Final Fantasy 13 Remaster Hopes Have Gone Viral All Over Again

I still don't care for Final Fantasy 13, and I'm only a little hotter on its first sequel—and even more apathetic on its second. But this isn't about me. Nor the legions of longtime Final Fantasy fans who stand alongside me on this score. It's about the people who have always treasured the game(s), who want to experience Cocoon and Pulse in a modern way. It's about releasing the queen, if you will; Lightning, after all, must not be forgotten.

Square Enix's social media account posts stuff about pretty much every FF there's ever been. One seldom sees demands for a PS5 version of Final Fantasy 12 when Larsa Solidor gets name-dropped. But then, what does FF12 have that FF13 doesn't? A remotely modern remaster. A remaster of any sort, really. FF13 looks lush and plays great on Xbox Series X, but if you're on PC or PlayStation, you're still stuck with a frankly kind of crummy port or the hookups for your old PlayStation 3. All of this is to say, I can respect fans' hustle.

Hope Estheim Springs Eternal

This is a case of "here we go again" if ever there were one. Six months ago on the dot, I wrote about the frenzy that Final Fantasy 13 fans went on when Square's Twitter account posted a pic of Snow Villiers on September 13. Lightning preceded him on August 13. Every month since, something has happened. But now where are we? Lightning is back. "Focus," the most recent tweet commands.

Look... I don't know. It's cute that they keep doing this on the 13th of every month. And, on a long enough timeline, sure, I think a Final Fantasy 13 remaster happens. (I also think they'll do Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 separately, if they even get to them. And then fans will act surprised, and shocked, and betrayed. I can see the future.) But I don't think this has anything to do with it. Or, if it does, they're really playing the long haul. Last year, when the monthly tweets started getting picked up, folks were sure the remaster would pop up at Gamescom. Suffice it to say, it did not.

Let it not be said that the fans are not fighting the good fight. When you've got someone as prolific and tuned into the Final Fantasy fanbase as Genki going to bat, awareness will be raised. In fact, if the reception to Final Fantasy 13 was not so divisive, I daresay Genki's tweet would have thrice as many likes by now. But Square must surely be aware that the game has its fair share of supporters who would, theoretically, line up for a chance to check out the game in as high a quality as Xbox Series X's backwards compatibility magic can offer—ideally even better than that, with great quality of life updates galore.

But let's not get too carried away here...