Final Fantasy 7 Reveals

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL FANTASY VII SERIES

Square Enix dropped a meteor on fans during their 25th Anniversary livestream celebration on Thursday with a pile of announcements about what fans can expect from the Final Fantasy Seven-verse in the near future. From Buster-Sword alarm clocks to soundtracks on vinyl, Square eased us in to the hype pool with all sorts of overly priced merchandise that will have every Chocobo-lover checking their bank accounts for extra Gil to be able to drop a pre-order on the latest Action figure or piece of Shinra jewelry.

Also at the celebration showcase were smaller game announcements such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade coming to Steam as well as new info about the battle royale mobile title The First Soldier and the mobile recap/remake/redo title Ever Crisis. But that’s not why folks were here and the folks at Square Enix knew it. It was nice that this was an abbreviated showcase because that meant that we didn’t have to sit through too many boring mobile games before we got to the goods. And BOY were the goods on display.

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion (yes that’s the actual title) is a Remake of the PSP exclusive title that follows the story of Zak and Sephiroth before the events of Final Fantasy VII. Those who played through Remake know that this story holds even more significance now with Zak being brought in to Remake in a very interesting and unexpected way. I’ve never played Crisis Core before and always hoped that this game would make it into the PlayStation Plus classics catalog, but now I’ll be able to play it remastered and optimized on my PlayStation 5 when it releases this Winter. Yep, this game is only half a year away. This is extremely rare to get such a close release window for a newly announced Final Fantasy title so this has me very excited on multiple fronts.

Finally we were rewarded with a first look and announcement for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment of what is now confirmed to be a Final Fantasy VII Trilogy. Our brief look at Rebirth did not offer much in the way of details as to the scope of the game. We were shown a brief scene of Cloud and Sephiroth approaching the mountainside village of Nibelheim (which is a very pivotal location in the original game) peppered with voice over and flashing imagery alluding to the notion that Square will indeed be leaning even harder into the concept of changing fate in the sequel. The trailer also shows more of Zak and Cloud in the parallel timeline approaching Midgar to make our heads spin with buzz and speculation.

The biggest takeaway from the announcement of Rebirth is not the trailer itself though, it’s the confirmation that this is a 3 part series and this second chapter will be arriving on PlayStation 5 next Winter. of course i’ll believe that when I see it as Final Fantasy games are prone to heavy delays. But if Square actually manages to drop Final Fantasy XVI in Summer and Rebirth in Winter of next year, it’s going to be lights out for Final Fantasy fans on PlayStation 5.

I. AM. EXCITED.