Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, X-2 HD Remaster, and XII: The Zodiac Age Revealed for Nintendo Switch

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X and X-2 Remaster, and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age are headed to the Nintendo Switch. No release date has been announced yet other than a 2019 launch window. This marks the first time these entries in Square Enix's long-running role-playing game franchise will be available on a Nintendo console and they're regarded as some of the best Final Fantasy games ever. To tide us over until these games hit the Nintendo Switch, several spin-off games are on the way as well. These include Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD, World of Final Fantasy Maxima, and Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy. Days earlier at TGS 2018 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Edition was announced for the Switch and PS4 too.

Final Fantas XV Pocket Edition is a demake of Final Fantasy XV that originally hit the PS4 and Xbox One in November 2016 with a Windows PC release earlier in the year, you can download it from the Nintendo eShop today. World of Final Fantasy Maxima is being referred to as a 'levelled-up edition' of World of Final Fantasy that first released on the PS4 and PS Vita in October 2016 and Windows PC in November 2017. The World of Final Fantasy Maxima release date is November 6. No release date for Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy has been revealed other than a nebulous 'Winter' launch window.

It's no surprise that Square Enix is leaning heavily on its back catalogue of Final Fantasy games. Reason being, its latest project in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VII Remake, is reportedly in development hell.

 The game was earlier in development at CyberConnect2 — a Japanese studio responsible for a handful of titles based on the Naruto anime series. It was moved back to Square Enix as an internal project in 2017. The reason for this it seems, is that CyberConnect2’s work was allegedly “unusable”.

According to Dan Tsukasa, a game developer and 3D artist working in Japan, don’t expect Final Fantasy VII Remake anytime soon.

“They [CyberConnect2] don't have four years of work, they have two. The announcement that Square was taking the game away from CyberConnect2, they didn't take it away and continue it, they started it again because CyberConnect2's work was just so useless and not far enough along, but still far enough along that remaking it was faster than refactoring it... (it wasn't in a good state at all),” he said in a post on a Reddit thread discussing Final Fantasy VII’s art direction.

“I’ll explain it this way. When has a company taking work away from another company ever been a positive sign of things? I know CyberConnect2's work was unusable, I've worked with them before, I know their level. And i know they outsourced to hell and back in order to get things to the point we saw them publicly, and it still wasn't enough to save them,” he continued in another post.

When pressed for his sources and if he knew anyone working on Final Fantasy VII Remake, he had this to say:

“Yup, its the game industry in Tokyo, squares so large its rare to meet someone who doesn't know anyone there.

I'm unsure how to prove it though, I can't get into any issues by saying what I've heard, or whats common knowledge in the industry here (the common knowledge being that the project was taken from CC2 because it was so behind schedule), but if I were to name anyone working there, they'd get into trouble for sharing information, the same way I'd get into trouble if I shared information about where I work.

So with that said, I can only prove I work in the game industry in Japan, can't prove who I do and don't know.”

Tsukasa has deleted his Reddit and Twitter accounts since these posts. However they have been archived on popular gaming forum ResetEra including those that suggest that Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Director, Tetsuya Nomura isn’t even working on the game, focussing solely on Kingdom Hearts 3. It was announced five years ago by Square Enix and is slated for a 2018 release.

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