Skip to main content

Foamstars is Square Enix’s spin on Splatoon

Square Enix is joining the competitive multiplayer scene with a new game that somehow gives vibes of SplatoonPersona, and Overwatch all at the same time. The fresh face is called Foamstars, and from what we’ve been shown so far, it’s an original take on third-person shooters with a whole lot of colorful foam and poppy style.

Foamstars - Reveal Trailer | PlayStation Showcase 2023

Foamstars was revealed at today’s PlayStation Showcase with a gameplay launch trailer. While not completely transparent on how the game plays, this initial trailer shows that it’s a hero shooter mixed with the groundwork set by Splatoon. However, this one is a lot more anime than the squid kids could ever hope to be.

Players seem to battle it out with foamy bubbles, champagne bottles, Persona-like pet creatures, and more in a fight to control the field. Controlling the field with your bubbles seems to allow you and your team to traverse in faster ways than without that control, similar to Splatoon. This traversal includes surfing across bubbles, gliding on them, and even simply running atop them.

While Foamstars is a brand new property from Square Enix’s vault, the title isn’t one that came out of thin air. Square Enix was shown to have trademarked the title as far back as January 2023 in an earlier leak.

We’re not sure when we’ll be able to see if this game is something special or just a bubble waiting to be burst, as the trailer ended with no launch date or release window.

Editors' Recommendations

DeAngelo Epps
Former Digital Trends Contributor
De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…
5 Square Enix RPGs that need to make a Super Mario RPG-style comeback
Mario. Peach, Mallow, Bowser, and Geno find one of the Seven Stars in Super Mario RPG.

This month has been an exciting one for fans of old-school Square Enix role-playing games, as two of its classic RPGs got impressive remakes. On November 2, Gemdrops and Square Enix's Star Ocean: The Second Story R gave the PS1 cult classic the HD-2D treatment, while ArtePiazza and Nintendo's remake of Square's SNES classic Super Mario RPG dropped on November 17. As both games have rarely been rereleased, it's great to see each getting the drastic modern visual overhauls they deserved.

These are far from the only retro Square Enix RPGs that deserve this treatment, though. Over the past couple of years, Square Enix has shown some love to more obscure classics like Live A Live, The World Ends With You, and Valkyrie Profile. Yet plenty of other games and series are still locked to old platforms. At the very least, they deserve to be rereleased via something like the PS Plus Game Catalog's classic library. If this remake trend is going to continue, these five games should be next in line for the Super Mario RPG and Star Ocean: The Second Story treatment.
Chrono Trigger

Read more
Square Enix commits to release more games on Xbox, starting with Final Fantasy XIV
A screenshot of Final Fantasy XIV running on Xbox.

During Final Fantasy XIV's FanFest today, Square Enix not only confirmed that its popular MMO would finally come to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in spring 2024, but that it will commit to bringing more of its games to Xbox going forward.

Over the past decade, Square Enix tended to partner with PlayStation a lot more than Xbox. In 2023 alone, Final Fantasy XVI launched as a PS5 exclusive, while other Square Enix games, like Octopath Traveler 2 and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, avoided launching on Xbox entirely. That all seems to be changing, though.
Following a reveal at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas today that the Dawntrail expansion is coming in summer 2024, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu came out on stage to discuss Square Enix's future with Xbox.
First, we learned that Final Fantasy XIV itself is finally coming to Xbox Series X/S with faster loading and 4K support. An open beta test will be held alongside the launch of Patch 6.5x, while a full release is planned for spring 2024.
This partnership is not just for one game, though. "Starting with today's announcement and whenever possible, we are planning to bring our games to Xbox for players to enjoy," Kiryu said while on stage, according to X account Nova Crystallis. This sentiment is reflected in an Xbox Wire post about the port, where Square Enix PR director Luke Karmali states that "this is just the beginning of our journey together."
Final Fantasy XIV is available now for PC, Mac, PS4, and PS5. It comes to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in spring 2024.

Read more
Follow up Final Fantasy XVI with these 6 Square Enix game deals this Prime Day
Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth stand back to back in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion.

Square Enix is a very busy company. The publisher has spent the last few years churning out everything from Final Fantasy games to completely new franchises. That was especially true in 2022 and it’s already carried over into 2023 thanks to releases like Final Fantasy XVI, Forspoken, and Octopath Traveler 2. Even diehard fans of the publisher’s output may not have gotten around to everything it released in the last 12 months.

If you’re in that boat, I’ve got some good news. A major chunk of Square Enix’s recent game catalog is currently on sale for Prime Day. That includes a wide selection of titles from The Diofield Chronicle to Star Ocean: The Divine Force. Not only that, but the sale even includes discounts on most of the company’s 2023 games, including the best RPG of the year.

Read more