News and Announcements for December 2023

The Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis team has announced the "Happy New Year: The Wily Hunter" event beginning on December 31 at 7 a.m. PST. This special event involves Cloud and the gang ringing in the New Year with the festive Wutai, so it’s no surprise that Yuffie would be playing a central role in the event narrative. In fact, the announcement made on X (formally Twitter) confirmed that the self-proclaimed greatest materia hunter would be showing up as a boss! For more information, check out the event info in the game. Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is available for free on iOS and Android devices. It also just launched on PC via Steam. The "Happy New Year: The Wily Hunter" event begins on...
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Just in time for the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is headed back to big screens after nearly two decades since the film’s original release. What’s more, this is the “Complete” 4K remaster of Advent Children that includes 26 additional minutes of footage not seen in the original. While Square Enix hasn’t officially confirmed the theatrical re-release at the time of writing, internet sleuths have discovered placeholder pages for the beloved CG action movie on several popular online ticket-selling sites, including Regal Cinemas, Fandango, AMC, and Atom Tickets. The new premiere dates indicated are February 21 and February 22, 2024, with the first date p...
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Heavensturn: Tip the Scales in Your Favor is Final Fantasy XIV’s seasonal New Year’s event kicking off December 31, 2023, and going till January 15, 2024. By completing the story questline “To Be a Mascot,” players can earn the Ryunosuke minion that’s currently only available during this event. To earn your adorable, dragon-dressed Chocobo, head to the Upper Decks of Limsa Lominsa and speak to Ryu Metsuke (X:11.5, Y:13.9) when Heavensturn begins on New Year's Eve. The Ryunosuke minion available during Heavensturn: Tip the Scales in Your Favor seasonal event. Here’s the event background story available from the FFXIV Lodestone. The sun shall soon rise on a new year, and the visiting Far Eas...
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Game Informer spent two days at Square Enix headquarters getting exclusive access to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and its team of developers. Today, they shared insight on one of the game’s newest party members, Cait Sith, providing a very basic overview of the character’s combat style and mechanics. According to the article, Game Informer’s reporting of Cait Sith gameplay is based on discussions with the game’s battle director, Teruki Endo, and lead director, Naoki Hamaguchi; as well as observations from a hands-off demo of the character being played by Hamaguchi himself. In a nutshell, Cait Sith's gameplay is described to be just as nutty as the character itself is. "Given its very cute appea...
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The 10th-anniversary festivities continue for Final Fantasy XIV as the team behind the critically acclaimed MMORPG revealed “The Interwoven Memories of Light” mosaic. The grand artwork is exceptional for a couple of reasons. First, the mosaic design is a recreation of the 10th-anniversary artwork created by renowned Final Fantasy logo maker Yoshitaka Amano. Amano, along with many other members of the Final Fantasy XIV development team and cast, also contributed a special video message to commemorate an entire decade of adventuring in Eorzea and beyond. The second reason why this mosaic is so special requires a closer look to truly appreciate. The whole image is made up of more than 20,000 in...
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Let’s be clear about something right from the start: nothing has been confirmed. This is taking a quote from Tetsuya Nomura, the creative director for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and speculating on its meaning after painfully processing his ominous words. After reading this, feel free to continue believing whatever it is you want to believe about Aerith’s fate in Rebirth because anything is still possible. Now, with that out of the way, this is what Nomura had to say to Game Informer about that gut-wrenching scene. “Beginning with the original Final Fantasy VII, when we had started working on it, it was already decided from the get-go that ‘life’ would be the central theme surrounding Final F...
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Teeing up their exclusive coverage of the anticipated sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth graces the cover of Game Informer’s final issue in 2023. The cover features the iconic villain, Sephiroth, looking on menacingly as he’s surrounded by flames. The fiery cover extends to the back, unveiling Cloud staring off to the side. The impressive artwork was designed in part by the director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth himself, Tetsuya Nomura.Game Informer’s online content director, Brian Shea, provides some context behind the art in the cover reveal announcement. “So much of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth focuses on the relationships between characters, and this art emphasizes...
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Famitsu, a popular Japanese gaming and culture publication, chatted with Final Fantasy XVI producer, Naoki Yoshida, the game’s main director, Hiroshi Takai, and the DLC director, Takefu Kujiraoka, and learned some interesting info regarding “The Rising Tide” DLC slated for release in the spring of 2024. While the dev team was hush on specifics, the interview shed more light on the length and story of the game’s second major DLC offering that was announced in a trailer during the 2023 Game Awards. Here are some highlights from the Google-translated interview. “The Rising Tide” DLC will be about 10 hours long Unlike “Echoes of the Fallen,” the game’s first DLC that was designed to be released ...
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Chapter 2 of the Crisis Core storyline in Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is part of a big update coming on December 14 at 6:00 p.m. PST. Called “A SOLDIER’s Honor,” the new chapter follows Zack as he’s shipped off to the quaint town of Banora in search of the missing SOLDIER, Genesis. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII fans will recall the enormity of this section in the game's narrative as big revelations about Zack’s mentor, Angeal, also come to light. But that’s not all! The incoming update officially kicks off the 100 Days Since Release Campaign and also includes a level cap increase from 60 to 65, a new summon in Bahamut, and new Criterion and Crisis Dungeon content. “Abandoned Factory” wil...
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The December update has kicked off a couple of in-game events running through December. It’s a great time to earn some holiday-themed rewards and contribute to a community goal. The Starlight Celebration The Starlight Celebration is back in Final Fantasy XI! The holiday event runs until December 31 and features several holiday minigames and quests scattered around Vana'diel. Participate and earn rewards like a new sitting emote and other holiday-themed gifts. Just exchange gift tokens earned with a festival Moogle to get your seasonal rewards. You can find more details on the event–including quest information and the locations of festival Moogles–on the Final Fantasy XI news page. New Vana’B...
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Square Enix is live now playing through the new Final Fantasy XVI's “Echoes of the Fallen” DLC with Clive’s Game Awards-nominated voice actor, Ben Starr. Viewers can learn more about the DLC that’s available now, participate in a live Q&A with Ben Starr, and enter some cool giveaways. The stream is live now on Twitch and YouTube but won’t be up for much longer! “Echoes of the Fallen” is the first of two new DLC packs headed to Final Fantasy XVI. “The Rising Tide” DLC will be released later in 2024. The “Echoes of the Fallen” story chapters take place just before the final battle in the game’s storyline and purchasing the DLC or the Final Fantasy XVI Expansion Pass also comes with an in-g...
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Final Fantasy XIV’s Starlight Celebration: Ties to Remember seasonal event begins December 15 at midnight and runs until December 31 at 6:59 a.m. PST. The Starlight Celebration is Final Fantasy XIV’s annual Christmas event where players can play through holiday-themed quests for special limited-time items. This year, participating earns players the entire set of Unorthodox Saint’s glamour and the Illuminated Topiary Chocobo outdoor furnishing. So if you’ve ever wanted to see what your character would look like in full Santa cosplay, head over to Old Gridania and chat with the Bearded Lady (X:10.2; Y:9.4) to unlock the Blue Starlight event quest line. For more details, check out The Lodestone...
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Final Fantasy left a big imprint in the 2023 Game Awards, giving Final Fantasy fans a lot to look forward to over the coming months. While things like a new trailer and such are expected—especially given how close we are to the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on February 29, 2024—Square Enix still delivered some big surprises worth talking about. Here’s all the juicy Final Fantasy news coming out of this year’s Game Awards. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth theme song and trailer premieres live Probably the biggest piece of Final Fantasy news pie coming out of the Peacock Theater was the premiere of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth theme song along with a new trailer. The theme song “No Promises to...
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To celebrate 10 years of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the team behind the critically-acclaimed MMORPG are releasing congratulatory video messages from prominent figures in the Final Fantasy development world. Two videos have been released so far with none other than Hironobu Sakaguchi kicking off the anniversary festivities. While no longer with Square Enix after his departure in 2003, Sakaguchi is widely considered to be the founder of the Final Fantasy series, having directed the first five titles in the series in addition to holding producer and other key roles in several additional main title games--including the original Final Fantasy VII. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the godfather of Fin...
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The Final Fantasy XVI team announced a new Arcade Mode leaderboard will be introduced at midnight Eastern Standard Time on December 8, 2023. Once the update is released and installed, new scores can’t be posted on the old leaderboard. The change comes as the development team looks to revamp the Arcade Mode scoring system, although the specifics of these changes will be detailed closer to the update's release. The Final Fantasy XVI Arcade Mode was a fresh feature in the world of main title Final Fantasy games and was influenced heavily by a similar mode in the Devil May Cry series. Players replay key combat instances in Final Fantasy XVI and receive completion scores based on their overall ef...
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