Square Enix has announced Beyond the Lifestream, Final Fantasy 14: Evercold’s first eight-player raid and the game’s first major collaboration with Final Fantasy 7. The three-tier raid begins in patch 8.01 shortly after Evercold launches in January 2027, bringing prominent FF7 creative staff into the project and potentially featuring many characters from the series. It matters because it expands FF14’s long-running crossover approach with one of Square Enix’s most recognisable games.

Players will be able to tackle the raid in normal, savage and a new intermediate difficulty, while Motomu Toriyama co-writes its story, Kazushige Nojima supervises it and Tetsuya Nomura oversees art design. Separately, an FF7-themed Gold Saucer activity, Keybound Brawler, launches on 28 October as a multiplayer typing game, initially rewarding Barret and Tifa costumes. Evercold will also include an Evangelion-themed 24-player raid and launches for Switch 2, PS5, PC and Xbox Series X.