Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIV is receiving a spinoff manga series that will debut later this year.
According to Gamer, the series, titled Shiritsu Eorzea Gakuen (Academia Eorzea), will be illustrated by Esora Amaichi under the supervision of the "FFXIV Team." The story will depict the school lives of Alisaie, Alphinaud and other characters from the popular multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
Final Fantasy XIV was released in August 2013, replacing the failed 2010 version of the game. It was directed and produced by Naoki Yoshida (Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, Dragon Quest X) with Hideyuki Kasuga serving as lead programmer, Kazutoyo Maehiro writing the story, Masayoshi Soken composing the music and Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida and Takeo Suzuki handling the art direction. The game was an overwhelming financial success, becoming the 16th best-selling PC game of 2013 in the United States and the 32nd besting-selling PlayStation 3 game in Japan. Its strong sales numbers helped Square Enix return to profitability in 2014 after extremely poor fiscal reports the year prior.
By October 2013, the game had one and a half million registrations and Final Fantasy XIV's popularity has only continued to grow; by August 2018, the game had over 14 million registered players, which increased to more than 22 million by April 2021. Earlier this year, Square Enix revealed that it is the most profitable game in the Final Fantasy franchise to date.
The new Shiritsu Eorzea Gakuen (Academia Eorzea) manga series isn't the only new release Final Fantasy fans have to look forward to in December: Final Fantasy XIV's latest major expansion, Endwalker, will be released on Dec. 7.
The release of Endwalker will be followed up with two new Final Fantasy games in early 2022. Chocobo GP will be a cartoony, Mario Kart-style racing game. The game will be an exclusive release for the Nintendo Switch and will feature fan-favorite characters like Vivi, Gilgamesh and Shiroma. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an action role-playing game that follows a group of characters who are transported to a fantasy world in order to fight the malevolent Chaos. A Mar. 18, 2022 premiere date has been confirmed for the game, which will be released on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
Shiritsu Eorzea Gakuen (Academia Eorzea) is expected to debut on the Manga Up! smartphone app on Dec. 24 in Japan. It is currently unknown if the manga series will receive an international or North American release. Final Fantasy XIV is playable on PS4, PS5, PC and macOS.
Source: Gamer, via Anime News Network
