Category: Video Games

Rumors of a Final Fantasy IX remake have been echoing around RPG circles for at least year now, with series fans hopeful that they may soon get to revisit one of the most beloved entries in the series. But if a Final Fantasy IX remake does materialize, it may face some big challenges.

Speaking with the website Video Games, Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida talked a bit about what a remake might look like. He warns that it may not all fit in one game.

“Of course, I do know there are requests for Final Fantasy IX to be made, but when you think about Final Fantasy IX, it’s a game with huge volume,” Yoshida says. “When you think about all of that volume, I wonder if it’s possible to remake that as a single title. It’s a difficult one. It is a tough question.”

Yoshida seems to be suggesting that a potential remake could go the direction of Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is in the middle of a planned trilogy. Fans have long had mixed feelings about splitting it into multiple parts, which offers the opportunity to add plenty of new elements, but also slows the pacing. As it stands, the third part of the trilogy doesn’t figure to be out until 2026 at the earliest.

Yoshida is right about Final Fantasy IX being a big game. It’s absolutely loaded with sidequests, minigames, and other content, and it’s set in a very large world. Reproducing all of that material won’t be easy for any development team that takes on a remake.

As for Yoshida himself, he’s interested in remaking a different game in the series. “The one that I would like to make myself would be Final Fantasy III, I think.”

For longtime fans of the series, Yoshida is referring to the version released on the Famicom, not the Americanized Final Fantasy VI. It’s a deep cut as Final Fantasy releases go, but very much in keeping with Yoshida’s attitude as Final Fantasy XIV’s producer.

Yoshida touches on a handful of other details in the interview, including his favorite Final Fantasy VII minigame (snowboarding), an Xbox release of Final Fantasy XVI (“we do want to release it on Xbox”), and more. In the meantime, the wait for a Final Fantasy IX remake continues.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

PS5-exclusive 3D platformer Astro Bot features 173 bot cameos from PlayStation games past and present (check out IGN’s feature, Astro Bot: Every PlayStation Character – Easter Eggs, for more). Iconic Final Fantasy characters are conspicuous by their absence, however — an omission fans were quick to pick up on in the context of Final Fantasy’s long-standing association with PlayStation. That means no Cloud from Final Fantasy 7, or any other character from the famous role-playing franchise.

So why did Final Fantasy characters fail to make it into Astro Bot? Neither Sony nor Square Enix has properly commented yet, and in a new interview, the chief developer of the game itself danced around the question.

Game File asked Nicolas Doucet, the head of the game’s Tokyo-based studio, Team Asobi, about Cloud’s absence from Astro Bot. According to Doucet, Team Asobi had hoped to get Cloud in the game, but didn’t manage to for some reason.

“It’s difficult to comment on that,” Doucet said, before adding: “We really respect the choice of each publisher.”

That comment suggests it was Square Enix’s call to keep Cloud from Astro Bot (IGN has asked Square Enix for comment), which fans are already calling an odd call, especially when you consider the PlayStation exclusivity Final Fantasy has signed on for in recent years. Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched as a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2020 before hitting PS5 in 2021, then PC later that year. It has yet to launch on Xbox.

Similarly, Final Fantasy 16 launched as a PS5 exclusive in June 2023, with its PC version launching only this month. It has yet to launch on Xbox. And finally, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launched in February this year as a PS5 exclusive. It has yet to be announced for other platforms.

Despite all this, no Final Fantasy for Astro Bot. Last month, Final Fantasy 16 producer and 14 director Naoki Yoshida said Square Enix is looking to double down on Xbox releases, after its focus on PlayStation exclusivity led to a financial dip.

Yoshida told Eurogamer that Final Fantasy 14’s recent release on Xbox was met with a “really strong response” and is just the “starting point” for more Square Enix games to launch on the platform.

“With Final Fantasy 14’s release on Xbox, [Microsoft Gaming CEO] Phil Spencer spent a lot of his time and a lot of effort and put in a lot of hard work into making it a reality,” Yoshida said. “So we would like to make the best of that and further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers moving forward.”

This shift began after a huge fall in profits was revealed in May 2024, when Square Enix declared it would “shift to a multiplatform strategy” through a three-year plan to reboot the company.

As for Astro Bot, its DLC features five new online speedrunning levels and 10 new bots to rescue, including Stellar Blade’s Eve and a Helldivers 2 Helldiver.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Ahead of the holiday season, Walmart has dropped the price of the 2024 55″ LG Evo C4 4K OLED TV by nearly 50% off (if you go by LG’s retail price of $1999.99). Right now you can get it for $1069.00, which is easily the lowest price we’ve seen thus far for this particular size and model. The LG Evo C4 is an outstanding TV that has won top spots in several of our buying guides, including best 4K TV, best TV for gaming, and best TV for the PlayStation 5. This is an especially good buy if you picked up the new PS5 Pro, since the updated hardware will be able to run more games at a consistent 4K @ 120fps.

55″ LG Evo C4 4K OLED Smart TV: The Best PS5 TV

Let’s get this one out of the way: Hell is Us isn’t a soulslike. Nor is it an open-world game. Instead, it aims to separate itself from other action adventures by emphasising investigation and discovery, ushering you to get lost in its weirdness. That’s exactly what happened to me during my two-hour hands-on with developer Rogue Factor’s latest, an arresting mixture of medieval and sci-fi aesthetics set against a 90s European civil war backdrop. I enjoyed its approach to tense melee combat encounters and information-gathering puzzles, but what excites me the most is what I don’t know – where its intriguing story will lead me next.

Hell is Us is one of the bleaker games I’ve played in a while. Upon entering a village surrounded by muddy marshland, I’m greeted by a mass grave, bodies hanging from a tree, and the yearnful strings of a local’s violins. You’ll become used to such scenes during the early hours of venturing through the fictional European nation of Hadea, circa an alternate 1990s. It’s a country ravaged by civil war that has cut itself off from the rest of the world, and the place that main character Rémi fled as a child. Fast forward years later and he’s back in his homeland having smuggled himself over the border in search of the parents who sent him off for a better life.

The first step of the mystery brings me to a lonely farmhouse, the basement of which the owner now calls home. Through conversation about my father and the larger conflict at play, I’m able to pull on a thread that eventually reveals the village of Jova as his last known location. Hell is Us wants you to take your time talking to people and investigating every avenue of conversation. Indeed, being a wandering detective appears to be as much a part of its gameplay as its punishing combat (more on that in a bit). It forces you to observe its world and the people trapped in it. You are deprived of map markers, waypoints, and – thanks to that 90s setting – a mobile phone. Instead of those tools, you are reliant on directions and clues given by mouth or read on scattered notes.

In order to reach Jova I’ll need a vehicle, and it just so happens that a military APC is parked nearby. Retrieving its engine’s lost key appears a simple fetch quest at first, but Hell is Us’ emphasis on investigation means this task quickly reveals itself to be a much more complex problem. I talk to a wounded soldier who gives me rough directions through a forest, which in turn leads me to a puzzle where I need to match symbols on a door using a contraption. The gateway unlocked, I then delve deep into the tomb inside. This is where things get weird.

During a conversation at gamescom 2024, creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête revealed to me the influence that Annihilation plays on Hell is Us. The team has been inspired not just by the visuals of Alex Garland’s striking 2018 film, but also the overall off-kilter tone of Jeff VanderMeer’s trilogy of novels it’s based on. It can be heard in the unsettling score that soundtracks Hadea, filled with droning, stuttering electronics and twinkling otherworldliness, but becomes much more evident when you’re face-to-face with enemies.

The basic foes take the form of milky white humanoids that move slowly yet menacingly, echoing images from the finale of Garland’s movie. Others are more developed quadrupeds that possess blades for limbs that slice at you if you get too close – I couldn’t help but think of the necromorphs that haunt Dead Space’s corridors when faced with them. But the horrors don’t end there. In fact, they’re hidden around every tight corner and in every open field. This is best exemplified near the end of my demo as I venture far too near a giant shimmering blob of spiking goo and wavy ribbing. It’s a hard thing to try and describe in words, and in turn quite unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.

So far it all sounds very sci-fi horror, but that’s just one side of Hell is Us’ coin, because the way you deal with these threats is thoroughly medieval fantasy. I quickly discover that standard weapons have no effect on them, but thankfully soon receive a glowing white sword that’s much more effective. Alongside a standard mix of dodging and blocking, you can slice at enemies with both standard and charged heavy attacks. At its core it’s a relatively basic melee combat system that I found fairly unforgiving at times (though never unfair,) but more wrinkles do reveal themselves over time. Recovery items are scarce, so you’ll largely be relying on the smart “healing pulse” system, which is triggered by hitting the right bumper button when a burst of particles emerges from an enemy after hitting them. It encourages aggression when playing, and kept me on the front foot when searching for a health top-up, just as some of my favourite action-heavy games like Control and Doom Eternal do.

This doesn’t mean you can go in all blades blazing, however, as the length of your stamina bar is directly linked to the amount of health you have left. This means you can only get a hit or two in when near death before needing to hang back and rest a moment. Should you find yourself in need of a helping hand, you can call upon your drone companion who, among other abilities, can distract enemies while you sneak up on them for a critical hit. This isn’t necessarily a stealth game, but it’s nice to know the option is there.

Alongside special attacks, these systems all combine to create a tense dance in each combat encounter that’s a consistent thrill to navigate through, especially when faced with more complex threats. A prime example of such foes are those connected to glowing, pulsating entities that are colour-coded depending on the type of attack they use. For example, the red ones plow into you, whereas the yellow ones attack from range. Deal enough damage to them and they’ll retreat into their fleshier counterparts and make them vulnerable.

During my playtime, I also got my hands on several other weapons, too, such as a very cool pair of twin axes that unleashed flurries of charged attacks, and a hulking polearm that delivered slow but heavy hits. The latter seemed an entirely optional find, too, unlocked by collecting a series of ancient medallions and slotting them into a side door hidden in the catacombs. It’s nice to see the investigation side of the game leading to new treasures and cleverly integrated into these open zone areas, rather than just being there to reveal story information.

Of course, this combat is what stands between Rémi and him being reunited with his father. That connection will remain lost for the time being, however, as upon arriving in Jova it is revealed that he left town with the global peacekeeping forces. The journey continues and the next stage of the investigation is underway as I wander around speaking to weary, sometimes dismissive, villagers. There’s obviously some deeper mystery at play too, as alien languages and arresting sci-fi gothic architecture lurk underground, waiting to emerge and reveal their secrets. It’s worth noting that Hell is Us is striking throughout, no coincidence when you consider Jacques-Belletête was an art director of both Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided – two games that have stood the test of time incredibly well from a stylistic perspective.

It’s this willingness to just get a bit weird that makes me so encouraged by what I’ve played of Hell is Us. Its 90s setting and appropriate lack of modern technology is not only a vehicle to encourage genuine exploration, but also feels like a throwback to a decade where games held your hand a little more loosely. I, for one, welcome it, and look forward to seeing where Hell is Us leads me to next.

Simon Cardy is also up for wallowing in bleakness. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

Tekken development chief Katsuhiro Harada revealed he tried and failed to have Colonel Sanders added to the fighting game as a guest character.

“A long time ago, I wanted to have Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken fight,” Harada told The Gamer. “So, I asked to use Colonel Sanders and go to the head office in Japan.”

Unfortunately, Harada’s pitch was turned down with a “bad look.” Since then, Colonel Sanders actually did appear in a video game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator, a dating sim commissioned by KFC and released for free on Steam on September 24, 2019 as a bizarre promo for the fast food chain.

“[Harada] went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and tried to get Colonel Sanders,” game designer Michael Murray added. “They weren’t very open to the idea.

“[Colonel Sanders] appeared in games after that. So maybe it was just him fighting against someone [that] was posing a problem for them. But it just goes to show how difficult these types of discussions are.”

So, no Colonel Sanders. But what about that Waffle House stage Tekken fans are desperate for? “It’s not something that we can accomplish on our own,” Harada said, pointing to the need for Waffle House’s unlikely approval for such a DLC.

Still, Tekken 8 fans do have the game’s third DLC character, Heihachi Mishima, to look forward to. The once-dead fighting veteran joins the roster as part of the upcoming free story expansion for Tekken 8, titled Unforgotten Echoes.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.