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Square Enix’s E3 2019 Conference: The Live Blog

Alex Walker Avatar
Alex Walker

We’ve got a good handle on what Square is going to show, but there’s still some question marks — what’s happening to Crystal Dynamics now? Is the FF7 remake episodic or a single episode? What’s People Can Fly making for Square? And how’s PlatinumGames’ Babylon’s Fall coming along?

Time to find out.

Square Enix @ E3 2019: How to watch

If you want to watch along in a separate tab, here’s what you need. There’s Twitch and YouTube embeds, just like last year, and you can find the links you need in the story below.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/watch-square-enixs-e3-2019-conference-here/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/evro0yoqtzquhawa0tfn.jpg” title=”Watch Square Enix’s E3 2019 Conference Here” excerpt=”You want more Final Fantasy 7? And maybe some other games to go with it? No? Well, here’s the Final Fantasy 7 Remake anyway.”]

Tuesday 1015: We’re almost through the whole day. I’ve been up since 0200. Square’s the last one. Almost there.

The Kinda Funny showcase is still ticking along as I write this — I’m waiting for the trailers to drop so I can incorporate them where need be — and there’s some neat hand-drawn indies throughout.

It’s made me think of the Square Enix Collective. I wonder if Square will give that a bigger focus this year. While I percolate on that, it’s time for another, much needed coffee.

1035: Make that a bit of toast, actually. I’m starting to fade incredibly fast — it’s easy to forget that I’ve been working for over eight hours, because it’s just after 1000.

On a plus side, I was able to download the Roller Champions demo through uPlay in between conferences. It’s just over 3.2GB, so won’t take long, and while I’m not expecting any local servers, it should be fun to play once Square Enix calms down.

25 minutes to go now.

1055: Apparently there’s a funeral being held at the gym down my street. Lot of bikes gathered, people dressed in black. It’s pretty hot, so I don’t envy anyone standing in the sun.

A quick recap of Square last year: Kingdom Hearts 3, The Quiet Man which confused the hell out of everyone, Just Cause 4, Octopath Traveller, Babylon’s Fall (which is due out this year), Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, FFXIV: Stormblood, and a lot of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

I swear to god I will get through my playthrough of that. Think I’m going to need a solid chunk of annual leave for my backlog.

Four minutes left now. We know there’s the Avengers game coming up this year, and obviously FF7. Some GO ports to the Switch would be sensible as well — wouldn’t cost Square much, and Lara Croft/Hitman would do nicely on the Switch.

1059: 60 seconds.

Something I’ve noticed this year: not many broadcasts in 1440p or 4K. Wonder if there were too many buffering issues on the production end.

Time for Kitase-san, producer on the FF7 remake. Fans yelling at inconvenient times while speakers are on stage are still making the presenters laugh, so that’s good.

Huge detail. The first “game” will be set in Midgar, and is a “Final Fantasy game in its own right”.

OK. Ton of updates they’re going through really quickly. Forgive the embeds here – it’s the fastest way to get images and text out in a hit.

Seems like Square has learned a ton from FF15 here — switching with a single button press, giving players enough agency to play the game solo but switching out characters if they want that broader, more tactical gameplay. Very, very smart.

In boss fights you still get some of that huge cinematic view when a large attack is coming in — but you can hide behind cover and use that as an opportunity to switch characters so you can continue attacking.

1115: Nomura-san takes the stage, and thanks fans who have waited patiently over the last few years. “Do you guys want to actually play the game,” he asks.

Square’s also releasing a longer version of the FF7 gameplay trailer from yesterday. Guess who’s back?

1121: Unfortunately, this is the part of the conference where people remember Square has games that aren’t FF7. It’s Life is Strange 2.

Square’s using a nice picture frame thing to flick from one IP to another. Anyway, the next game: dealing with that frustrating Miasma. It’s Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered, which drops later this year on Switch and mobiles. We then get a reminder that Octopath Traveller is on PC — which happened the other week.

As for things dropping today: The Last Remnant Remastered, on the Switch.

1128: Dragon Quest Builders 2 gets some spotlight. Hugely underrated game and series — kids love this stuff. I know there’s not many fans here, but it’s a solid title for kids.

1132: Dragon Quest proper now appears: Echoes of an Elusive Age S Definitive Edition (what a mouthful) later this spring, which you can play in classic mode or the fresher 3D style.

I’m very into this EDM. Gonna rewind to find out what it is.

After some Square indies — a top-down racer in 2020 and content updates for Batallion 1944: Eastern Front, we’re onto the KH3 DLC that was announced prior to the show.

If you want that battle footage from FF7, here’s that trailer.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/final-fantasy-7-remake-e3-2019-action-rpg-combat-detailed/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/oczlintngogheiryqfiz.png” title=”Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Action-RPG Combat Detailed” excerpt=”Today during its E3 press conference, Square Enix showed off new gameplay footage of the Final Fantasy VII remake and reaffirmed that it’ll be released as a series of episodes.”]

1146: Just rolling through Stormbringer story footage for FF14 now. There’s so much going on in this game that I wonder if it’s past the point where it’s too much to get into. I still want to replay through FF15, let alone picking up a new MMO. Looks good, though.

Dying Light 2 now (launches autumn next year). Yeah, that’s being published by Square as well. Now, time for two old JRPGs to make their way over.

1151: 39 million downloads for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. War of the Visions is a new title in the universe.

People Can Fly’s new game drops winter next year, and it’s called Outriders.

1157: Whoa. People Can Fly now has four studios worldwide with more than 200 staff. o_O That’s pretty huge.

Bit of Outriders‘ UI in the third shot here:

Random announcement amongst all of this: Activision would like you to know that Call of Duty: Mobile is now available in Australia and New Zealand. Weird time to drop, but hey, it’s here. More info on the Acti blog.

As for Square, we’re back into isometric action-RPG territory with Oninaki, which launches August 22 this year.

Final Fantasy 8 Remastered drops later this year.

1204: And it’s finally Avengers time. Looks real good.

All-new Marvel heroes, all-new story. Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Black Widow will feature, five years after a failure to protect San Francisco. It’s called Marvel’s Avengers: A-Day.

Troy Baker, Jeff Shine, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, and Nolan North are doing the voices for the main Avengers here. (Of course Nolan North is doing Tony Stark.)

More details: will support up to four player co-op, it’ll be a games as a service, and every new superhero and region “will be delivered at no additional cost”. May 15, 2020 is the official release date.

1220: Aaaaaaand we’re finally done.

One of the stronger pressers of the year. Good mix of stuff people wanted, but also showed a bunch of things in those games that people wanted to see. Surprised landed well — Avengers looks neat — and a lot of decent niche stuff on the sides, which you’d expect from a company that owns 40 million JRPGs like Square.

So far, I’d say that’s probably the best or second best presser of E3 2019 so far. That’s it for the live blog. There’s just one left — Nintendo tomorrow morning. See you bright and early for Pokemon, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/e3-2019-conferences-australia-new-zealand/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/05/e3-2018-esa-1-410×231.jpg” title=”All The Australian Times For E3 2019″ excerpt=”We’re one broken sleep away from the annual madness of E3. Things have been shaken up a fair bit this year, so here’s all the times you need to plan ahead.”]

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