In 2018 Square was planning to announce a new game they had secretly been working on. Developed by Retro Studios of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns fame, this untitled masterpiece of a first person shooter would see players thrust into the role of an ordinary human from our world mysteriously thrust into the game's fantasy setting and transformed into one of Square's lovable Moogle creatures. From there players would be free to explore the game world to discover not just why they were transported and transformed, but how they may get back home. Featuring a blend of familiar RPG elements with the tried-and-true FPS open world formula, players would have needed to navigate a unique Final Fantasy setting (though one with many elements to Ivalice of Final Fantasy Tactics and 12 fame) where no world-ending catastrophe is in sight, but the fragile peace is on the brink of an armed uprising against the the ruling monarchy as taxes soar and ideologies clash.

Unfortunately, late April of 2018 the game was quietly cancelled due in part to the subject matter being deemed too alienating for investors. In a now-deleted tweet from former Retro employee Bobby Hill, Square was also uncomfortable with the idea of letting a Western developer touch its IPs, and investor hesitation was the perfect opportunity to pull the plug. Lost Games Weekly has reached out to Retro for comment, but as of this writing (3/29/2022) has not received any response from the studio. Pictured above is an early scan from GameInformer which would have contained an article on the recently announced game. Captions had not yet been written, and according to Lost Games Weekly's anonymous insider working for the gaming magazine, this early test put in place plans for the final page to be printed in black and white to save costs on ink. The image appears to contain multiple snippets of gameplay (featuring magic, boats, melee and ranged weapons, a questionably designed rabbit girl, gruesome healing animations similar to those seen in the Far Cry series, Chocobo riding, and more), as well as pre-rendered artwork of the player character discovering their new form within a mirror, seemingly from their own perspective.

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