BODY: A game that launched as one of Square Enix's flagship releases is now cheaper than a bowl of ramen in Tokyo.
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is on sale for ¥986 — roughly US$6.50 — on both the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo Store in Japan. That's 85% off, implying a list price of around ¥6,573. The discount runs until 11:59pm JST on November 20, after which the price snaps back.
The sale covers the PS5 version and the Nintendo Switch 2 release, which is notable in itself: Square Enix is discounting its newest platform port at the same depth as the two-year-old PlayStation edition rather than holding the Switch 2 version at full price to protect launch revenue.
For anyone unfamiliar, Rebirth is the middle chapter of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, covering the party's journey out of Midgar and across the wider world — the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, the Temple of the Ancients. It's a 60-to-100-hour RPG depending on how much of the open-world side content you chase, which makes the price-per-hour here faintly absurd.
One practical caveat: this is a Japanese-storefront price. Players outside Japan with region-locked accounts won't see it, and account-region workarounds carry their own risks with payment methods and support.
The insider take
Deep discounts on mainline Final Fantasy titles used to be close to unthinkable in Japan — Square Enix historically held prices firm for years, treating the series' premium positioning as part of the brand. That has visibly shifted. Publishers here have learned that the pre-holiday window, right before the December fukubukuro and year-end spending rush, is the best moment to convert curious lapsed players into owners. And there's a strategic read: with the trilogy's finale still ahead, every ¥986 copy of Rebirth sold now is a customer who arrives at part three already invested. Pair that with a weak yen that makes Japanese storefront prices look like clearance abroad, and this is less a fire sale than a carefully timed installed-base play.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).