3 of the revenue so far), and unlike previous games, there’s only one Global version, not a separate version for Japan

What we thought:

• Out of the gate, Duellum is holding its own in terms of revenue, compared to the other FF games

  • Ever Crisis sees an average of about 1.19 million each month, a far cry from its previous (brief) peaks of 12 mil (launch month, September 2023), 5.3 mil (1st anniversary, September 2024), and 3.4 mil (January 2025)

    • It has also seen its lowest lows in 2026, bringing in $680,000 in February and $670,000 in April—so it’s possible Duellum is metaphorically stealing its lunch money

  • Meanwhile Record Keeper pulls in somewhere between $300,000 to $600,000 each month as a Japan-exclusive, proving that faithful and consistent player base is still showing up

  • In retrospect it almost seems a misstep to have hosted the Duellum closed beta on Android, when iOS has a small but consistent lead over Android in terms of revenue in all of the FF mobile games

• Time will tell how high it soars, however, and what kind of baseline retention it can secure

  • 3 mil is a decent showing… but it’s around the same height that Ever Crisis evened out at in the months following its launch

• For context, the three highest-earning games of April 2026 are Honkai Star Rail (58 mil), Genshin Impact (41 mil), and Love & Deepspace (37 mil)

  • It’s amazing that so many people are still so invested in Genshin after many years, but I digress

  • FF gacha games are essentially playing in an entirely different league, multiple divisions lower than these guys… at a much smaller ballpark, miles away

• The developers’ commitment to tweaking characters to make them more impactful shows some genuine effort to improving the game and its balancing overall (but it’s becoming funny that they can’t quite buff Zidane)

• Taking the community’s pulse is always a complicated affair, as the most dissatisfied voices in the room tend to be the loudest, but for the time being it seems Duellum has hit a comfortable stride with a core group of players… and now they need to maintain and expand that core

What’s next? We’re now officially off the known road map as announced prior to launch, and into the second “season” properly, so I’m curious to see where Duellum goes from here. Data miners continue to find enticing ideas in the works, but it’s not immediately clear what the forecast is from this point forward—will the dual character releases continue? What about new monsters and bosses, or stages? At what speed will new content drop? Square Enix has dug their feet in, but now the work begins to keep players engaged.

Around the Union

This week, we reveal that “Final Fantasy VI Has A Dark Secret Nobody Talks About”—it has to do with Dr. Cid, but no, it’s not a nefarious origin story for his banana suit. Some of the darkest aspects of Final Fantasy VI were cut from the final product, but this sinister piece of lore remains, informing many aspects of the narrative beneath the surface. Does this change your opinion of any of the characters involved?

Meanwhile over on Datalog, take a detour with us as we explore the “Best PlayStation RPGs That Aren’t Final Fantasy!” We used a specific methodology and took FF off the table to see what else rose to the top of the PS1’s legendary library of JRPGs—did your favourite make the list, or did we inspire you to seek out a classic you’ve never tried? 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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Final Fantasy XIV Feels A Chill Next Year

As expected, Naoki Yoshida’s keynote address at Fan Fest was a doozy, announcing a new expansion, collabs, platforms, and some major changes. Here’s the breakdown on everything announced for Final Fantasy XIV…

What’s going on:

• The next expansion, and the “patch 8.0” cycle, is called Evercold (or in Japanese, Wanderer of the Silver), due out in January 2027

  • The teaser trailer showed the Warrior of Light, Alphinaud, and Estinien emerging in a new world, while a grandmotherly figure tells a young child a familiar fairy tale of a “relentless ice” that drove their people to live in the sky

    • FFXIV SPOILER: Yoshida confirmed this world is “the Fourth”

  • ”But everything changed when they arrived.” “The traveler! The one from the sky.” “Aye, but in those days we knew them as… our Wanderer.”

  • The usual ominous text at the teaser’s beginning called players to “Go forth. Discover. Unite the stars unto one.”

• Yoshida referred to the current overarching saga as the “Godless Realms Saga,” just as the “Hydaelyn & Zodiark Saga” covered ARR to Endwalker

• Concept art and screencaps of the new environments don’t show much of the icy environments yet, but rather an array of various Norse-inspired buildings, some nasty new monsters, and an adorable allied society of bipedal, feline dwarves (which must be protected at all costs)

• Evercold will raise the level cap to 110 and feature, as usual, two new classes: one tank, and one physical ranged DPS—both being original creations for FFXIV, not based on pre-existing classes from the franchise

  • Yoshi-P usually hints at the classes with his wardrobe during the keynote, and this time wore a T-shirt featuring Rhitahtyn Arvina of the XIVth Imperial Legion and the caption “Guess Who’s Back?” (a design which we now know will be featured at the 2nd Fan Fest event this year, in Berlin)

  • Later, at an audience Q&A on the second day, Yoshida asked the audience what weapons they’d like to see, and claimed he’d heard the weapon for one of the new jobs shouted out… but obviously did not elaborate

• The next expansion will also mark considerable evolutions in several of FFXIV’s core systems:

  • The focus is shifting from a series of daily chores to a more weekly perspective, allowing players to chip away at tasks daily, bank them all for the weekends, or otherwise cater their duties to their schedule and preference

  • The character screen will receive a complete overhaul, putting further emphasis on the player character—who will be even more customizable than ever, with more precise shade selection for more body parts

  • Updates will be considered more in a cadence of “Seasons”—not like season passes in gacha or F2P games; instead, a “Season” will roughly equal two patches in the current paradigm (ie. patch 8.0 and patch 8.1 would be one season; patch 8.2 and 8.3 would be another, etc)

    • Missions will allow players to help plan what they accomplish in a given Season—while updates will come a little faster than they are currently

  • All regular combat classes to-date will be split into two modes, Reborn Combat or Evolved Combat:

    • Reborn representing the style of play that has been used in FFXIV since A Realm Reborn

    • Evolved representing a new philosophy for combat with less rigid focus on cycling through set action rotations, focusing more on the things that make each class unique

      • Among these changes is a division between “main tanks” and “off tanks”—one taking direct damage and countering, the other lowering damage the party receives

  • Item Levels will be overhauled to care more about players’ highest iLvl gear, rather than grinding gear for each specific job/role

  • Same Region Player Matching will be in effect later this year, allowing players to match with others from the same region (and not just their individual Worlds within that region)

• The next series of Alliance Raids is not a collaboration with another FF (like the Echoes of Vana’diel raids in Dawntrail) or Squeenix property (like YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse), but… with the foundational anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • Square Enix is developing the raids under supervision from series creator Hideaki Anno, and superfan Yoshida is eager to create something special

• As announced by CEO Takashi Kiryu at the keynote’s conclusion, Final Fantasy XIV will debut on Nintendo Switch 2 this summer, following a month-long period of early access; once fully operational, however, Nintendo players will need to pay an additional subscription fee (which will be cut in half for players with time remaining on other consoles)

• Support for the PlayStation 4 version will not be immediately terminated when Evercold arrives, but rather around the point of patch 8.3; Yoshida humbly requested that players of that version begin to slowly consider upgrading to the PS5 before that arrives in about 2 years from now

  • Sony has helped them engineer updates to keep FFXIV playable on PS4, but it’s simply becoming too large to continue past that point

What we thought:

• Phew! It was the longest keynote in the game’s history, and for good reason

• Storywise, Evercold looks like it’s back to business as usual for the Scions after the “side quest” that was Dawntrail

  • The deeper implications of several elements of that teaser are fascinating, and speak to the potential of the “Godless Realms Saga”

• The sweeping changes sound like direct responses to the major criticisms that have followed the game since the conclusion of Endwalker, and could be exactly what the game needs to thrive again

  • Yoshida and Michael-Christopher Koji Fox were ready to respond to the obvious concerns that arose from the mentions of seasons and streamlined combat—knowing that fans would fear cash-grabby season passes or Street Fighter 6-style “Modern Controls” that suck the soul out of the game

  • It’s been nearly 13 years since ARR launched (nearly 16 since 1.0), and the expanding the gameplay in these ways is a natural progression to keep it current or modern—much like the graphical overhaul in Dawntrail or the great number-crunching of Endwalker

  • Yoshida and battle system planner Hikaru Tamaki (now known to the community as “Mr. Prime”) showed off the new system during the developer panel—check out the recording here, but many more details will flow as development progresses and the mechanics are firmly ironed out

• I don’t think anyone watching the address live expected to hear Evangelion music

  • Between Anno’s involvement, Yoshida being “an Evangelion otaku,” and the ripe thematic connections between the two properties… this is going to be absolutely buck-wild (and hopefully in all the right ways)

• The Switch 2 announcement feels like a real monkey’s paw moment—having it on Nintendo’s hybrid console is a big win for those progressing through MSQ or doing less intense content, but the extra subscription fee is a bummer

  • This means PC and PS5 remain the most preferrable consoles for the game, since it’s technically more expensive to play on either Xbox or Switch 2

What’s next? Much more will be revealed at the remaining Fan Fests in Berlin and Tokyo, but in the meantime… have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? Its expanded free trial has been expanded to include Shadowbringers, one of the best damn expansions out there—allowing players to experience the game up to level 80, including all playable races, absolutely free, and with minimal restrictions.

Impressions From The Show Floor

I had the pleasure of attending my first Fan Festival this year, covering the event as media—here are the things that stood out to me most:

• The Anaheim Convention Center was a terrific venue for the occasion, and its massive size was put to good use with tons of space for the live panels, side screens away from the main room to watch live in diminished crowds, lots of themed activities, spaces to meet with friends or take photos or even have a quiet moment…

  • From speaking to other attendees (and even remarks from some staff on stage), this went a lot smoother than the previous venue in Las Vegas

• There’s always a lot of talk about how kind and friendly FFXIV’s community is, and Fan Fest put the truth to it—lots of great interactions, from players organizing meet-ups to trade stickers they made of their own characters, to the crowd respectfully gathering around one player who was trying to clear an Ultimate from their laptop at the event

• The staff themselves (from the development, community, and operations teams alike) brought an infectious energy, and the whole event felt really light-hearted and fun—including the playful teasing of Yoshida during his audience Q&A with questions about “butt sliders”

• Hearing the live reaction to Kiryu’s entrance was… interesting to say the least

  • The keynote was clearly building to a “one more thing” announcement (the Switch 2 version) but up near the stage, many people got up and left when he arrived, and it was by far the most lukewarm crowd reaction of the weekend

  • He took a bit more of a poke during Koji’s panel on Saturday, when he mentioned that the boss man wanted them to incorporate Copilot into their work flows

• The concerts were both incredible in their own right—Keiko’s piano performance on Friday, and the Primals on Saturday

  • It seemed like Soken was having an absolutely great time, from “interrupting” the piano show and being “caught” by community director and co-host Matt Hilton, to working the crowd during the Primals concert

  • “Bee My Honey” really thrived on piano, with live vocals by Amanda Achen (and backup vocals by Keiko herself), and the rendition of “Roses of May” may be my favourite take on one of my favourite themes (and of course, “Flow”)

    • Although it’s a bummer they didn’t bring Achen out with the Primals to perform “Give It All”

  • The Primals show was heavy on the Arcadion songs and hyping the audience up, but being part of the crowd for the time-stop during “Rise” (even from the side stage) was an unexpected high

• That being said, the schedule had some sizable gaps where nothing was happening on stage, which is nice for attendees to take advantage of the other facilities around the venue, but I also would’ve appreciated having a wider array of panels (or at least a different loop of commercials during the intermissions!)

All told, despite having been out of the game for a little while myself, Fan Fest was an absolute blast—being surrounded by the community was great, dispelling a lot of the negativity that comes from The Online Discourse and getting back to the heart of what players enjoy about the game. It’s a shame these can’t happen more often or in more places around the world (my fingers will be perpetually crossed for a future Fan Fest to be hosted in Toronto!!), but if you get the chance to attend someday, it’s worth a trek!

Around the Union

Listen, this is a safe space, and we’ve all been there before—sometimes you come across an unexpectedly strong monster in a Final Fantasy game, and before you know what’s happening, you’re staring at the Game Over screen and trying to remember the last time you saved. It happens to us all, friend. And that’s why this week we explore the “7 Random Enemies That Humiliated Final Fantasy Players!” Have any of these dastardly foes ever gotten the better of you, or did your archnemesis not make the list? Let us know in the comments!

And in this week’s issue of the Kupo Chronicle, we turn back the clock on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and discover how real-world circumstances affected the in-game focus on time:

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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Sequels tend to have diminishing returns; no matter how popular a work of media is, typically each successive tale that follows is going to have fewer sales or viewers, unless it can do something to buck that trend and maintain momentum. Final Fantasy games are no stranger to this. Final Fantasy X was a huge hit but X-2’s playerbase dropped considerably; Final Fantasy VII was the biggest thing since sliced bread but each of its spin-offs has had a remarkably uphill battle for relevance.

No FF may have been hit by the curse of diminishing returns quite as hard as Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, however. The original installment of Lightning’s journey had a rocky reception in itself, followed by a divisive reaction to its divisive sequel. This subseries has many devoted fans, yet larger audiences didn’t quite buy into it as much.

An interview in the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania with producer Yoshinori Kitase, director Motomu Toriyama, and game design director Yuji Abe may help shine a little light on this very unconventional and misunderstood threequel—and some context on its multilayered conflict with time itself.

Time Compression

Given Lightning Returns’ strong focus on saving the world within a set period of time, it’s a little ironic that the game itself had a pretty unforgiving deadline to hit store shelves.

According to Kitase, production on the third game began immediately after the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2’s last piece of DLC, “Lightning’s Story: Requiem of the Goddess,” in May 2012—and time was immediately of the essence. “We initially set a goal of one year,” he explained, “figuring that if too much time passed since the previous game, players would likely forget the story.”

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Seven Seconds Before The End Start

Final Fantasy XIV’s North American Fan Festival kicks off today with the big keynote speech, which takes place in a couple hours. But there’s already been so much to say about next week’s big patch, including Naoki Yoshida’s comments during the Live Letter broadcast—so before the on-stage festivities kick off to tell us what lies in store for the bigger future, let’s take a quick look at what’s coming next week…

What’s going on:

• Patch 7.5 will go live on Tuesday, April 28, kicking off the big conclusion to the Dawntrail/7.x update cycle, and as is usual for updates at this point in the game’s cycles, it’s being spread over multiple, further updates

• 7.5’s Main Scenario Quests will take us back to Garlemald (particularly through the new dungeon, The Clyteum) and Mare Lamentorum, and they aren’t just empty victory laps—there should be lots to analyze and consider from this events

  • Yoshida explained that The Clyteum’s boss, Enzo, is going to be a change of pace—a little harder, per se, but with fewer environmental hazards, and even more so with the Extreme version

• Yoshida showed some of the last Alliance Raid in the Echoes of Vana’diel Raid series, including unique mechanics, and a glimpse of Shantotto’s entrance, which had him and community producer Toshio Murouchi laughing

• PvP players will find some unique new twists in the new Crystalline Conflict map Archeia Harmonias

• Beastmasters were given a more detailed look:

  • Beasts have several distinct actions:

    • Elemental auto-attacks

    • A Tempered Release, an ability unique to each beast with effects such as interrupting spell-casting

    • A Trick, or an Instinctual skill, which can be used to fill the Job’s Gauges—utilizing these gauges will be key, setting up some major combos

    • Nature’s Gift, an ability the Beastmaster uses by drawing the power from the Beast itself

    • And a Finisher, a big AoE attack before they leave the field

  • Actually capturing them should be somewhat familiar to Pokemon players, or any other similar game: reduce their HP before attempting to catch them, etc

  • Given their unique composition as a Limited class, Yoshida wants to give them a dedicated stream before their launch

• Quality-of-life improvements include:

  • More convenient crafting—giving more actions while on standby with the crafting log open

  • Companion Chocobos are getting a little love with unique emote reactions for /pet and /poke

  • More Colour scheme options—Clear Pink and Clear Grey

  • Dungeon gear from Heavensward-on can be stored as outfit glamour, and it will be possible to remove individual pieces of gear from a glamour as well

What we thought:

• While the current era has been a little slow, it really seems like FFXIV is hitting the gas pedal hard

• I’m all-in for returning to some of those beloved Endwalker areas (especially Garlemald, which many players felt we haven’t explored enough yet)

• Beastmaster seems like it might be a hard class to learn, but very interesting once you get the hang of it and start expanding your roster of beasts—it could be one of the more unique parts of the FFXIV experience in time

• Hopefully these QoL updates are just the tip of the iceberg as we head into 8.0

What’s next? Well, we’re about to find out (and depending on when you read this issue, you may have already heard)! Don’t miss next week’s Wark Digest as we go over all the big news and impressions directly from the event as well.

Change of Seasons

Last week I speculated we were about 2-3 weeks away from the debut of Clive and Rikku in Dissidia Duellum, but we now know it will actually be on the shorter side—the last two members of the launch era roster will arrive on April 28! Their addition will signal the start of the game’s second season, dubbed “Warriors Assemble,” which means a new season pass and more story content. Also beginning on April 28th are several bonuses for Japan’s Golden Week, featuring more log-in bonuses, special missions, and up to 99 free draws.

King of Pain

A Denfaminico survey recently asked Japanese gamers which RPGs made them cry the most, and Final Fantasy claimed quite a few spots in the list—and perhaps with some unexpected choices.

What they’re saying:

According to the players surveyed, these were named the 10 saddest JRPGs—along with some of the comments from respondents explaining their choice:

1. Final Fantasy X

“The whirlwind of events in the second half deeply moved me, and I couldn't stop crying. […] This is the first game in the series to be fully voiced, which allowed me to really connect with the characters. The characters still occasionally appear in my dreams, and each time I realize that they are still alive deep within my heart.”

2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

“The way the story led up to the promised ending, the direction, and the music were all superb. Since it's a prequel to FF7, even though I knew what the ending was, it was painful to proceed to the conclusion I already knew. […] I was captivated by Zack's way of life, how he maintained a cheerful expression even when pushed into a desperate situation, and how he fought without compromising his beliefs and principles.“

3. Persona 3

4. Okami

5. Mother 3

6. Tales of the Abyss

7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

8. Final Fantasy IX

“It makes you think about life, and the way it unfolds and is depicted is meticulous and well done. […] Despite its warm and charming picture-book-like atmosphere, the story is surprisingly profound. The well-developed world and the characters' growth intertwine, leaving a deeply moving impression.“

9. Suikoden II

10. Final Fantasy XV

“After playing the game, I cried every time I saw the sunrise. The interactions with my friends feel so real, like they’re truly alive, and they’ve become like real friends to me. In a world full of stories about defying fate, I was deeply moved by the way this character accepted and fulfilled their destiny and mission.”

The list continued to 40, and there are even more FFs in that crowd:

• #16: Final Fantasy XIV

• #19: Final Fantasy Type-0

• #24: Final Fantasy VII

• #32: Final Fantasy XVI

• #34: Final Fantasy V

What we thought:

• Shame the lower entries didn’t also have their comments shared, because I’d be curious to see what officially earned them their spots on the list

  • Especially in the case of FFXIV, with a story that long

• While it’s not necessarily a surprise to see many of these games on such a list, it is interesting where they landed:

  • X being so far above IX defies my own expectations; usually FFIX gets pushed higher by a certain character’s fate in the ending, and some other tragedies along the way—though the added push of having the series’ first voice acting does FFX a lot of favors

  • This is likely one of the few times you’ll see Crisis Core beat out the rest of the franchise in any kind of ranking

• Crisis Core and FFXV may not have won over everyone with their gameplay decisions, but at least they’re getting recognition for the power of their narratives… or at least their endings

• To that note, it’s the endings of X, CC, and IX that usually get the waterworks going, but FFV is a bit of an outlier on this list—yes, it has one of the series’ biggest tearjerker moments but overall it’s one of the more bright, optimistic stories

  • There’s a bit of regional bias here too, as players in Japan got the chance to play FFV in its own time, when that big emotional scene would’ve hit a lot harder—whereas western gamers didn’t get to see it properly until we had much flashier tragedies to weep over

• On the flip side, FFVII didn’t rank super-high considering its overall popularity, how infamous its big death scene is, and how bleak the game can be in the back half

• The spin-offs get their moment here for once, which is nice—there aren’t many moments for Type-0 to get some laurels

  • It has quite the respectable ranking here, especially considering this is a list drawn from all JRPGs, not just FFs, and it beat out some stiff (and more popular) competition

What’s next? FFXVI rightly gets a moment here as well, which some might say shows the survey is skewed towards recent titles… but honestly, this is a pretty fair, well-rounded, and unbiased list for the most part. The winners (is that the right word here?) are a pretty diverse crew, spread out across the genre’s forty years of storytelling, and some older games beat out newer games that have the advantage of HD graphics, motion capture, and full voice acting.

Around the Union

It can be a little hard to track the various development teams at Square Enix—which units make what games, who’s responsible for which FFs, and so on—and so we’ve prepared a primer: “The Inner Workings of Square Enix!” There’s no test later, promise, but let us know what new nugget of information you found the most interesting!

At Datalog, we turn our lens to games outside of Final Fantasy… but this week’s video is a bit of an exception! Join us for “The Complete History of SaGa,” the Game Boy’s first RPG—known as Makai Toushi SaGa in Japan or The Final Fantasy Legend in North America, and the origin of the SaGa franchise!

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Until next time, kupo!