Xbox on Thursday surprise-dropped some Square Enix JRPGs, including six Final Fantasy games and two Mana titles, fon Xbox and PC following an announcement at the Tokyo Games Show.
First up, Final Fantasy 1-6 are now available in their pixel remastered forms. These feature 2D pixel remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games, which were originally released on PC via Steam on July 28, 2021, and were later brought to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and even iOS and Android. You can buy the games together in a bundle or separately.
The first six in the series often get overshadowed by Final Fantasy 7, which has been the subject of a high-profile remake trilogy, along with the MMO Final Fantasy 14 and some of the other newer releases. However, Digital Trends ranked Final Fantasy 6 as the best mainline Final Fantasy game, calling it “perfectly paced” and “an absolute triumph in every sense.” It also offered unprecedented player freedom and customization for its time, and was the first game to feature high-quality 2D character sprites, which has been recreated across the other entries in the bundle.
Other changes to the pixel remasters are rearranged soundtracks (although you can still switch between original and new as you play), a new font option, the ability to turn off random encounters, and other extras.
Xbox further announced that two other Square Enix JRPGs hit Xbox and PC on Thursday: Trials of Mana and Legend of Mana, which are also available on Xbox Game Pass. We also got a new trailer for Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, which was already announced to be hitting Xbox Series X/S on November 14 alongside PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC. The latter, in particular, is visually striking, and because its the first game chronologically in the original trilogy, it will provide a great way for players interested in Dragon Quest to hop in.
This is a unique move for Square Enix, which has a close partnership with Xbox competitor Sony since originally publishing Final Fantasy 7 on the PlayStation 1 as an exclusive. The newest games in the franchise — Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Final Fantasy 16 — are not planned to come to Xbox. The platform is generally not known for its JRPG catalog, although three Persona games have hit Xbox and PC over the past couple of years, along with some Dragon Quest and other titles.
If you’re interested in other Xbox announcements from Tokyo Game Show, you can check them out on the Xbox Wire.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.