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Listen to the gorgeous new Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth theme

Square Enix debuted the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth theme during The Game Awards 2023 with a dramatic new trailer

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Square Enix debuted the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth theme during The Game Awards 2023 following a dramatic new trailer, and singer Loren Allred sang it live on stage. The reveal comes ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s launch for PS5 on Feb. 29, 2024, and you can check it out below.

While you might think of Nobuo Uematsu’s brilliant chip-tune and orchestral arrangements when you think of Final Fantasy music, the series has a rich tradition of vocal pieces as well. At least one accompanies each major FFXIV expansion. We occasionally get the likes of Final Fantasy 9’s Melodies of Life, a song that weaves together the game’s themes and does its best to pull a few tears out in the process, and Florence and the Machine performed several tracks for the FFXV soundtrack. Why? Why not.

Allred, like Florence and the Machine, is a newcomer to the games space. She competed in The Voice in 2012, with Adam Levine as her coach, and was cast as Jenny Lind’s singing voice in The Greatest Showman. The soundtrack earned Allred her Billboard Hot 100 debut, as it topped the charts in January 2018, and her song Never Enough landed at 88 in the Billboard Hot 100 that month as well.

The full version of the trailer shown above includes some snazzy new footage featuring Cid and some more time travel-slash-alternate world shenanigans with Zack Fair, so make sure to check it out.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Final Fantasy 16 DLC stars two classic Final Fantasy enemies

Square Enix highlighted the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 DLC after weeks of teasing, and it looks like Leviathan expectations were right

Square Enix highlighted the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 DLC after weeks of teasing, and it looks like everyone’s expectations were right on the money. Creative Business Unit 3 is releasing two rounds of Final Fantasy 16 DLC, despite originally saying even one expansion was unlikely and while combat is the first one’s core, the second focuses on Valisthea’s past – The Fallen and, as fans guessed, the story of Leviathan’s fall.

Echoes of the Fallen is the combat-focused package that sees Clive, Jill, and one more person enter a mysterious tower and face a series of trials before the final quest. Echoes of the Fallen is available now, and you can purchase it for $9.99 or buy a season pass for $24.99 that also gets you Rising Tide when it launches sometime in spring 2024.

Square Enix said Rising Tide is about 10-15 hours long, and it covers the mysteries behind the forgotten Eikon. Leviathan featured in an important piece of in-game artwork and remained conspicuous in his complete absence, the only Eikon and Dominant who had seemingly died without being reborn. The Fallen, in true RPG fashion, were responsible for the ruins and old airships Clive and co. explore throughout Final Fantasy 16.

Also included in here is Omega, a recurring monster and superboss that shows up in several Final Fantasy games, including FFXIV and Clive voice actor Ben Starr’s favorite, Final Fantasy 8.

There’s still no word about the Final Fantasy 16 port, though producer Naoki Yoshida did say the development would take a while for that port.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

All The Game Awards 2023 announcements and trailers

We’ve rounded up all The Game Awards 2023 announcements and trailers, including Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Monster Hunter Wilds, and more

The Game Awards 2023 announcements stretched across nearly every video game genre, from promising indies to hotly anticipated 2024 games and a few big names for 2025, including Monster Hunter. Square Enix debuted another Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer, Atlus showed up with Metaphor ReFantazio, and even Hellblade 2 made an appearance. Briefly. It still doesn’t have a release date either.

Three hours of announcements is a lot for anyone to get through, but we’ve rounded up all The Game Awards 2023 announcements and trailers below, with links to more detailed stories for a few of the biggest reveals.

If you’re wondering who won what, check out our roundup of The Game Awards 2023 winners.

The best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals on Amazon so far

We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals on Amazon so far, including Persona, Mario, Digimon, and more

Deals season is here, and Amazon is celebrating early with some Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals on a broad variety of games. While Nintendo itself isn’t getting in on the action yet, we’ve got deals from Square Enix, Bandai, Ubisoft, and Sega on everything from Persona and Digimon to Mario + Rabbids, musical Final Fantasy, and more. All of these are physical copies, so if you’re looking for digital deals, you’ll have to wait a little while longer.

We’ll update this piece as more Black Friday deals roll out.

The most divisive Final Fantasy inspired The Marvels, director says

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta found inspiration in one of the most divisive Final Fantasy projects – Advent Children

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta found inspiration in one of the most divisive Final Fantasy projects – the CGI animated film Advent Children. Or more specifically, Advent Children’s style and fight scenes.

DaCosta made the comments in an interview with IGN ahead of The Marvels’ Nov. 10, 2023, release date.

“It’s just an amazing, amazing movie, and has really great fight scenes and has a really great ending sequence with the main character being thrown into the sky by all the other characters,” DaCosta said. “I didn’t want The Marvels to look like a video game in the sense that it’s more linear, but it’s the best kinds of games and stories that inspires me to play and I think inspires people to see movies like this.”

The Marvels Director Nia DeCosta loves Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and used it as a reference when pitching #TheMarvels pic.twitter.com/NERqWsoOtS

— IGN (@IGN) November 7, 2023

Advent Children looks exceptional, especially for a 2005 CGI movie, but it doesn’t always go over well with series fans. It’s an odd sequel, set two years after Final Fantasy 7, but one year before Dirge of Cerberus, where a bunch of evil little Sephiroth spirits try to revive him using what’s left of Jenova, because apparently there were parts of the alien creature left (of course there were).

It was the start of Final Fantasy 7’s transformation from an introspective game about identity and purpose to a connected universe with a sometimes-flimsy story and even flimsier reason for existing. Maybe that’s fitting for Marvel depending on your relationship with the ever-growing superhero franchise, but the impenetrable plot didn’t endear Advent Children to critics and fans then or now.

It did, however, give Square Enix plenty of fuel for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, both of which play around with the game-slash-series’ established lore in creative ways.

The Marvels is in theaters from Nov. 10, 2023, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on Feb. 29, 2024 for PS5 on two discs.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Upcoming RPGs in 2024 to keep on your radar: Final Fantasy, Bloodlines 2, and more

The slate of upcoming RPGs of 2024 is packed with high-profile video game releases in the first few months, and these are some of the best

The slate of upcoming RPGs of 2024 is packed with high-profile video game releases in just the first few months alone. Final Fantasy, Like A Dragon, and a new Persona game all launch within four weeks of each other, and then we get into some more niche games. SaGa, something new from Vanillaware, Paper Mario, Eiyuden Chronicle – good as 2023 and 2022 were for RPGs, somehow it seems like 2024 might be even better. That goes double if we get some of the long-delayed RPGs in the works, such as Bloodlines 2 and Black Myth: Wukong.

All these and more are some of the best RPGs of 2024 to keep an eye on.

Someone unlocked all of Final Fantasy XIV’s achievements after 10 years

One player earned all of Final Fantasy XIV’s achievements 10 years after the MMO game launched, and it’s a pretty impressive feat

One player earned all of Final Fantasy XIV’s achievements 10 years after the MMO game launched, and it’s a pretty impressive feat. For one thing, unlocking some of FF XIV’s achievements takes hundreds of hours of completing tasks several times before you reach a certain point.

For another, there’s 2,751 achievements in total (thanks, GamesRadar).

The player completed their last achievement on the Garuda server in Japan in August 2023, though the news didn’t make it out until someone posted it on Reddit. It’ll be a fleeting victory, though. Square Enix adds new achievements with every major update, including FF XIV 6.5, which launched in early October 2023, and probably a whole lot more when the new Dawntrail expansion launches in summer 2024.

These range from simple things, such as completing a seasonal event, to complex endeavors that require time and a great deal of patience. One achievement rewards you for clearing certain difficult dungeons on your own. Another requires you to slay 5,000 S-rank marks in FF XIV’s hunts, and still another makes you get every Relic weapon – one for each class. These unlock in phases as you repeat quests and tasks multiple times.

The most complicated one, however, is the Levequest achievement. Levequests reward players with experience and were, in the game’s beginning, a decent way to level up before Square Enix made that process easier. Each settlement has its own set of Levequests, and you could complete three every day. It takes seven years to do them all.

As for what’s left to do, one Redditer actually pointed out the player still has two more mounts to get through Extreme Trials – yet another challenging activity – that aren’t tied to achievements. The grind continues.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Square Enix announces Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis for PC

Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis to PC after all, and data between the mobile game and Steam game will cross over

Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis to PC after all, and data between the mobile game and Steam game will cross over. Square Enix made the comments during a special Ever Crisis livestream, but the publisher didn’t say when Ever Crisis might release on PC.

Square Enix didn’t announce plans for launching Ever Crisis on other platforms. If it follows the same pattern as the Pixel Remaster games, which released on mobile and PC before coming to Switch and PS4, then the chance likely isn’t out of the question.

Ever Crisis and its fusion of multiple pieces is a bit of a Hojo experiment in itself. It’s a highly condensed retelling of the Final Fantasy 7 saga, but it also introduces new story elements, including tie-ins with the now-defunct First Soldier multiplayer game and some kind of young Sephiroth prequel story set before Crisis Core.

Whether this all connects to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is anyone’s guess, but for now, Square Enix is releasing story chapters in chunks at set intervals.

Ever Crisis is also a gacha game in the vein of Genshin Impact, only instead of characters you may or may not get, it’s outfits. Square Enix saw some success with its other gacha games – Brave Exvius, home of one of the best Final Fantasy Cid appearances, still draws in nearly $1 million globally each month – though how well Ever Crisis performs remains to be seen.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Square Enix announces Final Fantasy XIV 6.5 release date

Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy XIV 6.5 release date during the MMO game’s Tokyo Game Show live letter, and the date is pretty close

Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy XIV 6.5 release date during the MMO game’s Tokyo Game Show live letter, and that date is pretty close. FFXIV 6.5 launches on Oct. 3, 2023, and brings with it new story quests, trials, raids, and the duty system’s further expansion.

Once patch 6.5 launches, the duty system will cover all main scenario dungeons from A Realm Reborn through Endwalker, meaning you can play through the game’s entire story without having to team up with other players. Extra dungeons and raids still require multiplayer parties, though, including the new Lunar Subterrane dungeon that launches with patch 6.5.

Patch 6.5 comes with two new trials, the Abyssal Fracture trial against Final Fantasy 4 boss Zeromus, which comes with normal and extreme difficulty options; and an Unreal Trial against Thordan in the Singularity Reactor. There’s a new Myths of the Realm Alliance Raid and, at the other end of the spectrum, more ranks, materials, and structures for your Island Sanctuary.

Producer Naoki Yoshida also outlined later additions coming in 6.51 and 6.55, neither of which has an anticipated release date yet. FF XIV 6.51 ushers in a new variant dungeon and a new criterion dungeon, alongside a new arena for the PvP Crystalline Conflict mode. Tataru’s Endeavor, more Hildebrand Adventures, a new main scenario quest, more weapon enhancement quests, and a set of Tribal Alliance quests for Endwalker.

Yoshida said the team will share more information about Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail during the game’s Fan Festivals in London (October 2023) and Tokyo (January 2024). However, he didn’t mention anything further about FF XIV on Xbox or when testing may begin.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Square Enix unveils Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release date trailer

Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release date in a shiny new trailer during the September PlayStation State of Play

Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release date in a shiny new trailer during the September PlayStation State of Play. We knew previously that all two discs of the meaty PS5 game were planned for launch sometime early in 2024 – near Granblue Fantasy and Persona 3 Reload – and “early” means “Feb. 29, 2023.”

It seems fitting, somehow, that the next chapter of Cloud and Sephiroth’s reality-bending adventure launches on Leap Year day.

Anyway, there’s a lot going on in the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release date trailer. Midgar is still in shambles from the tornado, though when this happened is anyone’s guess. Zack Fair is distinctly not dead and carts an unconscious Cloud around. The two are outside what looks like Midgar or perhaps a ruined reactor, so this might be a flashback – but then again, it’s FF7 Remake, so it might be anything.

The team visits the Gold Saucer and its eclectic mix of mini-games, chocobo racing, raucous crowds, and horny dancers – the Honeybee Inn stage crew is back – Tifa takes a swim in the Lifestream, the iconic Nibelheim reactor scene unfolds in much the same way as the original, and Yuffie teams up with everyone – presumably without stealing their stuff first.

You won’t be going to Wutai, though. Square Enix said in a PlayStation Blog post that Wutai is locked until the trilogy’s final game. There’s still plenty to see and do in Rebirth’s open world, enough that Square Enix says there’s at least 100 hours of game here – hence the two discs.

Sephiroth is also working toward something rather different. “Reunion” in the original Final Fantasy 7 from the PS1 era meant all the different failed Sephiroth projects coming together. In Rebirth, Sephiroth calls it the “reunion of worlds,” which explains all the different timelines, Weiss in the basement, and Zack being undeaded.

Don’t expect Rebirth to end with answers, though. Square Enix said the story draws to a close at the Forgotten Capital, where a Very Big Event happens in the original game. How it unfolds in Rebirth, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF