Final Fantasy

How Final Fantasy XV Does Pre-Render and Real-Time

In Final Fantasy XV, pre-rendered and real-time graphics do look different. Not that different, apparently. Recent Japanese magazine scans show a pre-render and real-time comparison for FFXV character Cidney, the first female Cid While she’s not a playable character, Cidney appears as an in-game mechanic. Below, you can see the images via GermanFFBlog and website…

Final Fantasy XV Sure Knows How To Do Nostalgia

Look, Square Enix—you can keep your fancy graphics and high-octane magic swordfights or whatever else you’re shoving into the next Final Fantasy. You guys know that all it really takes to reel back your old fanbase is a few bars of Uematsu. I mean, listen to this. LISTEN. This is the newly-released trailer for the…

Final Fantasy XV, The Cat Simulator

Just as Square Enix used a “Dog Cam” to show off FFXV, it’s now using a “Cat Cam” to do the same. At the recent Taipei Game Show, a feline friend explored an in-game train station. The below video is from ETtoday: Here’s the same footage, but at a slightly higher resolution: While right now…

Final Fantasy Kitchen Knives Deal Critical Damage To Fruit, Vegetables

Yes, I know. I want them too. But, much as I’d like to own some rad Final Fantasy cutlery, these were custom-made for one specific super-fan. We can ogle them from afar, though, and ogle we shall The Super-Fan Builds team enlisted the help of the ever-talented folks from Man At Arms to construct four…

Meet Twitch’s Newest Star: A Piano Player

For most of this week, I was pretty sick. There was an upside, though: it gave me the opportunity to stumble across one of Kyle Landry’s piano marathons on Twitch. That night, he became one of the most viewed anythings on Twitch, nearly beating Counter-Strike, Hearthstone, and Dying Light At first, it was just idle…

Final Fantasy Explorers Is Crystal Chronicles Meets Monster Hunter

It’s time to team up and go hunt some of Final Fantasy‘s most iconic creatures. Good – Iconic Monsters There’s not a lot of plot to Final Fantasy Explorers. You make a character, come to the one town on a remote island, and receive quests from its inhabitants. The island itself is a macrocosm of…

Final Fantasy Explorers‘ Bosses Make for Great GIFs

Final Fantasy Explorers is a game all about venturing out into the world and slaying monsters—including the summonable creatures that have appeared in numerous games from across the franchise. To make these battles especially epic, the summons have pre-fight cutscenes—each of which looks just as cool in gif form. Shiva Ifrit Ramuh Cúchulainn Diablos Fenrir…

If Zelda Had Final Fantasy Logos

The Legend of Zelda has its own logos. They’re great! But what if Zelda logos looked like Final Fantasy ones? Well, I guess they’d look like this. Tumblr site Shattered-Earth did a series of Zelda-meets-Final Fantasy logos in Yoshitaka Amano‘s iconic artistic style. So, The Final Legend of Zelda? The Legend of Final Fantasy? Zeldantasy?…

Square Sure Put A Lot Of Work Into Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

Here, for your enjoyment, is an official Square Enix comparison video that shows how they’ve transformed Final Fantasy Type-0 from a dark ugly PSP game to a GORGEOUS new-gen console game. Well, OK, it’s not that gorgeous. Everything looks a touch too glossy, and a lot of the textures are clearly carried over from the…

How Final Fantasy XV Is Influenced by Back to the Future: Part II

Don’t expect DeLoreans, hoverboards and sports almanacs. But according to Wan Hazmer, Final Fantasy XV lead game designer, the title has found inspiration in an unlikely source: Robert Zemeckis’ 1989 sci-fi flick. In an interview with Travel Garage TV, Hazmer talks about how the game’s developers are striving to create believable environments. “A concept of…

My, My Cid, How You Have Changed

While each Final Fantasy tends to be set in a different world, there are a few staples you can expect in each one—most prominently, a character named Cid. And the newest game in the franchise, Final Fantasy Explorers, is no exception. Over the years Cid has gone through some changes since his first appearance back…

Meet The New Man In Charge Of Final Fantasy

The director of Final Fantasy XV is reading your comments, Kotaku. Hope you’ve got good ones. Hajime Tabata, the newly-elevated Square Enix superstar who is helming the next two major Final Fantasy games—Type-0 HD (this March) and XV (eventually)—told me on Friday that sometimes, when he has spare moments, he goes through Kotaku comments and…

The Up All Night Stream Plays Final Fantasy Explorers (Stream Over)

This past month a new Final Fantasy spin-off title, Final Fantasy Explorers, came out in Japan. So of course, the Up All Night Stream is here to play it with you all. Let’s find out together what happens when you mix Final Fantasy and Monster Hunter, shall we? Update: The stream is now complete but…

I Picked The Perfect Time To Get Back Into Final Fantasy XIV

After spending the better part of 2014 exploring other MMO avenues, in 2015 I’m getting back into Final Fantasy XIV, just in time for the massive two-part pre-expansion patch 2.5, “Before the Fall.” Yesterday Square Enix released a lengthy trailer detailing the new content coming in patch 2.5, an update so large it’s coming in…

Final Fantasy Theatrhythm: Curtain Call is getting some new DLC tracks—starting today you can get songs from Xenogears and even Seiken Dentetsu 3 (a Secret of Mana sequel that was never released in North America) for $0.99 each. Full list here.

Cosplay superstar Alodia Gosiengfiao brings Final Fantasy VII tune “J-E-N-O-V-A” to life on a Yamaha piano, with her pops on synth. We’ve seen cosplayers show off their musical skills before, but this might be the first dad collab.

Final Fantasy VII, Redesigned

If you don’t like belts and crazy hair, Final Fantasy VII’s aesthetic might not be to your liking. Here, then, are some artist’s ideas on what Final Fantasy VII could look like. These pics were done by the community at Brainstorm, just like the Batmanimages we posted last year. The rules were they could take…

On The Spot Pianist Takes On Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross And Skyrim

Last month master pianist/composer Sonya Belousova charmed us with on the spot arrangements of classic Nintendo themes, many of which she had only just heard for the first time. I was hesitant to post her follow-up, but then I heard her version of “The Scars of Time” from Chrono Cross. I’m currently in the middle…

In Final Fantasy XV, Your MP Isn’t for Magic

As far as we currently know, the combat in Final Fantasy XV is going to be your basic action RPG format with single button presses for attacks. So how is the magic going to work then? While he wouldn’t offer specifics, director Hajime Tabata did reveal some interesting aspects of the combat mechanics in his…

One Lousy Chrono Trigger Song Coming To Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

This weekend Square Enix announced downloadable songs from non-Final Fantasy games coming to the latest iteration of FF‘s rhythm game. That’s four songs from Bravely Default, three from the SaGa series and one each from Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. That’s not right. I love the music in Bravely Default and the SaGa series,…