Square Enix

Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward Log Two: Identity Crisis

I’d love to be able to report this week that I’ve reached the new level cap and experienced some of the high-end content Final Fantasy XIV’s first expansion has to offer, but first I need to figure out which version of my character I want to be. If Heavensward had introduced its three new adventuring…

So is the new Hitman episodic or a full game or what? Here’s some clarity, via the developers: on December 8 you can spend $60 to buy a digital version that will be updated with new stuff over the course of the following year. Or you can buy it on disc “at some point” in…

Mobius Final Fantasy Needs More Plot

Mobius Final Fantasy (previously Mevius Final Fantasy) is the latest official Final Fantasy game. It’s a turn-based-with-an-element-of-tactics combat-centric game for iOS and Android platforms. In Mobius Final Fantasy, you play the part of Wal – or whatever you decide to name him – an amnesiac protagonist, tossed into the world of Paramitia. There he is…

The Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Song That Gets Me Every Time

It never fails. I teleport back to the Foundation area of the expansion’s new city of Ishgard, it’s nighttime, it’s snowing, and the most achingly bittersweet music plays. Though featuring similar musical themes, the music for entrance The Holy See of Ishgard is powerful and bold, appropriately representing a towering city that’s withstood countless attacks…

Square Enix Suspends Final Fantasy XIV Mac Sales, Offers Refunds

Citing thewidespread disappointment with performance and poor communication of system requirements, Square Enix has temporarily halted sales of the Final Fantasy XIV Mac client. Good call. Having spent the better part of two years using alternative methods such as Boot Camp to run Final Fantasy XIV on their systems, Mac had been clamoring for a…

Final Fantasy XIV‘s New Mac Client Is A Joke

Since Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s August 2013 release, Mac players have had to jump through the normal hoops to play a Windows game on their hardware. Now the game finally has an official Mac client, but by most accounts it’s not great. Until the release of the official Mac client, which coincided with…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Man In The Moon-Mask: The Winners! 

The winner of last week’s ‘Shop Contest, inspired by the maskNier director Taro Yoko wore to Square Enix’s E3 press conference earlier this month, reminds us that there is always a creepier moon on the horizon. While this week’s runners-up feature some truly nightmare-inducing visions, UI 2.0’s image of the horrible moon from The Legend…

Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward Log One: Finally

I’m trying to write my initial Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward expansion MMO log in such a way as to minimize my time away from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. This is a good sign. Early access for the first major expansion pack to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched on Friday, June 19. I finally…

Four Hours of Final Fantasy VII Remake Reactions

Do you have plans for the day? How about clearing your schedule so you can watch people’s Final Fantasy VII remake reactions? Four hours. That’s right. Four. Hours. To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft

World of Final Fantasy Lets You Pile Up Monsters

You know that otherFinal Fantsy game that was revealed at this year’s E3? It actually sounds pretty damn interesting as its director reveals. World of Final Fantasy has an admittedly adorable trailer, with chibi characters and characters with chibi (“small”) monsters on their heads. But aside from what we already know, the game looks to…

How The Final Fantasy VII Remake Came to Be

This year’s E3 had a huge surprise for us all: The Final Fantasy VII remake. But this wasn’t the only surprise. Prior to the official unveiling, Final Fantasy VII’s original character designer Tetsuya Nomura had no idea he’d be directing the remake. Square Enix – or rather, Square Enix’s former boss, Yoichi Wada – has…

Catching up with with Final Fantasy XIV’s main storyhas taken its toll on my mouse finger. Still, Shiva’s about to go down, so I’m in the home stretch. Heavensward here I come!

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Man In The Moon-Mask

One of the creepy highlights of Square Enix’s 2015 E3 press conference, now a major Kotaku ‘Shop Contest subject. Why is he wearing that mask? Why isn’t everyone wearing it? Video game director Taro Yoko is responsible for the wonderfully dark and twisted Drakengard series and its Nier spin-off (soon to be spin-offs), so as…

So, About That Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Coverage

Like thousands of other Final Fantasy XIV players I was awake at 5 a.m. Eastern on Friday morning to take my first steps into the game’s first major expansion. Then I realized Heavensward wasn’t quite like other MMO expansions. Most MMO expansions are level-based. If the new content is for players level 50 and above,…

The New Hitman’s Creative Director Is Saying All The Right Things

On the last day of E3, I checked out the newly announced Hitman game, which is simply called Hitman. I also spoke with IO Interactive creative director Christian Elverdam, and he had some heartening things to say. Most Hitman fans agree that 2006’s Blood Money was the pinnacle of the series, and that game came…

Keeping The Final Fantasy VII Remake And Shenmue III Secret

Adam Boyes, head of third-party developer relations at PlayStation, told me at E3 that he’s known about Square’s Final Fantasy VII remake for a year. It was a fun secret to keep. “Our publishers take us through their slates,” he said, recalling a meeting with Square from earlier last year. “When he said ‘FFVII remake’,…

Eight Things You Should Know About World Of Final Fantasy

Moments before stealing the show at Sony’s press conference by announcing the Final Fantasy VII remake that may make it in time for the PS5, Square Enix whipped out World of Final Fantasy, a chibi-sprite game that promised to be “adorably familiar” and looked like something made for kids. On Monday night, most of us…

25 Minutes Of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Here is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s entire E3 gameplay demo. It’s pretty hot. Normally in order to view this demo before, like, a week from now, you’d have to go crawling through E3’s vents and stain your sensation-less mechanical arms with the battery acid-infused blood of countless Square Enix employees. But not now, not today.…

Final Fantasy VII Scenes That Would Look Crazy In The Remake

The announcement trailer of Final Fantasy VII’s remake showed a slightly darker and more realistic world compared to the 1997 game. And with an aesthetic like that it’s almost impossible to imagine how some of the crazier parts of the original game would look. Take Cloud’s cross-dressing scene for example and compare it to the…

Just A Few Short Days Before Final Fantasy XIV Turns Heavensward

All of this shiny new, far in the future Final Fantasy stuff from E3 2015 is great, but those of us with massively multiplayer leanings have more immediate concerns, like next week’s launch of the first major expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Three new jobs, massive new areas, a new race, flying mounts, and all…