First released in 1997, Final Fantasy 7 immediately cemented its place as one of the best JRPG titles around and helped millions of gamers discover a genre they’d never before considered.

[Update: E3 2018 is underway now, and this year Square Enix is hosted its very own press conference once again. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing was mentioned  during its streaming-only event. Here’s to hoping more will be revealed during Sony’s E3 2018 keynote.]

Understandably, then, Square Enix is releasing a remake. Not only because that seems to be the done thing these days but also because it’s something fans genuinely seemed to want – when Final Fantasy 7 was announced as being in the works at E3 2015, the news was received warmly to say the least.

The path to release hasn’t been smooth for this game, though. After two years in development we’re still not entirely sure when we’ll see the Final Fantasy 7 Remake released. 

With news and rumors still churning around the great wide web but official information still pretty thin on the ground, we’ve gathered up everything we know has been confirmed and everything that’s been rumored right here for your perusal.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? A remake of the popular JRPG Final Fantasy 7 
• When can I play it? There’s no official release date just yet but we’d hope before 2019
• What can I play it on? It’s been confirmed the game will come to PS4 first, but it may appear later on PC and Xbox One  

Final Fantasy 7 trailer and screenshots

The first trailer for the game was released on its announcement at E3 2015. The trailer is largely cinematic and you can watch it for yourself below:

A further trailer this time featuring gameplay was revealed at PSX in 2015:

Square Enix has also released a number of screenshots from the game which we’ve collected together below. 

Final Fantasy 7 release date

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake has had something of a troubled development, so unsurprisingly we still don’t have a solid release date. 

It’s also very possible that the the game will end up having several release dates  as Square Enix has confirmed the game’s story would be told episodically. 

The game has been in the works since 2014 but there have been few significant official updates since the E3 2015 reveal. 

In this time, development of the game has moved from external developer CyberConnect2 to Square Enix’s in-house team. Overhauls like this can cause big delays to a game’s progress but according to Square Enix’s Naoki Hamaguchi the decision was made out of a desire to “control quality as well as keeping the schedule stable.”

Things may be further along than we think, however. In an interview with Famitsu  the game’s director, Tetsuya Nomura, said that some parts of Final Fantasy 7 such as cutscenes are further along in development than Kingdom Hearts 3. Considering Kingdom Hearts 3 now has a confirmed release year of 2018 we’re hopeful we’ll see this game in 2018 or 2019 at the latest.

Something we do know is that the game will be available to PlayStation 4 players “first” as was promised at its E3 reveal. Saying “first” suggests this isn’t an outright exclusive and that the game will eventually come to Xbox One and PC. However, there was no indication as to how long the agreed exclusivity period would be. 

The recent timed exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider was exclusive for 11 months on the Xbox One before coming to the PS4, while Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 was exclusive to PS4 for just three months. Given this variation it’s hard to say how long FFVII’s timed exclusivity might last. 

Final Fantasy 7 news and rumors

Could the release date be a long way off?

The highly-anticipated Final Fantasy 7 remake may not have a confirmed release date just yet but it seems like a safe bet to say that we’re probably not going to see it within the next year.

In fact, according to a recent report from The Lifestream (via Destructoid) we might not see it for another five years. 

Reports of turbulence in the games development emerged around a year ago and if they’re true it’s likely that they slowed progress somewhat. A recent behind-closed doors conversation between producer Yoshinori Kitase and development lead Naoki Hamaguchi suggests the game could be as far away as 2023.

The conversation apparently took place at a recent Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary celebration event and a translated transcription has been uploaded by a Lifestream user. 

The conversation doesn’t give much solid information in terms of release date or progress but Kitase and Hamaguchi say that they want the Final Fantasy VII Remake to have launched before Final Fantasy’s 35th anniversary in 2023. 

Now, even if this conversation did take place the transcription makes it hard to read any kind of tone from this. It could very well be a joke in reference to the long development process that they also say is now running “smoothly.” With no official comment from Square Enix on the matter we say take this with a pinch of salt for now. It’s highly likely that we’ll hear more about the game’s progress and maybe a potential release window during Square Enix’s E3 presentation this year. 

It’s a reconstruction, not a shot-to-shot remake 

The Final Fantasy 7 remake will follow the original game’s narrative and feature the iconic characters and locations that fans love. 

Considering it’s so beloved there’s a lot of pressure on Square Enix to not stray too far from the original source material but according to director Tetsuya Nomura it won’t be a completely direct recreation. In an interview with Wired, Nomura said “We’re not intending for this to become a one-to-one remake, or just the original Final Fantasy VII with better graphics.”

Nomura has said that he wants the remake to “apply to the current era” and “the current generation of players.” He added the caveat that he doesn’t “want to change it so much that it’s unrecognizable” but it has to be offering something “fresh and new.” 

To accommodate modern consoles and gamers, changes will naturally have to be made to the game both in terms of gameplay, mechanics and perhaps even to some elements of the story.

It’s episodic

A significant way the remake is going to differ from the original game is that its story will be told episodically. This is a detail that was confirmed back in December 2015. 

The reasoning behind the decision according to series producer Yoshinori Kitase wrote in a blog post that “a proper HD remake” just wouldn’t fit into one installment and maintain the “same feeling of density of the original.”

“We’ve seen everyone’s comments and reactions to the news that Final Fantasy 7 remake will be a multi-part series and many have speculated correctly as to the reason why we have made this decision,” he said, “If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of Final Fantasy 7. We knew none of you would have wanted that.

“I hope that by explaining a little more about our design decisions that you can appreciate the size of this project and what we have planned for this remake. Going beyond the scale and depth of the world, narrative and gameplay from the original to deliver something that feels familiar yet new. As I said before, we like delivering surprises.”

Each episode will apparently be its “own unique experience” but as yet we don’t know how many episodes there will be or how they’ll be structured in relation to the original story. 

No more turn-based battles 

Another thing that’s changing from the original game is a move away from turn-based battles. 

In an interview with Famitsu, Nomura said that battles in the remake will be “action-based” rather than command-based. Nomura didn’t go into much more detail with regards to the game’s combat system but it’s widely expected that we’re going to see a formula more similar to Kingdom Hearts. 

This would mean a more active and seamless style of battling involving party members whom the player will be able to switch between. 

Though the loss of turn-based combat will be mourned, a move towards a system like Kingdom Hearts will be more accessible to new players. 

• E3 is the world’s largest exhibition for the games industry, stuffed full of the latest and greatest games and gaming hardware. TechRadar will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated E3 2018 hub to see all the latest news from the show. 

http://www.techradar.com/news/final-fantasy-7-release-date-news-and-rumors

We saw new Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay trailers at E3 2018, six month ahead of the January 29, 2019 release date, and the videos had inescapable Disney magic.

The game will launch on PS4 and Xbox One (the first time a Kingdom Hearts game is on an Xbox console), and now includes Disney’s Frozen, a fact we learned at Microsoft’s E3 2018 press conference on Sunday.

The new Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer (below) will see Sora, Goofy, and Donald team up with Elsa from Frozen for the first time, at least for a portion of the game. In the Square Enix press conference, an extended trailer also showed Olaf, Anna, and Kristoff as what appear to be non-playable characters.

It’s been almost 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, but the demand for Kingdom Hearts 3 has not faltered. In that 12 years way may have gone through one and a half new console generations and played many spin off titles, but the mainline Kingdom Hearts story has remained in the back of our minds. 

Confirmed by Square Enix in 2013 with an announcement, Kingdom Hearts 3 will continue the story of Sora, Donald and Goofy as the main characters. Disney characters will join them at various points in their adventure.

Kingdom Hearts 3 development has had a long history. After the initial confirmation and announcement trailer in 2013, we then got a teaser trailer and some tantalizing details at E3 in 2014 and even more news and a gameplay trailer at E3 2015. Since then news has been fairly thin on the ground but we’ve collected all of the latest news and rumors right here for your perusal.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The long-anticipated third mainline title in Square Enix’s action roleplaying crossover series, Kingdom Hearts.
• When can I play it? January 29, 2019
• What can I play it on? PS4 and Xbox One

Trailers

There are now seven Kingdom Hearts 3 trailers you need to watch if you really want to consider yourself a Keyblade hype master.

The first trailer from E3 2018 (embedded above) confirms that Frozen is a new world in the game. It’s a quick trailer, be we see Elsa and Olaf in the KH 3 trailer.

We also got a four minutes long trailer Disney’s D23 Expo in Japan. The gameplay video gives fans a look at the brand new Monsters Inc World, starring Boo, Mike and Sully. 

D23 is the place for Kingdom Hearts trailers, as prior to the Japan event we were treated to another trailer announcing a brand new Toy Story world. 

Not long before this at E3 2017 we got the chance to see another gameplay trailer which showed off footage from the game’s Hercules level. 

The second most recent trailer for the game was released at JumpFesta in 2016. The trailer gave an insight into how the game’s combat will work as well as a glimpse at special abilities and the impact the game’s environment will have on fighting.

Prior to this there was another and much more full trailer released at E3 in 2015. In this gameplay trailer fans got a look at what appears to be a new location –  the exterior of Rapunzel’s tower from the film Tangled.

A much shorter trailer was revealed at E3 in 2014, setting the stage for the game’s main story. 

And of course we can’t forget the announcement trailer from all the way back in 2013. There have been lots of trailer haven’t there?

Kingdom Hearts 3 release date

Square Enix has now confirmed that Kingdom Hearts 3 will launch on January 29 2019.

Kingdom Hearts 3 news and features

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3 will see players once more take up the role of Sora as he travels with his closest friends Donald and Goofy across a variety of world themed around and populated by a host of famous Disney and Final Fantasy characters. 

Game director Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that the game’s story will start straight after the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

This means that the game will follow our trio in their pursuit of the Seven Guardians of Light to prepare for their final showdown against Master Xehanort. All the while, King Mickey and Riku will continue their hunt for the remaining Keyblade wielders.

Does all of this sound like complete gobbledygook to you? Not to worry, if you’d like to catch up on all of the essential story you can do so on PlayStation 4 by playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Not sure you’ve got the time for playing through all of that? Then you could watch the below summary of the franchise timeline created by Game Trailers. It’s still almost an hour long but it’ll do the job. 

New visuals

Kingdom Hearts 3 will adopt a slightly visual style to previous games in the franchise, aiming for more of a brush-like look than photo realism. In an interview with Famitsu (via Kotaku) Tetsuya Nomura was very open about the decision to take a new visual approach, stating that this new direction was an attempt to “Express Disney’s 2D brushwork in 3D.” 

Nomura said this was a look they’d wanted since the first game but “At the time, the [PlayStation 2] didn’t have the processing power to allow us to freely adjust the lighting.” 

The new PlayStation 4 hardware, however, is much more capable and Nomura said it’s possible to get “a real feeling of evolution by just making the standard graphics into HD.” Nomura admitted that it’s a fairly “drastic change” but added that he sees it as “a rich evolution of everything we’ve shown you up to now.”

Gameplay

It looks like the action RPG gameplay won’t change too much from previous titles in the franchise, most likely drawing from and improving on that of Kingdom Hearts 2 and perhaps integrating particularly successful elements from the handheld titles. 

It’s been confirmed, though, that Sora will be much more mobile in combat, able to wall run, jump on enemies, and largely take greater advantage of the game’s much larger environments. 

Back in 2013, Nomura said that the combat in Kingdom Hearts 3 will be “pretty frantic”, with NPCs able to join in the three-person party fights as well as “more intricate” enemy AI. 

A couple of interesting new combat features that have been confirmed include Attraction Flow and Keyblade Transformations. 

Attraction Flow attacks are new super moves that will apparently be triggered under certain though unconfirmed battle conditions. These powerful moves based on the Flowmotion moves from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance are inspired by some of the biggest rides at the Disney theme parks such as the Teacups, Pirate Ship and Thunder Mountain Railroad. 

Keyblade Transformations are fairly self explanatory and will allow Sora’s Keyblade weapons to transform in battle with different effects. 

According to Nomura, Keyblade Transformations will only be unlocked when all missions from one of the game’s worlds are unlocked, with each individual world offering its own unique transformation. 

For example, it was spotted by KH Insider that an Olympus Keyblade was able to cast Zeus’ lightning as well as transform into a Pegasus-drawn chariot. 

New worlds

Disney’s been busy in the years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was first released so as you’d expect, there are going to be a few new worlds to play in. 

Thus far the Kingdom of Corona from Tangled, an as yet untitled world from Big Hero 6, Mount Olympus from Hercules, Twilight Town Mysterious Tower, Toy Story and Monsters inc. worlds have been confirmed as new additions. 

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Nomura lessened the excitement of a brand new Toy Story world slightly by revealing that there will be fewer Disney worlds in this game than in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Kingdom Hearts 2 had 12 worlds in total and thus far we have 7 worlds confirmed for the third game. With Nomura stating that all of the worlds that will feature in the game will be revealed before its release we can expect a few more to be revealed over the next year. How many of these will be brand new worlds and how many will be repeats from previous games is unclear.

At the very least, Nomura has promised that even though there will be fewer worlds, they’ll be much more dense. We have to admit, not every Kingdom Hearts world holds an equal place in our own hearts so we’ll happily take quality over quantity. 

Though Disney has also acquired Marvel and LucasFilm, it’s unlikely their franchises will appear in Kingdom Hearts due to a variety of other license agreement barriers, with Nomura cautioning that “the other associated companies under Disney [are] not something that is as simple as us consulting with Disney Interactive. So, unfortunately, the lineup is kind of considered as different.”

Another playable character?

A report in Official PlayStation UK (scanned by KHInsider) suggests that Kingdom Hearts 3 may feature a playable Riku alongside Sora.

“The latest game in the Disney-meets-Final-Fantasy mash up series is split between two perspectives of best buds Sora and Riku. You will meet a host of new characters whose help you’ll need to stop the evil Master Xehanort from bringing about another Keyblade war. Familiar faces and places return, but there are new worlds to visit inspired by Toy Story, Fantasia and Tangled.”

These aren’t details that have been confirmed by Square Enix about the game yet, so we’re sticking them strictly in the rumor category for now. It could very well be that the information has been mixed up with the similarly named Kingdom Hearts 3D, released on PS4 in 2016. This game had a playable Riku as well as a Fantasia-themed world. 

It may be, however, that the information is accurate. Game director, Nomura, did tell IGN in July 2017 that the team was considering putting another playable character into the game. He just didn’t state that it was Riku. 

Regardless, we’re hoping to see some more Kingdom Hearts 3 information (perhaps even a release date) at the D23 in Japan, taking place in February 2018.

Nintendo Switch?

In a recent interview Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei (via MyNintendo) that the company is focusing on bringing more of its current and future titles to Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo Switch. 

Though Matsuda makes no direct reference to bringing Kingdom Hearts 3 to the Switch, it does suggest that if such a move is feasible and the hardware limitations aren’t too great, Square Enix will make it happen. 

• E3 is the world’s largest exhibition for the games industry, stuffed full of the latest and greatest games and gaming hardware. TechRadar will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated E3 2018 hub to see all the latest news from the show. 

http://www.techradar.com/news/kingdom-hearts-3-release-date-news-and-rumors

Father’s Day is coming, and there’s not much time left to find a good gift. Luckily, Motorola is offering incredible deals on a bunch of its smartphones, with up to $220 off and a number of freebies as well. The deals are on phones from the high-end Moto Z2 Force down to the budget Moto E4 Plus.

If you want to get your dad a great Father’s Day gift, these phones and Moto Mods make for a solid option. The Moto Z2 Force at $220 off is an exceptional deal, and the $150 discount on the Moto Z2 Play makes the mid-range phone even more affordable. Plus, both of these phones have access to Moto Mods, like the Insta-share projector, which can add new features to the phone in a snap. Many of those Moto Mods are on sale for 25% off this month.

On the budget end, the phenomenal Moto G5S Plus is $100 for the 64GB model or $50 off for the 32GB model. And, the Moto E4 Plus is up to $40 off.

The first-generation Moto Z and Moto Z Play are also on sale with the Moto Insta-Share Projector thrown in free.

Most of these deals are available until June 30. If you like the look of these phones but want a little more, make sure to also check out the Moto Z3 Play and Moto G6.

http://www.techradar.com/news/cheap-phones-for-fathers-day-moto-g5s-and-moto-z2-force-up-to-dollar220-off