Square-Enix thrills old-school fans with ‘Final Fantasy XV’ and ‘Kingdom Hearts III’ on PS4

By Anthony John Agnello Published May 29, 2014

final fantasy versus xiii — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Finally, these many years later, Square-Enix is releasing Final Fantasy Versus XIII. That’s not exactly true, though. The PlayStation 3 exclusive action role-playing game, first announced alongside Final Fantasy XIII all the way back in 2006, is no longer the science fiction, urban fantasy it was. Far from it. Square-Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura surprised long-suffering fans during Sony’s PlayStation press conference at E3 2013 with a massive reveal that the game is, as was rumored, actually Final Fantasy XV.

In a wild gameplay trailer that saw lead character Noctis work his way through a crumbling building, fighting masked, sword-wielding soldiers and flying monsters, Square confirmed that it would continue the series on PlayStation 4 as Final Fantasy XV. This was actually the first major gameplay trailer released of the game in some three years, and the first ever officially shown to the public. It’s no surprise that after seven years of reportedly tortured development, the game has become a PlayStation 4 title rather than another game for the aging PlayStation 3.

More surprising, though, was the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3. It’s also been seven years since the last major Kingdom Hearts game, with the beautifully strange Kingdom Hearts 2 on PlayStation 2. Sony showed only the briefest trailer of a teenage Sora battling Heartless enemies known from the series and ended with the statement that the game is “now in development.” Meaning it’s far from actually coming out any time soon. Still, after nearly five handheld releases in the series, it’s hugely exciting to see Kingdom Hearts 3.

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Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

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Yesterday's Wordle answer
Let's start by first reminding ourselves of yesterday's Wordle answer for those new to the game or who don't play it daily, which was "ORDER." So we can say that the Wordle answer today definitely isn't that. Now, with that in mind, perhaps take another stab at it using one of these Wordle starting words and circle back if you have no luck.
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Today’s Wordle includes the letter D.
Today’s Wordle uses two vowels.
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