The Final Fantasy and Dragon’s Dogma Events Delivered

For anyone who liked paying attention to all the not-E3 streams provided in the last week, yesterday presented a harsh dilemma for anyone who enjoys RPGs. Square Enix held a Final Fantasy VII 25th Anniversary Event, one where the company and its developers elaborated on plans to celebrate this occasion, in a short stream that happened between the days Final Fantasy VII originally released between Japan (January 1997) and the United States (September 1997) 25 years ago. Meanwhile, Capcom also held a Dragon’s Dogma 10th anniversary event, an extension of the website and Twitter account launched in late May to commemorate it. Both streams occurred at 6PM ET, which made it impossible to watch both.

Of course, it would have been an unneeded dilemma if both streams provided no announcements and solely acknowledged the anniversaries. That would have been a shame, but it’s sometimes good to lower expectations. But as the title says — they both delivered.

One from the FFVII stream was the Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII remake/remaster, officially known as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. This one wasn’t quite as surprising as it should have been after word of it being announced leaked on social media ahead of the event. But it’s not like there wasn’t a surprise here: This is a far larger effort than anyone anticipated. It’s not simply a remaster of the 2007/2008 PSP version.

It’s not too surprising that the character models have been redone, which might have looked messy when upscaled from PSP. It’s similar to the treatment another former PSP title, Final Fantasy Type-0, received when given an HD version. The backgrounds and user interface have also been redone to fit in with the overall presentation upgrade. The background music has been rearranged, though there’s no info on how extensive the job will be or which staffers Square Enix has enlisted for the job. I can only hope that original composer Takeharu Ishimoto has the opportunity to overlook all of this, and is involved with a number of remixes himself.

One of the bigger changes involves the updated battle system, seen from the trailer for anyone who remembers playing the original game (*gasp*) over 14 years ago. The updated system takes cues from Final Fantasy VII Remake, shown through the animations and attack styles. It’s actually possible for Zack to hit two enemies at once with normal attacks now. The DMW slot system is still present, though not as obtrusive thanks to how the game will primarily be played on televisions and monitors this time around, and handhelds with larger screens.

The voice acting has also been redone, which will make a bigger difference for the English version than the Japanese one. The latter will largely keep the same cast, outside those for characters who’ve passed on like Professor Hojo and Reno. But the English version will use the new cast from FFVIIR instead of keeping those from the PSP version. There’s also full voice acting this time around, meaning many scenes relegated to text (like anything Tifa said) will now be voiced.

The Crisis Core remake/remaster (whichever you want to call it) will release “this winter,” which I’m taking to mean “Q1 2023.” They could just come out and be specific about this, but why do that when you can keep fans guessing? Can’t blame them. More remarkable is how it will release for every platform, specifically PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. I’ve seen comments from people who think the remake quality isn’t on par with FFVIIR because of the Switch version, but that’s unlikely. There’s a better chance that the developers simply didn’t want to take too many resources from the second game in the FFVIIR series.

Speaking of that: Square Enix wouldn’t have celebrated the anniversary properly if they didn’t announce the second part of FFVII Remake, which they’re titling Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. The short preview showed part of the Nibelheim flashback sequence with Cloud and Sephiroth, with Tifa providing narration and some voice over from Aerith. It wasn’t much, but enough to show how it’s a project that will one day soon exist. It will release “next winter” for PlayStation 5, which I assume is their cryptic way of saying “Q1 2024.” They also confirmed that it will be a trilogy, which means this game will have to be pretty sizable if they’re not cutting any story content.

Here’s another fun tidbit: If everything goes according to plan, we’ll get two Final Fantasy games within a year, with Final Fantasy XVI planned for a summer 2023 release. Delays should not be ruled out, but it will be remarkable if Square Enix can deliver all of this according to schedule.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is now available on Steam, in an announcement that made sure to highlight how playable it will be on Steam Deck. The sequel will likely come there eventually, though it could take a while if Square Enix continues with the pattern of releasing the port through the Epic Games Store first.

Capcom’s 10th anniversary event for Dragon’s Dogma was lower key thanks to the franchise being nowhere near as popular as Final Fantasy. But it still came with a solid announcement at the end: Dragon’s Dogma II. It’s not too big of a surprise considering it was part of the leaked Capcom lineup from 2020, but there’s no telling what could have changed on that pre-pandemic list since then. Fortunately, it’s still coming, which clears up the mystery of what director Hideaki Itsuno and his team have been working on since Devil May Cry 5 first released.

All they unfortunately provided was a logo, and an eventual confirmation that the game will use RE Engine. This implies that the game is far away from release, but it could come sooner than that. The game was, according to the aforementioned list, originally planned for release this fall. The pandemic has delayed nearly every game in development, so the question is precisely how far this game has been pushed back. It’s clearly not coming this year any longer, but when it arrives will depend on how the production process has fared since the pandemic began. There is, of course, a chance that COVID-19 may not be the only reason for the delay.

It’s a shame that E3 didn’t happen this year. Yet despite the main Summer Game Fest stream being an underwhelming bore, the announcements in a little more than the last week have delivered. That means there’s a higher chance of publishers simply going it alone over the summer months going forward, regardless of the ESA’s plans.