Final Fantasy 30th anniversary event brings small game announcements, FF themed wine
Got £700 to spare? How about some Final Fantasy branded wine...?
Today is Final Fantasy 7's 20th anniversary and this December will mark Final Fantasy's 30th anniversary - and so Square Enix Japan took some time out today to announce a bunch of FF related stuff to celebrate the two events.
The announcements were typically eclectic for Square Enix Japan, ranging from a £700 bottle of Final Fantasy Wine (no, really) to more detail on FF15's DLC schedule and from an FF14-themed TV show called 'Daddy of Light' to the release date for Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, AKA FF12 HD Remaster - that's July, by the way.
We've wrapped up the various news from the event important and bizarre alike below in a bullet point form below, via the efforts of RPG Site and Nova Crystallis, who followed the Japanese-only, no live stream event live. First, the video game news...
In Final Fantasy 15:
- Final Fantasy 15 will get some superhero-themed exosuit costumes for the main cast as part of a DLC pack that's hitting on February 21.
- Episode Gladio is FF15's first major DLC and sees you play as Gladiolus. It's part of the season pass, will launch on March 28th. He'll be joined by Cor Leonis, a side character in FF15 who fans quite liked and found to be under-developed.
- The second major story DLC is Episode Prompto (guess who you play as!) and will launch in June - no further details as yet.
Images of the exosuits and Episode Galdio are below.
In Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age:
- FF12's HD Remaster which features significant content never before released in Western territories will launch on July 11th in the West and July 13th in Japan.
- Beloved FF12 'leading man' Balthier will be added as a DLC Champion Summon to last year's World of Final Fantasy to celebrate FF12's imminent release
In Final Fantasy 14:
- Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida reiterated the June 20th release date for Stormblood, FF14's latest expansion.
- There's a live action FF14 TV show 'Daddy of Light', that is based on a blog and novel. It tells the heart-warming story of a father and son who bond in new ways by playing FF14.
In Final Fantasy 7 Remake:
- Square released a first new 'key visual' for the game - or basically, one of their very pretty CG artworks.
Other smaller or weirder bits announced at the event included:
- A Final Fantasy fashion line-up that looks about as gaudy as you'd expect.
- Several FF music announcements including new Distant Worlds orchestra concerts worldwide and FF15 Piano Collections and 'Brass de Bravo' band concerts in Japan.
- A tie-up with Cup Noodle, who featured heavily as product placement in Final Fantasy 15. This collaboration manifests in the real world instead - there'll be cup noodle flavors based off the villains of each FF game and a fork to eat them with that has the hilt of a sword. The handle specifically resembles Cloud's Ultima Weapon from FF7, so... Ultima Fork?
- Some Final Fantasy Wine. There's a $1000 version, which includes Swarovski crystal studded glasses and an expensive wine, or a much cheaper version where there are two types of wine - Ifrit Rogue and Shiva Blanc - makes sense.
- Special FF-themed cakes that'll be on sale for around $35 featuring a Moogle, Chocobo and Cactuar.
- Final Fantasy: Lost Strangers, a new manga series for Japan.
- A Japan-only Final Fantasy 14-themed escape room. Which sounds pretty cool, honestly. Escape rooms are great and FF14 is pretty good.
- Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan will have gigantic FF7-themed Snow Sculptures.
- A variety of character cross-overs in games like Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia (Japan only for now), Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Mobius Final Fantasy and Itadaki Street.
- A Final Fantasy Exhibition will take place in Japan in 2018.