Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, a mobile RPG game combining the original Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs Crisis Core and The First Soldier, will be released on PC and Steam. The Steam version will allow data sharing with the mobile version.
Ever Crisis on mobile is a free-to-play game with microtransactions and features colorful chibi-style visuals. It can be seen as the Polly Pocket Edition of Final Fantasy. The gameplay consists of missions with turn-based battles and short narrative sequences, designed to be played in short bursts while waiting for something. However, it remains to be seen how well this formula will translate to PC, and what players should expect from the reportedly aggressive microtransaction pop-ups. Hopefully, the PC version will be rebranded as a standard pay-upfront release without the gacha mechanics.
A trailer for the mobile version can be seen below. Note the appearance of short-haired Sephiroth!
Some may criticize this game as tarnishing the reputation of the beloved (J)RPG franchise. For those individuals, it might be worth checking out Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth instead, although no PC release date has been announced for that game yet. Nevertheless, Katharine is very excited regardless.
Alternatively, players can experience the PC remastered version of Crisis Core, which Katharine (yes, her again?!) described as “a polished story filler that missed its potential after FF7 Remake”. This game focuses on Zack Fair, a prominent character from the original game, and features a real-time combat system with elements of the Active Time Battle from the main series.
I have vivid memories of playing Crisis Core on the original PSP and writing a rather embarrassing piece of proto-new games journalism about it. It involved all the Final Fantasy VII characters attending a launch party. Hopefully, that article is no longer available online. Please, do not attempt to Google it.
Credit to the team at Eurogamer for bringing this news to our attention.