Square Enix

At the end of the special State of Play, dedicated to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix has announced that the demo is now available to play.

The demo is split in two parts. Part one, "Fall of a Hero in Nibelheim", which is now available to play, features an extended flashback section of the Nibelheim incident that takes place five years ago prior to the setting of the game.

After players complete "Fall of a Hero in Nibelheim", part two, “Dawn of a New Era in Junon.”, will be released on 21 February. This part let you explore a small area around Junon.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on 29 February 2024 on PlayStation 5 as a timed exclusive.

During The Game Awards 2023 Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy XVI downloadable content Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide. Echoes of the Fallen is now available for purchase on the PlayStation Store. The Rising Tide will be released in Spring 2024.

Echoes of the Fallen unlocks new story, battles, weapons, accessories, level cap and more. The adventure begins before the base game’s final battle, as strange, dark crystals begin to circulate on the black market. Players will follow Clive and company during their investigations as they encounter a group of suspicious traders, leading them to a long-abandoned Fallen tower known as the Sagespire and the terrible secrets that await within.

The Rising Tide will bring new challenges and more, including the confrontation between Clive and the legendary Eikon, Leviathan.

You can watch the announcement trailer on YouTube. Due to the age restriction the video can't be included in this article.

With the announcement of the downloadable content a update, version 1.21, was released which makes a number of changes and improvements to the game.

Version 1.21 patch notes

Additional Features

• Adds a new Inner Voice option to the Grand Cast menu, which can be viewed upon inquiring with Vivian about the State of the Realm.
  Hover the cursor over a character and press the touchpad to view their inner feelings toward their allies and enemies. See how each character's feelings change as the story progresses.

• Adds several new orchestrion rolls.
  These can be obtained from in-game vendors after progressing a certain way through the story.

Changes to Arcade Mode

• Adds a technical bonus feature that increases battle performance scores.
  Attacking enemies and performing a variety of battle techniques fills the technical bonus gauge, which increases your score multiplier each time it crosses a certain threshold. The gauge depletes over time or upon taking damage.

• Adds new accolades.
  These can be earned by clearing stages within a certain time limit or with a final battle performance score above a certain threshold.

• Adjusts ranking thresholds over individual legs and stages.
  The changes described above allow players to earn higher battle performance scores than they could previously. The ranking thresholds are adjusted to account for this.

• Introduces a new leaderboard.
  All scores earned after the update is installed will be recorded to this new leaderboard.

• Allows you to view leaderboards and rankings from previous versions.

• Adjusts the difficulty level of Ultimaniac stages.

• Adds and adjusts explanations of various features.

Changes to Training Mode

• Adds an Immediate Takedown option.
  With this option turned on, attacks will reduce an enemy's will gauge by 50%, allowing you to partially stagger enemies with a single attack, then fully stagger them with a second attack.

• Adds a Megaflare Level option.
  This option allows you to fix your Megaflare level to any value.

• Adds a Zantetsuken Level option.
  This option allows you to fix your Zantetsuken level to any value.

System-related Changes

• Adds a Photo Mode shortcut option.
  This option, accessible from the Game Settings tab of the System menu, allows you to launch Photo Mode by pressing the touchpad with two fingers.

• Adds the ability to enter Photo Mode from the pause screen.
  This allows photos to be taken during cutscenes, with certain exceptions.

• Adds the option to retry from the Game Over screen when Clive is defeated by a notorious mark.
  Retrying will return Clive to the point immediately before the battle with the notorious mark began.

• Allows you to examine the details of the rewards available from the Patron's Whisper in the hideaway.

• Adds the option to filter save data in the Load Game tab of the System menu.
  Press □ to cycle between the following filtering options: Show All Saves, Show Auto-saves, and Show Manual Saves.

• Adds a Credits option to the title menu.
  This option, which allows you to view the credits sequence, becomes available after completing the game.

• Adds and adjusts various UI elements.

Bug Fixes

Corrects the following issues:

• Several issues wherein graphical elements did not display correctly during cutscenes.
• Several issues wherein certain NPC animations were incorrect during certain quests.
• Several issues wherein certain NPCs became positioned incorrectly under specific conditions during certain quests.
• Several issues wherein progress became impossible in certain quests under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein quest objectives and destination markers did not display correctly in certain quests.
• Several issues wherein NPC dialogue was incorrect in certain quests.
• Several issues wherein the reward of ability points was incorrect in certain quests.
• An issue wherein the demontamer's armguards were impossible to obtain.
• Several issues wherein enemies did not behave correctly under specific conditions during battle.
• Several issues wherein collision detection did not behave correctly under specific conditions during battle.
• Several issues wherein the camera did not behave correctly under specific conditions during battle.
• Several issues wherein the frame rate dropped significantly during battle.
• Several issues wherein abilities or limit breaks did not trigger correctly under specific conditions during battle.
• Several issues wherein accessory effects did not trigger correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein the menu did not display or update correctly in Chronolith trials.
• An issue wherein the conditions to achieve the Mark of the Jongleur accolades were incorrect in Chronolith trials.
• Several issues wherein the menu did not display or update correctly in Arcade Mode.
• An issue wherein Clive's clothing did not display correctly under specific conditions in Training Mode.
• Several issues wherein menu navigation did not behave correctly under specific conditions in Training Mode.
• Several issues wherein the AI of companion NPCs did not behave correctly.
• Several issues wherein parkour animations did not trigger correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein graphical elements and collision surfaces were set incorrectly in explorable areas and replayable stages.
• Several issues wherein location names displayed at incorrect points in explorable areas and replayable stages.
• An issue wherein certain menu screens flickered when the Graphics Settings option was set to Frame Rate.
• Several issues wherein character animations did not trigger correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein Active Time Lore elements did not update at the correct timing.
• Several issues wherein menu elements did not display or update correctly in Vivian's State of the Realm.
• Several issues wherein menu elements did not display or update correctly in Harpocrates's Thousand Tomes.
• Several issues wherein entries in the Thousand Tomes did not update at the correct timing.
• Several issues wherein Torgal's Animal Instinct did not function correctly under specific conditions.
• An issue wherein graphical elements did not display correctly in Photo Mode under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein areas failed to unlock on the world map under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein text and icons did not display correctly on the world map under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein the camera did not behave correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein the wireless controller vibration and adaptive triggers did not function correctly under specific conditions.
• An issue wherein progress towards the trophy Here Be Rosfields did not display correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein incorrect images and videos appeared in tutorial slides.
• Several issues wherein important notifications did not display correctly under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein audio elements did not trigger under specific conditions.
• Several issues wherein the game would freeze under specific conditions.
• Several minor text issues.

Final Fantasy XVI is available for PlayStation 5. A demo is available where you can play the beginning of the game and a later dungeon. The PC version is currently in development.

At Sony's September 2023 State of Play Square Enix has revealed a new trailer with new footage from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. At the end of the trailer the release date has been revealed: 29 February 2024!

The trailer, which you watch below, contains footage from locations such as Junon, The Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon and the new characters like Cait Sith and Vincent you encounter.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second chapter in the re-imagining of Final Fantasy VII. After escaping from the dystopian city of Midgar, Cloud and his friends set out on a journey across the planet. New adventures await in a vibrant and vast world – sprint across grassy plains on a Chocobo and explore expansive environments.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on 29 February 2024 exclusively on PlayStation 5. Most likely it will be a timed exclusive. Final Fantasy VII Remake was later released on PC.

During the Voices from Valisthea, a Final Fantasy XVI panel at PAX West 2023 Naoki Yoshida, the producer of Final Fantasy XVI, has announced in a video message that a new update is now available. Also he announced that the development team is working on two installments of paid downloadable content and the PC version.

The new update, version 1.001.000 (on the title screen version 1.10), contains the feature to change the outfit for Clive, Jill, Joshua, Torgal and Ambrosia and the feature to change the weapon skin.

Here are the patch notes:

Makes the following changes to Arcade Mode:

• Adds a time limit to each stage.
  • This change is intended to correct an issue wherein certain abilities could be used to continually amass points over time, allowing for scores greater than envisioned.
  • You can continue to play as normal after the time limit is exceeded, but any further actions will not add to your score.
• Reduces the scores awarded by the abilities Rime and Gouge.
  • Please note that in this and future updates, we plan to adjust the scoring system in order to reward the creative chaining of multiple abilities. We will continue to assess how scores in Arcade Mode are calculated in order to maintain its challenge.
• Introduces a new leaderboard for players who have this update installed. Players who do not install the update can continue to view and record their high scores to the old leaderboard.
  • After installing this update, you will no longer be able to view or record high scores to the old leaderboard. However, scores recorded to the previous leaderboard will not be deleted. We plan to make previous leaderboards visible to all players in a future update.

Makes the following changes to the System menu:

• Adds an Adaptive Triggers option to the Game Settings menu, which allows you to turn the wireless controller's trigger effect function on or off.
• Adds a Target Cycle option to the Game Settings menu, which allows you to choose one of four different methods of changing targets while locked on to an enemy.
• Adjusts the functionality of the Player Follow (Attack) option in the Camera Settings menu, in order to correct an issue wherein the camera position would reset after some attacks even when this option was turned off.
• Adds a Controller Volume option to the Sound Settings menu, which allows you to adjust the volume of sound effects played through the wireless controller's speaker. - Adjusts the functionality of the Visual Alerts option in the Sound Settings menu, so that a preview of the alerts is displayed when the setting is turned on, and a confirmation dialog appears when the setting is changed.
• Fixes some text issues.

Fixes the following issues:

• An issue wherein enemies' actions did not trigger correctly in boss encounters under certain conditions.
• An issue wherein the collision detection threshold could be crossed in boss encounters under certain conditions.
• An issue wherein certain characters' actions did not trigger correctly.
• An issue wherein notorious marks did not appear under certain conditions.
• An issue wherein notorious marks appeared in different locations to that indicated on the hunt board.
• An issue wherein holding down the touch pad button would display the local map when the Wireless Controller Layout option was set to Type F.
•  An issue wherein certain weapons could not be crafted in Final Fantasy mode, as the materials required to craft them were not available in that mode.
• A multi-language issue wherein certain entries in The Thousand Tomes could not be found using the Search by Name function.
• An issue wherein game progress was not correctly carried over when transferring save data from the demo version to the full version.
• Several minor text issues.