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Final Fantasy 13-2 heading to Steam in December
Square Enix is following up on the recent Steam launch of Final Fantasy 13 with a PC version of its direct sequel Final Fantasy 13-2 next month. Square Enix previously revealed that all three formerly console-exclusive entries in Final Fantasy's Lightning Saga (Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, and Lightning Returns) would see a PC release via Steam. Final Fantasy 13 premiered for Valve's digital distribution service in October, offering a 60 frames-per-second presentation and platform-exclusive bonuses like Steam Trading Cards. Final Fantasy 13-2 is up for pre-order on Steam at a 10 percent discount ahead of its scheduled launch on December 11. A PC release date for Lightning Returns is not yet known. [Video: Square Enix]
Final Fantasy 13 trilogy heading to PC starting next month
PC versions of the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy were confirmed by Square Enix today, with the first game due to launch on October 9. Hints that the series was destined for PC surfaced earlier this week when Steam logos were spotted on Square Enix's official site for the games. Final Fantasy 13 will cost $16, and will be available through Square Enix's online store and Steam. Prices for the other two games in the series have not been announced. Those pre-ordering the game through Steam will receive a 10 percent discount ($14.39). Steam users will also have access to a set of unlockable Steam Trading Cards. The trilogy began in 2010 with Final Fantasy 13 followed by its sequels, Final Fantasy 13-2 in 2012 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 in February. Square Enix said it shipped over 11 million copies of the games in the trilogy worldwide to date. [Image: Square Enix]
Final Fantasy 13's new portal page has a Steam logo
In suspiciously timed news, Square Enix launched a new portal page for the Final Fantasy 13 saga that conspicuously features the Steam logo. The site, launched today, features the Steam image next to logos for already confirmed platforms. FF13, FF13-2 and Lightning Returns all initially released on Xbox 360 and PS3, and the trio are also coming to Japan's Dive In mobile streaming app, as announced last week. So is Lightning about to strike thrice one more time? Square Enix's not announced any PC ports of the JRPG trilogy so take all this with a pinch of salt. That said, the publisher does seem to have a few things up its sleeve for the Tokyo Game Show, which begins tomorrow. Also, earlier this year, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase told Eurogamer he was "definitely interested" in pursuing PC versions for future games, and he also touched on why the FF13 saga didn't come to PC in the first place.
Lightning Returns, bearing prizes for fan art competition winners
Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy series character designer Tetsuya Nomura has chosen three grand prize finalists for a fan art competition. The competition was organized by Square Enix and DeviantArt to celebrate the recent release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13, and was the first time Nomura, who designed Final Fantasy 13 heroine Lightning, has acted has a judge. The winners, in no particular order, are Marga Donaire, Nicolas Barge and Randis Albion - or KarmaLizzard, ArisT0te and randis, as they're respectively known on DeviantArt. The three winners will receive an original sketch from Nomura, $1,000, a keychain, a shirt, a custom Xbox 360 and controller, and the complete Final Fantasy 13 trilogy. Each winner will also be the header image at the top of DeviantArt for a day. More than 4,000 creations were entered in the competition, which garnered more than 1.5 million views. We've included a smaller resolution of Donaire's piece, "Wilhelmina" at the top of this article, but you can see the full-resolution image, along with the other two winners, by checking out the gallery below. You can also check out the official DeviantArt contest page to see the rest of the entries. [Image: Marga Donaire]
Xbox Live deals: Ghosts, Souls and Witchers, oh my!
Microsoft is offering some tempting discounts for Xbox 360 owners this week. From now through January 27, Xbox Live is slashing prices on downloads of Dark Souls, Call of Duty: Ghosts and more. Ghosts is down to $40, while Dark Souls is only $5. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an odd-yet-cheap $6.59, The Witcher 2 is a similarly oddly-priced $9.89 and, rounding out this week's smattering of deals are Tales of Vesperia and Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara – both under $5. The deals are live when viewing each individual title on Xbox Live, though the Xbox Live Deal of the Week section is still showing last week's discounts – which highlight Darksiders for under $7, Darksiders 2 for under $20 and Painkiller: Hell and Damnation for $15.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Collection announced for Japan, coming in July
A DLC-stuffed version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is headed for Japanese retail shelves on July 18. Square Enix released a ton of additional content for the JRPG sequel, and the 'Digital Contents Collection,' going for around $50, offers most of it. The bundle features the Snow, Lightning, and Sazh episodes, as well as three weapons, seven costumes, and six Coliseum opponents. Gematsu has the full list. Also, the DLC from the Collection is coming in its own bundle to PSN and XBLM. Square Enix is also re-releasing the game in the country under the 'Ultimate Hits' label. That version arrives in stores on the same day, but also on PSN and XBLM two days prior.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Lightning deals on DLC this week
Square Enix is slapping some discounts on the plethora of Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC, with all twenty-plus items on sale on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. True, most of the premium downloadables feature weapons and outfits (though what outfits they are), but there are discounted options for those who focus on the 'content' side of downloadable content.'Lightning: Requiem of the Goddess' is 50 percent off at 200 MSP/$2.49 on XBLM and PSN. Within is an episode which sees you play out Lightning's story in a battle with Caius, before unlocking the heroine of Final Fantasy XIII as a party member. Also going at half-off is 'Sazh: Heads or Tails' for the same price, and Snow: Perpetual Battlefield at 160 MSP/$1.99. Both unlock the named heroes for use in the sequel.The sale doesn't end for another week, so there's plenty of time for you to... what's that? You just want to see Serah in N7 armor? Well, fine, you go do that.
Final Fantasy 25th anniversary celebration includes FFXIII 'developments' talk
Square Enix's "Fabula Nova Crystallis" world – the occasionally bizarre and often beautiful universe of several Final Fantasy XIII titles – is scheduled for a big exposé as part of Square's 25th anniversary celebration for the Final Fantasy series. A stage presentation on September 1 in Tokyo's Shibuya district titled, "Final Fantasy XIII Lightnight Saga: New Developments Presentation" apparently features "details on the future of the FFXIII project" (via Andriasang's translation).Beyond Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2, the Fabula Nova Crystallis series extends to Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII (renamed Final Fantasy Type-0). Of the planned "trilogy" of games, the only one yet to see release is Final Fantasy Versus XIII. In fact, nothing has been heard of the title in quite some time – it was a no show both at last year's Tokyo Game Show and this year's E3 Expo. A demo of the next-gen technology supporting Versus, the Luminous Engine, was given at E3, but Versus wasn't part of the presentation.Kotaku's reporting that the game may be in flux or cancelled, though Square Enix reps refused to comment on the status of the title. With any luck, we'll find out more this September.
What Square Enix learned from Final Fantasy 13's large-scale development
Square Enix had 180 artists, 30 programmers and 36 designers working on Final Fantasy 13, and that many people on board made its development complicated, director Motomu Toriyama told Gamasutra."With a large-scale development team, we didn't use our time well," Toriyama said. "How do you communicate to everyone in the department what the drive of the game is?"Toriyama and his team tried to keep the game as secret as possible within the massive workforce, which led to playtesting happening "way too late in the process," he said. Square intended to fix those issues with Final Fantasy 13-2, and implemented production-based milestones as opposed to story-based ones it used at the beginning of FF13's development. Still, more needs to change."We are also thinking that we will not do large-scale internal development any longer," Toriyama said. "We have a lot of great creators in Square Enix, but for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."
Lightning's story finally hits Final Fantasy XIII-2
It seems to come up in every announcement of other FFXIII-2 DLC – and it's about the person on the game's box – so we're glad to finally see "Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess" arrive today in North America.In this episode, you play out a battle between Lightning and Caius, and get the opportunity to unlock Lightning for use in the main game ... which Square recommends you finish before playing the DLC. It's a bit of a catch-22. Also out today is "Snow's Story: Perpetual Battlefield," a Coliseum battle with Snow that also unlocks him. These two episodes mark the end of Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC, but Square is ending on a high note by releasing them alongside a set of 16 new costumes for Mog.
Someone got Ezio in my Final Fantasy XIII-2
Ezio Auditore da Firenze is a man's man -- he's rugged, ripped, mysterious and he looks menacing even in a dress-like robe. Ubisoft worked hard to make Ezio project such a style in the Assassin's Creed titles, and is so confident in its wardrobe choices that it's let Square Enix throw Ezio's classic hood and straps on Noel in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Surely the layered, butchy furs and armor will remain as masculine with a smooth-skinned, pouty man underneath. Surely.The Ezio outfit is available now on Xbox Live for $3 (240 MS Points), and tomorrow on PSN. See for yourself how Ezio's clothes look on Noel, minus the hidden blades and plus a few glowing swords, in the above video and screens below.%Gallery-152854%
Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC adds Ezios and UFOs
Crossover content returns to Final Fantasy XIII-2 in Japan, with the Ezio costume for Noel finally making its appearance on April 10. It's not Prada, but it'll fit. Coming along with Ezio's togs is Gilgamesh, a coliseum fighter who, like others, can be recruited.The other downloadable coliseum battle announced for Japan is Koyo-Koyo, which is an adorable group of aliens in a flying saucer. You kill them.
The Final Fantasy wears Prada
Square Enix revealed this morning that the latest issue of male fashion mag Arena Homme+ features the cast of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in... Prada's 2012 Spring/Summer men's collection.The issue goes on sale April 12 and features Lightning, Noel, Snow, Sazh and Hope in Prada, which is certainly an upgrade from wearing all those clothes with extraneous buckles. (Note: Buckles are for belts, not hats, shoes or sleeve liners.)"I've always been interested by the power of video games and their place in society, and the amount of work that's gone into this project blows my mind. We're incredibly pleased with the result," Max Pearmain, Editor of Arena Homme+, said of the collaboration.This isn't the first time designer fashion and video games have collided, but this one is most clearly intentional -- unlike Dance Central's Lanvin ad and the whole Pyramid Head model thing.%Gallery-152233%
Final Fantasy XIII-2 offers Mass Effect costume DLC in Japan
In addition to the Assassin's Creed crossover DLC, Final Fantasy XIII-2 will soon host some Mass Effect costumes. Starting March 27 in Japan, players will be able to outfit Serah and Noel in completely inappropriate N7 armor for 300 yen or 240 Microsoft Points. It is, at least, inappropriate in a different way from bikinis.Though Square Enix would never release numbers (so we'll never know), we'd be surprised if this DLC took off in Japan. After all, Mass Effect 3 sold 8,142 copies there in its debut week.
Fight Jihl Nabaat in latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC
We're used to seeing names in Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel that don't quite qualify as "words" -- things like "fal'Cie" and "Gran Pulse" -- so we don't blink at the announcement of FFXIII-2 DLC featuring the character "Jihl Nabaat."The FFXIII enemy will be available as a new coliseum opponent this week. Like other coliseum DLC, it will be possible to recruit her into your party after defeating her in battle. The DLC will be released next week on Xbox 360 and PS3 for 240 Microsoft Points/£1.59, which should come to $3 in North America. And Square Enix also announced future DLC called "Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess" coming "soon."
Final Fantasy concert at Boston Symphony Hall on March 10
"Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy" will be performed at Boston's Symphony Hall on March 10. The concert features compositions by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu, covering the past 25 years of the series.The concert will be conducted by Grammy Award-winning artist Arnie Roth leading Boston's Video Game Orchestra (VGO) and Choir Força. Final Fantasy composer Masashi Hamauzu will be in attendance.Tickets are still available, with the standard price running $43.50-$76.00 and VIP tickets for $126.00. The acoustics are pretty spectacular in the space and we understand tickets are selling quickly, so get your personal assistant Moogle to order tickets immediately if you're interested.
New DLC brings afros and bikinis to Final Fantasy XIII-2
Final Fantasy XIII-2 players will have a little more afro in their lives come February 28, when Square Enix releases its latest episodic DLC event, "Sazh: Heads or Tails?" Players take on the role of Sazh Katzroy in an adventure that takes place concurrently with FFXIII-2's main story. Once completed, players will be able to add Sazh into their party, as is the way with these things.The 400 MSP/$4.99 episode also includes two new card games for Serendipity: Chronobind and Serendipity Poker. Noel's "Spacetime Guardian" outfit and Serah's "Beachware" regalia will also be available that day, bundled together for 240 MSP/$2.99 and a silent confession to yourself that it's okay to play dress-up with your JRPG people.%Gallery-147799%
Do Japanese RPGs need good stories?
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs have to offer. I'm going to sum up all of the cliches about Final Fantasy XIII in one sentence: "The battle system is pretty good, but the story is laughable." Gamasutra's Christian Nutt even went so far as to compare the direction of the series to the Star Wars prequels. I wish I could disagree. For all that though, I'm willing to stick out Final Fantasy XIII-2's jaunt through time and space, banal anime archetypes and all. Whenever one of the cutscenes pop up, I just go and check my email. Either that, or I pick up a book. It's mostly the battles that keep me going. I'm also a big fan of putting hats on monsters, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 has that in spades. The dirty secret is that I've always been more fascinated by RPG battle systems than the story within the game. In many ways, a character's mechanical growth is a story in and of itself. When the game begins, your character is a scrub with a wooden sword and a few potions. By the end, they can call down comets from the heavens and instigate supernovas. That's what I call a character arc.
Reckoning rules UK sales chart
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning kicks off life atop the UK charts, which is not a bad place to begin a fateless destiny. This is the first new intellectual property to reach the top spot since Dead Island (another surprise hit) back in week 37 of last year, according to Chart-Track. But, wait, here's where it gets crazy: you have to go back to the year 2000 (the first Pokemon game) to find an original RPG winning the week.Final Fantasy XIII-2 slipped one spot into second, with Darkness 2 premiering in third. The top of the charts are actually stacked with "core" titles this week, with Mario & Sonic London at the 2012 Olympic Games being the closest "family" title. Certainly not a "family" game is Catherine, which debuted in the 20 spot. Check out the UK top ten after the break.
PSA: Call down Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC today
Just a reminder for those whose minds have been addled by "Crazy Chocobo:" the first FFXIII-2 DLC, a Coliseum battle with Lightning and Master Sergeant Amodar, is available now on Xbox Live, and will be on PSN when that updates this afternoon.%Gallery-146683%
