Summary
Astro Botis finally here, andTeam Asobi’s fully-fledged mascot platformer has taken over the minds of players, having quickly enteredthe Game of the Year discourse. It’s an excellent platformer thatis as much a celebration of PlayStation’s 30 years as it is of the franchises that helped make gaming what it is today.
That said, while Astro Bot touts 300 collectible bots,with more on the way via upcoming DLC collabs with Stellar Blade and Helldivers,Final Fantasy was noticeably absent.
Of course, not every game made the cut, like SOCOM, but Final Fantasy, particularlyFinal Fantasy 7, has a distinctive history onPlayStation. For the time being, theFinal Fantasy 7 remake trilogyis an exclusive, as isFinal Fantasy 16. It was a pretty notable absence, and there might be a reason why.
In an interview with Game Fileandas transcribed by GamesRadar+, Team Asobi head, Nicolas Doucet, hinted that a Cloud cameo was in the works, though it never came to pass in the end due toSquare Enixnot approving.
“It’s difficult to comment on that,” Doucet said. “We really respect the choice of each publisher.”
For what it’s worth, the Buster Sword was in Astro’s Playroom,the packed-in tech demothat is on every brand-newPlayStation 5console. More so, Cloud is a character inNintendo’sSuper Smash Bros.In other words, it’s not like Square Enix hasn’t allowed its characters or properties to appear in non-Square video games, including Cloud himself.
It’s impossible to speculate why exactly Square would pass, especially considering the link between Final Fantasy 7 and PlayStation. More so, it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever know why it did. But at least we do know that Team Asobi did try, and that’s pretty much all you can ask for.
