The cameos of Astro Bot are probably the biggest talking point of Team Asobi’s game. There are more Sony games represented than you probably thought existed, but also third-party titles well known to the public. However, despite the wide popularity of Square Enix and its saga Final Fantasywhose first installment on PlayStation was Final Fantasy VIIthere are no cameos from Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Sephiroth, Squall, Zidane, or whoever from that RPG multiverse in Astro Bot. Not even with what FF7 Remake y FF7 Rebirth are exclusive to PlayStation on consoles.
The only reason this could happen is because of the licensing of the characters, which should not be economical. The director of the study Astro BotNicolas Doucet, doesn’t have much to say about it either. Via GamesRadarDoucet reportedly hinted that the team was considering a possible Cloud cameo in Astro Botbut never received approval from developer Square Enix.
“It’s hard to comment on that.”Doucet said. «We really respect the choice of each studio».
There’s not much to comment on but it’s perfectly understandable. If Square Enix refused to lend its characters it is within its rights. This not only affected the inclusion of Final Fantasybut that of Kingdom Hearts –with Disney on top–, Dragon Quest, Mana, Parasite Eve and many other titles from the RPG giant. There were also planned Sweet Tooth cameos from Twisted Metal and Fat Princess from the franchise of the same name.
At least, Astro Bot will have two more cameos at some point this year, including one from Stellar Blade and another from the online game of the year, Helldivers 2. These will be completely free and will come as part of 10 new rescue missions, along with five new ‘speedrun’ levels.
