Predicting E3 2018: Square Enix

Published: June 6, 2018 2:00 PM /

Square Enix is known for many, many games nowadays. They have a treasure trove of IPs at their disposal, and many of them are world-renowned. Square Enix opted to skip having their own conference at both E3 2016 and E3 2017. This year, they’re back in action, which surely must mean they have something big to show. Just what might they have in store? Well, for starters …

The Obvious - It’d be more surprising if these didn’t show up

Kingdom Hearts III

We’ll kick things off with the most sure thing of the bunch: Kingdom Hearts III. Square recently held a preview event where they showed off a few sections of the game. During that event, Tetsuya Nomura mentioned that the company would announce the release date “early next month," indicating an early June time frame. Seeing as the Square Enix presentation falls in the first half of the month, it’s not hard to connect the dots. We should finally get a chance to see when we can get our hands on the hotly-anticipated title during this conference, which until recently had a vague window of 2018.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Another guaranteed showing, Shadow of the Tomb Raider also had a recent announcement event. During its reveal, people at the event were treated to a gameplay segment of the new title. This gameplay segment is going to be at E3, so it’s not much of a stretch to assume that’s going to be front and center during the presentation. Shadow of the Tomb Raider releases September 14th, 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Final Fantasy XV

Square announced in April that Final Fantasy XV is not finished. Square will release at least another year’s worth of content for the title. This includes four new DLC episodes centered around Ardyn, Aranea, Lunafreya, and Noctis. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see that Square would show off the newest entry in their flagship franchise at E3.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

The latest main entry in the storied Dragon Quest franchise came out to strong sales last year in Japan. At the end of March, Square announced a release date of September 4th for the PS4 and PC versions of the title, with the Switch version coming later on. This is a very big title for the company, so it’s definitely going to get coverage in some form at E3!

Life is Strange 2

Last year, DONTNOD announced Life is Strange 2. In the meantime between then and now, they released a prequel series, Before the Storm. Given the length of time between its reveal and also the fact that episodic games have ongoing development that means they can get the first part out sooner, it’s almost a certainty that Life is Strange 2 shows up at some point during the conference.

The Maybes - High risk, potentially high reward

Octopath Traveler

With a release date of July 13th, it’s a guarantee that Square Enix will at least mention Octopath Traveler at E3. It’s likely it’ll even be playable at the convention center. There’s not much to say regarding the likelihood of its presence; the Switch exclusive releases a month after E3, so Square Enix will want to promote it. It’s more a question of if they do so in their own conference or during Nintendo’s E3 showing.

The World Ends With You: Final Remix

Yet another Switch exclusive with a 2018 release window, it’s extremely likely that The World Ends With You: Final Remix will appear at E3. The only thing keeping it from being under the “obvious” category is the same as Octopath Traveler: Will they show it during their own conference, or will they show it during Nintendo’s E3 video?

Final Fantasy VII Remake

The announcement of a remake of Final Fantasy VII set the world on fire in 2016. Since then, we’ve gotten hardly any snippets of information about the game. It’s possible that they’ll have more to show two years later, but we don’t know for sure. The droplets of info Square gives may indicate it’s not ready to show just yet. We shall see.

Left Alive

Announced right before Tokyo Game Show last year, there’s at least a decent chance we’ll learn more about Left Alive at E3. This is mainly because, since its announcement, we’ve heard very little about the title. All we know so far is that it takes place in the same universe as the Front Mission series, so hopefully we hear more this year since it supposedly releases in 2018.

Dragon Quest Builders 2

Revealed in 2017, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an upcoming title for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. There’s no firm release date, and with Dragon Quest XI definitely releasing this year, we may not even get this game this year. However, it’s not impossible, and it’s still likely we’ll at least get some new information about the game.

The Don’t Hold Your Breaths - Better grab your good luck charm

Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT

This game came out to average-to-above average reviews, including a 7.0 from TechRaptor. Because of that, it’s not entirely likely we’ll hear much from Dissidia since it didn't get tons of hype. There are still some DLC characters to reveal, so it may show up, but they’ve been content revealing those characters one at a time at random times throughout the year so it doesn’t seem terribly likely to see this one at E3.

Final Fantasy XIV

After one of the most impressive turnarounds in recent memory, Final Fantasy XIV went from a catastrophic failure to a smash success in 2013. Since then, content has been releasing regularly to keep the game fresh. This includes two expansions: Heavensward in 2015 and Stormblood in 2017. It seems major content releases every two years. Since this is an off year, I don’t expect to see the game at E3 this time. What do you think of our predictions? Are there any that you agree or disagree with? Most importantly, do you think there are any Square Enix games that we might have missed?

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