FF Union 254: The Importance of World Building

It's a new year and it promises to be a busy one for the Final Fantasy franchise! Alongside discussing the various games that should either be released this year, or will have more information revealed (e.g. Final Fantasy XVI), Lauren and Darryl talk about the current state of Final Fantasy and Square Enix in general as they look forward to the year ahead. There's also a bittersweet announcement at the end of the show.

The Legacy of the Crystal has been a huge undertaking and in this episode, Darryl tells all! That means there's a huge apology and explanation about the recent podcast absences, a long history about how the book came to be and a discussion about how the campaign has gone so far! Thank you all for your support

With a State of Play and two release dates announced, it's been a busy few weeks for Square Enix! Throughout this episode we discuss what the no show for Final Fantasy XVI at the State of Play might mean for delivering on their promise to show the game in 2021 and a 2022 release, as well as talking about the release dates for Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier!

It's been almost five years since World of Final Fantasy released and we thought it'd be nice to talk about the impact of the game, as well as what the future might hold! Or at least, that was the plan, because this show has perhaps the longest introduction in the last few years, as Lauren and Darryl talk a lot about the impact of digital vs physical copies of games and some of the wider issues affecting the video games industry as a whole at the moment.

Tokyo Game Show 2021 has come and gone and there was a load of stuff to talk about following the press conference and subsequent live streams. Throughout this episode discussions revolve around all of the games shown off during the conference (Triangle Strategy, Dungeon Encounters, Voice of Cards, etc.) and there's a more detailed talk about Stranger of Paradise and general thoughts about Square Enix's output in recent times, especially from the Western arm of the business.

Not only was there a huge speculative leak that happened in recent times, but the Tokyo Game Show is just around the corner! It makes for an action-packed episode as we discuss not only the potential of a Final Fantasy IX Remake and Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, but also the various games that could end up being shown at the Tokyo Game Show, including Stranger of Paradise and The First Soldier.

It's now been five years since Kingsglaive was released, so we wanted to reminisce about going to the UK premiere! Housed within this particular episode are conversations about the location, what it was like to talk with some of the actors and production staff and some general thoughts about the movie itself!

World building has been a prominent focus over the years in Final Fantasy games and this episode we discuss some of our favourite aspects of the world we've seen.

Final Fantasy XII rounded out the PS2 era after numerous delays... but what would have happened if the delays weren't there? That's our main topic of discussion today, as we discuss how the franchise might have changed if Final Fantasy XII had released when it was originally planned to, as well as running through the development philosophies Sakaguchi instilled and how they changed after his departure.