Latest news with #SquareEnix
Time of India
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 87 Update, Patch 7.3 Release Date and More
Image via: Square Enix With excitement over Final Fantasy XIV's upcoming 7.3 Dawntrail expansion recently increasing after this week's reveal of new playable races, Live Letter 87 brought more than just the typical news, delivering information that laid groundwork for what promises to be one of the more exciting encounter setups in FFXIV history. Patch 7.3 will be due out in early August 2025, bringing what the developers are calling an emotional and poignant climax to Dawntrail's main narrative, in addition to major revisions addressing recent player complaints. The Story Reaches Its Apex Yoshida reconfirmed that Patch 7.3 will be the climactic turning point of the Dawntrail storyline. A new dungeon The Meso Terminal and a climactic trial against a nameless enemy catapults the story conflict to a boiling point. Even more exciting is how fans can look forward to callbacks rich with lore, specifically to Final Fantasy IX and XI, giving additional depth to long-time franchise veterans. FFXIV: Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVII 87 Summary Echoes of Vana'diel : San d'Oria Returns Keeping the nostalgia trend going, 7.3 will bring the 3rd chapter of the Echoes of Vana'diel alliance raids. This 24-player raid has adventurers going up against legendary foes from Final Fantasy XI, including the recently teased appearance of Kam'lanaut. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Given the stellar production values these raids have come to be known for, this entry might just end up being the crown jewel of the patch. Quality-of-Life Enhancements Answer Player Feedback Yoshida started Live Letter 87 off with a rather uncharacteristic blunt apology, taking the blame on what has been perceived as a slide in quality assurance with hotfixes and maintenance windows becoming an all too common occurrence. While he promised better communications going on and spent some time responding to criticism on two of the game's most recent systems, Occult Crescent and Cosmic Exploration. Players will be able to do so with 48-player preformed alliances with Enmity Patch 7.3 coming next week. The return of Sword of the Sands as the next Forked Tower raid will mark the arrival of both Normal and Savage modes in Patch 7.5, a shift in progression inspired by player demand. LIVE LETTER REACTS! First Look at 7.3 | Final Fantasy XIV Side Quests, and New Challenges For non-combat content, crafters are really going to enjoy themselves. A new Allied Society questline with the Yok Huy will offer a fun, alternative path to leveling from 90 to 100! Other new content includes a new Deep Dungeon, the next chapter in the Hildibrand series, and the Phantom Relic Weapon questline all set to release after launch. Follow all the live updates, scores, and highlights from the India vs England Test match here . Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster (Switch 2) Review
Thirteen years ago, Square Enix released one of the best Final Fantasy spin-offs they'd made to-date but called it by a different name: Bravely Default. Standing on its own merits, it proved to be a cult classic for the 3DS by the time it arrived in the west in 2014, and still stands as one of the Nintendo 3DS' must-play RPGs (alongside its direct sequel, Bravely Second: End Layer). And yet, it still seems to lack the recognition it deserves as an upstanding modern take on classic JRPGs. Now, with as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, this can finally be set right. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster is a definitive take on the original game, which amalgamates its myriad re-releases and refreshes it for Nintendo's brand new console. Despite taking on the subtitle of the very first edition, Flying Fairy, it's based on the updated For The Sequel edition, which was the version we initially received in English—because what's a Square Enix JRPG franchise without some convoluted names? Naturally the game has been converted to suit the Switch 2's single screen, after originally utilizing the dual screen of the 3DS. This transition has been handled remarkably well, and will hopefully inspire more developers to bring their 3DS gems to Switch 2. Akitoshi Yoshida's character models and the game's beautiful storybook-like environments also translated nicely to both modern TVs and the Switch 2's screen. Though it was, admittedly, a little jarring to see the mouths moving on certain kookier character models, but that's testament to how much clearer the experience is now. While the 3DS' display was fine at the time, the HD, 16:9 presentation is vastly superior, breathing new life into Bravely Default's folksy world of Luxendarc. Most environments are enhanced by the clearer resolution, which shows off the paint-like texture of the landscapes. Even without the touch screen, this almost feels like the way it was meant to be seen. (Missing entirely is the original game's use of the 3DS' gyroscopic camera. This enabled a handful of AR cutscenes which sounded cool in theory, yet were gimmicky in practice, like the intro CG cutscene.) Beneath Bravely Default's fairy tale appearance (no pun intended) lies a well-crafted tale that combines the motifs of classic Final Fantasy, like crystals and warriors of light, with some plot elements from more modern FF, like the corrupt governments and natural resource wars of Final Fantasy VII. The party consists of Tiz, a young man who's the sole survivor of his simple village; Agnès, sheltered cleric of the Wind Crystal; Edea, a defector from Eternia, the enemy state that seeks to destroy the crystals' hold over society; and Ringabel, an amnesiac who hasn't forgotten his womanizing ways and carries a prophetic journal. Guided by the fairy Airy, they seek to restore the four crystals and thus, the balance of nature while thwarting the forces of Eternia along the way. Bravely Default's writing is still incredibly good by modern standards, even if the voice acting (and a late-game slog) will probably remain as divisive to audiences in 2025 as it did in the twenty-teens. The main characters are charming, as are the minor antagonists in their own way, and the world is easy to invest in. Allusions and homages to Final Fantasy are littered throughout, from the recurring names of spells (Fire-Fira-Firaga), to classes (White Mage, Black Mage), and items, to deeper thematic cuts (like the actions of the Water Crystal's Vestal). Squint just right and it could practically be a sequel to Final Fantasy III, but with profoundly more character and plot. Nowhere is that connection to classic 2D Final Fantasy more apparent than in battle. Players unlock up to 24 jobs (called Asterisks here) throughout Bravely Default, by defeating practitioners of that class. In this department, it harkens more to fellow underrated game Final Fantasy V: each job has distinct active and passive abilities, and as a character increases that job's level they unlock more permanent upgrades which can be equipped even after swapping to another class. Tiz might learn Black Magic, for example, then switch to the Time Mage class and keep the Black Magic command and the Pierce ability. This take on job classes is a tried and true system, and I'm glad to see Bravely Default still putting it to good use even if Final Fantasy isn't. It's kept fresh with some original inventions and unique interpretations of classic jobs, each well-earned in battle with the sort of villains you love to hate. If jobs were 'something old' or 'something borrowed,' Bravely Default's 'something new' was the battle system its name stems from. Actions in a fight cost 1 BP, and characters earn 1 BP per turn normally. Outside of the usual conventions of turn-based RPG combat, each participant can 'default' on their turn to guard and store up their BP, or 'brave' to take 2-4 actions at once. This deceptively simple paradigm can have big strategic ramifications. In weaker random battles, characters can go all out with braves and quickly dispatch their foes in one turn—instead of stooping to a 4-turn slugfest. In harder fights, will your opponent default and tank through your biggest assault? Or can you successfully brave when their guard is down and tear them to shreds instead? It's a simple tweak on the usual turn-based format which lends the game a very unique feel. All of the gameplay holds up just as well today as it did at Bravely Default's western debut. Thankfully, the 3DS original's connectivity features remain intact as well. Friends with the game can be added into your file, allowing you to 'link' your character with theirs—so if your friend has a maxed out Monk Edea, you can use the Abililink system to give your Edea some of those advanced, level 9 abilities. As well, the ability to call upon other players has been salvaged from the 3DS. In a similar fashion, players can 'record' their best moves in battle and save them to their profile, so that other players can summon them. (The game also provides fake, computerized 'ally' profiles periodically to avoid leaving behind those with smaller friend lists.) Even the town restoration minigame, where players idly repair Tiz's hometown over time, has made the jump. Once delegated to the bottom screen, the Norende Village Restoration is easily summoned with a press of the Switch 2 D-pad, as is the in-game reference book and the encounter rate setting, among other bells and whistles. New to Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster are two minigames using the Joy-Con 2's mouse features. Much like the system's mouse function itself, I found these distractions to be better than expected, though still a little too cumbersome to be a main event. The first, Luxencheer Rhythm Catch, also invokes another Final Fantasy spin-off, Theatrhythm. Bravely Default's take injects a sliver of Beat Saber, turning the Joy-Con 2s into a pair of light-stick cursors on the screen. As notes pass by, players must position those cursors so that the notes are caught between them, or move the correct cursor over the notes and press a button in time. It's more elegant in practice than it sounds on paper, and was actually a pretty fun use of the mouse, though I'm in no rush for Theatrhythm to adopt this approach instead. The other, Ringabel's Panic Cruise, is an airship pilot simulator. Meant to show all the work Ringabel does when flying the party's airship, this minigame tasks players with not only steering the craft horizontally and vertically, but also manipulating various controls to fulfill other character's requests or defending the craft from attackers. Though a tonal shift from the rest of the game—the first level has you fending off ghost pirates, because Reasons—it's another fun little distraction. Neither minigame is worth the price of the remaster's admission alone, though there are a plethora of rewards to be earned from playing them periodically, like more background on the characters and unique costume or special move parts. Each minigame has three difficulty levels and more stages to unlock through main plot progression; higher difficulty means more medals, and faster rewards. Like the original game using the 3DS' camera for AR cutscenes, the new minigames in Bravely Default's remaster make a case for the potential of the Switch 2's mouse controls. Fortunately this makes a better case than the first, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the mouse's application, but I still need a little more in-depth proof of its worth. (Bring on Metroid Prime 4.) My only real nitpick with the experience here is the unreliability of the network connection. Bravely Default isn't exhaustive in its network features, only requiring a passive connection to send or receive friend data. In theory, it's 'set it and forget it.' Yet if the connection is disrupted—say, by taking the Switch 2 off the dock—it can be tedious to reconnect. A small quibble in the grand scheme of things, perhaps addressable through updates, though still a minor nuisance. All in all, I couldn't be happier to see Bravely Default get a second chance in the spotlight with a bigger audience. Over a decade ago it proved that classic JRPGs weren't dead or a taboo—a lesson that studios still need to be reminded of, evidently. The Switch 2 has revitalized that core experience, in some ways revealing a superior form, and any fan of original Nintendo-era Final Fantasy, or even classic PS1 RPGs, should give it a shot. With backward compatibility, fans of the genre can already feast well on Switch 2, and having a strong, classic launch title like Bravely Default helps show how Nintendo's partners like Square Enix can keep that feast going. (For a perfect dessert course, the sequel would be a great fit as well, just saying…)
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Switch 2賣爆推動任天堂股價創新高 遊戲行業成全球動盪之中的避風港
【彭博】-- 在全球動盪之際，任天堂強勁的銷售成長吸引了尋求避險的投資者的更多目光，該公司股價因此創下兩個月來最大漲幅並觸及紀錄新高。 該股周三一度上漲7.1%，連續第五天上漲，因為有跡象表明市場對Switch 2有巨大的需求。截至6月11日的數據顯示，這款備受期待的新遊戲主機在發布後的四天內售出逾350萬台，反響遠超八年前的初代Switch。 「由於美國和日本未能在七國集團(G-7)峰會的間隙就關稅措施達成協議，資金正在流入受關稅影響較小的遊戲行業，」東洋證券分析師Hideki Yasu稱。 其他的遊戲公司股價也紛紛走高，這個行業被認為對關稅不確定性和地緣政治前景惡化更具抵禦能力。Square Enix Holdings Co.一度上漲4.7%，萬代南夢宮漲3.9%。 日本的公司控制著全球兩大遊戲平台 —— 索尼的PlayStation和任天堂的Switch —— 以及一些極為成功的系列遊戲，如《艾爾登法環》和《超級馬裡奧》 。 原文標題Nintendo Extends Gains to Record on Booming Sales of Switch 2 More stories like this are available on ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Geek Culture
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Nintendo Switch 2 Faces Dire Third-Party Game Sales Despite Successful Launch
Despite enjoying a massive launch, the Nintendo Switch 2 is reportedly suffering from rather lukewarm sales of third-party games, as most players flock towards first-party Nintendo titles like Mario Kart World . This news comes from TheGameBusiness' Chris Dring, who went through the console's latest game sales figures surrounding its launch. Citing data from research companies Circana and NielsenIQ, Dring notes that 48% of physical game sales in the UK and 62% of sales in the US were first-party titles, when excluding the console's Mario Kart World bundle. If the bundle was taken into account, however, the figure would be further increased to 86% in the UK, although statistics for the US were not presented. Mario Kart World For context, the Nintendo Switch 2 launched with only three new physical first-party titles: Mario Kart World , and the two enhanced editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom . On the other hand, there were a total of 13 physical third-party games, including CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 , Konami's Survival Kids , and Square Enix's Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster . Speaking to TheGameBusiness, one unnamed third-party publisher noted dire sales figures for its Switch 2 launch sales, stating that it was 'below our lowest estimates'. Dring also noted that despite the newest console's figures being an improvement compared to its predecessor's launch, which saw 89% of physical sales at the time being from first-party games, most third-party Switch 2 games 'posted very low numbers'. As to the reason for such disappointing numbers, Dring suggested that this could be due to the console's enhanced backwards compatibility, leading to players jumping back into the original Switch's back catalogue, coupled with the fact that almost all of the third-party Switch 2 launch titles are ports of already released games, meaning they are likely titles already played and completed by players on other platforms. Survival Kids Despite this report, some sources are actually painting a different picture. US sales tracker Mat Piscatella, who works at Circana, for example, took to Bluesky to state that third-party sales of Nintendo Switch 2 games in the US were actually 'far better' than those of the original console when it launched. CD Projekt Red also shared the sentiment, reporting that Cyberpunk 2077 was the 'best-selling third-party game during the launch of Switch 2', and that the game did 'reasonable numbers'. Amidst the conflicting reports, Dring adds that he was told by many major publishers that Nintendo is 'actively trying to push third-party games this time around', with the hopes that sales will pick up in the coming months once other notable third-party titles like EA Sports Madden 26 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 are released. For Nintendo's first-party titles, the console has some big-hitters in its pipeline, including Donkey Kong Bananza , Pokémon Legends: Z-A and enhanced editions of Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Mario Party Jamboree . Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Mario Kart World Nintendo Nintendo switch 2
SoraNews24
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Final Fantasy IX gets its own pop-up store in Osaka and Tokyo for 25th anniversary
Final Fantasies grow up so fast, don't they? It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since we first met Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and the rest on the epic adventure that merged the classic elements of the early Final Fantasy series with the more modern game console tech of the time, making Final Fantasy IX one of the more unique and memorable installments. And in honor of it, Square Enix is preparing pop-up stores full of limited-edition merchandise. There will be two stores, with the first opening in the Daimaru department store in Umeda, Osaka, from 2 July to 7 September. After that, it will move to the Daimaru in Marunouchi, Tokyo, from 25 July to 11 August. A wide range of goods, from stuffed toys to clothing and accessories, will be sold, all featuring characters and themes from the classic role-playing game. ▼ From top left: Zidane plush toy (4,400 yen [US$30]), Zindane shoulder bag (11,000 yen), Vivi plush pouch (3,960 yen), FFIX 25th Anniversary T-shirt (4,620 yen), FFIX music box 'A Place to Call Home' (2,750 yen), Vivi shoulder bag (9,350 yen) ▼ From top left: Vivi mug (3,520 yen), Mini acrylic stand collection (660 yen each), Vivi pouch (3,300 yen), FFIX 25th Anniversary acrylic keychains (1,100 yen each), FFIX 25th Anniversary magnet collection (660 yen each), Zidane Form-ism figure (6,930 yen) Other titles and franchises will also have items for sale at this pop-up store. ▼ From top left: FFXIV character canvas board (3,300 yen), FFXIV character sticker set (2,200 yen), FFXIV Sugar Riot sticker set (2,200 yen), FFXIV Doman Mahjong T-shirt (6,160 yen) ▼ From left: Dragon Quest Special Metallic Item Gallery: Roto's Armor and Helmet (9,900 yen), Kingdom Hearts II Form-ism Sora figure (7,480 yen), NieR: Piano Journeys (3,630 yen) The shop will be decorated with artwork from Final Fantasy IX and there will be special areas to get your photo taken among the various displays. ▼ Illustrations such as this one of Zidane will be hung on the wall. ▼ Standies like this one of Puck and Vivi allow you to get your picture taken among the characters. The two Daimaru department stores will also have a special Final Fantasy IX collaboration section featuring clothing and accessories based on the game. Specific items aren't mentioned yet, except for this Vivi top in the promotional image. Also, anyone who makes a purchase of 5,000 yen or more will get a randomly chosen Final Fantasy IX rubber coaster for free. It's sure to be a great chance to get some rare merchandise celebrating a great episode from this long-running game franchise. We can only hope it'll be as big as the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VIII was. You all remember that? When everyone came together and expressed their undying love for Final Fantasy VIII last year and Square Enix held all those huge events? That happened, right? Well… I really liked that one at least. Event information Final Fantasy IX 25th Anniversary at Square Enix Pop-Up Store Daimaru Umeda, 13th Floor Exhibition Space / 大丸梅田店 13階特設会場 Address: Osaka-fu, Osaka-shi, Kita-ku, Umeda 2-1-1 大阪府大阪市北区梅田3-1-1 Date: 2 July – 7 September Hours: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Daimaru Tokyo, 11th Floor Event Space / 大丸東京店 11階 催事場 Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-9-1 東京都千代田区丸の内1-9-1 Date: 25 July – 11 August Hours: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Website Source, images: PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
