Astro Bot may have had more cameos than you realize in PlayStation games, but there’s one game that’s conspicuously absent: Final Fantasy 7 .
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Final Fantasy 7 is the essence of PS1 games, right? I mean, it’s the second best-selling game on the platform overall, behind Gran Turismo (another classic, but even with sales like that, I doubt most people will be looking back at the PS1 think of it immediately). Although the game was extremely popular at the time and held an important place in PlayStation’s history, neither hot boy Cloud Strife nor any other Final Fantasy or Square Enix characters as a whole were included in Team Asobi of Astro Bot. It’s an odd omission that you can only assume is a licensing issue, but studio head Nicolas Doucet didn’t have much to say on the matter.
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In an interview with Game File (paywall, via GamesRadar), Doucet hinted that the team was considering a cameo for Cloud in Astro Bot, but it was never approved by developer Square Enix. “It’s hard to comment on that,” Doucet said. “We respect each publisher’s choice very much.” It’s an absolute shame that Cloud didn’t make an appearance, because I would also have liked Kingdom Hearts’ Sora to show up somewhere, especially considering he’s all King of Cameos – Although I wouldn’t be surprised, even if Square Enix agrees, Disney might have some hiccups somewhere.
At the very least, Astro Bot will get more cameos sometime this year, including one from Stellar Blade and another from the de facto online game of the year, Helldivers 2. These will be completely free, as part of 10 new rescue missions, as well as five new speedrun levels.
