Final Fantasy

“Final Fantasy Disease” Infected Square Enix, Says FFXV‘s Director 

Do you have it? According to Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, “lots” of fans do. From the sound of it, some people at Square Enix have been infected, too. In a refreshingly frank talk with Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada on Japanese site 4Gamer, Tabata mentions what he calls “FF byou” (FF病) or “Final Fantasy…

Poll: Most Japanese College Students Haven’t Played a Final Fantasy 

Actually, 70.3 percent of those who replied said they hadn’t. NicoNico reports that MyNavi polled 401 male and female university students (200 men and 201 women) in Japan and asked them if they had ever played a game in the Final Fantasy series. And how did they reply? Yes 119 students (29.7 percent) No 282…

A Great Thing Final Fantasy IX Did

It’s Friday, which is still Kotaku JRPG Day in my heart. So here’s an interesting thought on what made old Final Fantasy games special, from two veteran designers who have plenty of insight on what it’s like to make video games. First, some context: designers Brett Douville (LucasArts, Bethesda) and Tim Longo Jr. (LucasArts, 343…

The locations in Final Fantasy XV, which is finally coming out this fall, look terrific. Via Famitsu, here’s a clip showing off some of the game’s varied environments.

PC Modder Says It’ll Take Months To Get Final Fantasy X Running At 60 FPS

Final Fantasy X originally came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. One modder is trying to make it conform to modern PC gaming standards—with mixed results. Naxshe has posted a couple videos of their effort to give the recently released Steam version of Final Fantasy X a full 60 frames-per-second makeover. Here’s the game’s…

This Final Fantasy XV Interview Is Incredible

Hironobu Sakaguchi was the first director of Final Fantasy. Hajime Tabata is the latest director of Final Fantasy. When they get together, the results are surprisingly hilarious. Today Famitsu Magazine published an English transcript of a recent interview they held with both Final Fantasy luminaries, and it’s full of incredible moments. Sakaguchi’s comments are blunt,…

Final Fantasy X Pops Up On Steam

Final Fantasy X, a video game about ghosts playing soccer, showed up on Steam this week alongside its peppy sequel, FFX-2. Seems like they’ll be coming to PC soon. The Steam listing says this HD remaster—previously released on PS3, PS4, and Vita—will be out for PC on May 12, but Steam’s gotten dates of Final…

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a wonderfully titled RPG for iOS and Android, will come to North America in the near future, publisher Square Enix announced today. The game launched in Japan last October.

Ten Years Ago, Square Announced Final Fantasy Versus XIII 

As Final Fantasy fans across the world wait impatiently for FFXV, let’s take some time to celebrate an important milestone. Yesterday, Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s announcement turned ten years old Happy birthday, announcement! Yep, an entire decade has passed since we first met Noctis. On May 8, 2006, Square Enix announced Versus XIII during their…

Yokai Watch Is Coming to Final Fantasy XIV

In a somewhat unexpected move, Yokai Watch characters are coming to Final Fantasy XIV in a future update. According to Famitsu, further details are to come, but footage released today at a Nico Nico event outside Tokyo show popular Yokai Watch characters like Jibanyan, Komasan, and Whisper. Here’s a full list of all the characters:…

Final Fantasy: The Kotaku Retrospective

Here’s a theory: Final Fantasy is defined by how it sounds. No, I don’t mean the music—although Nobuo Uematsu’s stirring soundtrack is as pivotal to Final Fantasy’s success as anything else—I’m talking about how it sounds. The chime of a menu cursor. The squeal of an NPC’s dialogue box. The thunderous jolt of a random…

First Look at the Final Fantasy XI Reboot for Mobile 

Nexon is making a mobile version of Final Fantasy XI with Square Enix. Today, we get our first peek at the title. According to Ruliweb(via tipster Sang), the game was shown today at the Nexon Developer Conference in South Korea. Note that the slides are titled Final Fantasy XI Reboot. The announced title is Final…

Japanese Factories at Night Are Magnificent

Plus, there’s a nice Final Fantasy VII vibe going on. For a while now, photographers have been tweeting photos of factories at night to the hashtag #工場夜景 (koujou yakei) or “factory night view.” Many of these appear to be refineries, and the resulting images are often futuristic and otherworldy.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Will Be Shown In A Theater This Weekend

On Sunday, for the first time since 2006 (as far as I can tell), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be screened in a theater—an actual theater. The polarizing film, which continued the story of Cloud and his angsty buddies after they defeated Sephiroth way back in the 90s, will be shown at the Newport…

Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV, the full-CG Final Fantasy XV spin-off flick, will be out in Japanese movie theaters on July 9. No word yet on its international release date.

Final Fantasy IX Is Out on PC

Following its recent mobile release, the ninth Final Fantasy, originally released on PlayStation nearly sixteen years ago, has finally popped up on Steam. Per the developers’ announcement, here’s what you get for buying the game on PC: Relive this classic Final Fantasy adventure with Zidane and his crew with a bunch of new features including:…

Track: The Final Battle / Grand Cross | Artist: Nobuo Uematsu | Album: Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack In-game video (spoilers, obviously): Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Final Fantasy XV‘s New Demo Is Delightful

Nearly three years ago, while showcasing what we now know was a game that had barely even started development, the people behind Final Fantasy XV demonstrated a flashy fight between the hero Noctis and a Final Fantasy stalwart, the hulking Iron Giant. We only got bits and pieces of the battle, but what we saw…

The Chocobo Theme Performed With Drum And Flute Blocks In Stardew Valley

Here’s a really neat way to use note blocks in farming sim Stardew Valley. Instead of growing vegetables, Chinchilla made a small field with note blocks, playing the well-known Chocobo Theme from Final Fantasy Pretty hard not to smile after watching it. And it gets even better at 1.5x speed. To contact the author of…

Bringing Final Fantasy Back from the Edge of Crisis 

Last week, Square Enix showed it wasthrowing all it had behind Final Fantasy XV. This is a big game and has the anime and live-action CGI spin-off to prove it. While Square Enix might seem like it’s back on sure Final Fantasy footing, it was only a few years ago things seemed anything but. In…