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Final Fantasy IV represented a series of firsts for the franchise. Not only was it the first Final Fantasy game developed for the Snes/Super Famicom, but it introduced the iconic Active Time Battle (Atb) system to the series. It turns out those events were related, but the creation and refinement of the Atb system may have not gone down exactly how you think it did.

For those unfamiliar with the Atb system, traditional Jrpg mechanics dictate that every character, be they a controllable party member or an enemy, takes turns during battle. In early Final Fantasy games, the heroes go first, followed by the monsters. But in Final Fantasy IV’s Atb system, every character is governed by a meter that fills up. Once it’s full, they can fulfill a variety of actions.

However, the game doesn’t pause while players are deciding what move their characters should make.

Quick Links Sneaky Stealth Gameplay Villains and Vision Cones The Bosses Never Stay In One Place Only One Way Out and One Way Through

Atari’s Haunted House was an historic game of many firsts, and it’s receiving a serious facelift. Originally released in 1982, it served as the low-rez predecessor of the survival horror genre, featuring a large (at least for the time) navigable mansion map, and a vulnerable pair of spooky eyes as the avatar, and the looming threat of ghosts, bats, spiders, and even just the darkness of an unlit room.

Since then, there have been a few returns to the Haunted House well, such as an Xbox Live remake back in 2010. Now, in 2023, Brazilian indie outfit Orbit Studio is taking on the newest incarnation of Atari’s classic, hoping to deliver a fresh new take on the modern action roguelite.

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Bloodless attempts the impossible: designing a samurai game with no actual swordplay. Indie studio Point’N’Sheep’s upcoming action-adventure debut features an unusual combat system which avoids direct violence and murder, with its hero disarming and intimidating the opponents that stand in her way on a melancholic return to her home village.

Bloodless took home top prize for Best Brazilian Game at this year’s Brazilian International Games Festival, wowing the judges with its confidently strange approach to action and idiosyncratic tone. Point’N’Sheep has spent approximately four years developing their creative experiment, which still manages to deliver plenty of action, despite its mechanics and themes. While we barely brushed against the story in our time with it, the game’s emotional texture and narrative emphasizes a philosophy of peace for central protagonist Tomoe, an elderly ronin returning to her hometown of Bakugawa laden with doubts after a lifetime spent causing bloodshed.

Quick Links Manga, Anime, Voice Acting...Then Games? Takashi Tokita exudes an energetic demeanor in person, clad in his Live A Live shirt and a simple blazer. Interestingly, game development was not the first profession he pursued fresh out of school, but his diverse background would become key to the variety of inspirations that would lead to Final Fantasy IV: Live A Live Returns to Life After Nearly Two Decades Japan's Character-First Emotional Storytelling

The world of console RPGs would indelibly transform back in 1991 with the release of Final Fantasy IV. While not Takashi Tokita's first work in the gaming industry, it would feature his first time in the lead designer chair, and marked a turning point in RPG narratives and the potential of video game storytelling, with Square signifying its position in the medium as tech-forward leaders in the Jrpg space ever since.

Now, 37 years later, Tokita remains ever-present in the space,...

I’m a big RPG fan now, but that wasn’t always the case. Super Mario RPG introduced me to the genre, but, like many people my age, Final Fantasy VII was the one that wowed me the most. After Final Fantasy VII, I was hungry for more, and Square’s next RPG was one that was surprisingly up my alley. Trading a traditional fantasy setting that usually comes with the genre for a Resident Evil-style bio-horror plot, Parasite Eve immediately grabbed me with its compelling setup and clever twist on the Ffvii battle system. Even now, 25 years after the initial Japanese release of Parasite Eve, I’m hard pressed to think of an RPG that feels as unique and striking as the PlayStation classic.

Parasite Eve is a sequel to the Japanese novel of the same name by novelist and pharmacologist Hideaki Sena. The game, produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi...

More than two decades have passed since the release of Chrono Cross, and a third mainline entry in the Chrono Trigger series was planned, but those plans fell apart in favor of online and mobile games. Square trademarked the name Chrono Break in 2001, and three Chrono series developers, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Masato Kato, and Takashi Tokita, were slated to work on the project. It seems a combination of different priorities, internal company politics, and bad timing, prevented the third Chrono game from ever going forward, though some Chrono Break concepts would later be incorporated into mobile RPGs by the former Chrono developers.

The 2022 release of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition brought the series back into the limelight, but outside of similar re-releases there have been no new Chrono titles announced since the Chrono Break project. Some Chrono developers worked on the 2002 Mmorpg Final Fantasy 11 instead of going forward with Chrono...

Matthew Byrd Oct 31, 2016

A new Final Fantasy Game from the director of Chrono Trigger has been teased by Square Enix...

While all Final Fantasy fans' eyes were focused on the game's rapidly approaching 15th installment, Square Enix stealthily sent out a tease regarding the franchise's mobile future. 

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Gematsu first spotted a recently launched subsection of the Square Enix Japanese website that contains the characters "FF_NEW" in the URL. This page currently displays "5 Days" in English while the Japanese text beneath that reads: "Final Fantasy is about characters filled with human appeal. About dramatic battles of anger and sadness. And more than anything, we should not forget that it is about fantasy.

There are few franchises out there with as beautifully ironic a title as ‘Final Fantasy‘.

Fourteen games in its main series, numerous spin-offs and side sequels, films, novellas and even an anime TV series… if anything the name is one weighted in an overwhelming desire to live on. Not that anyone’s complaining, of course. Because the simple fact is that, whichever way you look at it, there’s just something about this Role-Playing Wunderkind that the gaming community just can’t bear being without. To the table it consistently brings a sense of wonderment and epic scale (who’d have thought you’d need up to four discs to play one console game?), inspiring generation after generation of starry-eyed escapists and Cosplay enthusiasts in equal measure.

But, as with many a tale worth telling (and a great deal of Final Fantasy stories), the magic derives from humble beginnings…

It...