Nasir Gebelli, an iconic developer in the history of video games, revealed in a recent interview that he had never had prior contact with the role-playing game genre before working on the Final Fantasy series. Despite being a key figure in the development of the first three titles of the renowned saga and Secrets of Mana, Gebelli confessed that, until his involvement in the Final Fantasy project, he had not seen an RPG. This lack of experience in the genre presented him with significant challenges, but it also gave him the opportunity to explore new creative frontiers. […]
Nasir Gebelli, an iconic developer in the history of video games, revealed in a recent interview that he had never had prior contact with the role-playing game genre before working on the Final Fantasy series. Despite being a fundamental figure in the development of the first three titles of the celebrated saga and Secrets of Mana, Gebelli confessed that, until his incorporation into the Final Fantasy project, he had not seen an RPG. This lack of experience in the genre presented him with significant challenges, but also gave him the opportunity to explore new creative frontiers.
A Programming Genius Who Knew Nothing About RPGs
“I thought it was quite similar to what I was doing for Apple on the same processor,” commented Gebelli, adding that the coding itself was not complicated for him. However, the structure of RPGs, with multiple levels and constant messages, required a more innovative approach in memory and system resource management. “It was a challenge, but at the same time it was exciting to be able to do something different,” he expressed. This mix of uncertainty and excitement underscored the experience of development in a completely new environment for him.
The impression Gebelli left on the industry is such that some developers believe that the remastering of the classic Final Fantasy games could have taken up to 16 years due to the complexity and quality of his code. Gebelli’s initial work not only laid the foundations of the modern RPG but also established a standard difficult to replicate, highlighting his enduring legacy in the world of video games.
During these days, the Magic: The Gathering World Championship is being held in Las Vegas, the biggest competitive event of the game of the year. The best Magic players in the world face off against each other to determine who is this year’s world champion for the honor, a trophy, a quite generous amount of money, and the chance to be immortalized forever on a card. But during the world championship, it is also when Wizards of the Coast presents its roadmap for the entire following year of Magic: The Gathering, showcasing which sets will be released, which […]
These days, the Magic: The Gathering World Championship is being held in Las Vegas, the biggest competitive event of the game of the year. The best Magic players in the world face off against each other to determine who is this year’s world champion for the honor, a trophy, a quite generous amount of money, and the chance to be immortalized forever on a card.
Magic: The Gathering Arena is a free online card game for Windows developed by Wizards of the Coast. Magic is undoubtedly one of the most important and legendary collectible card games, with millions of players worldwide and official competitions with great prizes. Now, thanks to Magic: The Gathering Arena, you can enjoy this card game on your computer for free.
But during the World Championship, it is also when Wizards of the Coast presents its roadmap for the entire following year of Magic: The Gathering. Presenting which collections will be released, what their names and themes are, it’s a peak moment for the game’s fans. Because both at a competitive and collectible level, there is no more magical weekend than this. And while we wait to find out who the next world champion is, we already know everything that is coming in 2025. Or at least, a small glimpse of it.
The foundation of a new standard
For many, the most important part is the collections that will make up the new standard. Those that will form the new canon of competitively playable cards in all formats and that also, make up the narrative of the Magic: The Gathering universe. And they, in this 2025, will not feel disappointed.
On February 7, Death Race will be released, a new collection where vehicles will be the focus of everything as it will be about races across the multiverse. Due to the portals that opened after the fall of Phyrexia, many people have now set up a deadly race across various worlds. And the best racers in the multiverse will compete in it to prove their worth. Shortly after, on April 4, we will return to Tarkir with Return to Tarkir where there will not only be a great predominance of dragons, but also the conclusion of the current Magic story arc.
Everything for the people, but with collaborations
As summer approaches, two things will arrive with it: the heat and Universe Beyond. The Magic: The Gathering collections based on universes outside of Wizards of the Coast, created in collaboration with other companies. And while we can expect to see some smaller collections that we don’t know about yet, which will be presented with less notice, the two major collections this year are very large. Because if last year we had The Lord of the Rings, this year we have Final Fantasy and Spider-Man. With a big novelty: from now on, all these collections will be legal in all Magic formats.
Final Fantasy will arrive on June 13th to Magic: The Gathering as a complete collection for the game with drafting in mind. Spanning the 16 main video games, but with nods to all the games in the franchise, Wizards of the Coast has been working directly and closely with Square Enix to maintain the originality and impact of the franchise. This includes working with some of Square’s artists and illustrators, who will make their appearance here by illustrating some of the cards.
For his part, we will have to wait a little longer for Spider-Man. Still without a specific date, Wizards of the Coast has decided that their collaboration with Marvel, which will extend over the years with several collections and in various forms, will be formalized here with a collection dedicated entirely to Spider-Man. And although they have not given many details about it, they have wanted to emphasize one thing: this collection will be based on the Spider-Man from the comics and not from the movies. So they have more than enough material for one (or several!) card collections if they wish.
The future of Magic: IPs everywhere
Although this is all they have detailed this time, in 2025 there will be much more Magic: The Gathering. To begin with, we already know the last two standard collections of the year: Edge of Eternities and a third unannounced Universe Beyond collection. Confirming that from now on there will be six standard collections, three from Magic: The Gathering and three from Universe Beyond, and that the highly anticipated collection where we will return to Lorwyn will be delayed until 2026. This is not to mention that, before the end of the year, the Marvel Secret Lair is still to be released on November 4th, and the last standard collection of 2024, Foundations.
What do we mean by all this? That Magic: The Gathering has a long way to go. And that it’s okay if something in particular isn’t for you, because it’s certain that at least two other things have been made with you in mind. Because if nothing else, right now Magic: The Gathering has something for everyone. Almost, almost literally.
In the world of video games, there is no composer more famous than Nobuo Uematsu. Even those who don’t know him by name recognize him through the soundtracks he has created: among many others, he is responsible for the music of all the Final Fantasy games to date. That’s why some of the most iconic songs in the medium, only comparable to true titans like Super Mario Bros. or Tetris, are owed to him. And perhaps, from now on, we might not hear more of his songs. Or not as many. In video games. Recently, Nobuo Uematsu has confirmed that he has composed the soundtrack […]
In the world of video games, there is no composer more famous than Nobuo Uematsu. Even those who don’t know him by name recognize him through the soundtracks he has created: among many others, he is responsible for the music of all the Final Fantasy games to date. This is why some of the most iconic songs in the medium, only comparable to true titans like Super Mario Bros. or Tetris, are owed to him. And perhaps, from now on, we may not hear more of his songs. Or not as many. In video games.
Recently, Nobuo Uematsu has confirmed that he has composed the soundtrack for the console and PC release of the new game from the creator of Final Fantasy, Fantasian. Regarding this, he has said that this would be his last project as a composer of music for video games, thanking all his fans for their support. Leaving the entire gaming community devastated.
Except that this is not exactly the case. As clarified on his Twitter profile, Uematsu is not retiring from composing music for video games at all. From now on, his intention is to stop creating complete soundtracks by himself, but he intends to continue working on music for video games. However, since he has turned 65, the Japanese composer also wants to dedicate more time to his original compositions, for which he needs to take on less work within the industry.
In fact, although he has not been as recognized for his work in the video game industry, Uematsu has been a musician with numerous interests throughout his life. Creating music also for anime and cinema, as well as making music as a soloist, as part of different groups, and in projects with other musicians, both inside and outside the video game industry, he is a musician with a career that goes far beyond video games. Not to mention Final Fantasy.
In other words, Nobuo Uematsu will continue making music. Original music, music for video games, but in the case of the latter, it’s unlikely that he will create an entire soundtrack by himself. Something that remains a pity, but is also a natural step. He is at retirement age, and yet, he will continue working. So, given the circumstances, we are grateful that at least we have that. We have Uematsu for a while longer.
Fantasian is a free role-playing game developed by Mistwalker Corporation, available on iPhone. The game was created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and is set in an impressive world composed of nearly 160 handcrafted dioramas.
If you think about games that Square Enix might want to revive, your mind might go to myths like Blue Dragon, Sword of Mana, Drakengard, Lost Odyssey or Grandia. Well, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, has said that if it were up to him, none of these would return to the spotlight, but rather a very specific mobile game that you probably have never heard of.
The game in question is called Terra Battle, and it was born on October 9, 2014 for iOS and Android, with an impressive team behind it: Sakaguchi in production, illustrations by Kimihiko Fujisaka (The Last Story) and Nobuo Uematsu himself in the soundtrack. It was a very Japanese RPG, with touches of both collectible cards and puzzles.
Note: it was successful. Successful enough, at least, to launch a sequel (which lasted only a year and never received love from the public). On June 30, 2020, Terra Battle was suspended and since then no one had spoken about it until Sakaguchi mentioned it as his next goal to revive after releasing the game he is currently preparing, Fantasian Neo Dimension, a remake of the iPhone title that he produced and wrote the script for in 2021. The gamer equivalent of scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Terra Battle reached 1.800.000 downloads and came close to a console version, which they would have made if it had reached two million. So now you know: if you want to see remakes of legendary games, forget about it for now. First, the mobile versions. Then, we’ll see. In this world of continuous remakes and reboots, it would be strange to expect much more.
Square Enix has had a tough year in economic terms, earning more than ever but generating fewer profits, and they have decided to change their plans.
Square Enix has not had the best year in its history. Now that their fiscal year financial results have been published, the numbers are contradictory. The company generated 356.344 billion yen in revenue, around 2.120 billion dollars, which is a 3.8% increase compared to the previous year. The problem is that profits were 32.558 billion yen, around 193 million euros, which is a 26.6% decrease compared to the previous year.
This is explained because the increase in development costs has weighed down its profitability. They have emphasized that the revenues from Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have performed very well, but due to development costs and the results of other games, they have not performed equally well. Especially when the releases of new free-to-play games, such as Dragon Quest Champions and Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, have not managed to offset the decline in other divisions.
That is why Square Enix has announced a medium-term plan to improve its revenue. Over the next 3 fiscal years, the Japanese company will rely on four specific pillars. Which will greatly affect us as players.
First, they want to make fewer games, but of higher quality. They will centralize their developments more, sharing resources, in order to reduce production costs. Second, they want to bet on multiplatform releases. That, along with a more aggressive attitude towards discounts on digital games, they hope to improve overall sales. Third, they want to rebuild their operations in Europe and North America, trying to achieve better results in those markets. And fourth and final, they will invest 100,000 million yen, around 595 million euros, to make strategic investments.
All this means that we should see fewer Square Enix games, but better advertised, more polished, and cheaper. Something that should be a net positive for players, as these are changes for the better, especially for the Western audience. Something that we will still have to wait to see results, as it is a three-year plan, but it will undoubtedly give us a better version of the Japanese company.
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Square Enix lost $140 million last year alone on games that were abandoned halfway through, in what they’ve termed “extraordinary losses.” But don’t worry, they already know what they’re going to do.
One assumes, almost like a mantra, that a gigantic video game company with titles like ‘Final Fantasy’ or ‘Dragon Quest’ is impossible to lose money. That it always wins, always goes up, and at most one year will have less profits. And yet, reality comes to hit in the face: Square Enix lost 140 million dollars last year alone in games that were abandoned halfway, in what they have called “extraordinary losses”. But don’t worry: they already know what they are going to do.
Basically, the studio has promised investors, that entity that now decides the future of video games more than any creative, that they will make better decisions on which titles to invest money in from now on. In other words: more ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ and fewer experiments. It’s not an exaggeration: everything seems to indicate that to recover the money in a safe value, Square is going to focus on making remakes non-stop. Of course.
According to rumors, we will see in the coming years Final Fantasy IX, ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’ and ‘Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake’ in what is becoming a trend that can easily catch on. To add even more fuel to the fire, the person in charge of the ‘Dragon Quest’ franchise left his position tired of the delays and not being able to make a game properly.
It should be added that this year’s games, apart from a couple of exceptions, have sold worse than expected, starting with ‘Final Fantasy XVI’ and continuing with ‘Forspoken’, although this is largely due to the slow adoption of PS5 by players (who, by now, will be caught by PS6). What a future we have in the gaming world: Back to the past.
Final Fantasy is having an excellent year in 2024, and it seems that it will only get better with the imminent release of the new expansion for FFXIV.
Few years have been as good for Final Fantasy fans as this 2024. Not only did we receive a new iteration of the main franchise last year, but also Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has just been released, being an absolute success both critically and commercially. But Square Enix doesn’t plan to stop there. Because it seems that their goal, even beyond Rebirth, is to make 2024 the year of Final Fantasy.
There are few expansions more anticipated than the new one for Final Fantasy XIV. The previous one, Endwalker, was released over a year ago, and fans of this popular MMORPG are eager for more. Fortunately, the game director, Naoki Yoshida, has announced the release date: July 2nd.
Named Dawntrail, this expansion will include everything you can expect. This implies a new story, two completely new classes with mechanics very different from anything seen before, and more dungeons in which to demonstrate our skills. In addition, to address all the challenges it will present, the maximum level will be increased to three digits, setting it at level 100. All this in an expansion that will cost $40 and will include all the content from the previous expansions, Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
About the release date, Yoshida wanted to clarify something important. Because as no one will miss, it comes out a week after the Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree. Something that Yoshida joked about giving us a week to play Shadow of the Erdtree and then immerse ourselves in Dawntrailer. Something he finished by saying that there was also another reason for that date: he also wants to play the DLC of the From Software game.
Meanwhile, if you don’t want to wait for the two most anticipated expansions of the year, you should know that Square Enix has you covered. Because the second DLC of Final Fantasy XVI, The Rising Tides, will be released on April 18th and will include new stories, a new Eikon, and a new mode called Kairos Gate, more focused on action. So, if you are a fan of Final Fantasy, you have no excuse not to fully enjoy this 2024. Not when the remake of Final Fantasy IX seems to be on the way.
Final Fantasy XVII could represent a radical change for the franchise, as the director of Final Fantasy XVI would like a new young director to take charge of it.
Final Fantasy is a franchise that is based on always offering a twist compared to previous installments. It is the most experimental of mainstream JRPGs, if not one of the most experimental JRPGs in general. It is always trying new things, offering new perspectives, whether they are popular with fans or not. That’s why the worst Final Fantasy is always the latest one and the penultimate one was always vilified without reason; it’s the natural cycle of the saga.
In this regard, Naoki Yoshida, director of Final Fantasy XVI, was asked in an interview at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences if he will be the one to direct Final Fantasy XVII. Clarifying that nothing has been decided yet, he offered his perspective. In his point of view, having already worked on Final Fantasy XIV and XVI, it would be time for someone different to take the reins of the franchise. And preferably, a young director should do it.
Challenge the past to improve every game
Emphasizing that Final Fantasy has always tried to challenge what has been done before, Yoshida believes that a young director would be more capable of doing exactly that. That’s why, for Final Fantasy XVII, someone who would challenge the things he has done in Final Fantasy XVI would be the ideal choice. This is something that has happened many times in the franchise’s history, and it wouldn’t be strange for it to happen again here.
In addition, he wanted to emphasize the size that Final Fantasy has. These are games that have been in development for many years. That’s why he believes it’s important that whoever is in charge of the next installment, they must be someone with a clear and defined idea of what they want it to be even before starting the project.
In any case, all of this is just castles in the air. As Yoshida himself states, nothing has been decided yet, or at least, nothing that Square Enix wants to share with the public. Only time will tell which path Final Fantasy will take in the future and whether it will bring a radical change to the franchise or continue along the lines set by Final Fantasy XVI. Which still has a lot to offer to players.
If you need a summary of Final Fantasy VII Remake ahead of its sequel, Square Enix has your back with a video that summarizes its entire story
Publishing a story in multiple volumes poses the problem of making it difficult to follow. If several years pass between each volume, it’s easy to forget key parts necessary to understand the whole story. Subsequent volumes. That’s why serialized stories have their issues, despite their charms. It’s a problem that Square Enix hasn’t wanted to deal with, opting for a simple and direct decision: creating a summary for those who want it.
Square Enix has released a video summarizing the story of Final Fantasy VII Remake in just five minutes. Why? Because many people might have some key moments a bit fuzzy in their memory. Not for nothing, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, its sequel, is coming out in just over three months.
Narrated by Red XIII, it uses footage from the original game to explain the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake for those who need a refresher, or even for those who haven’t played the game. But the beauty of it is that we won’t just be able to watch it on YouTube, on the Final Fantasy channel, it will also be included within Final Fantasy VII Rebirth itself. That way, those in need of a brief reminder before diving in can take it as a little appetizer. A welcomed refreshment for their memory.
All of this is part of the preparations for Rebirth that Motomu Toriyama, the co-director of the game, stated would be introduced for those who haven’t played the first part. In addition to this summary video, they’ve also included the Active and Classic battle modes, allowing players to choose between the gameplay style of the Remake and that of the original game. Moreover, there’s a new Dynamic difficulty mode that will automatically scale difficulty based on the player’s skill level.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to be released on February 29, 2024, exclusively—presumably temporarily—for PlayStation 5. Until then, you can enjoy Final Fantasy VII Remake on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Final Fantasy XIV continues to expand, this time entering the world of pen and paper role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons style
Final Fantasy XIV is one of the longest-running and most played games in the world, which you might have barely heard of. Being an MMO, an online role-playing game, it has a dedicated community that has been nurtured over the years, but it has also created a high entry barrier. It’s no wonder that delving into a game of this kind is challenging, especially one that has been active for as long as Final Fantasy XIV. Now, Square Enix has decided to expand it in a way that can serve as a gateway for newcomers while also providing something new for its veteran players.
“Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIV will have its own role-playing game, this time in analog format. The game will transition to pen and paper with a tabletop role-playing game in the style of Dungeons & Dragons, as revealed at the past Tokyo Games Show. They have now confirmed that it will also have a translation, at least in English.
So far, they have revealed a handful of products related to this game. Called Final Fantasy XIV Online TRPG, it will be available for purchase on their official store, and in fact, pre-orders for the beginner’s set are already open. This starter box includes a player’s handbook sheet, a game master’s handbook sheet, several character sheets with pre-made characters, six 20-sided dice, ten 6-sided dice, a map, character tokens, and skill markers.”
Priced at €59.99, this role-playing game will be released in May 2024. For those who want to extend their adventures in Eorzea, they have already announced a game master’s book and a player’s handbook, which will be released at a later date yet to be announced, expanding on the rules of the beginner’s set. This promises that even the most veteran players of Final Fantasy XIV can expect to spend another thirteen or fourteen years in its world, if they wish. Only this time, they can also tell their own stories.
