Caution: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake. Once you complete Final Fantasy VII Remake, you get the option to skip around the game using a Chapter Select feature. You also unlock a new difficulty, "Hard," which prohibits the use of items in battle, and MP can only be restored by smashing crates, slowly regenerating it in battle by forgoing spells, or clearing the chapter you're on. Bosses also hit harder and more frequently, but the overall strategy isn't too dissimilar to Normal mode. However, you'll find yourself needing to prepare for various fights a bit more carefully. Luckily, if you've been using Assess in your first playthrough, it'll help you build a strategy ahead of time by carefully selecting your materia and equipment loadout. For bosses who have a vulnerability to one specific element, you can socket that corresponding materia while beefing up your party with HP Up, Parry, Steadfast Block, and so on. Also, having foreknowledge of how particular boss phases proceed helps too. Given that MP doesn't recover fully in any given chapter, you'll find yourself having to carefully consider when and where you use spells. Suddenly, busting out a Firaga spell against an enemy weak to fire magic seems

Caution: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII and Remake. Scroll below Aerith to continue reading! Nanaki speeds down an arid canyon followed closely by his pups. Ascending its walls, he effortlessly leaps from precipice to precipice as his children vault smaller gaps, perhaps dreaming of the day they could jump just as high. They emerge upon an incredible landscape: the ruins of a towering city, subsumed by nature. Roiling reactors, draining the Planet of the force necessary to sustain life, are now embalmed in roots and leaves. Nanaki reveals his 500 years in the tufts of grey that poke out of his fur. He knows the truth of this place, but only he can teach. All of his comrades have rejoined the ever-coursing Lifestream long ago. A flock bound for the metal peaks beyond cries out. This is our last glimpse at the world of Final Fantasy VII in the original PlayStation title released in 1997. It’s an incredible scene, one of my favorites in fiction. It provides as many questions as it does answers: did human society survive the after-effects of Meteorfall’s devastation? Was Midgar abandoned for elsewhere, where humanity could thrive without harming the flow of life and

It’s remarkable that I am still in disbelief about having played through Final Fantasy VII Remake. Not because it took its sweet time being made, but because almost everything I experienced in my 40-hour play-through of the game was surprising, rewarding and breathtaking all at the same time. For what this first entry of a larger saga covers, this is a game that clearly understands the characters, legacy and important moments from the original 1997 title, but it doesn’t end there. The remake uses its opportunity to expand the overall narrative of Final Fantasy VII’s opening hours, opting to flesh out more of what it has to work with than to rush through. With this approach follows some of the best writing in the entire Final Fantasy series. FFVIIR is set within the industrial city of Midgar, owned by a mega corporation known as the Shinra Electric Power Company. The story begins with Cloud Strife, a cool and skilled mercenary hired by the eco-terrorist group Avalanche to infiltrate and destroy one of Shinra’s reactors, which are sapping the planet’s life source to supply the city with electricity. This will sound familiar to anyone that’s played through the original RPG, and that goes

Today, the demo for Bravely Default II is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop, and we gave it a spin. What appears to be the next "numbered" title in the series succeeds 2012's Bravely Default, which saw a direct sequel named Bravely Second. Both titles released on the Nintendo 3DS. Bravely Default II takes place in a new world with a new cast of characters. The 2D background style from the original game remain to an extent, and can be explored in 3D using a fixed perspective. Developed with Claytechworks, the game features a new claymation-style look that brings a lot of of character models. Revo has also returned to compose the soundtrack. You can check out how it turned out in our video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoc_ZZPaKYY The new cast includes Seth, a sailor who washes up on the shore of one of five kingdoms in the land of Excillant. He meets Gloria, a princess of a kingdom destroyed for its crystal. Elvis and Adelle carry a mysterious book they intend to decipher and join Seth on his journey. The demo picks up some ways into the game where the four protagonists have crossed a desert to a submerged city of Savalon, and endeavor to find the cause of the

War of the Visions Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is the lastest freemium gacha game from Square Enix and developer gumi, based on the universe of another freemium gacha game: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Currently, you can download and play the game on iOS and Android smartphones. However, this game is styled very much in the garb of Final Fantasy Tactics. It features a tile-based maps with a turn-based systems where characters move and attack. The story hints at political intrigue involving warring nations. Even the UI trimmings have noticeable similarities. Far removed from the the Ivalice Alliance's War of the Lions, War of the Visions takes place on the continent of Ardra in the world of Lapis. The kingdom of Leonis braces itself for invasion by neighboring nations seeking to harness their power over controlling Visions, a special power that corporeal thoughts to life. Visions manifest themselves as characters that join you in battle. We take a look at the Android version of the game in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GvPwzACZPE Units have the ability to supplement their main job with sub jobs by unlocking abilities through a skill tree. They can be outfitted with equipment and esper stones that allow you summon entities like Ifrit

Trials of Mana, the upcoming remake of the 1995 Super Famicom title Seiken Densetsu 3, has a free demo out for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam. You'll be able transfer your save data from the demo into the full version of game. Only the beginning of the story is playable and characters' level is capped at 7. We gave the PlayStation 4 version a spin in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pngh3qEEFQs After the introduction, you'll choose one of six protagonists, then two from those same six as your companions. While you only start out with your protagonist, the other two will eventually join your campaign. Making the jump from 2D to 3D has worked well in Trials of Mana, which is largely due to how the combat has been retooled to work in this new space. You can use R3 to lock on to enemies and maneuver around them, using light and heavy attacks where the timing is appropriate. Aerial attacking and dodging flows well, including an air-to-ground move. You can build up a meter below your health and mana gauges as you attack - this is reserved for Class Strikes, abilities compatible with a character's current class. They can be assigned to the right

With the first installment of Final Fantasy VII Remake only a month away from finally being released into the world, Square Enix surprised fans with a demo release this past Monday that allows players to try the very first chapter of the game. Since the original Final Fantasy VII was the entire reason I got into the Final Fantasy franchise in the first place, I rushed to download the demo as soon as I was able to, as I was far too impatient to wait for the full release. I wanted to relive the iconic opening cutscene in glorious high-definition graphics, and was curious to try out the new battle system and see any new changes that had been brought to the game, no matter how small or brief they might’ve been in the demo. As mentioned above, the demo only covers the very beginning of the game, or the Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission. While I won’t go into the specifics in regards to the story -- as it is only a demo and there isn’t much to discuss here -- I will say that watching the entire first chapter unfold in beautiful detailed graphics and fully voice acted cutscenes

Dragon Quest of the Stars is the latest freemium smartphone title from Square Enix, now available on Google Play and the App Store. Based on the Dragon Quest series, the game spins an original story where your character embarks on a quest to save the world - all par for the course. In the video below, we play through the first hour of the game, which walks you through its suite of features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSVddxLpZTs The first thing you'll do is create your avatar from a modest amount of options: gender, hair color, hair style, eyes, face, and name. After that, you and two companions are found stranded on a beach by Cyril the Squirril and his slime pal Gregoory. The pair tutorial-ize everything you'll need to know and serve as a mouthpiece for the protagonist. Eventually, you'll meet other characters who set you on the hero's path, including a warrior named Atomos and a ghost grandpa who lives in a book. You'll navigate around the world from a top-down perspective, rotating the globe as you go. Travelling is done on rails between locations, which may yield encounters. Mission themselves will also take place on rails through several waves of enemies monsters and sometimes a

In Final Fantasy XIV's latest patch titled "Echoes of a Fallen Star," a brand-new piece of content has been added for the realm's fishers: Ocean Fishing. Every two hours of real world time, you can embark from Limsa Lominsa with a party of 23 other fishers - the same size as an alliance raid. This expedition will hit three rotating locations that also have varying weather patterns. Based on the places you go you'll use different types of bait to rack up points that are calculated at the end of your journey. Score enough and you'll net gathering scrips, minions, and a big ol' shark mount. All you need to start is to complete the "All the Fish in the Sea" quest available at Level 1 in Limsa Lominsa's Lower Decks and you're ready to go. A vendor nearby the boat will also sell you the requisite bait for Ocean Fish, and you can also restock on the boat should you run out. I've been messing with it here and there this week, while blasting through Patch 5.2's other (great) content. So far, Ocean Fishing's been quite fun - largely due to how players are interacting with it. The masses await the next

Recently, the Final Fantasy VII Remake twitter revealed pre-order and special edition gifts which take the form of summon materia. This materia, when socketed into equipment, will let you call forth summoned beasts into battle. Chocobo chick pelts enemies with basic spells and cactuar bombards enemies with its needles in the rudest way. Carbuncle, on the other hand, is a sweet baby friend. A small canine child, too majestic to be called "puppy." With a ruby affixed to its cranium, Carby joyfully leaps into the battlefield, putting itself into considerable danger to buff you and your allies. Despite this, fans have only given it their scorn. Why? Well, take a look: https://twitter.com/FFVIIR_CLOUD/status/1230069765235859457 If you overlook Carby's cute baby chin, luscious locks, and adorable cooing as it descends gracefully to earth, you might notice... big head! Based on this alone, fans have taken to social media with their criticisms, saying that it's the worst Carbuncle design in the series. Sure, it may not be as adorable as Final Fantasy VIII's Carbuncle or Final Fantasy XIV's Behemoth, but the worst design? Come on! This Carbuncle just stole your shoes and is only slightly cute. Now you have to walk around Midgar in your socks. Bet