Yesterday’s most important Final Fantasy news wasn’t delivered at the end of Sony’s lacklustre State of Play livestream presentation but was instead casually tweeted out afterward: a new mobile game called Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is coming. This latest FFVII remix will tell the story not just of the original game but also of every FFVII spin-off as well, finally creating an accessible one-stop-shop for people to experience the entirety of the extremely weird but totally cool FFVII extended universe.
“Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is a chapter-structured single-player experience which will cover the whole of the FFVII timeline, including the events of the original game along with all the FFVII compilation titles, as well as new story elements, penned by Final Fantasy VII Remake story and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, surrounding the origins of SOLDIER,” Square Enix announced in the game’s press release.
It may not be the full-on Crisis Core remake some fans hoped for, but for everyone else who just wants a practical way to catch up on the sprawling back and side-stories to one of the best JRGPs ever, it sounds like Ever Crisis will finally make that dream a reality.
For the uninitiated, FFVII compilation includes the following releases:
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Final Fantasy VII (1997, PS1)
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Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (2004, FOMA)
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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005, film)
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Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006, PS2)
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Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007, PSP)
In addition to only one of these games being available on modern platforms, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII has never even been localised before. Created for Japanese mobile phones, the game has you play as Turks as they try to foil terrorist plots by Avalanche six years before the main game’s events. The game never made it stateside though.
Meanwhile, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, while flawed games in their own right, are also fascinating deep dives into the backstories of Zack Fair and Vincent Valentine, characters crucial to the FFVII mythos whose stories never fully get told in the original. Effectively, there is an almost Kingdom Hearts level number of side-plots, B-characters, and intriguing story revelations that many fans have never had access to before. Most of it is bonkers and completely unnecessary but also irresistibly weird and charming.
The other thing that’s notable about Ever Crisis is how Square Enix has decided to bring these stories back. Instead of forcing players to toil through some extremely obtuse games, it gives the option of playing through the main beats of each campaign in a hybrid JRPG that incorporates both turn-based battle and lots of visual novel-style info dumps. Based on the trailer at least, it looks like the gaming equivalent of an Abridge Works, and it’s something I hope more story-rich but gameplay-dense series get a version of in the future.
[referenced id=”845925″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/that-time-square-enix-made-a-shooter-sequel-to-final-fantasy-vii/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/17/mgpvo6a6rnffop1eu6of-300×176.png” title=”That Time Square Enix Made A Shooter Sequel To Final Fantasy VII” excerpt=”Final Fantasy VII is one of the most influential roleplaying games of all time. Nine years after its release in 1997, Square Enix released a sequel that isn’t really talked about: the third person shooter Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.”]
According to a new interview with director Tetsuya Nomura at Famitu, the game will be laid out in a series of chapters, with players able to pick and choose which ones they want to play from which games. “You can think of it like building up a timeline of the FFVII story as you play,” Nomura said, based on a translation of the interview provided by Square Enix. Nomura also says in it that he’ll be stepping back from directly managing FFVII: Remake’s sequel to oversee the company’s FFVII series fiction as a whole, which is why I’m only half joking when I call it Square’s own version of the Marvel cinematic universe.
Ever Crisis isn’t set to actually release on Android and iOS until 2022. Plenty of time for other series to jump on board. A playable Dragon Quest Wikipedia on my phone? Yes please.
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