Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts Union

Final Fantasy has been such an expansive franchise, but with so many games to choose from... how could you ever just pick one? Well, that's our challenge today, as we discuss with main-line game we'd like to play for the rest of our lives, while also discussing how we'd make the same decision with the franchise's mobile titles. In addition, we've got some cracking questions round expanded stories with other potential Final Fantasy remakes and also, delving into how Final Fantasy XIII actually manage to spawn two sequels! Music this episode is by FalKKonE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFBmSTFQ9rg

Not only do we have the EPIC conclusion to our Kingdom Hearts 3 review, but we've also had a huge news blast where ReMIND was announced! Yep, it's a two-part episode this time around, as the big finale gets some in-depth discussion as each of the conflicts is broken down in some rather granular detail. And then, there's the news blast. Not only have they announced Critical Mode, but Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMIND was also unveiled. It will come with plenty of paid and free content - plenty to keep us busy! Music this episode is provided by Luna Lorrain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22v9OLyh1X0

With E3 2019 getting ever-closed, we decided to take a look this episode at how we'd like to see Square Enix utilise the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII within the Final Fantasy 7 Remake! Yep, we're going to be talking about utilising characters from Before Crisis, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus and how post-launch popularity of certain characters could also sway their decisions! We've got a specific focus around characters featured within Midgar, but there's plenty of room for discussions around Professor Gast, Cissnei, Zack Fair and Genesis! Music this episode is provided by FamilyJules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ZGC3FTtqI

It's time for the next part of our rather extensive review, which sees a two-hour special for the Keyblade Graveyard! As we've done in our previous review episodes, there's a significant focus around the story... but we'll also be looking at the level design and general gameplay, the visual presentation and the general impression it left on us! We've also got a question about the possibility of the Kingdom Hearts franchise appearing on Nintendo Switch! Music this episode is provided by UprisingGrand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emTmH1Mv5dA

With the start of Square Enix's new financial year, there's been plenty of change afoot!  It's seen a continuation of the changes we saw at the end of last year when Hajime Tabata left to pursue new ventures, as Hideo Baba (Head of Studio Istolia) has also now resigned from the company. Square Enix have also published more information around the restructure that's seen the business divisions merged, to hopefully make development efforts much more streamlined. Oh, there's a small piece of news too, relating to a large-scale project that YoshiP is working on, that the Final Fantasy VII Remake! Music this episode is from Sschafi1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMqVgKAAnvY

Even though Kingdom Hearts 3 has now been out for a little while, our extensive review is continuing in earnest and this episode we're tackling The Caribbean and San Fransokyo! We've also got a fantastic discussion topic that was suggested from the community around the lyrics of Chikai and Don't Think Twice and what they symbolise, so we hope you enjoy our deep dive into that particular topic! Music this episode is from Musicality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SWngOE5pm4

To celebrate Nobuo Uematsu's birthday, we figured it would be a fantastic opportunity to have a show dedicated to his career so far! Having joined Square back in 1985, Uematsu-san has gone on to have such an impactful career within the video game music industry,  not least due to his involvement with the Final Fantasy franchise. It's a testament to his talents that he was able to have so much longevity, with his older works will standing up decades later. For this episode, we run-through his career, including the highs and lows, as well as a brief interlude into what the legendary composer is doing these days! Music this episode is from EDM producers BOSSFIGHT and NewGamePlus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8HcjqQOIFw

We have a very special guest this episode, as we're interviewing Tasha Sounart, who works at Pixar and was a consultant on Kingdom Hearts 3! In a wide-ranging interview, we ask Tasha about numerous things like... how involvement with Kingdom Hearts 3 actually came around and the relationship that evolved with the Kingdom Hearts team! But that's not all.... as the gang also continue their discussions around Kingdom Hearts 3! This episode it's all about Monstropolis and Arrendale, so hopefully you enjoy that too! Our music this episode is from the very talented Ru's Piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SWngOE5pm4

We've ventured into antagonists, so it's only fair that we venture into the world of protagonists... but that's not all this episode! Outside of discussing the various protagonists that have graced the Final Fantasy franchise over the years, we're also taking a look at potential cross-over games that would benefit from classic Final Fantasy mechanics. Oh, and we also have a rather extensive news update for you all, so hopefully you enjoy that! Music this episode is provided by Belzifer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEWbtoU4mik. Make sure you comment on his video to let him know we sent you!

With the release of the Kingdom Hearts 3 Ultimania, we've gained access to a whole host of glorious information and we're going to be delving into all of it today! There's numerous topics to discuss, from what the DLC may be (including Critical Model and Kingdom Hearts 3 Final Mix), but also what may happen next with the franchise and some of the more nuanced pieces of information around why certain decisions were made and even cut content! It's another extensive episode, so we hope you enjoy the discussions!

Episode Ardyn Prologue has been released in preparation for Episode Ardyn and it was pretty intense! This episode, we're running through Episode Ardyn Prologue (spoiler free) talking about what they've looked to achieve and how the various characters were portrayed. But... we're also running through the Q&A they released alongside the Prologue, where they talk about what's to come and also their motivations around producing it in the first place!

It's time for Part 2 of our rather extensive review of Kingdom Hearts 3 and this time we're talking about a few more worlds! Branden is joined by Churro for the 2nd part of our review, which focusses on the Toy Box and Kingdom of Corona worlds. We'll focus on how the story played out in these worlds, as well as the visuals and gameplay elements that Square Enix brought to the table. There's also time for some questions for the community, with an emphasis on romance and the removal of it from the Disney storylines.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VIII, we decided to have a special fangasm episode...! That's right, we're joined by Chris (aka Hoogathy) for this episode, as we're running through our favourite characters, favourite moments and favourite pieces of music from what a rather special game in the Final Fantasy franchise. We hope you enjoy our discussions, as we reminisce on why this game meant so much to us all when it released 20 years ago and all the times we've played it since!

Kingdom Hearts 3 has now released and we couldn't be more excited! Join us, as we talk through our impressions of the early sections of the game! Yep, as we had to wait such a long time, we're also going to taking our time with this review. For this first part, we're going to be running through the initial worlds that feature in Kingdom Hearts 3 with a specific focus on the story, level design and gameplay, presentation and general lasting impressions. Not only that, but we also have a boat load of questions from the community to run-through. It's a mega episode and we hope you enjoy it!

With so many to choose from, this episode we're talking all about our favourite Final Fantasy antagonists! Yep, that's right... we're going to be running through the various villains we've seen since the Final Fantasy franchise started and discussing what they brought to the table in their respective games.  Then, as you'd expect, we talk through which are our favourites, while naturally providing some solid rationales behind why we feel certain antagonists did a better job than others!

As we venture further into 2019, there's plenty to discuss and this episode we're talking remakes, first impressions when playing games and whether the franchise has lost its gameplay mojo! Yes, that's right, it's time for a full-on questions episode as we delve into some rather interesting topics such as... what our first impressions were when playing Final Fantasy 8, whether or not you should buy Final Fantasy Type-0 and whether Square Enix should go down the route of remaking other titles. As you can imagine, it leads to some rather interesting discussions, so we hope you enjoy!

Kingdom Hearts 3 is so close now, we can almost touch it and that's why we've got a super long episode as a precursor to the biggest release in the franchise's history! Even though we're so close though, there's still plenty of room for speculation around what we will see within the final product. But before any of that happens, there's also talk about how Nomura has decided to fight back against those who are trying to play leaked copies of the game... what exactly that means for in the wider context! It makes for an action-packed episode... and we hope it helps to tide you over until the release of Kingdom Hearts 3!

Happy New Year everyone! To kick things off, we thought it would be rather interesting to dive into the mystery that is... Hiroyuki Ito! In the earlier days of the franchise, Hiroyuki Ito was one of the stars of the company, having a prominent hand in the majority of Final Fantasy games that released. However, in recent years, Ito has been missing from the limelight. But why? We run-through everything this legendary game designer has done for the franchise, before speculating around what he's actually up to and why.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is now in the wild following a leak... so with just over a month until the game's official release, there will be plenty of spoilers rolling around! That's why we felt it would be a good idea to do an episode on how to avoid Kingdom Hearts 3 spoilers, as they can come from numerous sources these days! We've also got a few questions from the community, including... how long we'll have to wait until we see Kingdom Hearts 4!

It's been a rather interesting year for Final Fantasy with some definite highs and lows, so to round-out the year, we thought it would be rather appropriate to pick-out some key moments! Yes, that means we'll be talking about Final Fantasy XV's DLC, the launch of Dissidia NT and the interesting announcements that were thrown our way during TGS 2018! On top of that, there's also a little recap about our lives outside of Final Fantasy!  Thank you all so much for your support throughout another year and here's to 2019!