During today’s Nintendo Direct presentation, Square Enix made the inevitable announcement that a whole lot of Final Fantasy games are coming to Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, the publisher seems happy to keep sleeping on the best one—Final Fantasy VIII—like it’s a bed made of phoenix down.
The Final Fantasy games that are coming to Switch are as follows:
- Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD (available now!)
- World of Final Fantasy: Maxima (November 6)
- Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy (northern hemisphere winter / southern hemisphere spring)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition (2019)
- Final Fantasy VII (2019)
- Final Fantasy IX (2019)
- Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster (2019)
- Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (2019)
With the exception of Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, all those games are coming to Xbox One as well. Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon, World of Final Fantasy: Maxima, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles are also coming to PlayStation 4, and Maxima is heading to PC as well.
Those are all very good games, and we’ll be eagerly looking forward to playing them as soon as we can. But none of them are Final Fantasy VIII, a game that is particularly memorable for its romantic, philosophical storyline, it’s unique Junction system for character stats, and the introduction of one of the best-ever mini-games in Triple Triad. Final Fantasy VIII got an HD release on Steam some years back, alongside Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX. Square Enix used those versions as the basis for PlayStation 4 ports of VII and IX (and, presumably, the Switch and Xbox One versions), but hasn’t seen fit to give VIII the same treatment. It’s a travesty, is what it is.
Other good, non-Square Enix news to come out of the Nintendo Direct includes (deep breath):
- Luigi’s Mansion 3 (working title) for Switch (2019)
- Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch (working title) (2019)
- a new Yoshi game for Switch called Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019)
- a Switch port of Cities Skylines (available now!)
- a Switch port of Civilization VI (November 16)
- a new Game Freak RPG for Switch, with the working title of Town (2019)
- a new Katamari Damacy for Switch and PC, called Katamari Damacy Reroll (November 30)
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for Switch, which includes both New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U (January 11)
- Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle for Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC—includes Final Fight, Captain Commando, The King of Dragons, Knights of the Round, and Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors, and Battle Circuit (September 18 in North America / Europe / ANZ; September 20 in Japan)
- a Switch port of Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, which is the port that Ghostlight has been teasing for a while (this northern hemisphere fall / southern hemisphere spring)
- a November 2 release date for Diablo III: Eternal Collection on Switch
- Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn for 3DS (2019)
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey for 3DS (December 27 in Japan; January 11 in North America; January 25 in Europe/ANZ)
- a cloud-based Switch port of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but only in Japan
Any way you slice it, it’s a good time to be a Switch owner, and it’s nice to see that Nintendo isn’t letting 3DS die just yet, either.
Still, it’d be a better time to be a Switch owner if we got Final Fantasy VIII as well. Just sayin’.
