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Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles logo next to Ramza and Delita
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Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review: a revamped classic that’s a must-play for any tactical RPG fan

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When Final Fantasy Tactics was released in 1997, it was lauded as a masterful tactical role-playing game (RPG), mixing impressive visual effects with depth-filled combat and a stellar narrative. But now, this beloved title has been reborn, affording longtime fans as well as new players the chance to experience it all. Enter Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles – Square Enix’s remaster of a true classic.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Nintendo Switch (physical and digital); Nintendo Switch 2, PS4, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC (digital only)
Release date: September 30, 2025

This expanded remaster brings plenty of shiny new stuff to the table. It’s fully voice-acted, has considerably upgraded visuals, and a fair few quality-of-life updates. All of these are available in the ‘Enhanced’ edition of the game, but you can also play through the original if you’d prefer, which uses the translation from War of the Lions – an updated version of the game which launched on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) back in 2007.

Anyway, I’ve played through the entirety of the Enhanced version of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and I’ve got plenty of thoughts – most of which are positive, fans will be delighted to hear! Let’s take a closer look at this remaster, then, and find out if it can do justice to a real fan favorite.

An adventure like no other

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

If you’re new to Final Fantasy Tactics, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the game’s premise. Ramza Beoulve is a highborn young man, who is thrust into a deeply political, brutal conflict – one that centers around two nobles vying for the throne of Ivalice.

Ramza – alongside his allies – will play a gigantic part in the war’s trajectory…though his actions will later be obscured in the history books. It is up to you, the player, to uncover the truth behind this conflict – and the importance of Ramza’s role within it.

You’ll control young Ramza and his allies across various battlefields, which use a tile configuration – something that fans of the Fire Emblem series, for example, will be well familiar with. You’ll have to level up your characters, recruit increasingly powerful units, and make use of the renowned job system – one of the best parts of the game, hands down.

You can switch between a number of jobs – spell casters like Black and White Mages, sword users like Squires and Knights, and a whole lot more. A key difference in the Enhanced version is that there’s a fully-fledged Job Tree, which makes it easy to understand how to unlock each class, and lets you track your progress in doing so.

Best bit

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

I had a huge amount of fun creating an army-crushing squad in The Ivalice Chronicles. Creating a monk, who could heal and hit-hard, while also using the Ninja’s dual wield skill for 2x the power, made for a truly devastating combination.

As had previously been the case, you earn job points in battle to increase a unit’s proficiency in a particular class, through which you can earn new abilities and passive skills. Mixing and matching skills from different jobs is great fun – and optimizing your skillset will be crucial if you want to make it through the main story, which is by no means a breeze…more on that later.

Some jobs do take ages to unlock – but it doesn’t always feel worth your time, given that some of the classes further along the tree have skills that seem a little situational. Still, you don’t have to make use of these jobs. One of my main units, for reference, was a monk – a melee fighter class you unlock pretty early. I just ensured that he had secondary skills from the Ninja class to keep him primed for late-game combat.

If your beloved monk unit dies in battle, for example, it may well be gone forever…devastating, I know. When a character faints, a display with three hearts will appear above it, and one heart will deplete for each turn a character remains unconscious. If you don’t revive it or complete the battle objective within this time, it will be gone forever.

New auto-save slots have made it easier to go back to before your unit dies – which is a very welcome inclusion. I used this a fair amount in my playthrough. After all, do you really want to spend hours on end re-training a new unit? Personally, I don’t have time for all that!

There’s one more thing I’d like to note about perma-death. In Fire Emblem titles, your units typically have a unique appearance and personality – something that can leave you feeling attached to them, and this causes deaths to feel that little bit more gutting.

In Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, though, a lot of characters have identical appearances and no personality beyond their brief vocal soundbites. This meant I wasn’t particularly attached or interested in my standard units – I often replaced them with special ones that play a more direct role in the plot, have unique costumes, and join your party as you progress through the story. By the way, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII (one of my favorite games, and one of the best RPGs of all time) is one of these…how cool is that?!

Not for the faint of heart

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

Speaking of special units, some of these are going to be extremely helpful – and sometimes almost feel necessary – to get through story battles. There’s one in particular who will join you late on, who is seriously powerful. I won’t spoil who it is for newcomers, but without them, I’d have been toast on a number of occasions.

Yes, I’ll be honest, I found The Ivalice Chronicles to be hard. At times, very hard. I’m an RPGs guy, and have finished some pretty punishing titles – yes, even Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. But the thing that caught me off guard in this game was its severe difficulty spikes.

Some of these, especially early on, forced me to better my understanding of the title’s impressively deep battle mechanics – stuff like zodiac compatibility, faith, and bravery elements require close attention.

Difficulty spikes later on, though, could feel pretty frustrating. I went from reconsidering my team’s build and strategy early on to reconsidering whether my sanity was still intact by the end. These spikes can make progression feel a little uneven, it has to be said, although there are ways to push through the most challenging encounters.

For instance, you can hop into random battles on the world map to grind up your levels and earn job points to get better healing skills, spells, and combat abilities. And these are entirely at your own pace – don’t fancy a random encounter? Just press flee and you can skip it. Need some EXP? Run around for a bit and prepare for battle. I love that you’re not forced into fights – something that can make some RPGs feel repetitive and relentless.

In addition, you can complete errands, which give you gil (the game’s currency) to spend on better armor, weapons, headgear, and accessories. They can also give you experience points and job points. These are entirely optional and are a useful way to earn experience for any backup units you want to use in the event of a character dying, for example.

Anyway, after you’ve been struggling in a fight and you’ve taken some time to train up, you’ll likely find a route to victory. And when you do, you’re going to feel very satisfied – I know I did. The endgame especially was pretty rough for me, but I got there in the end. It’s worth noting that I played the whole game on Knight difficulty – the sort of ‘normal’ level. However, the Enhanced version adds an easy mode, Squire, and a hard mode, Tactician – that one’s for the show-offs.

A message more potent than ever, for a new generation

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles has a stellar narrative – one that plays to themes that are arguably even more timely now than they were almost 30 years ago.

The conflict I mentioned earlier takes place after a separate 50-year-long war, which has left much of the kingdom in economic turmoil. Distrust in the ruling class is at an all-time high, with the masses left to struggle in a ruined kingdom while nobles indulge in luxury. The world was, and remains, incredibly designed, with a new ‘state of the realm’ page that clarifies story details and can refresh your memory of character names, among other things.

State of the realm is one of many additions – most of which make for a much more refined experience. Personally, I love the revamped graphics – the game remains true to its roots, visually speaking. Battle animations are incredibly fluid, backdrops are beautifully composed, and colors really pop, injecting a ton of character into this complex world. The incredible score also adds so much texture to the world, and even random encounter tracks, like Apoplexy and Desert Land, had my head bopping mid-battle.

Functionally speaking, one of the best new features is fast-forward, which makes the pace of battle so much more palatable. A lot of movement and combat does feel pretty sluggish, so being able to speed through your enemy’s actions is most welcome. This also helps if you’re sitting through dialogue you’re already familiar with, and I made extensive use of it.

I already mentioned stuff like difficulty options, the job tree, and auto-save – and these all feel like considered, user-friendly inclusions – but despite that, there was some stuff I wasn’t loving about the Enhanced version.

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

This might be controversial, but I think the voice acting is, at best, just OK. Some characters are well represented. Ben Starr – who was phenomenal as Verso in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – does a good job with the cunning and crafty Dycedarg. The personalities of other characters, including Agrias, Cidolfus, and Ramza himself, are also communicated well – but the same can’t be said for others.

Some performances feel a little restrained, non-special characters occasionally have inconsistent accents or tones of voice, and some non-player characters (NPCs) have voices that don’t match their sprites whatsoever. I mean, am I really meant to believe this teenage-looking soldier sounds like a 50-year-old geezer from the east end of London?

Furthermore, I was frustrated by the game’s camera on numerous occasions. Sometimes, it would pan to a bizarre angle that prevented me from seeing the on-screen action. A new overhead tactical view did remedy this at times, but I would’ve liked some further improvements here. Otherwise, performance is fantastic on the PS5 version, no notes.

There’s one more thing that didn’t bother me too much, but will be a concern for others. Content from War of the Lions is largely missing in this remaster. That means that its side content and drawn cutscenes have been mostly left out – something that will upset fans of the well-regarded PSP version, I’m sure.

Still, though, I have to say that I had a great time with Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. Yes, I have some minor gripes – severe difficulty spikes, a sometimes flawed camera, and imperfect voice acting, above all. But those things are certainly not enough to get in the way of an unforgettable adventure, packed with satisfyingly deep combat, a timely, well-written story, and a great score. The quality of life upgrades and enhanced visuals make this the ultimate way for new players to explore Ivalice, and if you’re a fan of tactical RPGs, this remains easy to recommend.

Should you play Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles?

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are a few useful accessibility settings in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. For instance, there’s a sound visualization option, which displays in-game sounds on the edges of the screen, as well as the choice to show speaker names during spoken exchanges.

There are also sound effect subtitles, volume sliders, multiple text languages (Japanese, English, German, and French), and both English and Japanese voice language options. Unfortunately, there is no colorblind mode or similar.

How I reviewed Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles:

(Image credit: SQUARE ENIX)

OK, so I spent more than 50 hours playing Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, battling through the entire main story, a healthy portion of side content, errands, and random encounters. I played the Enhanced version of the game in order to assess the remaster’s quality of life upgrades, graphical improvements, and voice acting.

I played the PS5 edition of the game, with my console connected up to the Sky Glass Gen 2 television and the Samsung HW-Q800D soundbar. When I was out and about, I’d also occasionally dip into the game via remote play on my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, but this was pretty rare.

Personally, I’ve reviewed a variety of games here at TechRadar, including recent releases like Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army and Drag x Drive. I’ve also played a number of tactical RPGs, such as Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and a range of Final Fantasy titles.

First reviewed September 2025



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Embracer CEO states that while AI is a "powerful" tool, "human authorship is final"
Esports

Embracer CEO states that while AI is a “powerful” tool, “human authorship is final”

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Embracer CEO Phil Rogers has called for a “smart implementation of generative AI in ethical and sustainable ways.”

Addressing the company as the recent Annual General Meeting, Rogers admitted that “in an industry defined by escalating development costs and limitless player expectations, the question is no longer if a company will adopt a technology like AI, but how it leads with it,” but stressed that for the “powerful technology” to succeed, “ethics and good business are one and the same.”

“This isn’t a theoretical future. It’s happening now and the results are quite compelling. Many of our studios have been experimenting with AI in the past couple of years and are now starting to really leverage it to eliminate bottlenecks and empower our development teams. We’re beginning to see measurable increases in productivity,” Rogers said.

Offering mocap as an example of where studios can cut filming time “in half,” the CEO warned that even AI generative art required “tuning by human hand.”

“We see the headlines and we hear the concern from players and developers alike, but we believe the greatest risk is not in using AI, but in using it without a strong ethical framework. Players aren’t longing for generic, soulless side quests or synthetic AI voices. Developers want creative freedom to innovate and experiment and reduce iteration time so they can make more content. Artists, actors, writers need protection from plagiarism. Intellectual properties need to be nurtured and respected.

“For us, ethics and good business are one and the same. They really do go hand in hand. Our position is clear: human authorship is final. Our developers will always have the final creative control and authorship. After all, AI is a co-pilot. It is not the pilot.”

He added: “We really do view AI as a strategic catalyst. It’s the most powerful technology or tool of our generation for driving efficiency, amplifying creativity, and ultimately delivering the high-quality, memorable games that players demand more effectively, more predictably, and more profitably than before.”

Sharing her vision for the game services firm, Testronic chief Sharon Baylay-Bell similarly cautioned that “AI is an accelerant; it’s not the answer.”



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Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Review -- A Polished, Historical Gem
Game Reviews

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Review — A Polished, Historical Gem

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I’m old enough to remember how it felt to first play Final Fantasy Tactics in 1997–to remember its stirring score, deep tactical combat, and most of all, the complex story of broken relationships and valor set against a bitter, conspiracy-laden battle for royal succession. It all came together to create an unforgettable experience. More than nearly any game of its time, I was so rapt in it that I would find my mind frequently wandering back to it, planning new strategies, wondering what would happen next.

Tactics is a game that has lived on as a cult classic with sporadic attempts at giving it its due, as with 2007’s War of the Lions. The Ivalice Chronicles is the latest and best version so far, modernizing just enough to keep its spirit intact and enhance its memorable story without sacrificing its classic charms.

The story primarily follows the life of Ramza Beoulve, the youngest and most obscure member of a storied house of nobles, and his fractious friendship with Delita Heiral, a commoner who was treated like family by the Beoulve clan. As narration informs us before the game begins, history remembers Delita as the conquering hero of the War of the Lions–but it was the relatively unknown Ramza who should actually be celebrated.

That framing device, of a scholar uncovering history’s hidden secrets and revealing lost truths, immediately sets our expectations and raises intriguing questions. How did Delita rise to become a celebrated historical figure? And why was Ramza overlooked? It’s a small, brilliant way to shade everything we see unfolding afterward.

When we join the characters in their own time, it’s shortly after the resolution of another period of bloodshed, the 50 Years War. The conflict was grueling and strained relations to a breaking point between nobles and commoners. Against this backdrop, the death of a regent leads to a bitter battle over succession, ultimately igniting all-out hostilities known as the War of the Lions. Again, Final Fantasy Tactics establishing a historical record first gives us grounding for interpreting the events.

The tale of palace intrigue, betrayal, and conspiracy was always one of Final Fantasy Tactics’ best features, but its original translation was hit-or-miss, with some sloppy and even confusing moments. The 2007 PlayStation Portable game Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions retranslated the game and in the process made the translation much more Victorian English, with Shakespearean flourishes. The Ivalice Chronicles uses the War of the Lions translation as a base, but reworks it to accommodate its full voice acting. I don’t have the War of the Lions translation memorized, so I can’t attest to the exact differences, but from the standpoint of a fan, it at least seems to be very similar in style and tone.

The major difference, though, is the voice acting itself. In the same way that your high school English teacher may have told you that Shakespeare is meant to be heard, not read, this translation just feels noticeably more alive than the PSP game’s when you can hear the characters lending their voices to the lines. The performances add texture and emotions to the text, and the actors were clearly given room to make each role their own by adding groans and affectations.

Judging by the performances, the actors even seem to have been familiar enough with the full story arc that they were given space to imbue lines with suspicion or foreshadowing that isn’t necessarily present in the text itself. In a story full of twists and turns that centers highly on betrayal and conspiracy, the performances add intrigue and suspense, as you wonder how much meaning you should read into a character’s tone.

But that also means that The Ivalice Chronicles can be extremely talky. While the in-game cutscenes themselves are full of stage direction, with characters moving about the space and impressive sprite work illustrating their gestures, most of the story battles have at least a few interstitial dialogue moments. The flowery language used for the script means these can last a while, so sometimes you’ll be thinking of your next tactical move and then have your train of thought interrupted by a surprisingly long conversation. The voice acting was so great that I didn’t want to skip it, but at the same time, sometimes I really just wanted to get on with the battle.

When I played the original Final Fantasy Tactics as a teenager, it was my first real experience with this style of Elizabethan tragedy, at least outside of an English literature classroom. FFT carries all the same hallmarks in a fantasy setting, with royal intrigue, doomed lovers, and power struggles.

The State of the Realm timeline in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

It is a lot to keep track of, but Ivalice Chronicles has a few new tools for those who really want to dig into the details of the story and its sometimes tangled royal machinations. For starters, an evolving encyclopedia is included as a quick reference of people and locations. A menu for “Auracite,” magical stones that become a key plot element, shows not only the known stones but who is in possession of them at any point in the story. And my personal favorite, a State of the Realm chronicle, shows a timeline of major events laid against a map of Ivalice, which you can browse through to see where and why major characters and their armies have moved throughout the story.

The movements of armies are approximated by your tactical battles, which are smaller in scope than the grand story would suggest. Usually you’re limited to four or five party members, often with one or two guest characters in tow performing their own automated actions, against an opposing force that is around eight to 10 units. Battles take place on small 3D planes where elevation can provide advantages and elements like deep water can limit your movement. With such small-scale battles, positioning each unit and specifying which direction they face at the end of the turn becomes vitally important. It also features a slightly generous form of permadeath, as downed units can be revived within three turns before they’re gone forever. You can always recruit new units in cities, but given the grinding needed to upgrade your characters and outfit them with a number of different skills, it hurts to lose a soldier permanently, and even worse if it’s one of your powerful named characters. Thankfully, Ivalice Chronicles has frequent auto-saves, so it’s easy enough to find a recent spot before a doomed mission.

Final Fantasy Tactics was and remains a grind-heavy game, even with the rebalancing of Ivalice Chronicles making it slightly less so. That’s partly because of the Job Class system–Tactics is the earliest example of the system in the Final Fantasy series for many fans, unless they happened to import the then-Japan-only Final Fantasy 5. There are 20 standard Jobs for your units, alongside special Jobs held by named characters such as Ramza. Each Job has its own set of skills that can be purchased with Job Points (JP) earned during battles, but it wouldn’t be quite accurate to call them skill trees, since the skills can be purchased in any order. If you just want to save up all your JP for the priciest skill, you can do that.

Many of the later jobs have prerequisites from earlier ones–you need to reach a certain proficiency with a Black Mage before you can become a Time Mage, for example. When you multiply all those jobs by several characters, even if you stick with a core group of eight or so, it can get demanding. There are power-leveling strategies from the original version that still work, but having a high-level party can still be a commitment. There’s a fast-forward feature to speed up battles, but there are no experience points or JP multipliers like we saw added to the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Gallery

As you begin to unlock more classes and start to combine their skills, you can create some wonderfully broken combinations that make all of your work feel much more satisfying. The best part of any class-based combat system is experimenting with different combinations, and few do it nearly as well as Final Fantasy Tactics. The flexibility of setting a main class alongside secondary abilities, passive abilities, and movement abilities–with hardly any restrictions–makes it feel very rewarding to tinker with different builds and find combinations that almost feel like cheating.

The difficulty of raising up an army in the early game accentuates somewhat odd balance later on, though. You spend the first three chapters dutifully grinding to build a force with hardly any special units and then, in the last chapter, you suddenly get access to lots of strong, named characters with great special abilities and stats that outdo your basic units. It’s one rare aspect that feels mildly wonky by today’s standards for tactical RPGs, which reinforces this game’s place as a museum piece for an earlier age in the genre.

On that point, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles largely excels. This is hands-down the best way to play this classic of the genre, thanks to a wide array of improvements. I’ve already praised the retouched translation and excellent voice acting, along with new tools to track the story and some rebalancing. The new difficulty levels are a nice new feature as well, letting you dial back the challenge if you want an easier time through the story or would prefer to ramp up the difficulty to really test your tactical prowess. The music remains as good as ever, and since starting the remake I’ve been idly humming battle tunes to myself.

The Ivalice Chronicles version also includes subtle visual updates, making the beautiful sprite artwork of the originals stand out. There’s something homey and comforting about this visual style, with its squat figurine-like characters, and those get a chance to shine in the visual update. The world map looks clearer and more detailed than you remember, and even the relatively simple polygonal battlefields have a nice dash of retro personality.

The one drawback are the character portraits, which are blown up in the same style as the sprites, but don’t look nearly as good for it due to some odd artifacting and jagged edges. Those portraits were captured from original hand-drawn artwork, so it may have been a nicer archival approach to rescan the artwork at a higher resolution, if Square Enix still has it in its archives.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

And on that note of preserving history, this excellent version of FFT is just shy of being a definitive edition. While it’s nice that the game offers both the “enhanced” Ivalice Chronicles version alongside a “classic” option, both versions still use the War of the Lions translation from the PSP version, so there is no option to see the original translation if you wish. And both Ivalice Chronicles options lack two special job classes added to the War of the Lions version, Onion Knight and Dark Knight. The community is sharply divided on whether these two classes are any good, naturally, but it still would have been nice to include them and make this a truly definitive package.

Final Fantasy Tactics is a formative game in the tactical RPG genre, and still one of the greatest. Its unforgettable story has never been better told thanks to a retouched translation, stellar voice acting, and smart new tools to help track all of the palace intrigue. Combat remains incredibly rewarding and flexible, which is an especially impressive achievement given its smaller scale compared to many modern action RPGs. The Ivalice Chronicles lacks a few nice-to-have features, but it’s easily the best way to play this all-time classic.



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Logitech Is Selling Off the Final Stock of G305 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse, Now Going for Pennies
Game Reviews

Logitech Is Selling Off the Final Stock of G305 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse, Now Going for Pennies

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Logitech is often our first stop when searching for a reliable gaming mouse. If top performance is the goal, the Logitech G305 Lightspeed wireless gaming mouse is a clear winner and boasts a solid 4.6-star rating out of nearly 35,000 reviews. This deal is hard to resist with the mouse now at an all-time low price of $29, down from $49 (40% off).

See at Amazon

Why the Logitech G305 Lightspeed Is a Game-Changer

Computer mice come in all shapes and sizes but the G305 stands out in a few distinct ways. First, it only weighs 99 grams because of a slimmed-down mechanical design that glides smoothly. This makes it fast and accurate movements in game play without gaining weight in the hand which is important for high-stakes rounds when milliseconds count.

The real game-changer, however, is Lightspeed wireless technology by Logitech: Most wireless mice cause delays but the G305 boasts a blazing-fast 1ms report rate. What this translates to is your actions appearing on screen in a split second and deliver a level of responsiveness found in professional-grade far beyond casual gaming. And it’s fully wireless with a compact size and USB receiver storage integrated in.

At the heart of the mouse is the HERO 12K sensor that is a next-generation optical sensor known for incredible precision and efficiency. It delivers up to 12,000 DPI sensitivity for pinpoint accuracy whether you’re sniping across the map or quickly switching targets. Impressively, this sensor provides 10 times more power efficiency than typical gaming mice sensors.

The battery life for this mouse is also amazing: With a life of up to 250 hours of game play on a single AA battery, you can game long without concerning yourself with charging or sudden power loss. This level of staying power ensures that the mouse is always ready for marathon sessions or competitive gaming involving long periods of power performance.

Aside from specs, the G305 offers six programmable keys where gamers have free will to tailor control and macros to a personal journey. Whether gaming FPS, RTS, or MMO, the buttons are flexible enough to structure gameplay for faster, smarter responses.

As stock runs low, make sure you don’t miss it.

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Play online shooter ARC Raiders free next month in final test weekend before release
Game Reviews

Play online shooter ARC Raiders free next month in final test weekend before release

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Embark Studios will launch an ARC Raiders Server Slam ahead of the online shooter’s release, so players can get a taste of what to expect.

While a couple of public network tests have already run, the studio is providing one last weekend from 17th – 19th October for players across the globe to check out the game on all platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam, Epic).

No codes or pre-registration will be required for entry, plus participants will receive an exclusive backpack cosmetic as thanks to unlock with a full game purchase, although progress won’t carry over.


Pre-Order Trailer | ARC RaidersWatch on YouTube

ARC Raiders is a PvPvE sandbox shooter from the studio behind The Finals, which merges extraction and survival gameplay.

The full game will be released on 30th October.

“We’re excited to welcome Raiders to the Server Slam – this is where we’ll really put ARC Raiders through its paces ahead of full launch,” said executive producer Aleksander Grøndal. “Our goal is simple: make sure that on October 30, when the servers go live, every player experiences the game exactly as we’ve intended – polished, balanced, and ready for action. Thanks for joining us – let’s prepare to go topside.”

The game’s most recent test was at the end of April this year, but it’s been a long time coming – ARC Raiders was first revealed at The Game Awards in 2021 and has since received a genre change.

It also won’t be free-to-play when it releases. It’s available to pre-order now.



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Feiniu NAS
Gaming Gear

This Chinese NAS claims over 180TB of storage with UPS protection and a memory card slot, yet hides its final retail cost

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  • Feiniu NAS integrates UPS to tackle abnormal outages that threaten critical data
  • 6-bay version expected in October, and 4-bay model to come later this year
  • The NAS includes USB-C, USB-A, and SD card slot connectivity

Feiniu has previewed a new NAS system which it claims will address one of the most persistent causes of data corruption.

The Chinese manufacturer revealed its upcoming models will integrate an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) as standard.

It also stated this device will have a 6-bay model, which will launch in mid-October 2025, and a 4-bay model expected to arrive later this year.


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Integrated UPS for data protection

Feiniu says that abnormal power outages frequently lead to NAS data loss, which in many cases is not discovered until long after the damage has occurred.

By including a UPS in its system, the NAS will continue running briefly after a power interruption, allowing the drives to shut down safely and protecting stored data.

Such a design may distinguish the device from even the best NAS currently available, although its real-world effectiveness remains unproven until it is tested.

The 6-bay NAS previewed by Feiniu features a horizontal design with gray-painted sides, a black front panel, and the company’s “fn” logo.

The upper section includes a grille for drive access, while the lower portion has a glossy finish with a red power button.

Connectivity options are on the right side of the device and include USB-C, USB-A, and an SD card slot for removable storage.

The presence of a memory card slot broadens the options for users who may want a system that offers more external storage.


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Feiniu’s founder, Zhu Ting, also hinted the new 6-bay model will accommodate more than 180TB of total storage, depending on the drive sizes used.

This capacity aligns it with the upper end of consumer-grade and small business NAS devices.

The product will be offered in both standard and Pro versions, with claims of being “highly playable” and containing “surprises.”

However, such descriptions leave plenty of ambiguity, and no clear specifications have been confirmed regarding performance, supported file systems, or power efficiency.

Competing enterprise devices already deliver very large capacity (over 1PB), advanced RAID configurations, and snapshot technologies, although most lack an integrated UPS.

Therefore, Feiniu will likely bank on its UPS and other “surprises” to sell this device.

Currently, there is no official information about the price of this device, which makes its market positioning uncertain.

However, brand recognition may influence expectations, and cost remains the most unpredictable factor.

Via ITHome (originally in Chinese)

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Cloud grabs his sword on his back.
Game Reviews

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets New Options To Reduce Difficulty

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake, with all of its fantastic action RPG combat, is making its way to the Switch 2 (and Xbox) soon. And based on how the Switch 2 is handling modern AAA games, it should be up to the challenge of delivering some quality visuals and stable performance, even on the go. But it sounds like this port is worried about something else that might not be up to the challenge: You. With new difficulty options that allow players to dramatically reduce just about any level of challenge in the game, series antagonist Sephiroth sure is in for a world of unfair hurt. Maybe he’ll review bomb the game over it.

As reported by GameSpot, the upcoming port has a new menu called “Streamlined Progression” which, as the name implies, gives you various options to reduce or eliminate challenge in the game and make defeating bosses and progressing through the story much, much easier. If you activate every option in the menu, you’ll basically be playing in “God Mode,” with perpetual max HP and MP, infinite money and recovery items, and attacks that always deal 9,999 damage to your opponents. I guess that works for those who just want to focus on the story, but at this point, I have to wonder, does it make more sense to just watch a Let’s Play instead?

FF7R, especially on its hard difficulty and during some of its late game bosses on normal mode, can be challenging. And I do like it when games grant modular levels of control over difficulty (I also used to love breaking games with my GameShark back in the day), but for me, such options are typically at their best when they aid you in learning the mechanics of a game by scaling down a challenge so you can take it on. The suite of options in the “Streamlined Progression” menu, however, which do things like keep you persistently at max health and damage output, do very little to “streamline” anything; instead, any and all challenge is just completely removed.

Read More: The Debate Over Silksong Points To A Growing Divide In The World Of Gaming

This new mode also arrives as we’re in the middle of some hot discourse™ about difficulty, mostly because one little hornet’s big adventure was a bit tougher than some were expecting.

In my opinion, activating these Streamlined Progression options in FF7R would put you just a step away from letting the game play itself, at least if all the options are enabled. Even individually, so many of these options are just “on/off” toggles for godly powers, so they’re not going to aid in mastering the game. Which, again, if a player has no interest in doing, I have to wonder if it just makes more sense to watch a cutscene compilation at that point.. Managing MP, for example, is a core facet of FF7R’s combat. Having it always at max can easily teach bad habits and take away from what the game’s combat is asking you to do. Same thing with dishing out 9,999 damage with every hit, which doesn’t “streamline” build-crafting, but rather makes it irrelevant. I would’ve preferred to see difficulty sliders, perhaps a guarantee of a damage minimum that encourages the player to learn how to build more power while still providing some assistance. Same with having an always-full Limit Break meter. Why not instead just have the bar filled up faster so new players get a better sense of what increases the meter and what the pay off for it is?

Not all of us are type-A overachievers who want to take on the toughest challenges, sure, but part of what makes the power fantasy in FF7R work is that Cloud and co. aren’t strong and capable because they’re all wearing plot armor, but because we as players invest our attention and energy into gaining competency or mastery over its complex systems. That’s why defeating Sephiroth is so satisfying; not because the narrative simply designates us as heroes, but because we lived up to the challenge of becoming heroes.



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Don't worry Final Fantasy 14 fans, Yoshi-P isn't going anywhere
Game Reviews

Don’t worry Final Fantasy 14 fans, Yoshi-P isn’t going anywhere

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Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) intends to work on the game “for at least a good while”, even as he works on other projects within Square Enix.

In an interview with Noisy Pixel at Pax West, Yoshida discussed what keeps him working on the MMORPG after 12 years, to which he described himself as “more of a businessman” than a creative person.

“People tend to say we’re creators or creative, but I am an employee at Square Enix and I receive money to make games,” he said, “and I think my primary purpose is to make games so that we are delivering it to gamers out there, fans, players that want to consume our product. I think that is fundamental or a minimum requirement that I have because I belong to this company.”

FINAL FANTASY XIV Patch 7.3 – The Promise of TomorrowWatch on YouTube

He continued that designers working in a company and feeling bored should remove themselves from a corporate environment, but he doesn’t “have that strong personal desire to go into my own creative things”.

“So when asked, do I ever get bored with Final Fantasy 14?” Yoshida concluded. “I don’t think so, because there are a lot of things that I have yet to actualise in 14, things that I want to do, things that I must do, things that require to be taken care of. And so I think for at least a good while, I should be ok.”

Yoshida added he wishes to do less “management or operational things”, joking he may be scolded for his response. “I already do a lot of game developing and I’ve sacrificed some sleep sometimes,” he said, “but perhaps if I were to have a choice, I would like to focus in on the game development design.”

Yoshida is best known for his work on Final Fantasy 14, but in recent years has been pulled into other projects. Yoshida heads up Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit 3, responsible for the MMORPG as well as Final Fantasy 16 and the forthcoming Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. He was also co-producer on Fantasian: Neo Dimension.

In another interview at Pax West, Yoshida requested players stop sending developers demoralising abuse.

“I want to emphasise here, there is a person behind the games,” he said. “While I understand some harsh criticism might be necessary sometimes, there’s a person behind the games that you enjoy and if you have that harsh criticism, I think we would want to have it be constructive.



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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets Ridiculously Easy Mode on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S
Game Updates

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets Ridiculously Easy Mode on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S

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After several years of being a PlayStation console exclusive, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is headed to Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 in early 2026. Depending on how confident you feel, the game can be fairly challenging with its blend of real-time combat and action-RPG elements. But if you’re looking to cruise through each battle and just focus on the story, then you can choose to play the game with the “Streamlined Progression” options enabled.

This makes Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade even easier than the old-school combat mode that slows the action to a crawl with menu-based commands, giving you an extended window to choose your tactics. Streamlined Progression gives you unlimited MP and HP at all times, unlimited limit and ATB gauges during battles, and every attack will deal a whopping 9,999 points of damage.

Additionally, you’ll gain a faster weapon ability charge, and with some exceptions, you’ll always possess the maximum number of items at all times. This mode can be toggled on and off at any given time from the main menu.

Sephiroth won’t be smiling for long.

Square Enix has also revealed several of the preorder bonuses for the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on new platforms. Players who preorder the digital edition will receive the original Final Fantasy 7 game to download and play–this offer expires on January 31, 2026–and if you preorder the physical edition, you’ll get a Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Play Booster pack of 15 cards with it.

While it doesn’t have a release date yet, Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will also be headed to Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S in the future. As for the final chapter in the remake trilogy, producer Tetsuya Nomura recently said that Square Enix knows exactly when it will officially reveal the game.

It’ll still be a while before it arrives, but in the meantime, you can scratch your JRPG itch with upcoming games like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and Octopath Traveler 0.



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Cloud and Sephiroth clash in battle.
Game Reviews

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Is 90GB On Switch 2

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Massive game install sizes and the diminishing role of physical media continue to be frustrating. This time around, Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Switch 2 “physical version” is in the crosshairs. A “Game-Key Card,” Remake’s physical Switch 2 release contains no data itself but will initiate a massive download that’ll Kirby up a ton of the Switch 2’s otherwise generous built-in storage capacity.

Despite having a pretty-looking case design, FF7R will ship on Switch 2 with a card that merely serves as a physical license to download a whopping 90GB (h/t Eurogamer), which is around a third of the spacious (or so we thought) 256GB storage capacity of the Switch 2. But as Switch 2 connoisseurs will point out, Square Enix probably didn’t have much choice. The maximum size of an actual physical Switch 2 game is only 64GB. While file compression can work wonders, FF7R with its Intergrade expansion is just too damn big to fit on a cart.

As our comrades at Eurogamer wonder, however, is this Nintendo’s fault for “not offering larger game cards?”

Read More: PlayStation Only Made 3 Percent Of Its Money From Physical Games Sales Last Year

I’m going to actually say yes to that question. After all, the Switch 2 is clearly making a play to be the premiere place to go for AAA experiences on handhelds–and it’s got the horsepower to do it, as we’ve seen with Star Wars Outlaws and even Cyberpunk 2077.

At the time of this writing, one can buy a 256GB SD card for peanuts (if peanuts is just $25 to you), so why are the Switch 2’s carts limited to just 64GB? It feels like an arbitrary decision that, if Nintendo was invested in physical media and the ability to play a game on a dedicated handheld device without any internet connection whatsoever, it would have made efforts to solve–especially for ambitious (and very good!) games like FF7R.

And let’s be honest, 90GB isn’t uniquely large when it comes to AAA games. It’s early days for the Switch 2, so what’s this problem gonna look like as games only continue to bloom in size?



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