Square Enix

Glory to mankind! Four months following the release of Final Fantasy XIV's critically acclaimed Shadowbringers expansion comes Patch 5.1: Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty, the long-awaited collaboration with NieR Automata. For players of the game who wish to revel in NieR creator Yoko Taro's brand of madness, or desire to knock heads with Alexander Ultimate (the next in the series of hyper-challenging fights for hardcore raiders), there are plenty of machines to pick a fight with come the 29th October.

With six months to go until (this first volume?) of the Final Fantasy VII Remake hits physical and digital store shelves for the PlayStation 4, Square Enix opens this year's Tokyo Games Show with a new trailer for their coveted next big release.

If you're one of Final Fantasy XIV's now-16 million registered users, this one's for you. Square Enix has teamed up with multimedia news outlet ScreenRant for an official giveaway of one Meister Quality figure of Ultima, the High Seraph, and there's 20 days left to make it yours!

The full kit includes both the figure itself and a bonus Final Fantasy XIV in-game item, "Ballroom Etiquette: Ultima", which can be redeemed via a code included in the box. That's a $229.99 value for those of you in the US. Unfortunately, applicants from other countries are not allowed.

Take a look at a 360 view of the figure with further specifications below...

Final Fantasy VII Remake may currently only be announced for the PlayStation 4 with an expected release date of 3 March 2020, but Square Enix have more or less confirmed that it will not remain on a single console. Company president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda candidly spoke that the remake is expressly developed to support both the current generation of consoles and the generation to follow, which invariably includes the PlayStation 5.

All major conferences for this year's E3 have wrapped up and amidst the dying fervour, the dust begins to quietly settle. Of Square Enix's showings, Final Fantasy VII Remake certainly garnered the brunt of the attention, but we would be remiss to leave out a catalogue of other announcements and games that were showed off over the course of the last couple of days. So let this article be a useful primer of information on everything else from Marvel's Avengers to the anticipated Final Fantasy VIII Remastered.

Having avoided the public light since 2015 like the world's deftest ninja, the spotlight is about to shine on Final Fantasy VII Remake this year. Kicking off is a short teaser trailer for the game broadcasted in Sony's State of Play stream. We have a more thorough look at Barret, Biggs, Wedge, Cloud and of course, we welcome Aerith to the team. The teaser trailer ends with the words: "more to come in June".

The Paris Fanfest for Final Fantasy XIV is in town and with it another keynote to outline the content that can be expected for the MMORPG's third expansion, Shadowbringers, not to be confused with Stormblood when abbreviated, because...wait, why have they done that? That just adds unnecessary confusion...

The first key point is the expansion will be available on the 2nd July this year. If you pre-order from the 6th February, you can participate in the expansion's early access period from the 28th June, providing the servers do not buckle the moment everyone attempts to queue in.

The Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest is back in town - in Las Vegas at least - and naturally it's time for Yoshi-P to face an adoring crowd to announce that Final Fantasy XIV Immortal will be released for mobile devi [checks script] no, that didn't happen. They announced the MMO's third expansion, FFXIV 5.0 Shadowbringers. This expansion will follow the usual two-year rule set by the previous two expansions, so expect an approximate release window of June 2019.

Square Enix held a special livestream dedicated to Final Fantasy XV, now near its second anniversary. Fans of the game in time zones during slightly less antisocial hours of the day tuned in with fervent attention to see how the promised second season pass and the accompanying four DLC episodes of the game were shaping up. Things were looking good going into the event from the public's perspective. Chief antagonist Ardyn was about to take the spotlight with his own DLC episode, followed by an Aranea side story and two extra episodes dedicated to Lunafreya and Noctis. What could possibly go wrong?

It is almost time to close off the Xehanort saga once and for all. As promised, the full Tokyo Game Show trailer for Kingdom Hearts III is available and grants us an expanded look into the world of Big Hero 6 and the film's protagonists you will be fighting with, from Hiro to Go Go to Baymax. Also revealed is the official boxart for the game, which covers the entire ensemble cast of heroes spanning from across the entirety of the franchise thus far.

Square-Enix want to make it up to Nintendo console fans. For too long they've been starved of Final Fantasy releases and with the exploding popularity of the Nintendo Switch and the very recent success of Octopath Traveler, perhaps now is the time to once again bless Nintendo with a considerable catalogue of ports. These range from core mainline entries to a few lesser known spin-off titles.

Does anyone remember The Last Remnant? It released in 2008 exclusively for the Xbox 360 (and PC shortly after) and was one of the very few HD JRPGs actually released by Square Enix during the previous generation. While the game is now no longer available on Steam, a remastered version for PlayStation 4 was announced and is scheduled to release digitally on the 6th of December this year in western territories.

Fans of the Tales of series may already know that long time series producer, Hideo Baba, left Bandai Namco following Tales of Zestiria to found and lead a new development studio under Square Enix's wing. The new Studio Istolia is currently working on a brand new original fantasy RPG tentatively titled Project Prelude Rune for the PlayStation 4 and as of this year's Tokyo Game Show, finally demonstrated a short sample of what the game and its main protagonist will look like.

It's lives!

For those of you unaware, Left Alive is a survival action shooter worked on by veteran leads such as Toshifumi Nabeshima (of Armored Core fame); Takayuki Yanase, who designed many mechs over the years, such as the ones in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Ghost in the Shell: Arise; and Yoji Shinkawa, whose distinctive artwork is recognised by many a fan of the Metal Gear Solid games. It serves as a spiritual successor to the Front Mission games, exchanging tactical RPG gameplay for a tactical shooter affair.

Does anyone remember Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? It was a primarily multiplayer-based spinoff cult classic for the Nintendo Gamecube. Due to technological limitations at the time that required the need for four wired Game Boy Advances to hook to the console for that 4-player experience, the game was lost to time until now. With the era of ubiquitous online multiplayer gaming, Square Enix are bringing this multiplayer spinoff back with a remastered version, for both PS4 and the Nintendo Switch.

All aboard the Gummi Ship for San Fransokyo!

Though we have known for a while that Big Hero 6 will be one of the playable worlds in Kingdom Hearts III along with fellow newcomers such as Tangled, Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Frozen, we've yet to actually see any footage of this world until now. With the Tokyo Game Show just around the corner, Square Enix Japan have released a new short teaser trailer. In it we are introduced to Hiro and Baymax of the film, other characters in the game's other worlds and of course, the overarching villains of the entire franchise.

E3 season is upon us. For many, this is a momentous occasion. An annual ritual like no other. A period of sheer glee where we can bask in child-like wonder and speculate on what Santa Claus will bring come his next visit. Few companies inspire this essence of wondrous nirvana like Square Enix, a company with a history of igniting pure, unadulterated excitement while barely saying anything of substance. Square Enix can drive a fan crazy like few other major corporations can, besides maybe Apple. So unsurprisingly, when they announced in the run-up to this year's E3 that they have a press conference for the first time since 2015, auspiciously touting it "the next chapter is about to begin", expectations soared.

The currently Japanese exclusive popular free-to-play mobile entry in the Star Ocean series of games is finally due to spread its wings and expand its presence beyond its home territories. Square Enix is apparently bringing Tri-Ace's Star Ocean: Anamnesis to western App stores for iOS and Android devices. True to the Star Ocean franchise, Anamnesis retains the familiar real-time 3D combat system and also promises co-op multiplayer battles on top of the freedom for players to choose the composition of their party squads using characters from across all mainline games.

The Final Fantasy XV train chugs on unabated. At PAX East, Square Enix have laid out a roadmap, detailing what the four new DLC chapters for the game will entail, along with rough window estimates for when we can expect to see their release. In addition, future content updates will include the ability to transpose your created character in Comrades over to the base game to replace Noctis as the on-screen main protagonist.

The momentum for FFXV continues. Since its release in November 2016 the game has seen three DLC episodes and even an entire paid multiplayer expansion DLC. Now Square Enix are poised to continue support for the game with a fresh slate of DLC episodes in the pipeline and a second season pass. Originally three additional DLC episodes were in the cards, though it would now seem there will be a total of four, with Episode Ardyn due to kick things off.