Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Hits Japanese PSN

Square Enix's watershed PlayStation title Final Fantasy VII is now available for PS3 and PSP via the PlayStation Network in Japan -- with no news yet on a U.S. debut. The version made available is the Japanese-language international edition, which features several tweaks made to the original game when it was released in the West -- mostly usability streamlining of the menu display and materia system, plus an additional cutscene clarifying Cloud's opaque past. According to consumer weblog Kotaku, the International Version of FFVII is priced at ¥1,500 ($14.93) on the Japanese PlayStation Network. The game is currently not available on other PlayStation stores, and plans to release it elsewhere have not been announced. Final Fantasy VII came out on PlayStation in 1997, and a PC version launched a year later. It follows an amnesiac mercenary and a team of resistance fighters in their quest to save their dystopian world from a power-hungry energy company, and stop the personal revenge mission of a rogue super-soldier. It's arguably the entry in Square Enix's long-running series with the largest and most loyal fanbase, and has spawned a PSP game prequel, Crisis Core. FFVII has also seen an animated prequel, a mobile title and a CGI film, Advent Children, which is just about to receive a director's cut re-release on Blu-ray in Japan and the U.S., among legions of other merchandise and spinoffs.