Speaking on stage at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest, the MMORPG's lead Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida lays the praise on Naoki Hamaguchi, saying that fans are desperate for the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director to work on the next mainline entry in the long-running JRPG series.

The pair were standing on stage together at MMO's annual fan convention for a panel called Naoki's Room. The two series leads, who coincidentally share the same first name, answered a number of prepared questions during the talk. Towards the end of the discussion, Yoshi-P revealed that he's received many comments from fans asking for Hamaguchi to work on FF17.

"But there were comments along the lines of 'I want this guy [Hamaguchi] to make Final Fantasy 17,'" he says.

Yoshi-P continues by explaining how highly he regards the compliment. "So I think that's probably the highest praise you can get," he continues, before adding "you don't have to respond."

The FF7R lead is clearly embarrassed by the comment when he says, "my response?" Yoshi-P then makes a gesture that he doesn't need to answer before quickly wrapping up the discussion.

Some have speculated that this is a hint that Hamaguchi is indeed working on FF17, but it's vague at best. While Hamaguchi is visibly embarrassed, it could be from the compliment, from being caught off guard, or because he's unsure if he can talk about the projects he's working on. Equally, Yoshi-P may have cut Hamaguchi off to save him from his embarrassment.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a huge success and we're sure Hamaguchi would do an excellent job developing a completely new mainline entry, rather than his current remakes. However, as the third part of the remake trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, isn't scheduled to be released until 2027, we hope he focuses his energy on perfecting that game first.

Final Fantasy 6, 8, or 9 remakes would need even more games than the FF7 trilogy, Yoshi-P warns: "We'd probably end up having to release them in 4 or maybe even 5 installments."

Careful what you wish for, Final Fantasy fans. Potential future remakes of other games in the series would probably require even more individual parts than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy – at least, if they were remade in that same style – according to Final Fantasy 14's Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida.

The MMORPG's director said as much during a panel at Fan Fest Berlin – with Final Fantasy 7 Remake lead Naoki Hamaguchi also in attendance – warning folks that the wait for an entire remake of Final Fantasy 6, for example, would be even more painfully long than what we've become accustomed to.

"Of course I understand the feelings of the players, but you gotta think about it," Yoshi-P says, per a translator, of fan requests for future series remakes. "Look at Final Fantasy 6, it's such an incredibly huge game. The scale is just immense."

But the same argument is true for other games in the series, like Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9, he adds: "So, of course, now because you are working on the Final Fantasy 7 series, I do get that people would be asking for remakes of other titles. But if we did remake those other titles, we'd probably end up having to release them in four or maybe even five installments."

Final Fantasy games used to be absolutely huge in their scope because the developers couldn't render everything in excruciating detail as they can now – nor did they need to. Final Fantasy 6 was able to fit 14 playable characters, a huge world map that dramatically changes throughout the adventure, and countless epic fights onto a humble SNES cartridge. You can imagine how doing all of that in a game with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's production value would be tricky.

Ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Hamaguchi himself made clear that a hypothetical remake of Final Fantasy 6 would be in better hands with another developer anyway. He seems more keen on doing something new after Revelation ships.

At Fan Fest, Hamaguchi explained that he felt incredibly lucky that so many developers stayed together for all three games in the FF7 Remake trilogy, back to back. "That's why I can't just sit here and go, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll remake [FF6],' because it's not quite that easy."

Perhaps the way forward for Final Fantasy remakes is the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance, a gorgeous pixel art game with turn-based combat, rather than the giant world of the FF7 Remake games.

Final Fantasy 14 Evercold changes housing for the better, Yoshi-P says, and World of Warcraft's "amazing" take on the MMO staple has "been a good source of research."

E3 is best remembered for its glitzy press conferences, where big publishers put their best feet forward as they showcase their games to massive audiences online. But it wasn't always that way. Just look at when Square turned the much-anticipated US reveal of Final Fantasy 8 into a desperately awkward stalling match.

In 1998, Square was riding high on the success of Final Fantasy 7, a game which had proven a hit even in North America, where JRPGs had historically been a niche genre. At the time, Square had mostly partnered with Sony to publish its PlayStation titles, but that was about to change with the formation of Square Electronic Arts.

As the name suggests, this would be a joint venture between Square and EA to help bring the Japanese company's games to market in North America. (Another company, Electronic Arts Square, would do the same for EA's games in Japan.) At E3 1998, they detailed this partnership in front of journalists, highlighting titles like Parasite Eve, Xenogears, and yes, Final Fantasy 8 as among the first to be published by Square Electronic Arts.

That press conference was not meant to be seen by the public, but an attendee by the name of Anthony Parisi happened to be there, filming with a camcorder. Parisi's tape – alongside an absolute treasure trove of other materials related to E3 – was recently published as part of the Video Game History Foundation's digital archive, giving us what the group calls "possibly the only surviving video of the US debut of Final Fantasy VIII."

It sounds momentous, but if you follow the link above, scroll to the 57:19 mark in the video, and watch the whole 35-minute press conference for yourself, you'll find that it feels like anything but a big deal.

A handful of EA and Square reps sit down behind an innocuous table and simply tell members of the media about what they plan to do. It is a press conference in the most traditional sense, and the exact kind of thing E3 was for before the livestreaming era.

Eventually, the execs run down the games they're showing at E3 and, alongside the hands-on demos, promise "a preview of Final Fantasy 8." In the video, we hear someone near the camera quietly whisper, "Nice."

A Square rep politely asks attendees to refrain from filming this preview, but thankfully, this camera operator chooses to outright ignore that request, pointing the camera directly at the projector screen.

Yes! Anthony Parisi's tape from E3 1998 has possibly the only surviving video of the US debut of Final Fantasy VIII, including six full minutes of the Squaresoft staff fumbling with the projector trying to get the trailer to playarchive.gamehistory.org/item/3996212...

— @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social (@gamehistoryorg.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-24T20:17:54.786Z

Except the screen remains blank. Audio from this mystery trailer begins to play several times, but video never accompanies it. Minutes pass. It's unclear exactly how many minutes pass, because there's a cut in the middle of the footage. When we come back, Square and EA are setting up to take questions from the audience in a seemingly impromptu Q&A session as others continue to try getting the projector running. At one point, the microphones cut out too.

This keeps happening for at least seven minutes in front of a crowd increasingly restless to see Final Fantasy 8 – it's probably even longer, given the jump in the footage. At long last, the lights dim, and the video begins to play… completely without audio. The crowd gets one last laugh in before they finally get to see the trailer, complete with soundtrack, debuting about a minute of impressive CG footage featuring the soon-to-be beloved protagonist, Squall.

It's all a fun reminder of what the old E3 was: an event for publishers to show their upcoming products to retail buyers and members of the media. E3's more public face, where these "press conferences" turned into high-production events broadcast for gamers around the world, wouldn't really get underway until the mid-'00s.

There's one more detail from this press conference I want to highlight – one that I found pretty notable given the constant mass layoffs happening around the game industry, many of which are directly tied to major publishers overspending on mergers and acquisitions with other studios. The partnership between EA and Square, it seems, was intended to be very different.

"As opposed to many joint ventures, this one will actually create jobs, as opposed to reduce jobs in the industry," then EA president John Riccitiello argued, which is a downright stunning thing to hear a video game executive say now, nearly three decades later. "This is not an efficiency proposition, this is an effectiveness proposition. This is going to build this industry, and build the businesses of Square and EA."

Of course, Riccitiello was leading EA when it would shut down multiple studios and lay off thousands of employees through the late '00s, so I guess not all joint ventures are created equal. Square Electronic Arts would disappear after the Square Enix merger, but not before bringing us North American players some of the best JRPGs of all time.

This is our ranking of the best Final Fantasy games of all time.

Final Fantasy 14's housing system is due to get two "very big" overhauls as part of the post-Evercold run of patches, and it looks like Blizzard's own take on the popular MMO feature in World of Warcraft has given Square Enix plenty to chew over.

As part of Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest in Berlin, producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida spoke to the press to tackle some questions about Evercold. Among the most interesting was a question over whether Square Enix had any plans to modernize Final Fantasy 14's housing system.

Speaking through a translator, Yoshi-P jokes that the question may have been refined prior to being presented to him, before adding: "I get the feeling what you really want to ask is, well, WoW has come up with this amazing housing system. How about [Final Fantasy] 14?"

Yoshi-P starts by saying that the Final Fantasy 14 team has an "immense respect" for the World of Warcraft team. And indeed, Yoshi-P has rarely been shy in giving Blizzard its flowers.

Then, he shares that when the Final Fantasy 14 team saw that the WoW devs were working on their own housing system, and that they "looked to [Final Fantasy] 14 and incorporated things which they wanted to surpass us, I think that in itself is very much a sense of great honor for us to hear."

Seemingly happy to return the favor, Yoshi-P says he went "hands-on" with the WoW housing system, and came away impressed and motivated.

"I really do appreciate it. It's amazing," he says. "And we always like taking on new challenges. So this time around, when I tried WoW's housing, I thought it really is amazing, and it's been a good source of research."

The good news is that you'll see the results of that research soon. Yoshi-P says the Final Fantasy 14 team is "planning two very big overhauls for housing" during the patch 8.0 series. If you're averse to numbers, that means it'll arrive at some point between Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion launching and whatever the next expansion ends up being.

So what's on the way? Yoshi-P says one of the overhauls relates to the UI as it's currently "quite technical" and "not very accessible." In an ideal world, Yoshi-P would like a casual player to be able to create elaborate housing.

While Yoshi-P can't reveal much about the second overhaul, he does say it will make players happier than the UI update and that it's currently in the planning phase. As such, there's a chance it'll release before the UI update, but we'll just need to wait and see how the chips fall. Yoshi-P says the Final Fantasy 14 team will announce further details when they have more visibility.

The news is the latest sliver we've got about Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion. As part of the Berlin Fan Fest, we've also found out that the first new FF14 Evercold job will be a hulking tank called the Bastion, that Final Fantasy 14 is getting a crossover with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, and much more. It feels like Final Fantasy 14 is going for it, and that might be just what the MMO needs.

Final Fantasy 14 Evercold releases January, 2027.

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The Final Fantasy 14 fandom quickly became enamoured by a chunky new boss that came alongside a patch 7.5 dungeon: Chort, a big boy who loves to roll around and wear a permanently hungry grin on his face. The critically-acclaimed MMORPG's director, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, doesn't quite get the hype, though.

"Honestly speaking, I just don't know why this is such a thing," Yoshi-P quips during a Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest panel in Berlin, attended by GamesRadar+. He might not be a huge fan of the rotund icon, but he couldn't exactly ignore the topic in a room full of fans who were asking about Chort.

"I am really glad to hear that Chort is so well received," Yoshi-P adds, per a translator. "But honestly speaking, I just couldn't really understand what is the appeal [or] point of Chort. Of course, we do understand that he's very popular, and there have been many memes. But really, I just couldn't understand, like, just why?"

Yoshi-P's not totally against seeing the good in Chort - he is human, after all, and I'm sure his heart hasn't been totally frozen over. "I mean, this is some huge hunky guy, and then suddenly, well, he's standing there and then he rolls," he continues, inching closer to a eureka moment. "So from that perspective, I can kind of understand." Hook, line, sinker.

Whether he gets the online hype or not, Yoshi-P did tell fans to continue coming together online and talking about the things they enjoy about the game. If nothing else, the devs love to see it: "When these kinds of things happen and the player community picks up on it on social media, and they combine various things, they create their own memes... it's really great for us to see as well because we are involved in creating this entertainment.

"So, if people in the community also find some unexpected sets or point of appeal in any content that we produce moving forward, do make your voices heard because the development team is looking at all of the responses on social media, and we very much do enjoy looking at them, and we do have smirks on our faces when things like this happen."

Long live Chort, then, even if his chances of becoming a minion just became less likely. We'll never forget you, big man.

Elsewhere at Fan Fest, Square Enix revealed that the Bastion is Final Fantasy 14's first new job coming with the Evercold expansion. The game's also getting a very exciting crossover raid series with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

Final Fantasy 14 reportedly tops 1 million active players for the first time in over a year as fans prepare for the Evercold expansion

A new Final Fantasy 14 Evercold raid has been confirmed, and it features none other than a crossover with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series.

As part of Final Fantasy 14's Fan Fest celebrations in Berlin, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida revealed that an Evercold raid will be called Beyond the Lifestream.

If that's not enough of a hint, that does indeed mean the critically acclaimed MMO is getting a Final Fantasy 7 Remake series crossover.

As part of the reveal, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead Naoki Hamaguchi joined the stage to reveal more details. You're getting three tiers, with the first starting in update 8.01. Additionally, there will be three difficulty levels. The standard Normal and Savage difficulties, and a new difficulty that's new to Evercold that's designed to bridge the gap between the standard two.

Additionally, OG Final Fantasy 7 writer Kazushige Nojima is acting as story supervisor to make sure everything fits. Naturally, OG Final Fantasy 7 art icon Tetsuya Nomura is also getting involved.

Somewhat related, though amusing for sure, but we've also found out that Final Fantasy 14's version of the Gold Saucer is getting additional games, like a typing game that's Final Fantasy 7-related to start, of course. Brush up on your vocab, folks. There are outfits to be unlocked, starting with Tifa and Barret's duds.

That's about it for now, but you can expect plenty more details as we get closer to Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion, which releases in January 2027.

The Bastion is Final Fantasy 14's first new job for Evercold, a hulking tank with a shield and gun on each arm.

The first new Final Fantasy 14 job of Evercold has been revealed, and it's a tank called the Bastion that blends high fantasy and mechanical aesthetics.

As part of the European leg of Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest, producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has taken to the stage once more to continue the drip feed of what's coming to the MMO in its next expansion. In this case, Final Fantasy 14 Evercold.

Back at the American leg of Fan Fest, we found out that Final Fantasy 14 would be getting two new jobs in Evercold – something for tank fans, something for DPS fans. Yoshi-P also revealed that these new classes would be something new to the Final Fantasy series, so no throwbacks here.

Now, we know what one of them is. As part of a new trailer, Square Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy is getting a new tank job that not only has a shield on each arm, but can also fire 'em both off as guns.

Our first glimpse of the new job in action came from an extended version of the Evercold trailer, which opened the Berlin Fan Fest keynote.

While Yoshi-P did appear in his cosplay to further tease the job, we had to wait just a little while longer for some more details, and it was worth it.

We first see a glimpse of some of its moves, blending up-close-and-personal combat with the ability to fire off its weapons from a bit of a distance. From vibes alone, it looks like it'll hit like a truck.

If you're keen to start Evercold as the Bastion, you'll want to make sure you're level 90 and around Limsa when the expansion releases in January 2027. Additionally, as touched upon at the last Fan Fest, this job will use the MMO's new streamlined moveset.

The job news might not be a total surprise to some clever Final Fantasy 14 fans. As is tradition, Yoshi-P teased what jobs were to come with a t-shirt he made everyone aware of at the last Fan Fest. Now, the t-shirts aren't typically an obvious giveaway. For Dawntrail, Yoshi-P wore a Ninja Turtles t-shirt to tease the upcoming artist job. It wasn't to tease that some sort of Ninja job was on the way – that'd be too obvious, and the MMO already has it – rather, the clue was that each turtle is named after an artist.

For Evercold, we got a picture of A Realm Reborn antagonist Rhitahtyn sas Arvina with a 'guess who's back' caption above it. Fans quickly assumed this was leading us to the tank job, with theories ranging from something obvious like a gunshield user to grander theories – like something hammer-based due to Ritahtyn sas Arvina's name translating to "judge" in the Roegadyn language. And, of course, the expansion being Norse themed.

Amusingly, Yoshi-P himself said that some fans already guessed what the jobs were back in Anaheim. Naturally, he didn't confirm which guesses were correct.

Regardless, that's one job down, and some were, of course, correct. When the Japan leg of Final Fantasy 14 comes around, we'll find out the other. Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion releases in January 2027.

Final Fantasy 14's Third Walk raid starts with FF11's most infamous boss being bodied in a cutscene because a raid designer wanted to show off the true strength of your first foe.

While its spirit lives on in the Xenoblade games, Monolith Soft's Xenosaga series has been dormant since the final game hit PS2 way back in 2006. Fans have been desperate for some sort of revival for years, and those hopes are rising again thanks to a new Xenosaga cameo in the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Momo from Xenosaga will be a new equipable Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. "Swap between two forms to change her appearance and elemental affinity," Nintendo says in a new trailer as her light and dark forms are demonstrated.

This is not the first Xenosaga character to appear as a Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, as KOS-MOS and T-elos already had similar appearances in the game. But Momo is awakening a new round of hopes that Xenosaga might live again after a decades-long stay in IP hell.

Developer Monolith Soft built the Xenosaga games under Namco, which maintained control of the IP as it morphed into Bandai Namco. Monolith Soft would be acquired by Nintendo in 2007, and created the Xenoblade series as a sort of spiritual successor to Xenosaga. No entry in the Xenosaga series has gotten a modern remake, remaster, or rerelease since that split occurred.

But fans were quick to note some oddities in the wake of Momo's reveal for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. For one thing, Xenosaga no longer appears as one of Bandai Namco's owned IPs on the company's official website – a removal that occurred just last year. For another, there's no copyright or trademark notes attributed to Bandai Namco in the trailer that showed off Momo, unlike with trailers featuring other Nintendo crossovers with third-party publishers in games like Super Smash Bros.

For some, that's reason enough to believe that Nintendo has acquired the Xenosaga IP, reuniting the rights to the series with its original development studio. That's a mighty big conclusion to jump to, but clearly it's a compelling enough theory for some fans – though that may just be the desperation to see Xenosaga on a modern platform talking.

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Sega president Shuji Utsumi has promised fans of the Persona series that the teaser trailer for Persona 6 is just the start of what he believes will be a "truly memorable year" to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary. While Persona 4 Revival will be another hype moment for fans, Utsumi hints that there are more reveals on the horizon.

In an interview with Famitsu, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Utsumi expresses how he's "very confident" that fans will be pleased with what Sega has planned for the series' 30th anniversary. A spin-off from Atlus' already popular Shin Megami Tensei series, Revelations: Persona added more of a narrative focus and emphasis on the character's relationships than its beast battling predecessor.

Originally released for the original PlayStation in 1996, the series has evolved well beyond its isometric pixel art roots. If you've only played the series' newer titles you might not be aware that it didn't always feature a spicy UI and ranked high school relationships.

As 2026 is the 30th anniversary of this game, it seemed natural that Sega would announce the next mainline entry in the series, the long-awaited Persona 6. "I think we were able to announce a truly memorable year for Persona's 30th anniversary," Utsumi says. "Hype for the series has been built by Persona 6's reveal.

"And I think Persona 4 Revival will spark fan excitement again," Utsumi continues. "I'm sure everyone will feel the same way, and I'm very confident we'll give the Persona series the lively 30th anniversary celebration it deserves."

Persona 4 Revival seemingly features more scenes with Marie, fuelling hopes she'll be integrated better than in Golden: "If they do that, the remake will have fulfilled its purpose."

It seems like things are looking up for Final Fantasy 14. After Dawntrail led to players gradually pulling away from Square Enix's MMORPG, new data suggests many are now returning, in anticipation of upcoming expansion, Evercold.

The information comes from Japanese outlet Lucky Bancho, which regularly posts numbers related to the MMO's overall playerbase. According to these numbers, since March, Final Fantasy 14's number of active players has grown to over one million, to a grand total of around 1,020,000.

That's a good sign, and a decent jump from Lucky Bancho's last survey of the userbase in March, where the numbers for those actively playing were closer to around 770,000. It's mentioned that some 80,000 new accounts have been started as well, double the 40,000 of the previous datapoint, suggesting more people are beginning their journeys through Eorzea.

It's been a long time since the MMO came close to one million, according to the site's numbers. It recorded 990,000 active players in March 2025, over a year ago.

These insights are built through looking over public information on achievements and the like. It's not the most accurate because it doesn't include private accounts and doesn't differentiate among people who have multiple accounts. But it's a good ballpark estimate that can give us some insight into the overall health of the game.

There have been concerns following the negative reception to Dawntrail over the future of Final Fantasy 14. One bad expansion isn't a death knell for a game that's already been going well for over a decade now, but a consistent drop in players is enough to cause some anxiety.

But anticipation is growing for Evercold. It arrives in early 2027, and kicks off the Godless Realms Saga, marking a new era for the MMO. There's even an Evangelion crossover on the way. The future is looking bright, as it tends to under the watchful eye of director Naoki Yoshida.

Final Fantasy 14's Third Walk raid starts with FF11's most infamous boss being bodied in a cutscene because a raid designer wanted to show off the true strength of your first foe.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi understands open-world fatigue, which is why Revelation is seemingly trying to find a balance between Remake and Rebirth.

Rebirth's open world has been a point of criticism for the 2024 RPG, and despite the, ahem, revelation that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will have a bigger world than even Rebirth did, Hamaguchi tells Eurogamer that not overdoing it is on his mind.

He explains, "The world is even bigger than it was in Rebirth, so it is more important than ever for us to ensure there's enough guidance here, so people have no issues enjoying what this game has to offer."

"There are a lot of open world games out in the world right now, and [the idea of 'open world fatigue'] is a very important concept to me," Hamaguchi says.

Hamaguchi notes "it depends on personal preference and different perceptions, but for me personally, I know I've had the experience where I've been thrown out into an open world game and not known where to go, not known where to begin, and not known what to do."

As someone who is just playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth now after waiting for ages, it's pretty striking how different the layout of the game is compared to the first game in the Remake trilogy. While Final Fantasy 7 Remake did have little hubs to explore and get up to nonsense, it was very much funneling you forward through the adventure.

Rebirth, on the other hand, is very much an open-world game, full of distractions in each of the game's many areas. I've spent countless hours running through the maps to find all of the intel, fast forwarding through every bit of annoying dialogue Chadley is giving, with a few chapters still to go.

"For me personally, as a creator, I think it's very important to offer proper guidance for the players in open world games," Hamaguchi continues.

He says the Rebirth team wanted to "make it easy" for people to see how much content there is, and says "that design philosophy is applied to Revelation: players have all the guidance that they need. This is something that both myself and the development team were very careful about when we designed the game."

Hamaguchi also singles out the Highwind and parachute mechanic included in the next game, and stresses it isn't as simple as picking where to go and letting the cutscene drop you there.

"After you open the parachute, you kind of have to rely on your memory to ensure that you're actually dropping into the place where you want to go," he clarifies. This is billed as "another example of the guidance we're giving players, without directing them too much."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation DLC includes "Story Expansion Pass," according to Epic Games Store database listings

Final Fantasy 14's battle content designer Masayoshi Ishikawa says that he put Absolute Virtue in Windurst: The Third Walk just to show how strong Shantotto is. He also jokes that the menace could've been the first boss of Windurst if Shantotto hadn't destroyed it in the pre-fight cutscene.

In an interview with Famitsu, Ishikawa discusses the ways he tried to show Shantotto's strength in the finale to the Final Fantasy 11 crossover, Echoes of Vana'diel. Despite being the first boss of Windurst: The Third Walk, Ishikawa wanted her to appear particularly powerful.

As translated by GamesRadar+, Ishikawa says, "As she's the first boss, there are limits on how strong we can make her. In the distance Meteor rains down in the middle of the fight exploding in chaos, and as she casts a large number of mage actions, FF14 players can easily tell 'this is a powerful black mage.' She shows her strength in a number of ways, like the dynamic way Quake raises walls up from the ground."

However, it's not the damage she deals in battle that best demonstrates how formidable she is, but who she defeats before the fight with her even begins. "The cherry on top is that she defeats Absolute Virtue in the cutscene before the battle starts," Ishikawa explains with a chuckle.

The interviewer then asks Ishikawa if Absolute Virtue would have been Windurst's first boss if that cutscene didn't exist. "Could've been," Ishikawa replies with a chuckle. He shouldn't have teased us with a good time.

Absolute Virtue stands as one of Final Fantasy 11's most infamous bosses due to how hard it once was. To be honest, at the peak of its powers, it was probably among the hardest super bosses you could face in the whole Final Fantasy series.

In the years following its release, Square Enix got heat for discounting teams for not beating it by legit means. While the devs did eventually release some tips on how to topple the beast, they eventually conceded and nerfed Absolute Virtue. Mind you, it did take us a few years to get to that point.

Square Enix just killed Final Fantasy 14's mobile port before it could even launch globally, offering "sincere apologies for being unable to meet your expectations"

It turns out that getting a development team together for Final Fantasy 10 was trickier than you might expect, all because of a completely separate game – Kingdom Hearts 1.

Final Fantasy 10 producer Yoshinori Kitase (who also directed Final Fantasy 7, 8, and more) discusses this in a recent interview to celebrate the JRPG's 25th anniversary.

"First of all, assembling the FF10 team was difficult," he begins. "Tetsuya Nomura and I worked on FF7 and FF8 together, but then he was assigned to Kingdom Hearts. He was involved with FF10 as a character designer, of course, but his main project was Kingdom Hearts, and some of the other staff were assigned there too."

As the director of Kingdom Hearts, it's little wonder that Nomura didn't have as much time available for Final Fantasy 10. The two games only released a few months apart, too, so there was a lot of crossover in their development times.

His absence, along with the other staff members who were shifted onto the RPG, meant that "the first thing we needed to do was to find people who could lead teams to handle core 3D elements like 3DCG motion graphics, backgrounds, and character models" for the Final Fantasy entry, Kitase says.

To handle that, a number of new staff members were brought onto the team, but Kitase says that "mostly we promoted people we had worked with before to handle key aspects of the project."

And, of course, the team still had plenty of veterans to support things, too – Kitase gives the example of Yusuke Naora, the JRPG's world art director, who'd already been credited on multiple Final Fantasy games including 3, 7, and 8.

Flash forward to today, and Nomura is still splitting his time between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. As well as having Kingdom Hearts 4 on the horizon (though how far away that is is another matter), Nomura is also one of the creative directors on Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. He's clearly a busy guy.

Kingdom Hearts 4 updates could be coming soon as series "deep dive" is confirmed for D23, 2 months after Square Enix's surprise new trailer.

Final Fantasy series leads Takashi Tokita and Yoshinori Kitase claim that Square Enix considered skipping Final Fantasy 4 as a promotional stunt. If the company had decided to go directly to FF5, the multi-entry JRPG series' fifth entry would've launched before Dragon Quest's.

In an interview on Final Fantasy's official website, Final Fantasy 4 lead Tokita reveals that Square Enix considered calling the series' fourth entry Final Fantasy 5 in order to surpass the company's most popular JRPG series, Dragon Quest. Originally launching one year before Final Fantasy's first entry, Dragon Quest continues to hold the title of Square Enix's longest running series.

Tokita began his first principal position at Square Enix working as lead game designer on Final Fantasy 4. As he had previously worked on the JRPG's third entry, he saw the move to development on the SNES from the NES as an opportunity to catch up to Dragon Quest.

"In the NES era, Dragon Quest was released before Final Fantasy," Tokita explains. "So it felt like we were constantly trying to catch up. But FF was released for the SNES first, and while that came with its own pressures, it was also a chance to pull ahead since both series were tied with four titles each."

This advantage apparently led to company higher-ups discussing how to make the most of the situation. "Now that I think about it, wasn't there talk of skipping 4 and making 5 instead?" Kitase asks. "There was," Tokita confirms. "The CEO at the time stated that we would skip 4 and go straight to 5 to beat Dragon Quest. Talk about an innovative approach."

If Square Enix had gone through with the idea it wouldn't have been the only time it went with an unconventional numbering strategy for the series. In North America, Final Fantasy 4 was infamously labelled as the series' second entry, while six had the honor of being American players' Final Fantasy 3.

Despite the confusing unconventional numbering causes, Kitase believes it would have been "kind of a brilliant idea." "Game development was certainly changing," Tokita adds. "But the way games were being promoted was changing as well."

Final Fantasy 10 leaned into the fantasy genre after devs "learned that The Lord of the Rings was in production" and thought it would be "the next big global trend."

Final Fantasy 10's developers chose to move away from sci-fi after finding out that The Lord of the Rings was being adapted into a big-screen trilogy, and hoping they could be a part of the "next big global trend."

Square Enix is now celebrating 25 years since the original Final Fantasy 10 first launched, and in an effort to stop fans crumbling into dust, the company released an interview between Takashi Tokita (of Chrono Trigger and Parasite Eve fame) and series producer Yoshinori Kitase about the iconic game's production.

While Final Fantasy frequently flips between the sci-fi and fantasy genres, Final Fantasy 10 was originally supposed to follow on from Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8's more tech-forward approach. According to Kitase, that quickly changed.

"During development, we initially took a more sci-fi approach at first, but when we thought about what would be trending in Hollywood around the time of FF10's release, we learned that The Lord of the Rings was in production," Kitase explains. "So we thought fantasy was going to be the next big global trend, and that was one of the reasons we decided to go with fantasy rather than sci-fi."

The timing worked out perfectly, too. Final Fantasy 10 began development in 1999 and came out in 2001, just a few short months before The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone made waves in theatres.

Yuna's pilgrimage and Frodo's trek aren't too dissimilar when you take a step back, either. Both are tragic characters carrying a literal burden too heavy for anyone else, tasked with saving the world from a calamity that'll likely kill them in the process. But Final Fantasy 10's sci-fi routes still show up here and there in the final game, as well.

"It began with Mr. [Kazushige] Nojima wanting to explore a fantasy atmosphere that wasn't rooted in medieval Europe, but instead drew from more Eastern influences, since both FF7 and FF8 had maintained a sci-fi tone," Kitase adds.

Japanese gamers vote Final Fantasy 10 the most tear jerking JRPG of all time, but it seems the emotional appeal of Western indies like Undertale and Omori is universal

Final Fantasy 14's planned mobile port – a release that Square Enix hoped for the world to see after its launch in China – is now off the table entirely, apparently.

In case you're out of the loop on Final Fantasy 14 Mobile, it first kicked off years ago when "a small team of die-hard" fans proposed the idea to MMO director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida, "armed with a 100-page proposal" – a proposal that interested the lead, to say the least.

It's largely been off the radar since its announcement and development at Tencent, however, with little news popping up about it aside from its release last summer in China. Now, sadly, it seems it won't be coming out anywhere else – even though the rest of the world was set to see Final Fantasy 14 Mobile sometime after that initial region-exclusive release. And, to top the disappointing news off, the Chinese edition is going offline as well.

Square Enix confirms as much in a new announcement on the canceled project's official website, first looking back at the mobile port's June 2025 launch in China.

"On the launch day of Final Fantasy 14 Mobile (Chinese Edition) in the Chinese mainland, we said, 'Resonate with the Light, and blaze as one,' and promised that the adventure had just begun. Over this time, it is you who have truly brought 'Mobile Eorzea' to life. Every suggestion you shared on gameplay, experiences, and features guided us to build the game world."

It's heartwarming to hear, but it wasn't enough to save the port, it seems.

"Today, however, we must regretfully share an important announcement. Due to adjustments in business operations and changes in the market environment, Tencent and Square Enix have, through amicable negotiation, decided to terminate the licensing agreement for Final Fantasy 14 Mobile (Chinese Edition)."

The game will go offline in China on September 30 this year – and, once again, will not be coming overseas.

As Square Enix states, "To everyone who has been looking forward to the global version, we also offer our sincere apologies for being unable to meet your expectations" – which, you know, makes it pretty clear this is indeed the end end of Final Fantasy 14 Mobile.

Unfortunately, it's not the first Square Enix or Final Fantasy title on mobile devices to bite the dust. The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles remaster went down last year.

Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is also shutting down after three years, much to fans' dismay. At least we've got Evercold to look forward to, I suppose – and, you know, the Nintendo Switch 2 port, which arrives next month with a free trial.

It's disappointing to learn that the MMO seemingly won't ever be available to play via our mobile phones, but perhaps it's for the best. I'm not sure I can imagine tackling a Savage on my Samsung Galaxy, honestly.

Final Fantasy 14 hit with yet another stalking mod, not even 2 weeks after the MMO's last one shut down.

Final Fantasy Resonance is going heavy on the Final Fantasy fan service – from the iconic series heroes who temporarily join in on battles to the nostalgic pixel art and fate-defying story – but the fan service goes so deep here that the upcoming game even includes a callback to one of the franchise's most infamous challenges of all time, Final Fantasy 9's jump rope minigame.

Final Fantasy Resonance is somewhat of a celebration of the entire series. After all, you can literally summon fan-favorite characters, such as Cloud and Lightning, to slash enemies into tiny little pixel squares. But good fan service celebrates the uglier, less popular parts of the fandom, too. Enter, Final Fantasy 9's jump rope.

Square Enix recently revealed a couple of minigames you'll be able to partake in when the turn-based game launches later this year, including one that has you play hide-and-seek with Moogles and another that tests your timing with a skipping rope. (Thanks, Gematsu!)

Anyone that's played even the first few hours of Final Fantasy 9 might remember a section that puts us in the oversized shoes and pointy hat of Vivi, the black mage, who can choose to simply remain in the early-game area and jump rope with some kids forever. Or until he becomes delirious since the minigame is really tough. Like, my knuckles are aching and my brows are clammy and all I can hear is the sound of Vivi's boots knocking on the ground, echoing up and down my skull, kinda tough.

Better yet, the challenge was tied to a few really powerful cards used in Final Fantasy 9's Tetra Master minigame. Nowadays, completionists and super fans are even more incentivized to reach 1,000 consecutive, successful rope jumps thanks to two achievements – a challenge that one fan twisted into a FromSoftwarian nightmare by going in with a blindfold.

Either way, for better or for worse, you can partake in the jumping of ropes in Final Fantasy Resonance thanks to a group of kids playing in a village. Perhaps Square Enix will take it easier on our thumbs this time around...

Each town supposedly has a different minigame, so the door's open to other fan-favorite/fan-abhorred activities as well. Blitzball? Fort Condor? Just fishing? We'll find out when Final Fantasy Resonance comes to PC and all current consoles on October 22.

More traditional Final Fantasy remakes could happen, as Square Enix says it'll follow what "truly resonates" with fans, even if that's not open-world action.

Stop us if you've heard this before, folks, but the Final Fantasy 14 community is grappling with yet another stalking mod… you know, not even two whole weeks after the last one was on the chopping block.

In case you missed it, Memoria – a plug-in that, put simply, allowed for in-game tracking of players' entire history – went down earlier this month following a plethora of complaints from concerned Final Fantasy 14 fans. Its creator assured "the service is now closed, and all collected player data has been permanently deleted," but people were understandably still upset… both by its existence and the lack of action Square Enix took about it.

Now, some 13 or so days later, a new plug-in fans fear can enable stalking and harrassment has entered the limelight – and it's safe to say that it, coupled with the timing of its arrival, is not going over well with fans.

A worried player first pointed EchoVault, the add-on in question, out on Reddit a few days ago, explaining that, much like Memoria and Playerscope (another controversial mod), it can track player data… but that's not all.

Playerscope is back, and Alt Tracking is still very much possible from r/ffxiv

Allegedly, the creator behind EchoVault is the same creator who made Memoria. As the fan who notes the new plug-in claims, "The domain for both websites is the same, and on his 'shutdown message' for Memoria, he felt the need to put this line here."

The alleged line? "Every echo finds its vault, in time." Oof. The evidence is quite damning, if true – although it's worth noting that this line is missing from a different screenshot of the statement that was circulating earlier in the month. Either way, it doesn't seem like Square Enix is catching onto it.

Players have likely filed various reports since the callout post, seeing as the fan who made it provided feedback links for the MMO's developers, and hundreds of people interacted with it – but we've seen no word from Square Enix since, and the plug-in is still up as per its website (and boy, is it something).

On top of this, the person behind the Reddit thread has returned today with a new update on how the mod "just got worse."

EchoVault (Playerscope clone) just got worse, now tracks you automatically through Player Search from r/ffxiv

As per their findings, EchoVault "just pushed an update that further automates the process by using Player Search." In short, the plug-in can run player searches for users while they idle, "cycling jobs to discover more characters across your world." I… yeah.

And, "once again," the fan bringing all of this to light begs fellow Warriors of Light to report the add-on to Square Enix. Not everyone is convinced it'll help, though.

One commenter writes, "Unfortunately, from all appearances, Square just doesn't seem to care." Another adds, "Mods are cooked."

From issues with the built-in blacklist system and complaints about it not being protective enough of users, to contention stemming from such questionable plug-ins that enable harassment, this isn't the first (or last, let's be real) time that the topic of stalking will come up in the Final Fantasy 14 community.

As a longtime fan of the MMO myself, it feels like a broken record – and while Square Enix does step in sometimes, it's evident that it's not enough. Here's hoping things change for the better… and that every third-party tool that can't be used for nefarious purposes doesn't suffer for it.

World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 fans can now earn up to $15,000 in scholarship money by tackling achievements with a less than "1% global completion rate."

Tales of series lead Yusuke Tomizawa has apologized for the long wait for a new mainline entry in the series.

Bandai Namco's Tales of series has been one of the most consistent RPG series of all time since it kicked off with 1995's Tales of Phantasia. Since then, the series has been an annual release, with occasional one- or two-year gaps. The wait between 2016's Tales of Berseria and 2021's Tales of Arise was the longest in the series history; however, Arise was at least announced in 2019. Come September, it'll have been five years since Arise was released, without any word of what the next game in the series will be.

While the series has been getting consistent releases over the last year and a half thanks to the Tales Remaster Project, which has seen Graces f, Xillia, and Berseria all remastered (with Eternia's remaster releasing this October), Tomizawa, general producer of the series, acknowledged the long wait in an interview with Famitsu (translated by Automaton).

Tomizawa says that one challenge the series faces is the lack of ways for players to get acquainted with older titles in the series, which spurred the remaster project. However, he notes that a new entry living up to expectations is "absolutely essential" and, unfortunately, that, mixed with the ever-increasing development time for AAA games, can be to blame for the long wait.

"The bar has risen when it comes to the scale of development and other factors, and to be honest, we’ve kept players waiting for quite long," Tomizawa explains. He adds, "While we haven’t been able to share concrete information yet, we are continuing to work on it while thinking of the series’ future."

Final Fantasy 14 and 16 director and longtime Square Enix developer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida said earlier this year that the long wait times between entries in the JRPG series has made it somewhat harder for younger players to engage with the series. The first 10 years of Final Fantasy had seven mainline entries released, while 1999-2002 had four mainline entries released in back-to-back years. In comparison, the last 10 years have had two mainline entries.

JRPG fans crushed again as latest Tales announcement turns out to be another bust: "The way they hype things up is just terrible"

World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 players can finally earn some cash by playing their beloved respective MMOs and put it towards a real-life degree – but it's not as easy as it may sound.

The University of Silicon Valley in California has quite an offer on the table for a few very lucky select students (10-15 annually, apparently) – the Max Achievement Scholarship, as the educational institution outlines on its official website.

If you've not heard of it before, it gives folks a chance to score up to $15,000 in scholarship money… but it's far simpler said than actually done. It isn't only a matter of playing games, you see.

As the university explains, "The Max Achievement Scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated extraordinary mastery, persistence, and systems thinking through the completion of rare and demanding achievements in digital gaming environments."

Yes, that means that aspiring players need to get to grindin' in their game of choice. We're talking "ultra-rare accomplishments" for the "Legendary Tier" of awards.

Many of these, as the University of Silicon Valley describes, require "500+ hours of sustained mastery across complex systems (typically <1% global completion rate)." For example, World of Warcraft players need to have Loremaster unlocked, all 13 professions maxed, and 25+ Exalted reputations, plus the Keystone Master achievement.

As for Final Fantasy 14 players, the requirements are higher than the in-game requirements to become a Mentor.

I know, I know, those aren't exactly ridiculously high themselves – but the university's are. Players need all 20 combat jobs and eight crafter/gatherer jobs at level 100 (the game's max level), plus all role quests and "all 12 extreme trials cleared," although it's not specified which ones.

I'm assuming Dawntrail's trials… and then some? The bottom line is that this scholarship money isn't easily obtainable, regardless.

MMOs aren't the only games up for the cash, either – heck, there's everything from Minecraft to Dark Souls (good luck with that one). You can even apply as a general PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X|S gamer, but you'll need platinums and perfect games galore.

Put simply, there's no quick way to have a go at the Max Achievement Scholarship money. If you think you might qualify, though, the university is accepting submissions now.

Multiple achievements may be submitted, too – but "achievements earned via modded, private, or emulated servers are not eligible." So, if you're a World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 (or insert another game name here) stan, shoot your shot.

Blizzard knows World of Warcraft's removal of raid add-ons is "controversial," but the MMO's lead says its new UI "has been successful so far"

Square Enix has announced Nintendo Switch 2 Edition versions of two of its beloved RPGs, and it still refuses to offer upgrade paths or cross save.

Square Enix has been one of the best supporters of the Switch 2 so far, with ports of the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth – not to mention Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will be the first mainline title to release on a Nintendo platform on day one since the original Final Fantasy 7 jumped ship to PlayStation. But unfortunately, when it comes to the games that were already on Nintendo Switch, Square Enix really hasn't been the best at treating original users to the cross-generation benefits that have mostly become commonplace in the industry.

Octopath Traveller 1 and 2 are next to receive the upgrade, with Square Enix announcing the titles' new editions to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the eight-protagonist RPG series. The Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of Octopath Traveller 1 and 2 release on October 1 – unless you're in Japan that is, where both have released today – with Square Enix promising improved resolution and frame rates.

Unfortunately however, just like with the announcement of Dragon Quest 11's Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, Square Enix isn't offering an upgrade path for existing Switch 2 owners, and on top of that, there won't be save transfer available for anyone who wants to continue their playthrough on Switch 2. The games will cost the same as their Switch 1 counterparts at $60 (making the eight-year-old game more expensive at launch on Switch 2 than Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth are).

Naturally, the comments on the announcement trailer are unhappy with this, with one user saying "thanks for telling your consumers that buying a game early isn't a good thing after all, very disappointing," while another adds, "If your goal for this announcement was to make your most dedicated fans – the fans who are the reason HD2D thrives in the first place – feel like they’ve been spat on the face. Then congratulations. You’ve succeeded!" Meanwhile, someone else puts it pretty simply: "no upgrade path, no save data transfer, no buy."

Dragon Quest 12 Beyond Dreams announced, replacing the previous version of the JRPG as Square Enix hits the reset button.

Modders have been reanimating classic games inside of other classic games for almost as long as reanimation has been a thing (200 years or so; thanks, Mary Shelley) - from a Morrowind remake built within Elden Ring to, now, a Final Fantasy Tactics mod that plops the strategy game's combat onto Final Fantasy 6's scenarios.

Over the last three years, a modder known as Conman on the FFHacktics forum has been hard at work on a mod called FF6: Tactics, alongside a group of other contributors.

Rather than remaking the entirety of Final Fantasy 6 in Tactics' style, which would probably take much longer than three years, the goal was to "avoid any world map/randoms/stores and just jump from one battle to another."

Conman called this a "battle rush style" with the mod assuming "the player already knows the story." Final Fantasy 6's biggest battles, but in a strategy format, then.

That includes having most of Final Fantasy 6's main cast playable with their own quirks along for the ride: Terra's a scarily powerful magic user, Locke can steal, Cyan can pull off fancy sword moves... You get the idea.

New stages, reworked sprites, and that banger soundtrack filtered through FFT's sound font. After all that hard work, the mod is finally done and out now - you can find it here.

As you might be able to tell from the adorably chunky assets on show and the project's development timeline, the mod is built off the back of the original PS1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics, not the more recently modernized The Ivalice Chronicles remaster, so don't expect its quality-of-life improvements or cleaner graphics to show up in the mod.

And elsewhere in the realm of remakes, Square Enix recently said more traditional and official Final Fantasy remakes could be in the pipeline depending on what "resonates" with fans the most.

Perhaps that sparks hope for that long-rumored Final Fantasy 6 remake, but even if that's a far-flung dream at this point, at least we have the above gorgeous mod that's halfway there.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead thinks a potential Final Fantasy 6 remake would "be in better hands if it went to another creator in Square Enix"

Persona 4 Revival might just be one of the most exciting new JRPGs underway – aside from Atlus' Persona 6, that is – and yes, its menus look just as stunning as the studio's past games.

In case you missed the likes of Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio in the past couple of years, Atlus' JRPGs have featured some of the most stunning menus I've seen in any game.

With vibrant visuals, eye-catching fonts, and fluid movement between selections, they're simply to die for – heck, it's one of the most notable features Metaphor: ReFantazio fans pointed out before the fantasy gem even launched in 2024.

It appears that Persona 4 Revival will join the studio's lineup of beautiful in-game menus, with new screenshots of its own UI drawing attention from series stans online.

In one post over on Twitter, we see bright turquoise shades and yellows showcased with various fonts, reflections, and shadowy backgrounds. It's a graphic designer's dream come true, and fans can't help but praise Atlus for the jaw-dropping menus.

"I think this might be the cleanest and best graphical presentation from an Atlus game ever, my God," writes one fan. Another adds, "These look sooo good." Elsewhere, someone jokes, "I hope they spent some of the budget fleshing out the characters" – because, you know, it feels like a lot of money went into the menu designs.

There's also a clip of the menus in action floating about, and yep… they're brilliant.

As one poster exclaims, "HOLY SHIT, THIS MENU IS SO RAD!" And, I have to include my favorite comment: "I FUCKING LOVE ATLUS MENU SCREENS!" Me, too, anon. Me, too.

That's not to say that Persona 4 Golden had bad menus or anything – but Revival is an upgrade, after all, and the menu redesigns certainly prove it. Personally, I can't wait to experience them in real-time.

Thankfully, I won't have to wait too long – Persona 4 Revival is releasing on February 18, 2027, which is mere months away at this point.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond to add to your wishlist.

New Persona 4 Revival footage has shown a new scene with Marie, leading to hopes that she'll be integrated better into the story than she was in Persona 4 Golden.

It's a trend in Persona games that when the updated version of it comes out, there's a new character integrated into the story who becomes a vital part of the new content – and by a trend, I mean it's happened twice. Persona 4 Golden introduced Marie to the story, a Velvet Room attendant who is a bit abrasive before opening up to the investigation team and protagonist. But she's a bit awkward in her integration, with many in the fandom dubbing her Poochie (in reference to a top five Simpsons episode).

However, Kasumi, introduced in Persona 5 Royal, has conversely become one of the most beloved characters in that game, and was overall integrated far better than Marie was for Persona 4 Golden, as if Atlus took the feedback about Poochie to heart. And from the looks of things, there may be some more Marie in Persona 4 Revival.

In the Persona 4 Revival character overview trailer, fans noticed that the scene shown alongside Marie is on the night of April 17, which would be after beating one of the game's first major bosses. The thing is, this scene doesn't exist in the original Persona 4 Golden, with Twitter user MeovvCAT speculating that this scene will play after the protagonist gets a tracksuit from Morooka.

And despite the mixed reception to Marie, response to the idea of more of the character is generally hopeful. Replies to the post include one user saying, "Hopefully learning from Kasumi and how to better integrate Marie into the overall story." Another adds: "What the remake needs to do, and I hope it succeeds, is to better integrate Marie into the story. If they do that, the remake will have fulfilled its purpose."

Persona 4 Revival changes some of Yosuke's controversial scenes: "We wanted to lighten that up and make it a little bit more fitting for the world we live in now."

Persona 4 Revival producer Kazuhisa Wada has revealed that Yosuke will be subject to changes to make him a "bit more fitting for the world we live in now."

Speaking to Anime Corner, Wada explains that the team hasn't made many changes "about the story," how characters think, "or how they act or anything" in Persona 4 Revival, but that the changes are "mostly with Yosuke."

He adds that Yosuke is "a little bit insensitive in terms of how he treats outsiders sometimes. So we wanted to lighten that up and make it a little bit more fitting for the world we live in now."

Persona 5 may be the biggest game in the series, but Persona 4 is that guy. Almost 20 years down the line and the game everyone used to complain was being oversaturated during the wait for Persona 5 is coming back, with 18 years of discourse backing it up. Some story elements of Persona 4 are a bit controversial to this day, so many have been curious as to how the remake would handle some of these elements.

One of the elements of Persona 4 that is perhaps aged in the eyes of many is pretty much everything to do with Yosuke. As a character, Yosuke embodies the "bro" archetype and – as someone who was a teen when Persona 4 came out – was a pretty accurate portrayal of your average edgy teenage boy in the era.

Yosuke is a very insecure character deep down, but it manifests with him being a bit of an asshole to his friends, playing on their insecurities, and by-extension being homophobic, misogynist, and just a bit of a creep. Most infamously, he asks Kanji – who was having doubts about his own sexuality – if he and the protagonist are going to be "safe alone" with him.

We've already seen that the game has removed a fan-favorite line that shows how awkward Yosuke could be (as well as a change to the pageant scene). Some are also wondering if the seemingly cut romance option with Yosuke will be restored in the upcoming remake, with some feeling that his homophobia and creepy lines could be symptomatic of a closeted person projecting their own insecurities. However, given the word that the team hasn't made major changes to the story, I have my doubts this will be included.

Persona 4 Golden Chie actor is "deeply grieving" being recast in Revival: "Thank you for sharing the journey with me."

You may or may not be aware that we got a new Final Fantasy 7 spin-off a few years ago. Yes, in addition to Rebirth and Remake. It's called Ever Crisis, and it's a gacha game retelling the whole franchise from the ground up, and if you haven't looked into it yet, you only have a limited window since it's now being shut down.

Square Enix has announced that Ever Crisis will cease operations on October 6, 2026, implying that maintaining the game has become untenable for one reason or another. "Since the launch of the App Store and Google Play versions on September 7, 2023, and the Steam version on December 6, 2023, we have worked to provide the best possible experience for our players," a statement from the company reads.

"After careful consideration, however, we have determined that it will be difficult to continue doing so and have made the decision to end service," the post finishes. We don't have hard data across all platforms, but on Steam, Ever Crisis peaked at 4,756 concurrent players, and now averages around 500, according to SteamCharts.

Unless the mobile playerbase was remarkably different, that's low by any standards, never mind for something tied to one of the most beloved games of all time. Red Crystals, the in-game currency, are now already off sale, but you're free to use any you already have until October 6. Story events will remain until the whole thing goes dark as well, giving players a few months to experience anything they haven't already.

Besides retelling the compilation of Final Fantasy 7, there is some original material in the narrative. Sephiroth's backstory gets more fleshed out, thanks to a plotline set 15 years before the original JRPG.

This is frustratingly common practice for Square Enix – see the nebulous lore of Kingdom Hearts – and it's irritating no method of preservation has been forthcoming. The publisher commented recently that it will look at ways of keeping releases 'enjoyable' on a case-by-case basis, which may mean the best we get are official uploads of the cutscenes on YouTube.

In an added wrinkle of irony, a redo of Final Fantasy 7: Before Crisis kicked off in the latest update. Before Crisis is another mobile game, from 2004, which never released outside Japan before it was discontinued in 2018. It focused on the Turks, and it looks like it'll become lost media for the second time. Reno, Rude and the boys just can't catch a break!

You have until October to enjoy this slice of Final Fantasy 7. Then, we go back to waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation "payoff" will leave you "sobbing," Cloud actor guarantees, even "if you haven't cried in the first two yet."

Remember Project Phoenix? No? I can't blame you. The project, a real-time strategy game with "strong" JRPG influences, was announced way back in 2013 on Kickstarter, where it very quickly racked up $1 million in crowdfunds. These days, the campaign page looks like a graveyard, with PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 proudly listed as supported platforms and a "mid 2015" estimated release window.

In those early days, Project Phoenix held a lot of promise. The art was beautiful and painterly, like a concept for what Octopath Traveler would eventually bring to life. The Kickstarter had earned more than 10 times its initial funding goal, and the team of developers included genuine industry veterans with credits on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Final Fantasy, Diablo, LA Noire, and more. So what went wrong? Well, no one was really sure until now.

After missing several release dates, updates on Project Phoenix, which would typically come from game director Hiroaki Yura, gradually slowed to a halt until 2019 when the whole thing went completely dark without reason. Naturally, the seven years of total silence between then and now have thoroughly eroded public trust in the project, but Yura has now released a lengthy Kickstarter update (via Resetera) explaining what went wrong, what's being done with the money from the campaign, and what's next for the game.

"It has been seven years since my last update. I'm not going to soften that or bury it further down the page," says Yura. "You backed this project, you trusted me with it, and then you heard nothing for a very long time. That silence is mine to answer for. I owe you a full explanation, and more than that, I owe you proof that Project Phoenix is still alive. Both are in this update.

"Years ago, I made myself a rule that I stuck to even when it cost me. I wouldn't post an update unless I had something worth showing," he adds. "For a long stretch I didn't, and instead of filling the gap with mock-ups and promises, I went silent. That was the wrong call. A plain 'we're still working, slowly' would have been far better than nothing, and I'm sorry I didn't give you that."

Yura says Project Phoenix went silent for a number of reasons, one of which being personal issues that "took a lot out of" him. Meanwhile, one of the key programmers "the whole technical side of the game depended on" departed the project at some point, and "rebuilding around that hole took years and money I did not have sitting in an account.

"Rather than burn through what remained and come back to you with nothing, I chose to step back and build a proper business first. One that could pay for this game the way it deserved, instead of running it into the ground. I built that business with my own means, not with what you had pledged, and its work is what funds Phoenix now," Yura says.

One of the biggest pain points around Project Phoenix was that, in the years Kickstarter backers went without any updates, Yura was off forming other studios and releasing other games, letting the perception that the project had been abandoned stand without explanation.

"The reason it happened is that those projects are how I earn the money to pay for this one," explains Yura. "The money has only ever moved in one direction, from that work into Phoenix, never the other way. We did not get rich off them. We are not anywhere close to rich. Whatever room those projects create goes straight back into being able to finish Phoenix the way it should be finished."

Yura also freely admits to having previously lacked a thorough understanding of the needs and demands inherent to a game of Project Phoenix's scale. Those other games and studios Yura was involved with were the stepping stones that would eventually lead him back to making Project Phoenix, now equipped with the required experience.

"It means the Phoenix you eventually play will be made by someone who has actually done this, not by the version of me who started it without knowing what he was taking on. That is a better game than the one that would have limped out years ago, even if it has cost us the time to get here."

As far as the $1 million, Yura says the "plain talk" explanation is pretty straightforward. "A good part of that paid for the work we did in the early years: character and creature designs, base models, the scenario and the world, and a large amount of Uematsu's music," Yura says, adding that a portion of it went into a widely criticized early gameplay demo from way back in 2014. Still, he admits:

"Not every dollar was spent as well as it could have been, and I am not going to tell you otherwise. But all of it went into this game and its production, never anywhere else. Since then, I have made sure the rest is funded properly, so that your contribution is not the thing holding it up."

While backers and fans generally are right to be skeptical, Yura says Project Phoenix is still in the works and is bigger in scope than originally planned, which is saying something. He hopes production will wrap by the end of 2031, which is sure to sting for people who've been waiting for this thing since 2013 (The Elder Scrolls 6 hopefuls can relate). " I would still choose a target I can stand behind over a comfortable one," Yura says. "As we lock down things I can actually promise, you will hear them, and you will hear them far more often than you have.

"I am not going to hand you a release date I can't keep. Dates I couldn't keep are a big part of how we ended up here."

In the interest of transparency, Yura says there will soon be a Project Phoenix Discord where you'll be able to follow along development, reach out to the developers, Yura included, and "hold me to a steadier rhythm than I have kept." Whether that's enough to win back your goodwill is your call, but Yura pledges to put in the work.

"To everyone still here after all this time, thank you. I don't take it lightly, and I intend to earn back the trust you put in me."

In the meantime, here are the best JRPGs to play right now.

As if Persona 4 Revival couldn't get any more exciting, it's now been confirmed that anime powerhouse MAPPA – the studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan's final season, and more – is producing all of the JRPG remake's animated cutscenes.

That's right, from the animators who brought you Satoru Gojo's ethereal blue eyes and many of Attack on Titan's most explosive scenes, we can now get ready for Persona 4 Golden's cutscenes to be brought to life in a new way.

We've already seen some of these in action from the remake's trailers and promotional videos – like the snippet of protagonist Yu Narukami awakening to his first Persona, Izanagi, in the game's pre-order trailer.

From what's been shown so far, they look incredible.

MAPPA's involvement in Persona 4 Revival was announced during Anime Expo 2026 over the weekend, where it was also revealed that Rise (the game's navigator, like Persona 5's Futaba and Persona 3's Fuuka) will be voiced by Abby Trott in the English dub, replacing The Last of Us Part 2's Abby actor, Laura Bailey. This isn't Trott's first Persona role, as she also voiced Tae Takemi in 5 Royal.

The new cast might take some getting used to for veteran fans, but it'd be hard to fault the new performances, from what we've heard.

I always thought that Persona 3 Reload looked great, but I've got to say that Persona 4 Revival is already looking like an even more impressive remake from what we've seen. MAPPA is only handling those anime-style cutscenes, but even the regular in-game cutscenes look super expressive, too.

There's still quite a wait before Persona 4 Revival's February 17, 2027, launch, but at least we'll have something to tide us over until Persona 6 eventually releases.

It's real, it's green, and it's looking a bit sinister, but that's about all we know about that one right now.

One Persona 4 Revival actor shared her "hardcore manifestation" to get into the JRPG remake over 2 years ago, and it clearly worked: "Dreams really do come true."

There are a few moments strewn across Final Fantasy 7 that seem expressly made to engineer a lump in your throat. So far, the remake trilogy has delivered several of its own, and one of the main voice actors believes that the third part will be the most emotional of the lot.

At KawaCon, Cody Christian, the voice of Cloud Strife for the Final Fantasy 7 redux, gives a little hint of what's to come in the climactic finale of the blockbuster RPG. "There's so much emotionality, there's so much vulnerability," he tells Ally B.

"There are moments in this that if you haven't cried in the first two yet, I guarantee you'll be sobbing in this third one," he adds. That's a rather large claim to make, but then, I'm not expecting much less.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will cap off almost a decade's worth of storytelling, after Square Enix took the original JRPG and expanded it in just about every way imaginable. There have been many narrative alterations too, making what happens difficult to predict, leaving those of us who know the source material well vulnerable to having our heartstrings played just like anyone else.

Christian finishes by saying, "It's a payoff," and it truly will be. Development on this project has been going on for well over a decade by now, and it'll be a seven-year journey once Revelation lands on shelves. Even just having Cloud and Sephiroth face off for the last time is going to feel like the end of an era.

For me, at least, the most bittersweet part will be the epilogue. Nanaki and his cubs looking at an overgrown Midgar hundreds of years later is just such a poetic climax. All things fade, and all things heal, given enough time and energy. It's beautiful. Is it 2027, yet?

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation DLC includes "Story Expansion Pass," according to Epic Games Store database listings

Director of the award-winning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has once again showered praise onto Hironobu Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey, an overlooked classic made by the father of Final Fantasy.

Sandfall Interactive's Guillaume Broche recently appeared on an episode of Jeux Vidéo Club, which is kind of like the Criterion Closet for video games, where the director picked a few classic games from the archives and discussed how they influenced his own work.

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director has many times cited old-school JRPGs as huge inspirations, but he dived deeper than ever into Lost Odyssey, a stone-cold Xbox 360 classic that came out after Sakaguchi's departure from Square Enix. It was essentially a Final Fantasy game in all but its name, and it didn't quite get the attention it deserved as a genre masterpiece at the time.

"It really was an exceptional game," Broche says. "It's a bit of an old-school game, very linear. There were random battles too, just like in the old Final Fantasy games. Everyone said, 'What is this game from another era?'... So it got torn apart even though the game is exceptional."

"The story is amazing. It's the last game that made me cry. The villain isn't that great. That's the only downside for me. But overall, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Final Fantasy. It's one of those games that really left a mark on me - not just because it was fun, but emotionally. Every now and then, I think back on it, I listen to the music and immerse myself in it all over again. It's truly one of the most powerful, emotional experiences of my life as a gamer," he adds.

"Something that really stood out to me was that it was one of the last somewhat ambitious turn-based games with realistic graphics. Since then, we've had a lot of turn-based games - there are still plenty, like Octopath Traveler, Persona, even Yakuza - but turn-based games with dramatic, ambitious stories and realistic graphics haven't been around since Lost Odyssey. It was the last one."

It was the last one... until Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that is. "It holds a special place in my heart because, for me, Clair Obscur is sort of the successor to that in a way - it was my favorite kind of game, and nobody was making them anymore," Broche continues. "So I said to myself, "Let's go." It's one of the best games in the world."

Lost Odyssey discs are still going for pretty cheap, though it's also available digitally on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

"They're usually just really boring" - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says "perfect" games are like people with "no personality"

A Nintendo Switch 2 port of Final Fantasy 15 isn't totally off the table, according to publisher Square Enix. Squeezing the massive, open-world, boys-on-the-road game onto the handheld console might be tricky, sure, but it's not impossible.

Square Enix has been one of the most active publishers since the Switch 2's launch last summer, with everything from its Dragon Quest remakes to The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales hitting the console. More notably, the company's also ported a number of Final Fantasy games onto the system between Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a native version of Final Fantasy 10/10-2, and the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

In a recent shareholder's meeting, questions naturally came up about other Final Fantasies potentially getting on-the-go Switch 2 versions as well. If a game as ambitious and scarily big as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can fit, why not others?

Asked specifically about a Final Fantasy 15 port, Square Enix says "while there are certain hardware constraints when it comes to faithfully replicating the exact experience of Final Fantasy 15, we can say that it is not entirely impossible."

As for whether the company will actually take the time to make a Final Fantasy 15 Switch 2 version, "we will pass along your input to the development team as a valuable perspective on marketing and future platform options," Square Enix slyly leaves. Alright, then, keep your secrets.

Final Fantasy 15 first came out in 2016 (20 years ago!) and quickly became one of the best-selling games in the entire series, even if it was clear the endearing RPG needed a little more time in the oven. Square Enix has since beefed the game up with various DLC packs and a Royal Edition that added new content, features, and tech improvements to the already handsome world.

More traditional Final Fantasy remakes could happen, as Square Enix says it'll follow what "truly resonates" with fans, even if that's not open-world action

As soon as I saw Final Fantasy Resonance sporting a 2.5D pixel art aesthetic, it instantly shot up in my most-anticipated list for this year. The new spin-off, a sort-of remake of a mobile game, is delivering on the retro-inspired ideals I've been hoping to see from the franchise for some time, and it appears the response to this may decide how quickly we see more of them.

During a question-and-answer section of a recent shareholders meeting, Square Enix responds to an inquiry over the scale of its remakes and remasters. Essentially, could we expect more smaller projects like Resonance, with games that update an older title's visuals but retain traditional combat systems, unlike the huge open-world, action-driven Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy? The answer isn't fully committal in either direction.

"As part of our market-in approach, we engage in trial and error to establish what is best for contemporary customers based on current market needs and trends," the company says, per a transcript. "In doing so, it is extremely important to us that we strike the right balance between our approach and the expectations of players who loved the original works."

This all makes sense – the higher-ups are watching what sells, and what kind of feedback any given release garners. "While specific titles may call for specific mechanics, we will continue our development efforts by assessing what truly resonates within the current market environment for both original titles and new remakes," the answer finishes.

If something is popular, they'll make more of it, seems to be the gist here. Resonance isn't the only game to test the market here, we also had Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles last year, which maintained the isometric visuals of the original.

Square Enix has already embraced the beauty of 2.5D with Dragon Quest, where we've seen several of the early entries be remade in this style. They are gorgeous looking, and seem to have successfully allowed the property to find multiple generations of new fans.

The same could be true for the early Final Fantasy games, while the 17th mainline game and whatever other remakes forge forward in terms of triple-A development. Wouldn't that be nice? I know I'll be picking up Resonance to do my part. Will you?

Square Enix doesn't promise to keep games playable forever, but it will "continue to create pathways" for fans to enjoy them "even after service has ended."

As beloved as the MMO is itself, the Final Fantasy 14 community is certainly no stranger to controversy… especially when it comes to in-game stalking, sadly.

If you've been playing the Square Enix gem for a while, you'll probably recall some of the conversations surrounding stalking over the years. From issues with the built-in blacklist system and complaints about it not being protective enough of users to contention stemming from some, erm, questionable mods that enable harassment, it's not as though there's exactly a shortage of discussion about it – and this continues to be the case.

Most recently, a plug-in (yes, the ever-eternal third-party tool controversy and what have you) known as "Memoria" has taken the limelight as the latest Final Fantasy 14 mod to essentially allow for… well, in-game stalking.

In case you haven't seen ads – or, more likely, posts about the add-on – Memoria's creator described it as a "free" plug-in that "tracks every player you encounter automatically and builds a history over time" on GitHub.

As for what it "remembers," they said, "Memoria captures what the game already exposes to nearby players, then adds public Lodestone data on top." So, think everything from a player's name and world history to their appearance changes and progression.

It's not hard to see why this wouldn't be welcomed by most Warriors of Light, as it tracks everything and lets others see it. Should you want to get away from someone, it becomes virtually impossible.

Players immediately took note of Memoria and shared it on forums like Reddit, calling for the takedown of the mod and attention from Square Enix.

A new stalking plugin emerges, post everywhere to get the devs attention. from r/ffxiv

As one user's post reads, "Plug-in developers will continue to push the line further and further with the development team's lack of action against them. Cheating, botting, harassment, and stalking continue to be amplified with the continued advancement of plug-in development."

The conversations over on Twitter showcased similar worries, with one fan asking, "Why is no one talking about the new stalking plug-in? That thing shows your frequent areas, your character models, and they have now just disabled the fact that they can see your alts?"

They clarify that, as per Memoria's creator, people would have to contact them via Discord to remove their data – not that the modder was very receptive to those requests, either, it's alleged.

Well, thankfully, Memoria is no longer up for download (although it was available for a good few months, seeing as it first went live in April) – but its creator's farewell message isn't any less controversial than the plug-in itself.

"Memoria set out to remember the people you crossed paths with in Eorzea: every sprout you helped, every static that drifted apart, every stranger you could swear you had partied with before," it begins.

"The service is now closed, and all collected player data has been permanently deleted," the takedown notice continues, assuring fans their data isn't up anymore. "To everyone who installed it, tested it, and helped make it better: thank you. You made a solo project feel like a team."

Admittedly, it leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, too – as much as I'd like to think the mod came about with good intentions, the implications are hard to ignore here, regardless of what its creator had in mind.

As the player sharing the post from Memoria's creator puts it, the add-on "infringed on people's privacy and could've caused a lot of potential harm with its location tracker."

It's a tale as old as time with Final Fantasy 14 at this point, sadly, and I'm sure it'll continue to be so long as plug-ins exist. It'd be nice for Square Enix to crack down on problematic mods like Memoria more hastily in the future.

With new Final Fantasy 14 expansion Evercold also approaching, the topic of stalking and blacklist functions is sure to come up again – here's hoping the devs are prepared.

Final Fantasy 14 devs pulled off the best relaunch "in the history of video games," Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says.

Although Atlus didn't bring female protagonist Kotone Shiomi back from Persona 3 Portable in Persona 3 Reload, she is making a comeback now – albeit not in a mainline game.

She'll be returning to Persona, but she's not joining her male counterpart Makoto Yuki in Reload – instead, she's part of a new Persona 3 Portable crossover event in Persona 5 gacha spin-off The Phantom X.

It's a strictly mobile and PC game, but it is free to play, so fans of Kotone will finally be able to play as her should they please. Atlus confirms as much in a teaser for the event, showing Kotone in action.

The description of the video details that more information is coming soon, which will likely include the event's release date – but it doesn't provide any other word on what players can expect to see in the crossover aside from Kotone herself.

Regardless, it's a pretty big reveal for folks who've missed one of the Persona series' only female protagonists… and trust me, there are plenty of them to go around.

Heck, Persona 3 Reload fans have been redoing every cutscene in the JRPG to add Kotone in – the dedication is unparalleled, y'all. There's even a mod out there that attempts to bring her into the 2024 remake as seamlessly as possible.

The Persona 3 Reload FEMC Mod Version 1.1.0 has been released (The Biggest Update Yet!) from r/PERSoNA

In other words, there's no shortage of Kotone truthers to be found in the wild, and I've got a good feeling this crossover event might spur a rise in Persona 5: The Phantom X players thanks to that.

As for why Atlus didn't choose to include Kotone in Persona 3 Reload a couple of years ago, it all boils down to difficulty and expenses. General producer Kazuhisa Wada previously stated (in machine-translated comments) that even though adding the female character was considered during Reload's development, "the hurdles were too high" ultimately. It's certainly sad, but at least we can play as her in the Persona 5 spin-off.

Here's hoping we learn more about the crossover event from Atlus soon – and perhaps see what else the developers have in store for Persona 5: The Phantom X.

While you wait for the big event, why not read through everything we know about Persona 4 Revival and Persona 6 so far, or browse some other exciting new games underway?

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the third and final game in Square Enix's ambitious remake trilogy, but it might not be the true end of the saga. New listings on the Epic Games Store database suggest multiple DLCs are planned for the upcoming game.

Those listings include the pre-order bonuses and Premium Edition goodies you'd expect, plus nine DLCs and an entire "Story Expansion Pass," according to third-party tool EpicDB, a site that tracks everything that happens on The Epic Games Store's backend, similarly to how SteamDB works.

Square Enix has yet to officially share anything about Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's DLC plans, so take these sightings with a fist full of salt. All of these listings could be placeholders, they could simply be item packs or cosmetics, they could be subject to change, or they could be complete bogus.

After EpicDB seemingly leaked a bunch of codenames that weren't supposed to see the light of day two years ago, Epic Games said it "released an update so third-party tools can't surface any new unpublished product titles." That update would theoretically make these listings impossible to view, so make of that what you will.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi has hinted at the possibility of post-launch content before, for what it's worth. As long as fans want it loudly enough, he's said that he's open to making expansions focused on extended universe content.

Square Enix has already set a precedent for such a thing, too. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the first game in the kind of remade trilogy, enjoyed an Intergrade DLC that focused exclusively on loveable ninja Yuffie for a few hours. Perhaps Final Fantasy 7 Revelation could welcome its own Intergrade-sized expansions in the months or years following its own launch next year.

The Final Fantasy 7 universe certainly doesn't stop at the base game - spin-offs such as Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus continued to milk that cow, and fans have come around to those projects in the years since, as well.

"This Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy 7 that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core," Hamaguchi explained last month.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is due out next year on PC, Xbox, PS5, and Switch 2.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead says "the way we design games also needs to evolve" as streaming over buying becomes more common, even if he does "fully support" content creators

It's no secret that Final Fantasy 14 had one of the biggest comebacks of any MMO (heck, any game) when director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida stepped in for A Realm Reborn – even Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead Guillaume Broche thinks so.

The RPG's creative director says as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first saying that Final Fantasy 14 is "in the top three games I've played the most in my life."

He then recalls A Realm Reborn, and how "Square Enix pulled off the best thing in the history of video games when it comes to relaunching a game." Broche explains why he thinks so, going over how the MMO's developers did it.

"Basically, they released a first version, and it was a disaster. Everyone was playing it, and it was terrible. And what they did was, after a year, they released an in-game cutscene showing the end of the world. An eight-minute cutscene with Bahamut arriving and blowing up the world."

Indeed, they did – I still go back and watch that scene online myself. The public chat was filled with countdowns and excitement… there's nothing quite like it.

Broche agrees, saying "everyone had seen that cutscene" – even folks who had never actually played the game. That didn't stop them from asking, "'What's going on at Square Enix?'" Then came A Realm Reborn.

"They relaunched it a year later," as the Clair: Obscur Expedition 33 lead puts it. "They reworked everything, relaunched the game, and it was truly exceptional. So it's still a huge hit today." That it is.

I'm a hardened Warrior of Light myself, and I'm still not done with the MMO after pouring in thousands of hours – nor will I be any time soon, with new expansion Evercold underway.

"Rebuilding an MMO in one year – I don't know how they did it. It's impossible," Broche continues. "To do that, and then, after a year, relaunch it and have it work. I think that's just too good to be true."

Perhaps my affinity for the game has to do with how Square Enix takes "more creative risks," in the words of Broche, but he's certainly right about one thing: "The game is exceptional. It still has its expansions, and there's still a super active community."

He praises everything from its music (massive shoutout to Masayoshi Soken) to its bosses, amusingly even admitting he played as a Lalafell – which I can't get over, honestly.

Should you be a Final Fantasy 14 fan yourself, I'd genuinely suggest giving the interview with the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director a deeper watch for more.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says Zelda: Breath of the Wild was "the first open-world game that actually delivered on the promise of an open world."

Fans have taken one of the biggest missed opportunities of the late 2000s into their own hands and are porting Persona 3 to the Nintendo DS.

I don't know about you, but I'm of the opinion that RPGs are best experienced on handheld consoles. Being able to chip away at a massive game in bed, on the bus, or wherever else you fancy (the bath? I don't know) is always a pleasure, and beats locking yourself to a console on the big TV. Before Persona 5, I spent most of my RPG time on the likes of the GBA, DS, and PS Vita, which did mean I missed out on some all-timers.

While Persona 3 Portable does exist, it was exclusive to the PSP, and it's a shame Atlus didn't share the love of the mainline Persona series to Nintendo until well after Joker appeared in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. However, a group of fans collectively named the P3D Project are aiming to right this wrong by porting Persona 3 to the DS, under the name Persona 3 Dual.

The game's 1.0 version released earlier this week, with the devs calling this "Milestone #1" with a new trailer showing off the port. And yes, it sure is Persona 3.

In fact – despite being substantially stripped back in comparison to the PS2 original – it does feature some things that never made it into the Portable edition on PSP. Namely, you're able to walk the streets of Iwatodai and the Paulownia Mall areas. In Persona 3 Portable, the overworld was made into a pseudo visual novel experience, whereas this DS port brings it more in line with the original game.

You can play this fan project now with a download available on the game's Github, but the developers have also shown what will be in the next version of the game, with the continued development of Persona 3 FES's female protagonist and updated versions of the UI to match. Will it be the most optimal or best way to play Persona 3? Probably not. But it's a really cool project regardless for those looking for a different way to experience one of their favorite RPGs.

Persona 4 Revival makes changes to fan-favorite scene from the OG JRPG, and veteran players aren't sure how to feel: "I'm sure people will be normal about this."

Persona 4 Revival is still underway as a remake of one of the best JRPGs to date (no, I'm not biased at all) – but just how true it is to Persona 4 Golden remains a bit of a mystery.

Although we do know that Atlus is remaking Golden specifically, there have been a few signs here and there pointing to differences between the 2012 banger I spent way too much time playing on the PlayStation Vita and Persona 4 Revival. For instance, we've previously seen cut dialogue lines come to light – and, of course, changes in characters' voices, like Yukiko's and, perhaps most notably, Chie's actor, too.

The discussion dominating the community right now has to do with yet another supposed step away from Persona 4 Golden: the Beauty Pageant and swimsuit contest.

If you've played the original revamp from Atlus, you might recall that October 30 – in-game, that is – is the date of the Beauty Pageant event. There are two phases, casual and swimwear. Now, the change in Revival, as per new screenshots from Atlus, has to do with Rise's outfit.

Persona 4 dancing outfits confirmed for P4R through a new screenshot atlus posted from r/PERSoNA

As pointed out over on Reddit, she appears to be wearing her Persona 4: Dancing All Night idol outfit during the Beauty Pageant. This would likely be a replacement for her "casual" wear – unless the swimsuit portion is different as well – in which she usually wears a simple dress in Persona 4 Golden. As you can imagine, the community has thoughts on this… to say the least.

"What if they make Persona 4 Revival an all-in-one," reads one comment. I'm not so sure they'd include its spin-offs instead of references like the outfit, but as a fan responds, that would be "cool as hell."

Another person writes, "Given there is a sprite, I'm thinking this is canon in game, and they are reworking that whole segment. Just a thought, though, who knows. It also could be an additional part of the school festival. I'm sure people will be normal about this." So am I, anon. So am I.

Somebody else says, "Looks like they're changing the swimsuit contest from the school festival event into maybe a dance contest, which is honestly probably for the best imo." I wouldn't be so quick to suggest that.

Over on Twitter, an eagle-eyed Persona modder instead shares in my own sentiment here: "It's likely Rise wears her P4D outfit in the Casualwear portion of the event." Honestly, I really think this is the most probable case.

I can't see Atlus changing it entirely, and we do see Rise's swimsuit in other new pictures. Fans are also sharing those – although it does seem like her beach-ready outfit has a new pattern.

As far as I'm concerned, though, I'll be happy with whatever ends up truly ringing true here. While I don't believe the Beauty Pageant will see drastic changes or that we'll see spin-off games integrated into Revival, I'd be thrilled either way.

Here's hoping we learn more about Persona 4 Revival as we near its February 18, 2027, release date… or, you know, Persona 6 while we're at it.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond to wishlist.

Persona is the latest video game making the leap to live-action, with Netflix on board to adapt the beloved RPG series. And fans already have the perfect Joker in mind.

According to a report from Variety, Star Trek: Picard's Christopher Monfette is attached to write. Monfette has worked on a variety of genre shows and is a credited writer and co-producer on Marvel's upcoming VisionQuest. Stranger Things' Shawn Levy is also on board as a producer as part of his production company, 21 Laps. On the Sega side, Sonic the Hedgehog's Toru Nakahara is reportedly attached to produce.

Details beyond that are thin on the ground as, per Variety, Netflix declined to comment or confirm the veracity of the news. We don't even have a sense of which entry in the long-running series this show is likely to adapt. But it's further evidence of how much Netflix values video game adaptations in the wake of The Witcher, Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2, Arcane, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, Devil May Cry, and many more.

While each mainline Persona entry deals with a new set of characters, there are some throughlines across the series – most notably, each stars a set of Japanese high school students who navigate the minutiae of school life by day, and fight their way through deadly dungeons by night, adopting a range of colorful personas to do battle.

The next game in the series, Persona 6, was announced only last month at Summer Game Fest, but with little more than a teaser to go off, it's unlikely Netflix's adaptation will be drawing from that. Far more likely is that Netflix's live-action Persona will take its cues from Persona 5 – as it features a number of the most beloved characters across any Shin Megami Tensei game. It's also the most successful entry in the series to date, with almost 14 million copies sold when Persona 5 Royal and the 2022 remaster are taken into account.

Naturally, Persona fans have plenty of thoughts about the news, not all of them positive. While some point to Netflix's track record of live-action adaptations as an ill omen for Persona, plenty are excited about the proposition of Joker and co. making the transition to live action. One common bit of fan-casting: Tom Holland as Joker. Though given the Spider-Man star has recently graduated to working with the likes of Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey, and that he has a long-gestating Fred Astaire biopic coming up, the chances of him starring in a Netflix video game adaptation seem relatively slim.

Whoever eventually signs up, it's certainly an exciting time to be a Persona fan, as Persona 6 seems to have some unexpected horror vibes. A Sega leaker has also hinted that the highly anticipated game could be released as early as next year.

Netflix's live-action Persona series does not currently have a release date. For more, dive into our list of upcoming video game movies and shows, or fill out your watchlist with our ranking of the best shows on Netflix.

Final Fantasy 14 heads to the new Evercold expansion having walked a bumpy road. Things like story and content rollout have needed some improvements on the fly, though plenty of the combat encounters have felt like the MMO at its best.

As such, given the opportunity to ask assistant director Tsuyoshi Yokozawa a few questions about The Arcadian series over email ahead of Final Fantasy 14's Anaheim edition of Fan Fest, how could we refuse?

We put forward questions about how the eight-player raid series for Dawntrail came to be, what surprised them most when it landed, and what lessons the team is taking on board and into the future. Given the expectation of a new expansion at Fan Fest, we thought the last point to be especially pertinent. You can find the answers below in their entirety, as we received them.

How would you say previous raid tiers and feedback surrounding them influenced the development of the Arcadion series?

Tsuyoshi Yokozawa: Thank you for your question.

Our experience from previous raid series, along with feedback from players, played a very important role in the design philosophy of the Arcadion.

In previous series, especially at the time of Pandæmonium, our emphasis was on a policy of comprehensively ensuring player comfort and stress reduction.

This approach did help make content more accessible, but at the same time, by pursuing that philosophy so rigorously, there were moments where it unintentionally limited our ability to explore more creative ideas when planning mechanics and theatrics. We also moved towards designs that reduced the possibility of mistakes – for example, by increasing hitbox sizes. However, as that approach continued, we began to see a new challenge emerge; there was less room for individual players to demonstrate their true abilities, resulting in a heightened sensation of "going through the motions" when tackling the fight. To break through these challenges, we decided that with the Arcadion, we would return to the mindset we had during the Heavensward era.

This entailed not being bound by convenience alone, but rather focused first and foremost on "novel experiences and surprises", approaching encounter design with a freer, more flexible perspective. At the same time, we placed importance on striking a balance, where overcoming moderate challenges would deliver a strong sense of achievement. As a result, I believe we were able to create exciting battles filled with new surprises, and that led to positive feedback from many players.

How did the team find balancing mechanics between the Normal tier and the Savage tier of Arcadion, to meet the expectations of both casual players and fans looking forward to each new set of hardcore raids?

Yokozawa: Adjusting the difficulty level so that a wide range of players can enjoy the raid is always a great challenge for us.

The basic idea is to meet the expectations of different target groups at the same time, so right from the design stage – serving as the foundation of the battle – we intentionally incorporate some mechanics that can be expanded on with additional elements, with the Savage tier in mind.

The Normal raid allows players to experience the basic movements of the encounter. Then in Savage, we build on that foundation by layering in more complex decision-making and stricter, more demanding reactions, allowing us to deliver a level of challenge that feels appropriate for each group of players.

That said, because this series was designed with novelty and surprise as the top priority, there were many instances where we could not significantly change the core flow between the Normal and Savage encounters.

Finding the right way to clearly differentiate the difficulty—while still maintaining consistency in the core presentation and overall experience—was one of the most challenging aspects for the team.

This was especially true for AAC Cruiserweight M3.

In any raid series, across the series as a whole, we believe it's important for the third encounter to serve as a major "wall" for players to overcome. Therefore, we designed the raid not only in terms of the difficulty of individual mechanics, but also as a "flow of battles" including numerical aspects such as damage values and endurance values, so that players could feel a solid sense of challenge and accomplishment.

The Arcadion is pretty widely praised by the community as one of the best raid tiers to date – why do you think that is, and what sets it apart?

Yokozawa: I believe there are three main reasons why the Arcadion is so highly regarded.

The essence of the Heavensward era and a more free-spirited approach

As I mentioned earlier, a major factor was a return to the design philosophy that prioritized "surprise and novelty", which we pursued at the time of Heavensward.

By building mechanics with a more open, unrestricted mindset, we feel that this approach resonated well with the expectations of today's players.

Cultivation of characters players can grow attached to over time

Rather than treating the bosses simply as one‑off enemies to be defeated, we placed strong emphasis on each character's unique personalities with the goal of creating characters that players could continue to enjoy and appreciate over the long term.

By conveying the backgrounds and appeal of the characters through the battles, I hope the players have developed a deeper attachment to them compared with any bosses from previous raid series.

Unparalleled immersion through live commentary

Another key feature of this series was the introduction of live match commentary, which we feel worked extremely well. The commentary adds a real sense of being part of a live event, as if the players themselves are participating in the match. From a presentation standpoint as well, we're proud to have delivered an experience that stands apart from previous raid series, offering a distinctly heightened level of immersion.

Is there anything the team tried that didn't work in the end?

Yokozawa: With over a decade of experience in battle content development, we have built up a rich array of knowledge about system constraints and what's realistically achievable within the game.

Therefore, we are able to determine to some extent what is feasible and what isn't in the early stages of planning.

Thanks to this accumulated know‑how, it's very rare for us to run into major issues after production has already started that would force us to abandon a plan altogether.

That said, there were a few ideas we explored during the concept phase that ultimately didn't make it into the game. For example, we had several stage transformation ideas for AAC Cruiserweight M2; visually dynamic ideas such as a transition to a fantasy-style sea of trees with fairies and mysterious mushrooms or shifting to night and a meteor shower falling across the arena.

Additionally, for the Neo Bombarian Special in AAC Cruiserweight M3, we had considered different theatrics in the early drafts of the plan. Specifically, buildings collapsing on impact would get hooked onto other structures like bridges, and the players would actually cross over them as pathways.

However, this brought up a number of game design challenges, such as making movement across those structures feel enjoyable as a gameplay element, and the difficulty of arranging the buildings in a way that wouldn't feel unnatural as actual architectural structures, which ultimately led us to settle on the current form.

In Final Fantasy 14, there are also inherent system limitations when it comes to dynamically moving collision elements, so we look for ways to maximize what we can achieve within those constraints.

What have you learned from the Arcadion and feedback from fans for the series that you think you might potentially carry over to the next tier?

Yokozawa: Our experience with the Arcadion has served as a firm guideline for our future battle content development.

Although some of the points below overlap with what I mentioned before, we would like to strongly carry over the following three points in particular into the next raid series:

Pursuit of unique experiences without fear of risk

What this series has reaffirmed for me is that surprise and novelty are at the very heart of what makes content truly entertaining.

Rather than taking a more conservative approach by prioritizing convenience and efficiency, I would like us to continue to challenge ourselves with free thinking, prioritizing "unprecedented experiences", even if it entails some degree of risk and resources.

Creation of boss characters that players can genuinely connect with

One of the great responses we got with the Arcadion was the very enthusiastic support from the community for the boss characters.

Instead of having them exist purely as enemies to defeat, we want to further emphasize portraying their individuality, background, and personality through the battles themselves—so that they can be appreciated and loved as characters over the long term. This is something we plan to place even greater importance on in the next series.

Designing gameplay that allows for flexible problem-solving

Rather than forcing players to utilize a specific strategy, we value leaving in room for players to approach situations in their own way, using their creativity and judgment to overcome challenges.

At the same time, while we will continue to include mechanics where mistakes can lead directly to a full wipe, we want to be more deliberate about where those moments occur. By expanding the opportunities for recovery—through tools like healing, resurrection, and limit breaks—we aim to enhance both the excitement of progression and the sense of accomplishment that comes from overcoming difficult situations through players' own resourcefulness.

Just for fun, which boss was your favorite to design (and see fans go up against)?

Yokozawa: When it comes to my favorite boss, this does lean quite a bit into my personal preference, but I would have to say Honey B. Lovely! She has a profound sense of professionalism as an idol, and I respect that unwavering professionalism first of all.

Naturally, as a professional, she should be able to play the role of a cute idol, but in the middle of a battle, she'd inevitably end up showing her true colours, no longer being able to contain the boiling rage that bursts out... It's that intense contrast that I find so compelling. It feels like her inescapable "human side" really comes through in those moments, and that gap between her composed persona and her true emotions is what makes her so memorable for me.

In addition, all the elements, such as the mechanics and music tied to the character design, are perfectly matched, and I feel that the raid was completed to a very high level of polish as a single duty.

The most memorable part about the raids was when I saw the players take on the Lindwurm in the latter half of AAC Heavyweight M4 (Savage). The Development team was thrilled to see how the community would figure out the mechanic, which was difficult to grasp from the setting.

In the end, players were able to come up with efficient solutions far earlier than we had anticipated, and we were once again impressed by just how adaptable and resourceful the community can be.

Also, although not a boss, it is yan who is strongly etched in my personal memory.

I designed the framework of the battle myself in AAC Cruiserweight M2 (Savage), and the trial and error involved in its creation made yan very memorable, for better or worse.

One final fun one – as the Arcadion series is wrestling themed, which wrestler in real life do you think would make a good raid boss?

Yokozawa: It's precisely because the raid series deals with a very passionate theme of wrestling that my imagination runs wild thinking about the answer to this.

I'm a little afraid to mention real-life wrestlers, because I'm worried I might come across as rude...

That said, looking at types we didn't feature in the Arcadion, wrestlers like 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt and The Great Muta, who have a very clear duality as characters, are very appealing to me.

As a designer, being able to dramatically shift the atmosphere and even the "feel" of the gameplay within a single fight has a lot of creative potential, and I'm confident we could create something really engaging and rewarding with that kind of concept.

Next, as a baby-faced female wrestler, Bianca Belair would also make an interesting design.

In particular, the attack of using her hair as a whip can very easily be imagined as a battle mechanic for the raid.

(Truth be told though, it is very difficult to actually reproduce the smooth movement of a whip in FF14, but allow me to answer without feasibility factored into the equation!)

Anything else to add?

Yokozawa: Thank you so much for enjoying the Arcadion and for sharing so much warm and thoughtful feedback with us.

We always take our players' voices seriously, and we're committed to creating battles that deliver both excitement and a strong sense of accomplishment.

Of course, we have much to learn from missteps and areas where we reflect and

Improve – but we take all of that forward as motivation to keep delivering experiences that can only be found in FF14.

I look forward to seeing you all on the battlefield in the next challenge. We hope you will continue to look forward to FF14's battle content in the future!

What's the best MMO for you? If it isn't Final Fantasy 14, chances are you'll find it on this list. Maybe.

With Final Fantasy 14 expansion Evercold underway, it's hard for us raiders not to consider what the 8.0 tier might look like – after all, Dawntrail's own Arcadion arguably stands as one of the best the MMO has seen to date.

Just why is it so good, though? Dawntrail as a whole left many players disappointed, after all, teetering back and forth from "Mostly Negative" reviews on Steam since its release – but its raid series, the Arcadion, never met that sort of poor reception itself.

I got to ask assistant director Tsuyoshi Yokozawa about this, questioning what Square Enix had learned from its past tiers… and how it implemented this knowledge into the Arcadion.

"Our experience from previous raid series, along with feedback from players, played a very important role in the design philosophy of the Arcadion," he tells me. "In previous series, especially at the time of Pandæmonium, our emphasis was on a policy of comprehensively ensuring player comfort and stress reduction. This approach did help make content more accessible," but it also limited developers' ability to "explore more creative ideas."

They saw another problem there, too. As Yokozawa says, "There was less room for individual players to demonstrate their true abilities, resulting in a heightened sensation of 'going through the motions' when tackling the fight. To break through these challenges, we decided that with the Arcadion, we would return to the mindset we had during the Heavensward era."

That's right – the Alexander era. I love it, you probably love it, many fans love it. I've even got a soft spot in my heart for the more recent Ultimate.

If you're newer to the MMO, you might be wondering what he means here, however. He explains: "This entailed not being bound by convenience alone, but rather focused first and foremost on 'novel experiences and surprises,' approaching encounter design with a freer, more flexible perspective."

Square Enix also "placed importance on striking a balance, where overcoming moderate challenges would deliver a strong sense of achievement."

That's why the lead thinks the team was "able to create exciting battles filled with new surprises" out of the Arcadion – "and that led to positive feedback from many players."

It certainly did. I, for one, see it as one of the best Savage (and Normal, honestly) tiers. The Arcadion is up there with the Alexander raids in terms of novelty, coming as a much-needed breath of fresh air amid Dawntrail's other content.

Yokozawa stresses this once more, describing the Arcadion as "a return to the design philosophy that prioritized 'surprise and novelty,' which we pursued at the time of Heavensward."

He concludes that, "By building mechanics with a more open, unrestricted mindset, we feel that this approach resonated well with the expectations of today's players." I'd say he's most definitely not wrong here.

Across discussions on forums online, you'll see people praising the Arcadion as a top-tier… well, tier. Heck, you'll even find folks noting that it's as boundary-pushing as Heavensward's raid series was. I'm just hopeful Evercold's will prove similarly brilliant.

Final Fantasy 14 Evercold raids follow The Arcadion's lead as the MMO's assistant director teases they'll value "surprise and novelty" over "convenience and efficiency."

Final Fantasy 14 expansion Evercold is on its way, so it's a great time to take a step back and look at what might just be one of the best raid tiers the MMO has seen to date: the Arcadion.

It's no secret that Dawntrail, as an expansion, left many of us a bit disappointed – I mean, they can't all be Shadowbringers, am I right? It has dipped in and out of a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam (now sitting at "Mixed" reviews overall). But, still, it didn't go wrong in every delivery.

In fact, its raid series, the Arcadion, is widely regarded as one of the greatest… both for casual players and hardcore fans tackling the Savages.

As a dedicated raider myself, I'm interested to see what Evercold's own raids might bring – and what Square Enix learned from the Arcadion's solid reception. So I ask assistant director Tsuyoshi Yokozawa during a recent interview what the developers are considering carrying over into the next tier.

"Our experience with the Arcadion has served as a firm guideline for our future battle content development," he tells me… which, yeah, makes a lot of sense.

"We would like to strongly carry over the following three points in particular into the next raid series." The first is the "pursuit of unique experiences without fear of risk" – something I'm certainly a fan of.

"What this series has reaffirmed for me is that surprise and novelty are at the very heart of what makes content truly entertaining," Yokozawa explains. This means risk-taking while battle planning and "'prioritizing unprecedented experiences.'"

This might cost more resources, but it's clearly worked with the Arcadion. I don't think I'll soon forget the fight designs from Dawntrail's high-tier raiding, and I'm ready for more of that. I'm also ready for more of the lead's next point – the "creation of boss characters that players can genuinely connect with."

Is he low-key talking about Honey B. Lovely here and how she became a community icon? I'd like to think so.

"Instead of having them exist purely as enemies to defeat, we want to further emphasize portraying their individuality, background, and personality through the battles themselves," continues Yokozawa on raid bosses, "so that they can be appreciated and loved as characters over the long term." This approach is something Square Enix plans "to place even greater importance on" in Evercold.

The third point the assistant director brings up might have a greater effect on us hardcore raiders than anyone else: "designing gameplay that allows for flexible problem-solving."

According to Yokozawa, "Rather than forcing players to utilize a specific strategy, we value leaving in room for players to approach situations in their own way, using their creativity and judgment to overcome challenges." Comparing different statics' clears proves his point, honestly.

Square Enix "will continue to include mechanics where mistakes can lead directly to a full wipe," but the devs "want to be more deliberate about where those moments occur."

They'll do this "by expanding the opportunities for recovery" – think limit breaks, healing, and rezzes. It's all about the feeling "overcoming difficult situations through players' own resourcefulness" gives us as raiders, and I get it.

Just think about how much better a kill feels when you think you've truly contributed to the static's overall ability to get it – it's a feeling I know well as a healer main. It's nice to see devs acknowledge its power.

As Yokozawa concludes, they "always take our players' voices seriously" and are "committed to creating battles that deliver both excitement and a strong sense of accomplishment." The Arcadion serves as proof.

"Of course, we have much to learn from missteps and areas where we reflect and improve – but we take all of that forward as motivation to keep delivering experiences that can only be found in FF14," he admits, before signing off with a heartfelt message: "I look forward to seeing you all on the battlefield in the next challenge. We hope you will continue to look forward to FF14's battle content in the future!"

I know I already am – my fellow static members definitely are, too. All of these points, along with the upcoming job changes, have me at the edge of my seat.

Final Fantasy 14 fans make their own in-game Tinder, with gil-hungry bunny boys and modded cat girls galore.

Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14? Well, Deltarune Chapter 5 is trying to spread the word.

Deltarune Chapter 5 continued the game's story with another new and bonkers episode yesterday, but hidden in between its vibrant pixels is an Easter egg with the subtlety of a sledgehammer smashing eggs. Spotted by Redditor MaximumCompany8921, there are some lines in the new chapter that not-so-quietly nod at Square Enix's evergreen hit.

FFXIV nod in Deltarune Ch5 from r/ffxiv

"There's some drawing by Temmi of her with an additional set of ears)", a text bubble reads. "(Seems to be motivating you to play a certain MMORPG...)" - perhaps one with an expanded free trial...

For those who don't know, Temmie is a cat-like character in the shared Undertale/Deltarune universe who's based on one of the real-world artists behind the game, Temmie Chang. Both share a name, and both evidently love Final Fantasy 14.

Real-world Temmie Chang has notably created tons of really cool Final Fantasy 14 fan art over the years - like the one below - primarily of her Miqo'te character who belongs to the feline-humanoid-hybrid race. So, the reference to in-game Temmie's extra pair of ears likely implies that she, too, loves the Miqo'te (unless, I don't know, she bought a pair of bunny ears from the Gold Saucer or something). Very meta.

sketch request thread (ffxiv WoLs only ver)

— @tuyoki.bsky.social (@tuyoki.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T16:25:58.226Z

Will we ever see what Deltarune Temmie's Miqo'te looks like? Is she excited for Evercold? What class does she main? Our best bet for answers is probably in Deltarune Chapter 6, which is aiming to launch sometime next year according to lead dev Toby Fox.

Deltarune Chapter 5 update stops flirting from freezing the game and makes the final boss easier if you suck

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy intends to pull the entire FF7 story into its gravitational orbit, series director Naoki Hamaguchi says, so expect even more extended universe references and characters and concepts to show up in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

"Well, at this time it's best not to say whether Cissnei will appear or not," Naoki Hamaguchi teases at a recent Q&A event in Shanghai when asked about the side character who first appeared in the PSP prequel, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core, and then made a surprise reappearance in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. "But there is one thing I can tell you." (Thanks for the translation, Genki.)

"This Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy 7 that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core," he adds, also pointing to the Dirge of Cerberus characters who pop up in the Intergrade DLC.

"So, since that concept will of course carry over into Revelation as well, not limited to Cissnei, for the last entry, there will be characters that have appeared in the various FF7 compilation games that I think will be there," Hamaguchi says, "and each of these characters has a large and dedicated fanbase, so we want to create a work that can satisfy the feelings of those people."

There you have it – Hamaguchi has previously been a little coy about how heavily Revelation will touch on compilation games, but it's now as good as confirmed.

Cloud and his party's world has expanded greatly in the three decades since their original clash with Sephiroth, as Square Enix has bolted on prequels and sequels and everything in-between to keep its cash cow milking. What's interesting is that Hamaguchi is potentially walking on thorny territory by folding slightly divisive projects into the ongoing remake.

Take PS2 shooter Dirge of Cerberus, a game most people agreed was middling when it came out 20 years ago and a game that hasn't received a big re-evaluation since. Animated sequel film Advent Children didn't fare much better, though it definitely has its fans nowadays.

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake games haven't exactly been strict when (kind of) retelling the original story, however. At least, so far, it seems like the Remake series is more a very liberal, alternate universe sequel to the original game rather than a straight one-to-one copy of it. Hamaguchi's also teased that any potential DLC could involve certain spin-offs, too.

We'll see how deep the references go when Final Fantasy 7 Revelation comes out on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2 sometime next year.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's portrayal of an "essential" scene from the OG JRPG made game director Naoki Hamaguchi cry in each of his 40 playthroughs.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the third part of the JRPG remake from Square Enix, is sure to be part of many content creators' streams when it releases – but that doesn't mean it'll take away from viewers' own gameplay experiences, according to director Naoki Hamaguchi.

The lead explains as much in a recent interview with 4Gamer, stating that developers need to be careful with RPGs like Final Fantasy so that folks aren't satisfied by merely watching videos or streams – but that's not to say he doesn't approve of streamers and the like.

He's simply taken this into account while designing Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, ensuring it's a unique experience for everyone… every time. When the world is "changing," as Hamaguchi says, devs need to, too – and that means making sure a new title like the third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is suited for both playing and streaming.

He clarifies his take in a follow-up post online, writing, "I fully support streaming culture," stressing once again that he's not opposed to content creation. "But as times change, I believe the way we design games also needs to evolve."

Hamaguchi concludes, "I'm looking forward to seeing how Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is received."

I'm personally excited to see how it goes as well – not only because I can't wait for the game itself, but because I want to see how Square Enix has managed to strike a balance between content creators' ability to host a fun stream or record an immersive video and players' capacity to enjoy the game firsthand themselves.

I don't often watch streams myself, but I do like gameplay videos here and there – and I see where the director is coming from here, honestly.

It's evident that most games weren't exactly designed with content creation or streaming in mind, even if there's been a rise in watching them rather than purchasing them for convenience, so it's intriguing to hear that some devs are taking this into account during production.

I don't think Final Fantasy 7 Revelation would have an issue with sales either way, though – sure, people will watch it… but it's also the third part of a remake trilogy of one of the best JRPGs to date. Something tells me lots of fans will be lining up to buy it.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's portrayal of an "essential" scene from the OG JRPG made game director Naoki Hamaguchi cry in each of his 40 playthroughs.

There's a point in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth where rookie Turks operative Elena takes a break from being a whiny firestarter and cools off with a stick of sea salt ice cream – a custardy, aquamarine treat featured throughout the Kingdom Hearts series also made by Square Enix. Reasonable fans therefore assumed Elena's frozen dessert was a sweet self-reference, but Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi says no. Not at all.

Hamaguchi tells The Gamer in a new interview, "It might be disappointing to hear this, but Elena's ice cream isn't a homage to Kingdom Hearts."

Now, if you've suddenly started to hear a thousand distant howls, know that it isn't the wind. It's the lonely cries of Kingdom Hearts fans around the world realizing the franchise they constantly fret about being dead is more comatose than they first assumed.

Still, Kingdom Hearts is not dead dead. Sure, it would have been lovely to live in the world where Elena's salty ice cream is a sign that Square Enix loves Kingdom Hearts – in which Cloud-like champion Sora gets to shake hands with Donald Duck – just as much as its other children. However, Square Enix has devoted itself to something better than a measly sign. Kingdom Hearts 4 is definitely in production, the developer confirmed earlier this month, seven years after Kingdom Hearts 3 launched.

I understand, though, that it's hard for some people to feel soothed by that fact when there's still no release date for the action RPG in sight. That's too bad, Hamaguchi suggests. He continues to tell The Gamer that Elena's ice cream simply introduces audiences to the popular Japanese "soda-flavored popsicle called Garigari-kun, which we've actually referenced quite a bit during development." This pop has a mascot that's a hungry schoolboy with a concerningly red mouth, and he shoves Gargari-kun's blue, shaved ice filling into the gaping hole.

"As such, it's closer to say we were envisioning a slightly nostalgic popsicle, reminiscent of the summer," Hamaguchi concludes. Right. Well, now that I've stopped looking at the Gargari-kun mascot's gigantic, hypnotic mouth, I'm thinking you could also say that Kingdom Hearts – whose first installment released in 2002 – is also a slightly nostalgic confection, right?

Final Fantasy 14 boss Yoshi-P has "many game ideas" tucked away that he'd like to do something with, one being a "game design that combines AI and servers."

As the wait for new Final Fantasy 14 expansion Evercold drags on, the MMO's community is finding fresh ways to spice its time in Eorzea up… including via a Tinder-like add-on.

Yes, you read that correctly. We can all try and score our very own Limsa baddies in-game (a girl can dream, right?) thanks to AetherLove – a Dalamud plug-in that adds matchmaking to Final Fantasy 14.

I'm not promoting third-party tools or anything here, but should you be intrigued by the concept, AetherLove apparently functions much like Tinder does… albeit in-game, of course. It's all contained within a convenient mobile (tomestone) window.

All you need to do is set up your profile – you know, include all of the essentials like your favorite music and Final Fantasy character – and et voilà! You can swipe left or right on fellow Warriors of Light, depending on how you feel about their Miqo'tes and what have you.

Do be warned, you'll see a lot of modded outfits (and perhaps more NSFW gpose pictures than you've bargained for). In other words, AetherLove is exactly what it sounds like.

As one might expect, fans are already going wild over the unofficial Final Fantasy 14 Tinder equivalent. It's Lovebringer all over again, except now as a handy add-on – and I can't get enough of the chatter online (and admittedly, in my own Free Company chat) about it.

Heck, just take a peek over at X for AetherLove profile screenshots, ratings, and, of course, drama. It wouldn't be Final Fantasy 14 without some drama, eh?

From the bunny boys looking for sugar mommas to the cat girls seeking their one true love, it's all certainly something to behold. Just how long will it last before Square Enix cracks down on it, Mare Synchronos-style, though?

I do hope it stays up at least a bit longer so that I can continue browsing through the chaos on social media, if I'm honest… but I'm not brave enough to dip my toes into AetherLove's digital dating myself.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have amusing screenshots to share among my FC pals – and various new AetherLove profiles to judge.

Final Fantasy 14 boss Yoshi-P has "many game ideas" tucked away that he'd like to do something with, one being a "game design that combines AI and servers"

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi says that "the presence of diverse, authentic relationships" like the JRPG's same-sex couples help enhance the "realism" of the game's world, and he and the other devs at Square Enix were "incredibly happy" to see fans "paying close attention even to these subtle interactions."

If you watch and listen to the NPCs populating Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's world, you'll have no doubt noticed that there are multiple references to queer romance and relationships – whether it's a man talking about his "dashing" new partner as a friend congratulates him for finding "the one," or a woman asking a female friend if she'd consider dating her after she declares that she's "over men in general."

In an interview with TheGamer, Hamaguchi is asked about one specific pair of women whose relationship evolves throughout the JRPG – the one that starts with a slap fight in Kalm. "To us, what matters is the feeling of a diverse group of people inhabiting this world in an authentic manner," he says. "Rebirth is a game where you encounter many towns, cultures, and relationships throughout your journey. In my view, the presence of diverse, authentic relationships within that journey also enhances the world's realism.

"As such, it feels closer to say that even for these two characters, our goal wasn't to add a same-sex couple just for the sake of adding it, but to portray the stories of those inhabiting this world with sincerity and care," he continues. "In truth, it made us incredibly happy as the development team to see players paying close attention even to these subtle interactions and shifts in relationships."

It's nice to hear, and Hamaguchi has clearly been watching fan reaction closely, as he adds: "My impression is that players also pay close attention to not only whether these depictions are there, but also their detailed nuances, like the emotional distance and conversational tone between characters."

He reiterates Square Enix's aim to create a diverse, realistic world, and notes that "the presence of these relationships didn't feel like a distinct depiction for us, but rather a result of building FF7's world in an authentic way."

With that in mind, it sounds like we can probably expect more cute queer references like this in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation when it launches next year. We already know that it's going to have a "far bigger" open-world map than Rebirth, after all, so it'll be able to house plenty of NPCs for us to meet.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's portrayal of an "essential" scene from the OG JRPG made game director Naoki Hamaguchi cry in each of his 40 playthroughs.

People looking for any morsel of info about Persona 6 will be happy to know that the director and series producer Kazuhisha Wada is happy to oblige.

Speaking to Famitsu (and reported by TheGamer), Wada explained some of his philosophy when it comes to making games. Specifically, he was asked about what challenges he wants to take on in the future and what he would tell other game developers.

"Fundamentally, as a creator, I'm not very interested in things that are neither good nor bad," he said. "That's why, while facing various risks and constraints, we've tried to deliver something like a poison that leaves a strong impression. Of course, this isn't just about sensationalism or extremism, but something that shakes people's values or gives them something to think about."

Even though Wada doesn't directly connect this to Persona 6, he's described the Persona games as a form of "poison" before. In 2024, he talked about trying to make games widely appealing but still distinct and compared it to "serving players deadly poison wrapped in sweet coating."

Wada routinely makes games that surprise people and I doubt Persona 6 will be any different. The hardest part will be waiting to see what kind of poison he's slipped into it. Persona 6 doesn't currently have a release date. All we know is that it will be rated M and seems to have some horror vibes.

Persona 4 Revival removes fan-favorite line, leaving fans hoping for a certain new love interest in shambles: "We definitely aren't getting that romance"

Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has been making games for almost 30 years, more than a decade of which has been spent turning Final Fantasy 14 into one of the world's most beloved MMOs, but the iconic game dev doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon. In fact, he apparently has a bunch of game ideas still tucked away in his back pocket, including one that confusingly "combines AI and servers."

When asked by Famitsu about his future plans in a chat translated by TheGamer, Yoshida says, "There are still many things I want to try," alongside ongoing updates and expansions to Final Fantasy 14. "So I have no intention of retiring any time soon, and will continue to run at full speed."

The 52-year-old's last project unrelated to the adamantoise-sized MMO was Final Fantasy 16, for which he served as a producer, but other ideas orbit his brain as well. "There are still many game ideas that are stored away as project proposals, and I would like them to see the light of day someday," he adds.

And one of the proposals he details concerns "a game design that combines AI and servers." What that looks like isn't entirely clear, since Yoshi-P doesn't specify generative AI, and even if he did, I don't think I'd have a better understanding of what he was getting at.

Although he does attempt to explain that the idea could somewhat help to alleviate the game industry's worsening problems. "It's a tough world out there," he says. "With soaring development costs, accelerating technological advancements, decreasing consumer disposable time, and rapid market changes. Though that's precisely why I feel like it's one of the most exciting times for the industry."

Square Enix is no stranger to the worlds of AI and MMOs colliding. The Japan-exclusive MMO Dragon Quest 10 recently welcomed a character called Oshaberi Slimey, a chirpy little creature that's powered by Google's Gemini AI model and comments on player activity with AI-generated text. Needless to say, it didn't go down well with players.

As for Final Fantasy 14, the all-encompassing digital world isn't succumbing to similar tools for now. It's actually just as jolly as ever. The MMO recently patted Japanese taxpayers on the head with an in-game Shiba Inu mount - now who's a good boy? - as it gears up for its next expansion, Evercold.

Yoshi-P himself recently said he can't see an end in sight for Final Fantasy 14, either. That doesn't exactly close the door to other projects set in its world since Yoshi-P also revealed he's considered making a single-player Final Fantasy 14 project, as well, due to some fans' aversion to online games.

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