Ever Crisis Finally Brings Before Crisis to a Close—Then Shuts the Door

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is giving Before Crisis a proper ending with barely six weeks left before the entire game disappears. “Turks Encirclement,” the third and final chapter of Ever Crisis’ condensed Before Crisis adaptation, arrives August 26 at 7:00 PM PDT. Then the clock runs down to October 6, when Square Enix shuts the servers at 11:00 PM PDT and deletes account information.

That is a brutal way to handle a story that spent two decades effectively locked outside Japan. Before Crisis began life as a 2004 Japanese flip-phone game, putting players in the role of an unnamed Turk during the events surrounding the original Final Fantasy VII. Ever Crisis finally gave global players an official route into that missing piece of Compilation history — then compressed it into three chapters and put an expiration date on the result.

“Turks Encirclement” is a finale, not a routine patch

The August 26 update closes the Before Crisis thread in Ever Crisis. Its title points directly at the Turks, Shinra’s covert operators, whose perspective was the entire hook of the original mobile game. For players who have followed the wider Final Fantasy VII Compilation through Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus, this is the remaining oddity: a major prequel chapter that most Western fans could only know through summaries, fan translations, and scattered references.

Ever Crisis was always built as a chapter-based condensation machine. It retells material from Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Before Crisis, and Dirge of Cerberus while also adding younger-Sephiroth material. That format makes sense for a live-service mobile RPG. It is far less convincing when the service is ending and the chapter carrying a long-lost game’s finale gets one short lap around the track.

Square Enix has not detailed chapter-specific missions, combat changes, unlock requirements, or rewards for Turks Encirclement. Players should treat it as story-first until the update is live rather than assuming a new permanent mode or a generous farewell event is waiting behind it.

The real problem is preservation, and Square Enix has not solved it

Ever Crisis launched on iOS and Android in September 2023, followed by Steam in December 2023. It will last a little over three years. That is a normal lifespan for plenty of mobile games; it is a lousy lifespan for a project sold partly as an accessible archive of Final Fantasy VII history.

The game’s final months underline the contradiction. Chapter 12, “Battle for the Planet,” arrived August 12, bringing Cloud’s party back to Bugenhagen as he teaches them about Holy while Shinra prepares its Mako ray. A 13th and final chapter of the base-game adaptation is still planned for September. The team is continuing to ship story right up to the cutoff. Players will have access to that work only as long as the servers remain online.

There is no announced offline mode, archive client, or post-service story viewer. There is no announced plan for preserving Turks Encirclement after October 6. The uncomfortable question for Square Enix is simple: why spend resources officially adapting Before Crisis for a global audience if the finished version is still designed to vanish?

Completionists should stop treating this like a normal roadmap

The useful priority list is short because the remaining window is short. Clear Turks Encirclement as soon as it unlocks on August 26. Finish any story chapters still sitting in the backlog. Then clean up active events, outstanding quests, and shop purchases before the October 6 shutdown.

• August 26, 7:00 PM PDT: Play Before Crisis Chapter 3: “Turks Encirclement” immediately.
• Before October 6, 11:00 PM PDT: Finish unfinished story and time-limited event content.
• Before shutdown: Spend any remaining Red Crystals. Sales ended July 7 at 7:00 PM PDT, but owned currency remains usable until service ends.
• Do not wait for a rescue plan: Square Enix has not announced farewell login rewards, an extra September campaign, offline access, or a preservation option.

Steam is also a dead end for newcomers: new installations were suspended on July 7. The live version remains available through the App Store and Google Play, but anyone returning should confirm they can still access their existing account before spending hours on a final push.

September is the last thing worth watching

The promised final chapter of Ever Crisis’ base Final Fantasy VII adaptation is the remaining major story beat on the board. Square Enix has not announced its exact date or title, and it has not confirmed any final campaign built around the October 6 closure. That makes September the last meaningful test of whether the game receives a thoughtful send-off or simply reaches the end of its content queue.

For now, Turks Encirclement is the priority. Before Crisis deserved more than a three-chapter speedrun with a server shutdown attached, but this is the official version global players finally received. Play it while it exists. Square Enix has left no reason to assume it will survive the curtain call.