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Square Enix announced earlier this year at E3 that it would bring back its beloved Final Fantasy VII title as a remake for consoles, PC, and iOS. Today, the iPhone and iPad version of the game officially arrives on the App Store.
While we learned previously that Square Enix wouldn’t be using its Luminous Engine for the remake, the game’s iTunes page does confirm that the iOS title is a direct “port based on Final Fantasy VII for PC” and arrives without any changes to the original game’s storyline. It’s also made some enhancements specially for the iPhone and iPad version…
As for improvements made for the iOS version of the game, users can switch between a “virtual analogue” and a “fixed 4-way digital control pad” for onscreen controls with adjustable opacity. In addition, Square notes that “the iOS edition also includes an option to turn enemy encounters off on the world and area maps (will not skip event battles) and a Max Stats command to become all-powerful in the blink of an eye.” Is there support for iOS controllers you ask? Nobody knows because Apple still doesn’t list or categorize games by controller support and Square didn’t mention controllers. But I’m not complaining about controller support anymore so we’ll have to pay the $19.99 to find out.
To get a game of this caliber up and running on iOS means you’ll need around 4GB of free space and either an iPhone 5S or later, a 3rd-gen iPad or later, or an iPad mini 2 or later running iOS 8. If your device is running an earlier version of iOS, or if you’re using an iPod touch older than the recently update model, you can expect quite a slow and choppy experience. But there is of course a reason that the original game sold over 11 million copies across platforms, and it’s nice to know that Square Enix attempted to bring the full experience over to mobile devices, despite the minimum requirements potentially keeping some users from fully enjoying the classic RPG.
The game is available for $19.99 on the New Zealand App Store now, and should be hitting your local store soon. Pricing could be $9.99 for the US if past releases/price conversions are any indication.
