'Final Fantasy 7' android release date news: Finally available on Android OS

"Final Fantasy VII," the critically and commercially successful role-playing video game that was first released in 1997, has finally been made available for Android devices.

The Android version of the game dropped on Wednesday, July 6 on Google Play, where it has since received mixed reviews.

"Final Fantasy VII" was originally intended for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System but was later developed for the Nintendo 64. Because the Nintendo 64's cartridges did not have enough storage capacity for the game's movie footage, Square Enix (then called Square) launched the game on Sony's PlayStation, thus helping popularize the now-ubiquitous console.

The game has spread across various platforms since.

In 2013, "Final Fantasy VII" arrived on Steam. It became available on iOS in August 2015 and on the PlayStation 4 in December 2015. There are now rumors of a possible remake coming to the PS4 in the near future.

The Android version of "Final Fantasy VII" will set players back at $15.99 and, being a big game, will take up more than 4GB of free space on Android devices. To download it, gamers will have to have an Android device running at least Android 4.1 with at least 1.9GB of memory.

Based on the game's description on Google Play, there are a couple of interesting new features in the Android version.

First, players can choose between a fixed 4-way digital control pad and a virtual analog control pad to play the game. Second, players can choose to turn off enemy encounters without skipping event battles.

Unfortunately, Square Enix warns that there is a nasty bug affecting the game that could make it crash and delete the player's data.

"Depending on the terrain and timing of the action, the buggy, submarines, airships, and other modes of transportation may cease to move when the player embarks or disembarks," Square Enix cautioned. "This bug occurs most often when players embark or disembark while extremely close to the terrain, as well as during time-sensitive activities for events."

According to Square Enix, the only way to remedy this is to restart "Final Fantasy VII" from a file saved before the bug caused the game to crash. The developer tells players to save their games frequently and to use multiple save files.