Just barely a year since its debut on mobile, the battle royale that is Square Enix‘s Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier will soon close its doors. The announcement comes via the game’s website, with the final day of operations being 11 January in 2023.
The reason given for the seemingly abrupt shutdown points towards the inability for Square Enix to deliver the service it wanted for the game. Even with constant updates, things are not exactly looking good for the game.
“After almost a year of jumping around on chocobos, mashing it up in melee battles, and sniping from the rooftops of Midgar Undercity, it is with a heavy heart that we are announcing the end of service for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier,” the statement said.
“Despite all our efforts to bring you regular updates with fresh and exciting content, we haven’t been able to deliver the experience that we were hoping to, and that you all deserve, so we have made the extremely tough decision to end service for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier.”
Announced back at the start of 2021 and launched on 17 November that year, players would enter a world where battle royale and Final Fantasy collided. This meant firearms, chocobos, and melee weapons all mixing it up. Similarly, it also had different seasons that created change on the base formula of the game.
Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier would also serve as a conduit to direct players to check out other titles in the long-running franchise. Alas, this will no longer be possible starting early 2023.
That said, the more traditional Final Fantasy fans have plenty to look forward to even with the shutdown of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. The Crisis Core remake is set to launch this December, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set for Winter 2023. There is also the small matter of Final Fantasy XVI coming in Summer 2023 as well.
Jake is a full-time trophy hunter and achievement gatherer on consoles, and part-time Steam Sale victim. He has a thing for Batman and awesome statues, and running out of space for both. Send help.
Si Jia
