Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis shutting down means its Japan only, prequel phone game will remain unplayable

It was not particularly surprising to hear that Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, the other remake of Final Fantasy 7 that opts for a more faithful approach to the original game (if being filled with gacha rolls counts as faithful), is ending service. Square Enix have been ceasing development on pretty much every mobile game they have out at the moment, so why would this one be any different? It's a shame, though, not just because of the fact that it'll be completely inaccessible when it goes down, but because of its inclusion of Before Crisis.

Some context is necessary. You'll almost definitely be aware of the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, a project that sought to expand the world of Final Fantasy 7 through the likes of a movie sequel, a sequel to that movie about Vincent Valentine in the form of Dirge of Cerberus, and a prequel about the game's mysterious Zack Fair, all of which was set to be remade in Ever Crisis. What was also included in this project was a game called Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7, also a prequel game set six years before the events of the original focusing on the Turks. It was even directed by Final Fantasy 15's Hajime Tabata!

The problem is that Before Crisis was released exclusively on Japanese phones, and there's been no way to play them since then. I'm not even just talking legally here, as it currently stands there is no way to even emulate the entire game. But Ever Crisis was set to include a remake of Before Crisis, which would have marked its first availability in English. The first chapter did actually release yesterday alongside the end of service announcement, but it's obviously a bittersweet moment.

There's not even all that long to play it, as service for the game is set to end this coming October 6th. At the very least, there will be two more chapters of Before Crisis arriving in August and September respectively, though whether it adapts the entire thing or not is still up in the air. Hopefully Square Enix decide to pull a Final Fantasy Resonance and turn Ever Crisis into its own thing, if only for Before Crisis.