Square Enix decided to throw their hat into the ring this year for the first time since 2015 with an E3 “video conference” showing off some of their upcoming games. There was some cool announcements, some glaring absences, and a bit more information about some of their bigger franchises.

Surprisingly they didn’t show even a teaser or mention of the Final Fantasy 7 remake, or the Avengers game which they announced last year. Although it may be a little early for Avengers that doesn’t bode well for the FF7 remake which was first announced during the 2015 E3, and which they have had some pretty public development issues with. Having said that, they did have plenty of other stuff to share with us.

The first thing we got to see in the short half an hour presentation was some gameplay of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We got to see a clip from in-game of Lara stalking some enemies and taking them out one by one, then heard some more information about the game from a developer including the reveal that the game will have underwater exploration in a throwback to the original games from the franchise.

The MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 has been and remains quite huge for Square Enix and their support of the game is continuing with further updates. Monster Hunter World is also continuing to grow and a crossover between the two is coming soon. We also got to see the trailer for Captain Spirit which was first shown at the Xbox conference yesterday, and heard a little more about how it fits into the Life Is Strange universe. Captain Spirit is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One for free on June 26th.

We saw a new trailer for the next entry in a beloved franchise: Dragon Quest XI Echoes Of An Elusive Age, coming to PS4 and PC on 4th September 2018. The presentation also had a few new game reveals such as a brand new IP coming to PS4 and Steam in 2019 from Platinum Games: Babylon’s Fall. Another brand new IP that we got to see was The Quiet Man coming to PS4 and Steam. Although we didn’t get to see much we learned that the protagonist is a deaf man, and the game features some third person brawling. We will learn more about this game in August.

One of my favourite announcements so far from this E3 was the reveal at the Xbox showcase of Just Cause 4. Square Enix gave us more information about this huge title including sharing details about the brand new Apex engine which gives the game dynamic weather including tornados, blizzards, sandstorms, and more. We also got to see new vehicles like bulldozers, cranes, and wrecking balls, and upgrades to the grappling hook including airlifters to and more tethers to really open up the gameplay opportunities for the player.

Square Enix closed out their video conference with the Kingdom Hearts 3 Frozen trailer which we saw at Xbox. Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on January 29th 2019.

All in all this presentation was a little bit lacklustre, although that is obviously because of the expectation that we would see more of FF7 or Avengers. Their lineup is still pretty impressive, and it showed that they definitely have a lot coming up. You can watch the entire presentation below: