Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 and Harvestella are leading a rush of Fall games from Square Enix

Due to pandemic production issues — and potentially a gradual shift to more sustainable labor practices — the video game industry is in a product drought. After a barren summer, we’re faced with a lean release schedule in the fall and towards the end of the year, with few of the big titles and platform exclusives that typically grace the season. Late 2022 looks to be a quiet time for video games.

But no one told Square Enix.

The venerable Japanese publisher has a stacked release schedule. Between mid-September and mid-December, no less than nine games will be released – and even 12 if you count the PC version triangle strategythe life is strange Arcadia Bay Collection on Switch and the weird mobile compendium remake thing Final Fantasy 7 Forever Crisiswhich is scheduled to go into beta testing later this year.

There aren’t any massive releases in this lineup, but there are some remakes and reissues, as well as some smaller spinoffs and genre experiments. But you couldn’t call it modest either; There’s ambition and breadth here, and a daunting, exhausting length – most of these games offer some sort of variation on a JRPG template, and aren’t afraid of slow builds or sprawling runtimes.

Together, the games paint the picture of a publisher abandoning its attempt to be a global monolith after selling its Western studios and products like Deus Ex and Tomb Raider to Embracer Group, and turning to its Japanese identity in Wave of Anime -Popularity and a surge of JRPG content on Switch and Steam. Not long ago, many of these games wouldn’t have made it to the west at all, let alone released worldwide.

At a recent event in London, decked out with artificial cherry trees and a counter dispensing Japanese snacks, Square Enix made this lineup available to play with, with a few exceptions: a deep-cut remaster of Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song and a highly anticipated remake of a classic tactical RPG, Tactical Ogre: Reborn. While JRPGs are uniquely unsuitable for testing in half-hour demos on a show floor, I’ve tried most of them. I found that.

The DioField Chronicle

Image: Lancarse/Square Enix

Perhaps the most interesting genre experiment Square Enix had to show, The DioField Chronicle takes the traditional tactical RPG format using the example of Tactic Ogre and removes the movement grid and turn-based action, leaving a game that plays more like a single player League of Legends or a leaner, hero-centric real-time strategy game. It’s busy in a good way, but the storytelling is serious and the mission hub seems to have been done on a tight budget. I took a closer look at it in the demo last month.

The DioField Chronicle is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Valkyrie Elysium

Image: Soleil/Square Enix

Probably the most entertaining game in demo form, Valkyrie Elysium is a loose follow-up to the Valkyrie Profile series – loose because it twists the Norse mythology-inspired yarn from a hybrid platform RPG into an action RPG with a clear emphasis on fluid Bayonetta-style action. The name of the game is to keep your Valkyrie’s combo strings going while you summon einherjar – spirits of dead warriors awaiting Ragnarok – to aid you and prey on enemies’ elemental weaknesses. It’s a sparse production filled with empty landscapes, but it plays well where it counts.

Valkyrie Elysium will be released on September 29th on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, followed by a Windows PC version on November 11th.

Nier: Automata – The End of YoRHa Edition

Image: PlatinumGames/Square Enix

Undoubtedly the best game in this spate of releases, but also the most well-known quantity, is this Switch release of Yoko Taro and Platinum’s cult hit of 2017. It’s already a pleasure to have the game in portable form, and this edition leans in with it exclusive costumes and a complete approach to content to the game’s fan base.

Nier: Automata – The End of YoRHa Edition Coming to Nintendo Switch on October 6th.

Starry Ocean: The Divine Power

Image: Tri-Ace/Square Enix

Less a reboot than Valkyrie Elysium, the sixth Star Ocean game, exists on a continuum with all of its predecessors – and shares the same developer, Tri-Ace. It continues the sci-fi RPG series’ steady descent into action territory, with large, open environments to explore and plenty of heights to boot. There’s one gimmick, and a pretty good one at that: DUMA, a hovering droid that aids all four party members by adding an aerial dimension to both exploration and combat. “Blindside” surprise attacks and DUMA-powered Vanguard attacks add an intriguing emphasis on positioning to combat. The game is good enough too, but don’t look too closely at the PS3-era stationary faces and don’t listen too closely to the nonsensical dialogue (“It’s just semimania!”)

Starry Ocean: The Divine Power will be released on October 27th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

During harvest

Image: Square Enix

Different than the subtle mix of styles of something like that The DioField Chronicle, During harvest takes Frankenstein’s monster approach to genre mashup: what if we just screwed those two things together? During harvest is a farming sim at home and an action role-playing game abroad, with the two styles intertwined in obvious but satisfying ways (go to monster-infested fields to farm materials, to craft equipment for your farm, and such further.) Visually, it’s surprisingly lush, and narratively, it’s surprisingly dense. in the During harvest‘s World, the natural cycle of the four seasons is broken by a time of death known as the Quietus, caused by dust from the Seaslight, a huge, frond-tipped crystal that dominates the landscape. Somehow, artificial beings called Omen are also involved. The protagonist is an amnesiac who is caught in the middle.

During harvest doesn’t seem like a very sophisticated example of both genres, but it just works – the two flavors go together like salt and caramel. Standing out from the current wave of farming sims seems like a good bet.

During harvest will be released on November 4th on Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.

Dragon Quest Treasures

Image: Tose/Square Enix

I’m a little hesitant to pass judgment on a short demo of a lightweight JRPG that’s obviously trying hard to introduce itself to young gamers – but is slow Dragon Quest Treasures doesn’t seem to conform to the standard of Dragon quest 11 (to which it is said to be a prequel, about Erik and Mia’s childhood) or very charming Dragon Quest Builder and its continuation. Developed by outsourcing specialists Tose, it feels like a leaden and unappealing attempt to weave a colorful treasure-hunting adventure for all ages from the fringes of Dragon Quest lore. It suffers from the worst examples of symptoms that afflicted all games here to varying degrees: copious amounts of explanatory text, jarring transitions between story and gameplay, and a stuttering lack of momentum. Maybe it will get better later?

Dragon Quest Treasures Coming to Nintendo Switch on December 9th.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion

Image: Tose/Square Enix

With its Final Fantasy branding and relatively generous budget judging by its elegant presentation, this is probably Square Enix’s biggest bet this season. But it’s also one of the strangest. As a remake of a 2007 PlayStation Portable game – a prequel to Final Fantasy 7 from the perspective of a SOLDIER agent – it seals its humble origins with slick graphics, handsome character models and full voice acting. But structurally it cannot obscure these origins at all. It’s still a tight, scripted action RPG set in tightly constrained environments; Every time you enter combat, there’s a fade and a jump into a battle arena, and the pre-rendered cutscenes are noticeably lo-fi. It’s very outdated in that regard. But in the context of 2007, the combat itself was ahead of its time – at least in the Final Fantasy series, in the way it gives the player instant control over so many iconic spells and abilities in a free-flowing and well-sorted game action game. It’s Final Fantasy’s past and future in one contradictory package.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion will be released on December 13th on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Such an extraordinary accumulation of publications from one publisher could only be a planning mishap. It could be a publisher reaffirming and redefining its identity after selling its western arm. Or, under the same circumstances, it could be evidence that Square Enix is ​​padding its global schedule with products that would once have been niche products only for Japan now that it has nothing else to offer.

None of this is as momentous for the future of Square Enix as big releases in 2023 That prophesied and Final Fantasy 16 will be. But it shows a publisher doing something that many of its competitors, particularly Western competitors, are currently not doing. Re-issuing and remastering past hits to keep brands alive isn’t uncommon, but making so many small bets – as opposed to one or two big ones – certainly is. Square Enix allocates modest budgets to both external and internal development teams for a variety of different purposes, such as: for experimentation and creating original new properties (During harvest and DioField), brand extension (Dragon Quest Treasures), maintenance of long-running mid-tier series (starry ocean) or revive dormant (Valkyrie Elysium).

It’s no surprise that the original experiments here are the most immersive games out of the box, but the overall picture is that of a publisher willing to keep small but passionate fan bases entertained. The lesson learned from the slow success of Capcom’s Monster Hunter and Sega’s Like a Dragon (aka Yakuza) is that it can pay off well in the long run. And in the short term? Thanks to Square Enix, at least we have something to play with this winter.