Square Enix

Your journey to the hostile land of Athia will have to wait a little longer, traveller. After a discussion with "key partners", Square Enix and Luminous Productions have made the decision to delay Forspoken for a second time from its previous 11 October 2022 release date to a 24 January 2023 slot in the calendar. The game is scheduled for release on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam, Epic and Microsoft Store.

The blade-wielding Valkyrie will come find your soul on 29 September when Valkyrie Elysium, the next entry in the venerable Valkyrie Profile series, launches for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Souls on Steam itching for the glory of Valhalla will have to wait until 11 November. Furthermore, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth will also be available, either as a standalone purchase, or as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force will warp into view on 27 October worldwide, as announced by developer Tri-Ace and publisher Square Enix. Announced back in October of last year, this spacefaring fantasy action RPG is the sixth mainline entry in the Star Ocean series and will dock on PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X & S consoles.

Arable agriculture is serious business! Square Enix has a new IP to bring to the table, and this time it's a combination of an action RPG and a farming & life simulation game. The end result looks like something with the DNA of a Rune Factory game, but with the visual presentation and panache of a Square Enix title. This game will be ripe for harvesting on Switch and PC on 4 November.

The best character from Dragon Quest XI is back with their very own spinoff game for the Nintendo Switch this December! And iiiiiiit's...hang on, this is not Sylvando. Nor is it Veronica. This appears to be a game featuring Erik and his sister Mia as the protagonists instead. Oh well, not the best treasure you can find, but Switch owners will be able to excavate this game from storefronts on 9 December.

Square Enix was hardly going to conclude their Final Fantasy VII 25th anniversary celebration stream without disclosing a teaser for the next highly anticipated game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series! Fortunately, newly appointed Final Fantasy series producer, Yoshinori Kitase, was more than happy to announce the second game in the trilogy: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It will be available "next winter" (meaning anywhere between very late 2023 to early 2024) for PlayStation 5.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has been bestowed a Phoenix Down and a new lease on life with a new shiny remastered version. Formerly exclusive to the PlayStation Portable, this action RPG starring Zack Fair will now initiate its Digital Mind Wave on your PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch 'this winter'.

The time has come for Game of Thrones to collide with Devil May Cry and a classic Godzilla-style Kaiju showdown. For the first time since September 2020, a brand new trailer for Final Fantasy XVI was shown at Sony's latest State of Play digital event, with the news that the game will come only to PlayStation 5 in the summer of 2023.

For those not in the know, the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo has been collaborating with Square Enix on a Final Fantasy 35th anniversary clothing line. The latest issue of the in-store UT magazine includes a short interview excerpt by Final Fantasy XVI producer, Naoki Yoshida. There, he states that development of the game is currently in "the final stretch".

If you look up a list of the worst released games of the year 2021, chances are the name Balan Wonderworld will make a substantial number of appearances. The troubled action platformer game published by Square Enix and developed by Arzest has, after all, achieved dismal Metacritic scores across multiple platforms and ecosystems. This is in spite of the close involvement of Sonic the Hedgehog creator, Yuji Naka, who had helmed the project and made himself the public face of the game prior to its release.

In an unexpected turn of events, a teaser reveal for Kingdom Hearts IV was shown off at a Japan-only 20th anniversary event for the Kingdom Hearts series. Following the conclusion of the Xehanort Dark Seeker saga with Kingdom Hearts III, this new numbered sequel will signal the start of a new chapter known as the 'Lost Master Arc'. Fan favourites Sora, Donald and Goofy will return, along with Strelitzia, a major character in Kingdom Hearts Union χ.

It shall be engraved upon your soul!

The Valkyrie franchise is being resurrected like a fallen warrior Einherjar. Following the now-defunct Valkyrie Anatomia on mobile platforms, Valkyrie Elysium ushers in the series's return to home consoles and to Steam with a brand new (presumably rebooted) entry made by Soleil Ltd. The game was announced at Sony's March 2022 State of Play digital event and due for release sometime in 2022 for PlayStation consoles and PC via Steam.

You thought it was Final Fantasy Tactics but it was me, DioField!

Is Triangle Strategy on the Switch not enough Square Enix strategy RPG for you this year? Do you yearn for more medieval carnage on the battlefield? Then your bloodlust shall be more than sated with the announcement of The DioField Chronicle, a strategy RPG that unlike its contemporaries brings a real-time battle system to the table.

Silly name aside, Live A Live is a bit of a forgotten classic from the SNES era. Though a member of Square's old stable of classic RPGs, this 1994 game has never seen any official release or localisation outside of Japan until now. Announced in the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, this forgotten game is being dusted down and given a fresh coat of HD-2D paint as a visually upgraded remake for the Switch. It is set to release on 22 July of this year.

Square Enix is currently determined to remaster and re-release practically every single one of its classic titles in its portfolio. The next one on the list is the oft-rumoured remaster of Chrono Cross, now titled Chrono Cross The Radical Dreamers Edition. It's out on 7 April this year for PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC via Steam.

Hey, who Wanzer of this?

As revealed in the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, a remake of the original Front Mission title is in the works by TA Publishing, a subsidiary of Forever Entertainment for Nintendo Switch, tentatively scheduled for sometime this year. A remake of a sequel game, Front Mission 2, is also in development with no release window at this present time.

We've a couple of months to go before we're graced with the undoubtedly timeless masterpiece that is Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. So to whet our appetite, the final trailer for the game is already out and...wait, why is a Frank Sinatra song in this trailer? Did they just show off a whole arc for the Dark Elf king Astos in a single trailer? And why is everyone concerned about Jack possibly being forgotten when he is already one of the most memorable protagonists in the franchise?

You've seen the memes. You've bashed your head against some fairly tough enemies in both demos. You've seen Jack cut off a party member's speech to march out of a castle while listening to Limp Bizkit through his Apple Earpods. But what, you no doubt must be asking right now, is the story of Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin all about? Who are the inhabitants of this bleak world whom we fight for?

Over half a decade after the fairly lacklustre Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, Tri-Ace and Square Enix are back together again to create a new followup sixth title for PlayStations 4 and 5. The surprise announcement of Star Ocean: The Divine Force came at a recent 20-minute long Sony State of Play online stream.

Not content with coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate as a fighter, Sora is also about to drop in on the Nintendo Switch. The entire series of Kingdom Hearts titles, which spans from the very original to Kingdom Hearts III (which is already available on PS4, Xbox One and PC on the Epic Games Store platform), has been announced for the Switch, albeit as cloud-based versions.