Final Fantasy

13 Years Later, A New Final Fantasy IX Quest Has Been Discovered

People dig up random little easter eggs and bugs in old games all the time. What they don’t often find are entire side-quests which have somehow remained hidden from view for over a decade. YouTube user GarlandTheGreat has uploaded a video showing a sidequest present in Final Fantasy IX that, until now, was pretty much…

The Games That Make It Hardest To Say Goodbye

There haven’t been a ton of new games out lately, so maybe you’ve had time to finish one or two that had been sitting on your backburner. And maybe, if you were lucky, one of those games was good enough that you had a hard time letting go. It’s a unique and lovely thing, the…

Via Nova Crystallis comes word that Square Enix filed a trademark on April 24, 2013 in Japan for “FINAL FANTASY AGITO”. You might remember that PSP game Final Fantasy Type-0 was originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII. You might not! To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter…

Not Going To E3? Square Enix Has Got You Covered

We don’t know what Square Enix is showing at E3 this year, but you’ll be able to get the same view as Kotaku: the Final Fantasy makers are planning to run a livestream from their booth. Crushing disappointment: now in real-time. Or, hey, maybe we’ll all be pleasantly surprised! Maybe we’ll see Final Fantasy XV…

Final Fantasy XIV Reborn August 27, Gets Another Collector’s Edition

Final Fantasy XIV was released in September of 2010, and it wasn’t very good. On August 27, nearly three years later, Final Fantasy XIV rises again a realm reborn, and Square Enix is celebrating with a collector’s edition that’s much better than the original. Now available for preorder for the PC and PlayStation 3, Final…

He Forged Cloud’s Buster Sword. Then, He Cut Stuff With It.

Man At Arms’ Tony Swatton has forged all sorts of nerdy swords. It was only a matter of time before he turned to Final Fantasy—specifically, Cloud’s iconic sword. And boy howdy, is the Buster sword huge and unwieldy. He says it’s one of the most ridiculous sword blades he’s ever made—which, after seeing him make…

Final Fantasy Versus XIII: The PS1 Masterpiece

Final Fantasy Versus XIII sometimes feels like it’s been in development forever. So let’s pretend that it has. And that “forever” is really “since 1997”. Artist Saku Hatakka has done the above image, which takes the look of the oft-delayed Square game and takes it back in time to the Final Fantasy VII engine. “It…

First Look at Hi-Res Final Fantasy VIII for PC

Square Enix just announced that 1999 role-playing game Final Fantasy VIII is coming to PC in Japan. The PC version is slated to feature high-resolution graphics, but its release date as well as whether or not it will have additional content is still TBA. Here is a first look at the upcoming PC release: FFVIII…

Space… The Final Fantasy Card Game… This Is Star Trek Rivals.

If you loved Triple Triad and Tetra Master, the collectible card games included in Final Fantasy VIII and IX respectively, then you’ll probably be quite annoyed by the format being utilized in this cash-hungry free-to-play movie tie-in. Just in time for the theatrical release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, Rivals takes pictures of people and…

In Japan, Square Enix just announced Final Fantasy XIII-2 Digital Contents Selection for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. According to Square Enix, the version is FFXIII-2 plus a selection of the game’s post release DLC items. Packed in an original box, this version goes on sale July 18 in Japan. To contact the author…

Video Games With The Most Memorable Pre-Rendered Backgrounds

Pre-rendered graphics weren’t only used in complex cinematic cutscenes back in the day when a game’s own 3D engine couldn’t do the job. Developers also used them as in-game backgrounds to bypass graphical limitations. And some of the games had really well-made, atmospheric pre-rendered backgrounds. Squaresoft and Capcom preferred these a lot in their PS1…

How To Break Final Fantasy IV

Have you ever wanted to make Rydia beat herself up? No? Well you might enjoy this anyway. Last year on Random Encounters, we learned how to break Final Fantasy VI. Today, I’m going to show you how to take apart one of its Super Nintendo predecessors, Final Fantasy IV (the one with Cecil and Golbez).…

Will Final Fantasy X-2 HD Have Its “Last Mission”? That’s Undecided.

The HD revamp of Final Fantasy X-2 looks quite nice in high-definition. However, looks aren’t everything! It’s what’s inside that counts. And what’s inside Final Fantasy X-2 HD? According to Famitsu (via Yahoo! News), it’s currently “undecided” whether or not “Last Mission”, which featured in the game’s international version, will appear in the HD remaster.…

Final Fantasy X-2 Sure Looks Pretty In High Definition

I’ve always thought Final Fantasy X-2 was rather underrated by the Internet At Large. Square’s FFX sequel always got a bad rap because of the whole “pop group” thing, but the class-based combat system was actually kind of brilliant, and I dug revisiting the minigame-filled world of Spira to see how things had changed. Of…

Buy This Final Fantasy XI Account for Just $4,500

A Japanese gamer poured 2,280 days worth of playtime into this Final Fantasy XI account. That’s over six years! But now, it’s time to part ways. The gamer is putting his or her Japanese account on the internet auction block, giving anyone with around the equivalent of US$4,500 the chance to own it—and all the…

Stunning Final Fantasy Art You Probably Haven’t Seen Before

Final Fantasy IX might not be the best Final Fantasy game, but it’s definitely the most stylish. Yep, even before FFXII‘s massive world and FFXIII’s jaw-dropping hair particles, Square’s popular series was blazing a trail in art direction, putting its own inimitable spin on fantasy and steampunk. And Final Fantasy IX, the last game in…

The Final Fantasy Fansite That Changed Thousands Of People’s Lives

At 29, Sean Robinson has been teaching high school in Southern California for almost six years. He teaches 10th grade history. He tries, at least a little, to be the cool teacher. His short hair’s spiked up in the front, a Fallout 3 lunchbox sits on his desk, and he conducts class in a casual,…

Final Fantasy VII has never actually been released for the PC in Japan. Square Enix will be fixing that mistake “soon” by making the Japanese version available on their online shop.

Final Fantasy Tactics S, a new Final Fantasy Tactics social game, was just announced for Japan. “S”? Social? Geddit?

Ode To The JRPG Mini-Game

During the two-and-a-half decades I’ve been playing JRPGs, I’ve learned three important lessons: 1) If an NPC tells you a rumor, it’s true; 2) All valuables are hidden in bookshelves; and 3) Mini-games are almost always better than real games. It’s a strange phenomenon, don’t you think? We play role-playing games because we want to…