‘It’s difficult to comment’ On Why There Is No Final Fantasy or Nier Collab in Astro Bot: Nicolas Doucet

Astro Bot has already made people go up in a frenzy over it. This PlayStation 5 exclusive 3D platformer has been released on September 6, 2024. In just a few days of its release, the game notched a superb score of 94 on Metacritic. The predecessor of this game, Astro’s Playroom, was a free teach demo for the dual sense controller and was included in every PS5.

The main USP of the game is the inclusion of over 150 characters from iconic PlayStation games. Almost all the games have made it into this epic platform title, but some characters from a famous game publishing company are not in this game. And even Team Asobi doesn’t know the reason for it.

No Square Enix Characters in Astro Bot

Astro Bot is set in the world of PlayStation with popular characters from OG games like Uncharted, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, The Last of Us, and many more. However, there were no characters from any of the Square Enix titles like Final Fantasy, NieR: Automata, and many more, which is quite surprising considering the importance of these games in PlayStation exclusivity.

Team Asobi head, Nicolas Doucet, was pretty hopeful of having Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 as a VIP bot in Astro Bot. But when Game File asked him about his absence, this is what he replied:

It’s difficult to comment on that. We really respect the choice of each publisher.

That means Team Asobi clearly wanted to have Cloud in their game but they don’t have any clue why Square Enix didn’t let that happen. However, this decision from the Japanese gaming studio is quite shocking, as Doucet stated, despite hoping that “maybe half” of the characters the team approached would be greenlit, most “partners just raised their hands and said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Free DLC in Astro Bot

The absence of popular Square Enix characters might disappoint you, but one new aspect of the game is going to make you jump off your bed. Team Asobi has recently announced a DLC for Astro Bot that too is free, which will be released this fall.

This announcement was made at the recently concluded PlayStation’s State of Play event, with a new trailer. The new expansion will come with 5 brand-new online speedrun water/ice and jungle-themed levels.

Along with it, there will be 10 new Special Bots as well, whom players have to rescue. Last but not least, the game will receive four different Helldivers makeup and Eve from Stellar Blade as new VIP bots to be rescued.

It’s astonishing that characters from games like Final Fantasy and NieR didn’t make into the Astro Bot roster. And more astonishing is that Square Enix never explained why they didn’t let its characters be in the game.

What’s your opinion on this? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.