Square Enix announced a new tabletop board game inspired by Final Fantasy 7: Ascend the Shinra Tower. Co-developed by Japanese studio Arclight, Inc, Ascend the Shinra Tower will release in January 2027 ($34.99), weirdly just missing the holiday season.
Before you get too excited about the prospect of a cooperative Final Fantasy board game, this looks like a bit more like tower balancing game Jenga (or Animal Upon Animal). Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Players take turns stacking new floor tiles on top of wall tiles, and placing their Final Fantasy meeples on higher and higher floors. But as the tower gets higher, it becomes more unstable, threatening to throw everyone overboard.
Players will also have to deal with enemies and villains such as Sephiroth.
Everyone wins if they can make it to the eighth floor before tumbling over.
The charming wooden meeples with printed art may be worth the price of admission alone. The chibi-like character art for Cloud, Tifa, and others are described as a “fresh re-imagining,” and has been supervised by original character designer Tetsuya Nomura.
Ascend the Shinra Tower – Final Fantasy 7 Board Game is designed for 1-5 players, with a recommended age of 13+, which feels weirdly high for a relatively straight-forward balance game.
Pre-orders for Ascend the Shinra Tower are available now on the Square Enix store.
