Other notable releases for the first wave of Game Pass in March include Final Fantasy 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, both out today on Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass. to a T, a new adventure from Katamari Damacy’s creator is next on March 4th, though it’s currently playable for Premium subscribers.

EA Sports F1 25 arrives on the same day for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, followed by Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf on March 5th (which also marks the day of its launch on all platforms). And if you’re not keen on exploring Night City and becoming a legend as V, there’s also Construction Simulator, which drops for all three tiers on the same day.

For those who didn’t venture into Pharloom last September, Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available for Premium subscribers on March 12th. It’s followed by DreamWorks Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party on March 17th for all three tiers.

Of course, several titles will also be leaving the service on March 15th. Check them out below and finish them while they’re still available.

• Bratz Rhythm & Style (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Enter the Gungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• F1 23 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• He is Coming (PC)
• Lightyear Frontier (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (Cloud, Console, and PC)

What about the here and now? Well, today sees the arrival of Aerial_Knight’s DropShot and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Premium subscribers can also finally go hands-on with Avowed, which is getting a meaty new Anniversary Update today alongside its PS5 port.

Death Howl, a Souls-like deck builder, follows on February 19th for all three tiers, along with EA Sports College Football 26 for Ultimate subscribers. However, the standout addition is undoubtedly The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for Ultimate and Premium. Right on time for that rumored new DLC.

TCG Card Shop Simulator arrives on February 24th, though it’s still in early access, with Dice A Million joining on February 25th for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Towerborne’s 1.0 release is also out on February 26th and will be available for all three tiers. And for those who don’t care that Henry has come to visit us on March 3rd, they can experience Final Fantasy 3 instead.

Check out all the titles that will be leaving on February 28th (available to purchase at a 20 percent discount for Game Pass members):

• Monster Train (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Injustice 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 6 will arrive later this year for both platforms. Though previous ports have been rather hit or miss, the Pixel Remaster titles feature fully remastered sprites by veteran artist Kazuko Shibuya. The soundtrack has also been rearranged by Nobuo Uematsu, the original composer for the titles.

In terms of gameplay features, a modernized UI and auto-battle options have been added to get through some of the more tedious fights. There’s also an illustration gallery, music player and Bestiary. With previous versions of the ports being pulled from Steam, these are now the only ways to experience the classic RPGs on PC. Stay tuned for more details on the other titles in the meantime.

The trio discussed the development of each game and the stories behind them. It was also confirmed that each title’s pixel art characters have been fully remastered courtesy of pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, a veteran who’s been working on the franchise since Final Fantasy 1. The mention of “pixel art characters” seems to indicate that the backgrounds won’t be in the same style but that’s just conjecture.

A new trailer was revealed at the end of the presentation so expect that to go live sometime soon. Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster includes re-releases of Final Fantasy 1 to 6 with each title being available individually and in a complete bundle. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Though Square Enix didn’t outright confirm the same, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster could take an HD-2D route in terms of their visuals. This was seen in the recently announced Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake and series creator Yuji Horii has said that he’d like to see similar remakes for Dragon Quest 1 and 2. Again, it’s all speculation as to whether Final Fantasy 1 to 6 are indeed being remastered in this way.

Square Enix will also be revisiting Final Fantasy 1’s world but from a different perspective in Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. Developed by Team Ninja, the action hack and slash title is out in 2022 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4 and PC with a demo coming soon to PS5. Stay tuned for more details on that in the coming months as well.

One of those classics will be getting a remake very soon (or, well, the first part of a remake, at any rate), when Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches on April 10, and in the lead-up to that, we (and millions of others) have been looking back on the highs and lows of the series over the years. In this feature, we’ll be taking a look at all the mainline numbered Final Fantasy games, and ranking them from worst to best.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

#16. FINAL FANTASY 14 (ORIGINAL RELEASE)

Final Fantasy 14 came at a time when the series as a whole was perhaps in the worst shape of its life. Final Fantasy 13 had been come across as something of a disappointment in 2009, and the fact that FF14 was an MMORPG meant that quite a few automatically lost interest as well. It didn’t help that when the game launched, it was utter crap (to put it mildly). Thanks to being terribly unpolished, being ridden with performance issues, featuring an interface that was a nightmare to navigate, and core interaction, exploration, and combat mechanics that were an absolute chore, the original Final Fantasy 14 was perhaps the biggest misstep this series ever made. Of course, Square Enix did manage to turn things around, to the extent that Final Fantasy 14 as we know it today is probably one of the best games in the series- but we’ll get to that soon enough.

According to Square Portal, Square-Enix Japan announced that Final Fantasy III will release simultaneously with the OUYA in March 2013. They’ve also stated their desire to provide more content for the Ouya in the future.

Final Fantasy III will be optimized for the Ouya, including a playable demo to be released. Will this affect other developers’ interest in the revolutionary new device?

Whatever be the case, big publishers embracing the innovation rather than acting against is nothing but good news. Hopefully this will lead to the Ouya’s rise, much like the rise of Android smartphones and tablets.

Source: DarkZero