Summary
TheFinal Fantasyfranchise is on a hot streak.Final Fantasy 16just came out, and while it’s struggling to salvage Square Enix’s weak financial year, its sales are still impressive for a PS5 exclusive. Meanwhile, the MMOFinal Fantasy 14is still riding high after consecutively praised expansions, and theFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeproject just releasedEver Crisisin preparation forFF7 Rebirth. EvenFinal Fantasyspin-offs are doing well, withStranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originwrapping up its DLC, thePixel Remastersarriving on consoles, andChocobo GPremoving its criticized microtransactions in 2023.
With a mixture of AA and AAA games, Square Enix has maintained a steady output of titles for the past couple of years. Looking atFinal Fantasy’s releasesalone reveals a staggering number of big-name titles scattered throughout each fiscal year, and both leaks and official reveals have pointed towards even more in the near future.Final Fantasy’s momentum has built to the point of resembling the time before Squaresoft and Enix merged, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
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Final Fantasy Is Entering Another Year Of Stacked Releases
Right now, only two futureFinal Fantasyprojects have been dated, those being the PS5 launch ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthin February 2024, and theFF14 Dawntrailexpansion in summer 2024.Final Fantasywill continue to get a major release every six to eight months, something it has kept up sinceCrisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunionlaunched in December 2022. TheFF7 Remake’s third and final entrymay be years away, butFinal Fantasy 16will get a PC release and two paid DLC episodes in the meantime. That’s a lot ofFinal Fantasy, and it’s not even everything fans know about.
Several years ago, an Nvidia GeForce Now leak revealed that aFinal Fantasy 9remake was coming, as well as aFinal Fantasy Tacticsremaster. That list has been proven right time and time again, and leakers and industry figures have heard so many reports about these two games that some now talk about them like they’ve already been announced. SinceTactics Ogrejust got itsRebornremaster,FF Tactics HDcan’t be far behind, and references to some kind ofFinal Fantasy 9animated show have also cropped up over the years. With aFinal Fantasy 10project recently joining the rumor pile, there may be even moreFinal Fantasyremakes out before theFF7 Remaketrilogy is done.
There Hasn’t Been This Much Final Fantasy In Two Decades
Having this muchFinal Fantasyon the way seems absurd, especially in the modern climate of games taking upwards of three years to develop. However, it seems Square Enix has worked something out to support its biggest global brand and has done so in a way that recalls its past. 2003’sFinal Fantasy Tactics AdvanceandFinal Fantasy 10-2were the last gamesreleased under Squaresoft before it merged with Enix, and capped off a decade and a half where a majorFinal Fantasytitle came out almost every year. ModernFinal Fantasyprobably won’t be able to keep the same pace up, but in some ways, it’s currently outpacing its past self.
From 1987 to 2003, only 5 years passed without a full, newFinal Fantasytitle releasing, and those off years included games like the firstSaGatitle,Chrono Trigger,Xenogears, andParasite Eve. SeeingFinal Fantasygo fromFF1toFF11in fifteen years is startling to look back on now, especially under a smaller company, but that was the pace of game development back then. It’s nice to seeFinal Fantasyrecapture some of that release consistency in the modern day, and hopefully the current lineup of games can please fans like their forebears did in the franchise’s glory days.
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