The Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Livestream will be coming up in just a few more hours. Here are our top 5 predictions on what announcements will be made in the Final Fantasy VII 25th Anniversary Special Livestream.
But before that…
Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Livestream: How to Watch, What Time, And Where
The Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Livestream will be a short, ten-minute live stream that Square Enix promises will have a lot of announcements for the sub-series. The show will start at 3 PM PDT / 6 PM EDT / 11 PM BST on June 16, 2022, which is just three hours away at the time of this writing. You can find the live streams and watch them broadcasted on Square Enix's official YouTube and Twitch channels.
Of course, if you miss the live show, you'd still be able to watch the VOD on the same channels. And now, for our predicted announcements…
#5 FF7 Remake Part 2
Let's get this out of the way. The first FF7 Remake was first revealed in 2015, before getting released five years later in 2020. Two years later, the time is ripe for the Part 2 that has eluded us for the past few years – a Part 2 that at the time of the first game's release, we didn't know was coming. FF7 Remake Part 2 should be announced in this anniversary showcase – or at least Square Enix should give us updates on how the development is going.
Now, for those who aren't aware of there being a second part in the FF7 Remake, we would like to apologize for spoiling it for you. Now that you know, you'd probably wonder why there's even a second part when Square Enix could surely have released the entire game in just one drop. If you still haven't played the remake, then this is your final chance to turn back. Well, here goes: the Remake isn't an actual Remake – instead, it's a reboot of the original Final Fantasy 7 story, with some reality-bending plot elements preventing the Remake from taking the same path as the original PSOne game took. This resulted in FF7 Remake Part One retracing the first one-third of the original FF7 plot mostly unchanged, but at the end of it, the rest of the original FF7 plot has been thrown out of the window.
While the FF7 Remake Part 1 completely divided the fans on the direction that Square Enix has taken for it, there's no denying that FF7 Remake was a damn good game, gameplay, graphics, and overall experience-wise. While many fans would have been too hurt with what Square Enix did to their sweet FF7 to even try out Part 2, we're sure that it will still perform strongly in the market, and Square Enix would be remiss in skipping FF7 Remake Part 2 in their announcements today.
#4 FF7 Remake Part 1 DLC
In case the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 game won't be ready yet, we're hoping that Square Enix could still release more downloadable content for FF7 Remake Part 1. The first one was INTERmission, a substory that introduced Yuffie in the first game and brought FF7 Remake to the PS5. We still have some FF7 characters who haven't shown up in the Remake, like Red XIII and Vincent Valentine. With FF7 Remake Part 2 now really diverging away from the game's original plot, introducing these familiar faces much earlier in the game's timeline shouldn't be an impossibility anymore.
But the DLC doesn't even have to be any new campaign or story content that will introduce new playable characters. It could instead be new game modes, new difficulties, new Condor maps, new weapons, material, and summons, or even an entire classic mode where you get to play FF7 Remake but with random encounters and the classic turn-based RPG gameplay of the original. The point is Square Enix still has a lot of things they can do with Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 1 if they're not yet ready to release Part 2.
#3 FF7R on Xbox Game Pass
Final Fantasy 7 Remake isn't on Steam yet, and its PC release has been marred by issues. With the way how Microsoft is doing business nowadays, however, it won't be surprising if Final Fantasy 7 Remake finds its way on the Xbox Series X. FF7 Remake on the Xbox Game Pass would be a big story, and that could literally happen alongside a Steam release. Until now, the game is only available on PC on the Epic Games Store, and if the game is ever coming to Steam, now's the time to make the announcement, and get it on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, too.
#2 Final Fantasy 7 Netflix Series
There have been a lot of rumors pointing towards Square Enix and Netflix working together to bring Final Fantasy 7 to life with a new animated series. These rumors were never substantiated, but fans are still clinging to that hope. Maybe we can watch the entire original Final Fantasy 7 story, unbastardized with the same graphics as the game, but as an animated series instead? That would be a nice way to give back to the players who felt betrayed by the curveball Square Enix gave them with FF7 Remake's new story. It's going to be a nice gesture, showing fans what could have been had Square Enix stayed true to Final Fantasy 7's story in the Remake.
#1 Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus Remakes
Finally, we're very hopeful that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII will show up in the live stream later. Both games have been largely lost in time now – games that were great but are a pain to return to today. Dirge of Cerberus is a middling title that was fun but largely unessential, which made it easy to pass up in discussions for remakes and remasters. It's also never been featured much as a PS2 title in PlayStation's back catalog, making revisiting the title difficult.
Crisis Core, on the other hand, is more essential in understanding Final Fantasy 7's context than Dirge of Cerberus. Some fans would even convince you that playing Crisis Core is a requirement in understanding how Sephiroth, Cloud, and the SOLDIER came to be the way they were in the main game. Unfortunately, this PlayStation Portable exclusive never saw a re-release on other platforms since its original release. Not a lot of people got to play this game, and even more, people don't know about it. Now would be the perfect time for Square Enix to re-introduce these two games.
However, given how Final Fantasy 7 Remake drastically changed the game's story, plot, and almost everything else, it might be hard for either Crisis Core or Dirge of Cerberus to fit in and connect with the current version of the game. Thus, there's a big dilemma on whether the Remakes will also reboot their stories to better fit the narrative of the new Final Fantasy 7 timeline, or if, this time around, Square Enix decides to stick with both games' original stories, disregarding the changes that Remake introduced. Either way, an announcement that either Crisis Core or Dirge of Cerberus are coming to the PlayStation 5 with even just a Remaster would be much appreciated by fans.
And that's our Top 5 Predictions for the Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Livestream. What are you expecting to see in the live stream later? Do you agree with our predictions? What kind of content would you like to see from the 10-minute live stream? Whatever gets revealed later, be sure to check out ClutchPoints Gaming to see the latest gaming news, including a summary of the Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Livestream.