Image used with permission by copyright holderSquare Enix has announced that A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV will be made available for free via the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Store on March 1. The game was previously released as a pre-order bonus for
Final Fantasy XV
when the game launched in November 2016.
A King’s Tale is a spin-off that fleshes out the backstory of King Regis, the father of
Final Fantasy XV
protagonist Noctis. The game eschews the franchise’s traditional role-playing mechanics for side-scrolling beat-’em-up gameplay inspired by classic titles from the 1980s and 1990s.
The game using a framing narrative that sees King Regis telling his son bedtime stories about his adventures with familiar characters like Cid, Weskham, and Clarus. The game is said to last a little less than an hour for most players, which is on the short side, but befitting of its earlier status as a pre-order bonus.
However, from March 1, anyone interested in learning a bit more about King Regis will be able to download A King’s Tale for free. The game will be available whether or not you have purchased
in terms of gameplay, it seems that Square Enix is hoping that releasing it for free will tempt players into trying out the main game. It’s a teaser for the main plot — as well as a treat for beat-’em-up fans who feel underserved by the current console generation.
Square Enix certainly went all out on
Final Fantasy XV
, even discounting the fact that the game spent ten years in development. As well as A King’s Tale, the game was accompanied by a web series entitled Brotherhood, a feature-length movie called Kingsglaive, and the as-yet-unreleased virtual reality experience that’s in production for
Just like in Remake, you only have one valuable armor slot per character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Deciding on what you want to put there is more complicated than you think, since each piece of armor has multiple factors that determine how effective it will be, and you may want to prioritize different things for different characters. New armor will become available as you go deeper into the world of Gaia, and you can even make some yourself with the new Transmutation system, so comparing and contrasting them all can be a major chore. We get it, you're just a merc looking to get the job done, so let us worry about figuring out the best armors so you can just put them on and get back to the action.
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth have three major factors to consider when you're equipping some: the physical defense rating, magic defense rating, and Materia slots. The best armor will either focus heavily on one of these or have a strong balance of them all. Here are our picks.
Garm Bangle
The Garm Bangle is an amazing piece of physical-focused armor that becomes available once you hit the Nibel region. It has a fantastic 59 rating for regular defense, aplus a decent 28 for magic defense to keep you from being totally vulnerable to spells. Offensively, it has two pairs of linked Materia slots plus a spare, so you can still make plenty of killer magic combos for your mages.
Hades Armlet
Whatever you do, don’t skip Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s card minigame
If you're getting ready to start your Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adventure, let me offer you fair warning: it is a long game. If you're planning to do every sidequest, minigame, and Chadley combat battle, you'll be wandering around Gaia for 100 hours. That's not an exaggeration; I hit credits in 73 hours and I still had a massive checklist of side content to complete.
Considering that length, you'll want to prioritize the best content if you want to get through the story in a timely matter. Some minigames are safe to skip, but there's one you absolutely should not sleep on: Queen's Blood. Not only is it a surprisingly deep deck-builder, but it contains a secret story all its own that makes it Rebirth's absolute best minigame.
All hail the queen
Introduced early in Rebirth's story, Queen's Blood is an optional card game that appears all over the world. It's essentially Rebirth's Gwent equivalent, giving players an in-world deck-building game to obsess over. That's become a bit of a cliché in modern open-world games, but Queen's Blood is the best take on the idea I've ever seen.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preload guide: release time, file size, and preorder
It's time to start sharpening your buster swords and slotting your Materia because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is right around the corner. This second chapter in the remake trilogy is one of the most anticipated games of 2024, so fans are no doubt eager to rejoin Cloud and Avalanche as they step out of Midgar to continue the hunt for Sephiroth.
For an adventure this big, you need to be ready the moment the game becomes available so you don't waste any time making space on your PS5 or get stuck waiting for a massive download when you could be playing. While Chadly is away, we will give you all the necessary data on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's preload information.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release time
