Tag Archives: Final Fantasy VII

Game News

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis Shuts Down in October — Red Crystal Sales Already Stopped

Leave a comment

Singapore’s Final Fantasy VII fans woke up to difficult news this morning: Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis will end service on 7 October 2026 at 14:00 SGT — and as of 10:00 AM SGT today (8 July), the sale of Red Crystals, the game’s premium currency, has already been permanently halted. Any Red Crystals already in your account remain spendable until the servers close.

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis gameplay showing Aerith, Barret and Red XIII battling the Scorpion Sentinel
Image courtesy of Square Enix

Shutdown Date and Key Timing for Singapore

The server closes on 6 October at 11:00 PM PDT, which translates to 7 October at 15:00 JST and 7 October at 14:00 SGT. Both the mobile versions (iOS and Android) and the Steam PC version shut down at the same time. Red Crystal sales were cut first — disabled on 7 July at 7:00 PM PDT (8 July, 10:00 AM SGT). No new paid options will be offered between now and closure. As confirmed in the official notice, existing Red Crystals can still be used on in-game content right up until the shutdown.

Before Crisis Story Chapters Will Still Drop Before the End

Not everything stops today. Square Enix confirmed that all remaining scheduled story content will be released before closure — including the final chapters of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, the spinoff told from the perspective of the Turks set before the events of the original game. Chapter 1, “The Turks’ Mission Begins,” was the most recently released instalment. If you have been following the Before Crisis narrative inside Ever Crisis, there is still reason to log in over the coming months.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- Chapter 1 — via スクウェア・エニックス (Square Enix) on YouTube (Japanese)
Cloud and Sephiroth face each other in Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis
Image courtesy of Square Enix

Two Years and Ten Months of FF7 — A Brief Look Back

Ever Crisis launched on iOS and Android in September 2023 and expanded to Steam in December 2023, running for roughly two years and ten months in total. The game offered something unusual for the mobile space: a visually polished, chapter-by-chapter retelling of the entire FF7 universe — pulling from the original 1997 game, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus and the Compilation films all in one free-to-play package.

In their shutdown notice, Square Enix cited difficulty maintaining the standard of service quality they aimed to deliver — a common reason given when live-service mobile titles close, though a painful one when the IP is as beloved as Final Fantasy VII across Southeast Asia.

Cloud Strife in action in Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis
Image courtesy of Square Enix

What to Do Before October 7 (SGT)

Red Crystal purchases are done — no more spending is possible. Any crystals you already own can still be used on weapons, costumes and event content until the servers close. The remaining Before Crisis chapters will continue to release, so keep an eye on the official Ever Crisis site for a content schedule. If you have been putting off finishing story chapters or pulling for a specific character weapon, the 7 October deadline at 14:00 SGT is the hard stop. There will be no extensions.

For more on the games and anime Singapore fans are playing right now, check out our Game News coverage.

News

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny — The English Novel Arrives January 2027

Leave a comment

Square Enix has confirmed an English-language edition of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny, the prose novel set in the world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The book is listed for release in January 2027 at a price of US$26.99, with pre-orders already open through major retailers.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny novel announcement graphic
Image courtesy of Square Enix

What Is Dear Destiny?

Dear Destiny is a companion novel to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, expanding on the events and characters of the game through prose fiction. The Japanese edition was published by Square Enix in 2025, and the English edition — translated for a global audience — is now confirmed for a Western release.

The novel gives readers a deeper look at the story that Rebirth begins to tell, including the perspectives of characters beyond Cloud’s immediate point of view. For fans who finished the game wanting more time in that world, Dear Destiny is the most direct continuation available in prose form.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny English novel cover art
Image courtesy of Square Enix

Tifa, Aerith, and the Cast of Rebirth

The novel draws on the full cast of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, with Tifa and Aerith among the characters given extended focus — fitting, given how central their relationship and individual journeys are to the game’s emotional core. The prose format allows the story to breathe in ways that a game’s pacing cannot always allow.

Tifa and Aerith from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Image courtesy of Square Enix

Price, Release Date, and Availability

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny is priced at US$26.99 and scheduled for release in January 2027. Pre-orders are available now through major book retailers. There is no confirmed Singapore retail distribution at this time — readers in the region may need to order internationally or through digital storefronts if an e-book edition becomes available.

For more gaming news and events in Singapore, check back on GameTrader regularly.

News

Tifa Joins Street Fighter 6: How the FF7 Crossover Happened

Leave a comment

It is the crossover the fighting-game community has joked about for years — and now it is real. At Summer Game Fest 2026, Capcom confirmed that Tifa Lockhart from the Final Fantasy VII Remake series is joining Street Fighter 6 as a guest fighter, headlining the game’s Year 4 DLC roster. She arrives in early 2027, and the developers behind both franchises say the deal was years in the making.

Street Fighter 6 — Year 4 Character Reveal Trailer feat. Tifa — via Street Fighter on YouTube

Tifa headlines the Street Fighter 6 Year 4 roster

Capcom announced the Year 4 line-up on 6 June 2026, alongside the launch of the new Character Pass. Four fighters are coming, and Tifa is the marquee name:

  • Yasmin — a brand-new fighter, releasing 3 August 2026
  • Arjun — a new challenger, arriving Autumn 2026
  • Tifa — the Final Fantasy VII Remake guest, landing early 2027
  • Bosch — the World Tour antagonist, closing the season in Spring 2027

In Street Fighter 6, Tifa is written as a member of the resistance group Avalanche and a master of Zangan-style martial arts who finds herself pulled into a new world. Her kit leans into the close-range striking she is famous for, blended with the unique special powers she carries over from her home game.

Street Fighter 6 Year 4 key visual featuring Tifa, Yasmin, Arjun and Bosch

Image courtesy of Capcom

“If it were to happen, it would be Tifa”

The most interesting part of the reveal is how long it was in the works. Speaking to Japanese outlet Denfaminicogamer (Japanese), Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama said discussions with Square Enix began roughly two and a half to three years ago — long before the public-facing stage moments fans saw at recent showcases.

According to Nakayama, when the idea of a Final Fantasy collaboration first came up, the choice of character was never really in doubt: “もし実現するなら、やはり『ティファ』でしょう” — “If it were to happen, it would certainly be Tifa.” Her hand-to-hand fighting style made her the obvious fit for a game built entirely around martial combat.

Nakayama added that the Street Fighter team worked closely with the Final Fantasy VII Remake creative side — including series figurehead Tetsuya Nomura — to keep Tifa authentic, saying they wanted to carry over the original’s most appealing and memorable elements “as much as possible” while rebuilding her as a genuine Street Fighter character.

Final Fantasy VII Remake series and Street Fighter 6 collaboration artwork

Image courtesy of Capcom / Square Enix

Materia, rebuilt as a Street Fighter system

This is not a straight cosmetic port. Japanese coverage from Famitsu (Japanese) confirms that Materia from Final Fantasy VII has been worked into a new battle system for Tifa. The developers also teased that a further mechanic “symbolic of Final Fantasy” will be implemented, though they declined to detail it at the reveal — a tantalising hint that her kit will feel distinct from anything currently on the Street Fighter 6 roster.

It is a notably ambitious approach for a guest fighter. Rather than dropping a Final Fantasy skin onto an existing moveset, Capcom is folding FF7’s signature progression idea into fighting-game mechanics — the kind of design swing that tends to define whether a crossover character is remembered fondly or quietly forgotten.

Why Square Enix finally said yes

Tifa has long been one of gaming’s most requested crossover guests, and Square Enix has historically been protective of her. At the reveal, Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi acknowledged that many other game IPs had asked for Tifa over the years, but that the studio had been reluctant to “give her away” because she is so beloved worldwide, as relayed in Square Enix’s explanation of Tifa’s inclusion.

What changed was timing and fit: with the Final Fantasy VII Remake series highly active and a new entry on the horizon, and with Tifa’s martial-arts identity matching Street Fighter 6 so neatly, both sides felt the moment was finally right. For Tekken fans who had spent years imagining Tifa in Bandai Namco’s fighter, it is Capcom that ultimately landed the deal.

Street Fighter 6 Year 4 Character Pass details

Image courtesy of Capcom

What this means for Singapore gamers

Street Fighter 6 remains one of the most-played fighters in Singapore’s local FGC scene, with a steady stream of community tournaments and ranked grinders across PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. A guest as recognisable as Tifa is the kind of mainstream draw that pulls lapsed players and Final Fantasy fans back to the lobbies — and gives the local competitive community a fresh character to theorycraft well into 2027.

The Year 4 Character Pass and Ultimate Pass are on sale now, automatically unlocking each fighter as they release, starting with Yasmin on 3 August 2026. If you have been holding off on jumping back in, the run-up to Tifa’s early-2027 launch — likely timed near the next chapter of the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga — is as good a reason as any to dust off your stick. We will update this post as Capcom reveals more of Tifa’s “symbolic” Final Fantasy mechanic.

For more, check out our latest gaming news and upcoming events.

Guides, News

Final Fantasy VII Revelation: Every New Detail So Far

Leave a comment

The wait for the finale is almost over. Final Fantasy VII Revelation — the third and final chapter of Square Enix’s Remake trilogy — is locked in for a worldwide launch in Spring 2027, and director Naoki Hamaguchi has been peeling back the curtain on what to expect. Between the Summer Game Fest reveal and a deep-dive interview with Japanese outlet Denfaminicogamer, we now have a much clearer picture of how Cloud and company close out 30 years of FF7 storytelling. Here’s everything new we’ve learned.

FINAL FANTASY VII REVELATION — Reveal Trailer, via FINAL FANTASY on YouTube

What is Final Fantasy VII Revelation?

Revelation is the conclusion to the trilogy that began with 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and continued with 2024’s Rebirth. Hamaguchi explained that the “Revelation” title is meant to signal that “things previously concealed are being revealed” — a direct nod to the questions and theories the first two games left dangling. After Remake and Rebirth teased an altered timeline, this is the entry that’s supposed to pay it all off.

Encouragingly for anyone burned by long FF7 waits, Hamaguchi says the game is already fully playable from start to finish and now sits in its final balancing phase. He claims to have personally played through the whole thing around 40 times — a good sign the Spring 2027 window is solid rather than aspirational.

A colossal Weapon rises from the sea beside an industrial platform in Final Fantasy VII Revelation
Image courtesy of Square Enix

The Highwind and a world without boundaries

The headline feature is freedom. The iconic airship Highwind is obtainable early in the game, and instead of touching down at fixed landing spots, players drop in anywhere via parachute, seamlessly transitioning from sky to ground. You can fast-travel back up to the Highwind or return to on-foot exploration at will, and the ship’s interior even updates dynamically as the story progresses.

Every region from Rebirth returns, but the landscape has been reshaped — the awakening Weapons have caused geological upheaval, so familiar areas now look and play differently. Hamaguchi describes the design as an “ultra side-quest” structure: you can reach a lot of the map early, but the wildly varying difficulty of each area nudges you toward your own non-linear path rather than a single critical line.

Meet Pico, your one and only Chocobo

Rather than the stable of region-specific Chocobos from Rebirth, Revelation gives you a single companion bird named Pico that grows alongside you across the adventure. As Pico develops, it unlocks flight and gliding, opening up vertical exploration and letting you finally reach locations that were inaccessible earlier in the game. It’s a clever way to gate the open world without walling it off entirely.

Party members face off against a towering plant-like creature in Final Fantasy VII Revelation
Image courtesy of Square Enix

New playable characters and the “Ware” system

Two long-requested party members are confirmed playable:

  • Vincent Valentine finally enters the rotation, complete with a “Beast Mode” transformation you can toggle with a single button press mid-battle.
  • Cid Highwind joins as an attacker who specialises in aerial combat — fitting for the trilogy’s most airship-obsessed character.

Underpinning the combat is a new “Ware” system, which lets you customise each character’s role by swapping equipment, reshaping how they play. Notably, all Ware types unlock at once, so you’re encouraged to experiment and diversify your party builds from the off rather than grinding to slowly open options.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation — Gameplay Overview Trailer, via IGN on YouTube

Story: choices that actually matter

Hamaguchi is leaning hard into the “weight of choice.” Player decisions reportedly determine which storylines unlock and which events play out — and they can even shift how you perceive individual characters. The main story still follows a set sequence, but the side content around it stays flexible.

A few story threads got specific attention: the previously underdeveloped Wutai storyline is being expanded, character relationships now reach beyond the usual Cloud-centric pairings, and Zack is said to play an important role in illustrating just how different this world has become from the 1997 original. As for the cast, Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer returns as the English voice of Vincent, with Travis Willingham confirmed as Sephiroth for the finale.

Sweeping vista of the reshaped world in Final Fantasy VII Revelation
Image courtesy of Square Enix

Platforms and release

Revelation launches simultaneously worldwide in Spring 2027 across PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox on PC). It’s the first mainline entry in the Remake trilogy to skip a PS5 timed exclusivity window and arrive everywhere at once — including, for the first time, on a Nintendo platform via the Switch 2, with the Switch 2 version receiving further optimisation closer to launch.

What this means for Singapore gamers

The day-one multiplatform launch is the big win here. No more watching the rest of the trilogy land on PS5 first — Singapore players on Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S or PC get to start the finale on the same day as everyone else in Spring 2027. SGD pricing and pre-order editions haven’t been announced yet, but expect details to firm up through late 2026.

If you’re planning to dive into the finale, now’s the time to make sure your back catalogue is sorted — whether that’s picking up Remake and Rebirth or trading in titles you’re done with to fund the upgrade. Drop by GameTrader to buy, sell or trade your games and consoles, and keep an eye on our news page as more Revelation details (and that all-important price) drop ahead of launch.