In 2016 Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII and IX on Android, but VIII was still missing from the collection, a point of contention with fans over the last few years. Well, out of nowhere, Square has just released Final Fantasy VIII Remastered on the Play Store, and it's on sale for $16.99 until April 4th, which is when the price of the JRPG will jump up to $20.99.

Above, you can watch the trailer for Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, and as you can see, this is the same as the remaster on PC, offering renewed character graphics as well as new features like a battle assist and a 3x speed boost to alleviate some of the grind. Sadly the Android port does not contain controller support or cloud saving, though Square says it will add these features at a later date.

You can grab the new Android version of Final Fantasy VIII Remastered for $16.99 until April 4th (then the price jumps to $20.99), though it would appear the PC version is currently on sale for .99, which kind of puts a damper on the Android sale for what is basically a 22-year-old game, especially when the Android port is missing needed features like cloud saves and controller support. Plus, once you take into account Square's history of lackluster support on Android, that $17 price tag and promise of upcoming features grows even tougher to swallow.

Still, I'm sure there are plenty of eager fans out there that are more than willing to cough up $17 to finally complete their collection of Final Fantasy games on Android. So if you'd like to snag your copy today while the game is on sale in celebration of its release, you can navigate to the Play Store listing through the widget at the bottom of the page.

UPDATE: 2021/08/31 6:48am PDT BY MATTHEW SHOLTZ

Square Enix just updated Final Fantasy VIII Remastered with controller and cloud save support

Square Enix released Final Fantasy VIII Remastered on mobile back in March, and at the time, the game was missing controller and cloud save support. Square promised a future update that would bring these features to mobile, and six months later, the developer has finally delivered on its promise. As of today, the mobile version of Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is now on version 1.0.1, which brings with it cloud saving functionality, controller support, a new help screen that explains the touch UI, as well as new UI customization options, along with a fix to addresses the broken Limit Break interactions. You can read the full changelog below.

WHAT'S NEW

Version 1.0.1 Released

[1.0.1 Changelog]

- Added cloud save functionality

- Added controller support

- Added UI help screen

- Added UI layout customization option

- You can now tap the screen for Limit Break interactions

- Added other minor fixes

For once, Square does mobile users right by adding features that should have been available on day one. Better late than never, I suppose, and so if you've been patiently waiting the last six months for controller support and cloud saving to be added to Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, today's the day. If you already own the game, simply update it to take advantage of the new features, and if you've yet to take the plunge, you can purchase a copy for $20.99 through the Play Store widget at the bottom of the page.