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A little less than a month ago, Square Enix released Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade for the PlayStation 5. It proved to be a fine next-gen upgrade, not the least because it finally upgraded all those pesky doors, but it’s biggest selling point was definitely the DLC episode starring Yuffie — Final Fantasy 7’s high-energy ninja from Wutai.

Yuffie’s episode received strong reviews from multiple publications, which lauded its fresh take on the established combat system, its worldbuilding, and of course, Yuffie herself. It proved to be a microcosm for both the strengths and weaknesses of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, its sparkling worldbuilding occasionally undercut by sequences that could be slow and repetitive. Happily, Yuffie’s story generally moved briskly, never quite outstaying its welcome while also offering a tantalizing taste of what’s to come in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, which is now in full production.

Speaking with IGN over email, co-director Motomu Toriyama talked about the role the intermission plays in the larger story, and how it sets the stage for Cloud and company to meet Yuffie in a later installment. “As Cloud and company prepare to leave Midgar in the base game, so does Yuffie. Later, Cloud and his allies will end up encountering Yuffie in the expansive world outside of Midgar. By playing both the base game and [Episode Intermission], I think you’ll be able to understand where they are coming from, from an emotional perspective, and so I recommend playing through both.”

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In the DLC, Yuffie is an agent dispatched to steal a massive piece of materia rumored to be in development at Shinra Headquarters. She teams up with Sonon, a staff-wielding series newcomer who mostly reacts to Yuffie’s rapid patter of quips with dry asides. Their fast friendship serves as the emotional core of the DLC, an element that extends even to the gameplay, which is based on the pair sycing up their attacks for large amounts of damage.

Like the base remake, Yuffie’s story is grounded at least in part in nostalgia. Much of it is set in established areas in and around Midgar, with a variety of familiar faces making appearances throughout. Scarlet, a diabolical Shinra executive who gets comparatively little screentime in the original game, is one of the main villains — another example of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s expert melding of the familiar with the new.

“There were many things we learned from the reception of [Final Fantasy 7 Remake] since its release, but I feel that the response was especially great for the elements we remade while being cognizant to pay homage to the source material, and I recall players’ reactions were very positive,” says co-director Naoki Hamaguchi. “I don’t want to limit it to just this title; I am reminded that for the next installment, it’s of utmost importance not to damage the memories from the source material while reimagining it so it surpasses people’s expectations.”

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In that light, Square Enix’s decision to have Episode Intermission run concurrently with Cloud’s adventure makes sense. It allows the development team to reuse some already established environments while providing a different perspective on familiar events. But it wasn’t always that way.

In an interesting twist, Hamaguchi says that writer Kazushige Nojima originally had a very different vision for Episode Intermission. “To be honest, when Mr. Kazushige Nojima turned in the initial draft of the [Episode Intermission] scenario, the story was going to take place at a different time from the events of [Final Fantasy 7 Remake], but we had him adjust it so that it happens simultaneously — while Cloud and his allies were on their adventure in Midgar,” he says. “I had a strong desire for the story of [Episode Intermission] to allow those who played [Final Fantasy 7 Remake] to experience the lore more deeply. As a result, we were able to dive deeper into Avalanche HQ, Wutai, the Shinra Building basement, etc. which were only touched upon in the base game of the remake — and this time from Yuffie’s perspective. As such, I’m hoping it turned out to be something our fans were able to enjoy.”

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Another element that the team reimagined for the Yuffie DLC was the Fort Condor minigame. Named for a sidequest in the original game where you defended a giant condor from encroaching Shinra forces, it was reimagined for the DLC as more of a small-scale board game. The minigame has been lauded by many fans as addictive, putting it in the grand tradition of such classics as Triple Triad and Blitzball.

Hamaguchi says Fort Condor was an element he struggled the most with, as he knew it couldn’t just be a “half-baked” homage to the original. “At the start of development, I worked one-on-one with the game designer until we solidified the gameplay; even after the gameplay was solidified, I played it every day and pointed out areas that needed adjustments,” Hamaguchi says. “The person handling the adjustments for the difficulty level is really good with numbers, so there were times when the difficulty was raised without advanced notice… I remember still messing with it right up to finalizing the master build (laughs).”

The development team can only offer hints about what’s to come in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, but they do make for some tantalizing tidbits. Among other things, Toriyama says that it will “probably be a while until Wutai is showcased in earnest” owing to its distance from Midgar, but that “perhaps there may be a new aspect to things depicted along the way.”

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Hamaguchi, meanwhile, says that he’s happy with how the first part made players feel like they’re “experiencing a movie through the gameplay,” but that the second part will have unique challenges. “As for improvement, or should I say “change,” moving forward — because the next installment will involve Cloud and company to leave Midgar and explore the world map, our next challenge will be to create gameplay that leverages the vastness of the world, unlike what we did in this current title.”

Director Tetsuya Nomura has previously said via an interview translated by a fan that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will pick up directly after the events of Intergrade, and that the atmosphere will be “quite different from Part 1.” In particular, Cloud will be “running around a lot of nature.” Could this mean that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 has an overworld? We’ll just have to see.

In any case, Final Fantasy 7 Remake continues to be a roaring success, with Yuffie’s story once again demonstrating the love and care Square Enix has taken in translating its most popular game for the modern era. You can read our review of the original release here, as well as insights into its famous pole dancing scene and more. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 does not yet have a release date.

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Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN. Yes, Yuffie is her favorite character.

This year’s E3 was strange, for a lot of reasons. Outside of Microsoft and Nintendo presence and a handful of show-stoppers from third-parties, big AAA games took a backseat to games outside of that high price bracket. As a developer who operates in a team of 3 with the occasional part-time contractor or two, this was quite exciting at first; E3 isn’t usually a place where smaller-scale games get too much of the spotlight. 

However, the way these games were packaged made me feel uneasy. This year’s E3 made me feel like the definition of both AAA games and indie games are becoming more and more opaque. AAA is being compressed into a fewer number of mega-budget titles, and the term ‘indie’ feels more and more like it’s being stretched to encompass… everything else. 

I don’t want to define “indie” in explicit terms. What I do want to posit is that we may be approaching the point where “indie” is no longer a practical term on its own and it might be time to reassess how we talk about these games.

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How ‘Indie’ Gained Prominence in the 2010’s

Up front, there’s an elephant in the room here. “Indie” has always been a nebulous term in the games industry. In the decade or so that I’ve been working in games I can’t think of a time when the definition of the label wasn’t being actively discussed. 

It’s a debate that has always trailed off sooner or later. Does it refer to production scope? Artistic priorities? Self-publishing? There is no satisfying answer because it’s difficult to define “indie” without boxing out at least some developers who rely on it. 

The closest thing to a universal consensus is “you know indie when you see it.” This means that even though the definition is loose, it is a label that can still be practical when used in context. “Indie” doesn’t need greater clarity than that, because the game that you are talking about is what defines the label when it’s used.  

So, how did we get here? Much of this current language around indie games is informed by the early 2010s indie boom. During the start of the decade there was an influx of commercial games by teams of 1-5 people; Super Meat Boy, Fez and Thomas Was Alone to name a few. This movement only grew as Steam opened its doors to more developers. Shortly after Sony and Microsoft began to actively encourage small studios to open dialogues with them in the interests of bringing games to their platforms (the Vita in particular began to be touted as a portable Steam machine). 

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This was all happening on the back of what many seemed to regard as something of a cultural lowpoint in mainstream video games, where “grey brown shooters” had saturated the AAA space. I’m not sure how fair that was, especially considering some of the fantastic games to come out between 2008-2010, but the sentiment that games were becoming homogenized was there nonetheless.

It was an environment that allowed a vibrant array of small games by hobbyists to rise to the surface, and small studios and alternative artists thrived more than ever in the marketplace. “Mid-tier” or “AA” games of course existed; Telltale’s Walking Dead, Tokyo Jungle and Spec Ops: the Line all arguably fall into this category (the definition of “AA” is just as ambiguous as “indie” is). However the dividing line between what was regarded as mainstream and what was indie was stark, normalized by the rise of let’s players and game streamers around the same time. What does “indie” mean if you’re in the mid-2010s? Point to one of the many cover shooters from the generation just gone and say “not that.” 

The Many Different Types of ‘Indie’ Games

So what does “indie” mean in 2021? Depending on who you ask, an indie game could be made for itch.io by a scrappy team of 1-2 newbies, or it could also be a game with a $5,000,000+ budget, a team of 15-20 industry veterans and major platform support.

And you know what? That might be fine, or at the very least there might not be any value in trying to fight against it. The label is going to continue to encompass more and more games so long as that remains a valuable marketing tool, in that a promising project does become more notable when the narrative around it is that it’s made by a small group of developers working outside the mainstream.

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Though this isn’t strictly true in the case of many games slapped with the “indie” label, it’s certainly not my place to tell any studio how they should identify themselves. I don’t believe better-financed developers accept the label in bad faith, or that anyone’s coasting on it. Every developer I’ve met works hard, and with “indie” meaning so many things to different people, I can understand why someone on a team of 15-30 developers could reasonably feel that they are. 

But I believe the label has been oversaturated,  and there are also developers who would prefer to market their games outside of it, due to the scope, or tone, of their projects.  “We call Silent Games a ‘AA’ or ‘Double A’ studio for a few reasons, mainly that our studio size is probably larger than what I’d consider ‘Indie’ and we have intentions to grow larger in the future,” said Silent Games CEO Sally Blake (formally of Ubisoft) on the topic. “There are currently 15 of us and we will continue to expand over the coming years.”

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Tonally, Silent Games’ projects sit outside of both the indie space and the AAA space, Blake continued. “I feel like ‘indie’ has been associated with a certain vibe or aesthetic…” she said. “We also thought carefully about giving the right impression to players about the scope of the game as we don’t want to be accidentally mistaken for a AAA studio, even though we are aiming to create a high-quality game.”

As a co-founder of a smaller studio myself, this kind of clarity is appreciated. It’s difficult to be on a 1-5 person team when looking at Hades’ almost 20 person team, or Hellblade’s AAA-plus motion capture experienced team, or 12 Minutes’ star-studded cast, and seeing “Indie” in their most popular Steam tags. In an industry where overwork and unfeasible production pressures are already rampant, the concern that those games might be setting the standards that your game is going to be held to is a sympathetic one.

It certainly means now more than ever it’s important for smaller developers to set expectations through whatever channels they have available, to clue audiences into what their game is once people find it. 

But what if no one ever finds it?

‘Indie’ Is Too Broad a Brush

Whether you’re an outlet looking to highlight games by small teams, a streamer looking for indie games with alternative mechanics, or even just a lover of games who wants to support interesting new talent – searching for these games can be really difficult. Indie labels on most storefronts contain any game smaller than Control. Finding press about indie games is also difficult, as articles that make an earnest attempt to spotlight indie games are also broad in scope. I’m sympathetic to the games press in this situation, too. I have no idea how I’d begin to sift through the dozens of interesting small games that come out every week without developers using better language to delineate them with. 

“Indie” appears to no longer serve the function it once did, but newer, more appropriate language hasn’t emerged to replace it. We are at a point in time when more games are being released than ever before, yet we lack the vocabulary to easily differentiate, and by extension, spotlight, some of the most interesting or ambitious ones. 

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I do want to stress that this is only an issue because games are more diverse, creative and ambitious than they ever have been. More developers are making games of varying scopes, styles and perspectives than ever before, something I believe Microsoft’s Xbox showcase at E3 2021 did a decent job of reflecting. In that showcase, games were treated as games rather than segregated into ‘AAA’ and ‘indie’ blocks, and sat next to one another without regard for their scope or budget. That is how far past the binary we are now, and that’s an incredible thing. 

I do think, however, that if we don’t change the language we’re using when talking about anything less than the splashiest, most expensive games, a lot stands to slip through the cracks. Does that concern me as a developer? Sure, of course it would. But it’s the player in me, the fan of the offbeat and quirky, who feels that loss the most, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

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Dan Pearce is a Game Director and co-founder at Four Circle Interactive, developer of 10 Second Ninja X and an upcoming unannounced project. He has worked in the games industry at a small scale for over a decade and formerly developed the BAFTA nominated Castles in the Sky at The Tall Trees. 

While Chris Pratt has faced off against plenty of foes on-screen, there is someone in Hollywood that he knows he can’t take in a fight. In an appearance on The Late Show with James Corden promoting his new science-fiction movie The Tomorrow War, Pratt told an anecdote about how he challenged his Guardians of the Galaxy co-star Dave Bautista to a wrestling match.

Pratt began his story by saying that he used to have a habit of taking sleeping aids like Ambien to help him get rest, which led to him occasionally blacking out and sending texts that he would forget about the next day.

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“[Bautista] comes and says ‘Hey man, that text you sent last night.’ And I go, ‘What text?’ And [Dave] goes ‘You don’t remember?'” Pratt says, before launching into an imitation of Bautista’s belly laugh.

“[The text] was like, ‘Dave, I wanna wrestle you,'” Pratt recounted. “‘I want to wrestle you. Nobody needs to know, but I just want to know. I think I can take you. I think I can wrestle you, bro. Like collegiate rules, no elbows, no knees. I just wanna feel the power…’ I was mortified. Dave would kill me so fast.”

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Pratt and Bautista are set to co-star in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The Marvel sequel will release on May 5, 2023. Although MCU characters frequently make reappearances in later films, Bautista has stated that the film will “probably be the end of Drax.”

In our review of The Tomorrow War, IGN gave the film a 3, calling it “astonishingly bad” and saying it has “big and loud action, but nothing to rattle you to your core.”

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

There was a time before Marvel Studios began producing its own TV shows for Disney Plus, that there were a bunch of different Marvel shows already on TV with dubious connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And director James Gunn says that even shows like Agents of SHIELD don’t really count.

In the pre-Disney Plus era, there were quite a number of different Marvel TV shows. Netflix had its own inter-connected Defenders universe featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, which had only the loosest connection to the MCU.

There was also ABC Disney-produced shows like Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter which directly referenced the MCU, and both Agent Coulson and Agent Carter were in MCU films themselves.

But in a Twitter thread Gunn started about actors who are in both the MCU and the DC Universe, the director says he doesn’t include pre-WandaVision shows in the MCU. 

Not including pre-Wandavision shows in MCU.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 1, 2021

That’s incorrect. There was never any coordination between the earlier TV stuff & the cinematic side of Marvel like there is now that they’re all under the purview of Marvel Studios.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 2, 2021

The director justifies this by saying there was “never any coordination between the earlier TV stuff & the cinematic side of Marvel like there is now.”

The history between Marvel Television and Marvel Studios is tricky for sure. After the success of Phase 1 and The Avengers, Marvel Television spun up Agents of SHIELD at Disney-owned ABC Studios.

And while there were entire seasons dedicated to the events that happen in the movies — season 2’s storyline about SHIELD after the events of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, for example — the show and films never crossed over. Other shows produced by Marvel Television like Hulu’s Legion and Runaways, or the Netflix Marvel shows, were even further distanced from the MCU.

Eventually, Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige now oversees every Marvel property, film and TV, as Chief Creative Officer of Marvel.

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This has put Marvel’s pre-Disney Plus TV history into a bit of limbo. Marvel Studios technically inherited all of the shows produced by Marvel Television, but so far none of the movies or Disney Plus shows acknowledge their existence. 

Even when Agents of SHIELD was on the air, the references were always a one-way street with the show acknowledging the movies, but not vice versa.

That hasn’t stopped fans from speculating over potential crossovers, though. Charlie Cox, who played Daredevil for Netflix, remains a popular figure among fans who hope to see the actor again as Daredevil in a proper MCU movie. But that’s just a wish for now.

Gunn is getting ready to premiere his take on The Suicide Squad before going back into the MCU to direct the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Do you agree with Gunn’s take on the MCU? Let us know.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Although BioWare has confirmed that Dragon Age 4 won’t be part of EA Play Live 2021, a new piece of concept art was unveiled that will hopefully make the wait for more info a bit easier to bear.

Dragon Age 4 executive producer Christian Dailey shared the image on Twitter, and it gives us a brand new look at the Antivan Crows and may hint at them having an important role to play in the game’s story.

“Hi Friends – sorry for no EA Play news this year but please know that the team is heads down with a lot of momentum and making great progress,” Daley wrote. “We are excited to share more when the time is right. Please stay safe and have a great weekend! @SerGoldman @dragonage“

The Antivan Crows are an elite group of thieves, spies, and assassins and were first introduced in Dragon Age: Origins. Zevran Arainai, who is a potential companion in Origins, was once part of this organization.

This concept art joins others revealed by Dailey that gave a look at a mage in Minrathous, a helmeted archer character, and a possible tease of the return of the Grey Wardens.

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The EA Play Live 2021 showcase, which also won’t feature any news on the next Mass Effect, will take place on July 22. Prior to the show, there will be four events in the EA Play Live Spotlight Series that will feature such games as Battlefield 2042, Apex Legends, and more.

For more on Dragon Age 4, check out the latest look at the much-anticipated game from The Game Awards 2021.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

After only one season, Lovecraft Country is coming to an end at HBO. The network has decided against moving forward with a continuation, as reported by Deadline.

“We will not be moving forward with a second season of Lovecraft Country,” HBO said in a statement. “We are grateful for the dedication and artistry of the gifted cast and crew, and to Misha Green, who crafted this groundbreaking series. And to the fans, thank you for joining us on this journey.

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The cancellation comes despite the series’ very strong word of mouth. Lovecraft Country debuted its first episode in August 2020. The season finale achieved a series high audience of 1.5 million viewers, becoming the most watched new episode of an original series on HBO Max in its first day on the streaming service. By the time the season had aired its finale, the Lovecraft Country premiere episode had managed to draw over 10 million viewers.

The decision against a second season is not completely surprising, as Lovecraft Country was adapted from the solo novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. However, HBO had been considering a continuation of the series. In October, showrunner Misha Green stated that she was in talks with the network about another season. She added that she envisioned a second season would “[carry] on the spirit of Matt Ruff’s novel by continuing to reclaim the genre storytelling space that people of color have typically been left out of.”

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In our review of the Lovecraft Country series finale, IGN gave the episode a 7, calling it “an ambitious, entertaining, and at times profoundly touching story that admirably aims for – and yet ultimately falls just shy of – its own lofty aspirations.”

For more, check out our rundown of every show that has been cancelled or is ending in 2021.

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Four members of the entertainment and esports organization FaZe Clan have been reprimanded following criticism of their shady cryptocurrency endorsement, with one individual ultimately getting fired from the group.

FaZe Jarvis (who was permanently banned from Fortnite in November 2019 for using an aimbot) Nikan, and Teeqo have been suspended indefinitely, while Kay has been removed from the team. In a Twitter statement, FaZe Clan said it doesn’t condone the actions of those involved with the scheme.

This comes after members of FaZe Clan, including Kay and Nikan, promoted a cryptocurrency token in late June that ended up imploding, causing the group’s millions of fans to reportedly lose thousands of dollars in a matter of minutes.

According to a Kotaku report, FaZe Clan and various other influencers like YouTuber Bryan “RiceGum” Quang Le urged followers to invest in a digital currency called “Save The Kids” that supposedly promised to donate a percentage of the proceeds to a charity via the Binance Charity Wallet. However, just as millions of people opened their wallets and handed over their cash, some of those who had taken part in a presale began “pumping and dumping,” a process in which investors sell their goods before the value plummets.

Not long after, the value of the “Save The Kids” cryptocurrency tanked. Those who bought in reported lost thousands and criticized FaZe Clan for it. FaZe Kay took to Twitter to apologize to everyone affected, saying it was “irresponsible of me to speak publicly about any coins without knowing more.”

But it seems the apology wasn’t enough. FaZe Clan announced on Twitter that it had fired Kay, giving him the worst punishment of those involved.

“FaZe Clan had absolutely no involvement with our members’ activity in the cryptocurrency space, and we strongly condemn their recent behaviour,” the organization concluded in its statement. “The trust and respect of our fans has been, and will always be, our number one priority.”

NetherRealm Studios has officially ended support for Mortal Kombat 11, bringing more than two years of updates, character releases, and additional story content to an end. The studio says it is now fully focused on its next project, which has yet to be announced.

Mortal Kombat 11 launched in March 2019 and has since received a lot of additional content. NetherRealm released two Kombat Packs for the fighter, introducing series-favorite characters such as Nightwolf, Sindel, and Mileena. The packs also featured some signature wildcard picks, including The Terminator and Spawn.

Last year NetherRealm also released a single-player expansion called Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. The story continued right from the conclusion of the time-hopping main campaign and introduced even more characters to the game, included Sheeva and RoboCop. If you’ve missed everything there’s an all-encompassing Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Edition, which includes all story content, characters, and additional skins released.

In the past, NetherRealm has announced its new projects every two years, making this year the first time in a while that its self-established pattern has been broken. It is also unclear yet if a new Injustice sequel will follow on from another core Mortal Kombat release like the series has in the past, with suggestions that NetherRealm might be working on something else entirely. There has been some suggestion that the studio might be working on a game with Marvel involved, with creative director Ed Boon fanning the flames on Twitter.

Mortal Kombat 11 was another great entry in the franchise since its successful reboot with Mortal Kombat in 2011. In GameSpot’s 9/10 Mortal Kombat 11 review, editor Edmond Tran praised the game’s wide appeal, writing, “MK11 isn’t just a sequel for series fans and NetherRealm devotees, it’s a gateway into the realm of fighting games for anyone who has a passing interest in watching ruthless warriors beat each other silly.”