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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: The Pre-order Bonuses
Click to My Life as a King-sizeFinal Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers will be released in North America on the day after Christmas. If you're daring enough to pledge your money in advance to Square Enix's bold experiment in Final Fantasy action games, you face a choice: which store -- and which pre-order bonus -- will you choose? Square Enix sent out a list of retailers offering bonuses.If you purchase the game from Amazon (current price: $44.99), you'll get a 2010 calendar. If you opt for Best Buy, you'll get a soundtrack sampler, which probably has tracks from the game, rather than Bon Jovi singles. GameStop's offer is $5 off of reservations, but that's not terribly appealing, given that the reduced price is the same as what Amazon is offering, with no extra stuff.%Gallery-76628%
Crystal Bearers also has a ballroom dancing minigame
Famitsu revealed two "event" minigames in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. We knew about the vaguely embarrassing pool float minigame, and we've actually seen hints of the other minigame in the trailer: ballroom dancing. This seems to take place in the scene in which Layle steals some guy's tuxedo to sneak into an event, and involves rotating the Wiimote and Nunchuk to simulate dancing movements.In the E3 demo, the game was full of diverting events like this. A rail shooter segment opened the game, followed by an airship piloting segment. The main enemy-tossing game will be broken up by events like this one, which finally fulfills the promise of Final Fantasy VIII's most famous scene.
ESRB describes Crystal Bearers pool minigame
You may have spotted the particularly surreal moment in the latest Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers trailer: suddenly, we're not seeing a psychic teen telekinetically lifting stones and monsters; rather, we're seeing two girls in swimsuits engaging in a Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball-style competition, trying to knock each other off of a pool float.Good news (or not): it's playable! The ESRB revealed it as a minigame in its content description: "In one mini-game, two women in bikinis try to knock each other off a floating platform using only their hips." The ratings organization also warns buyers that "If players wish to, they may pick up steaming manure and toss it at enemies or the bucolic surroundings." But you knew that![Via Siliconera]
Bear witness to these Crystal Bearers images
GAME Watch has rounded up the known details of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers's story and setting, including the disappearance of the Yukes and the existence of the Crystal Bearers, a few people with mysterious psychic powers. There's also apparently one crystal "idol" for each species. There's a lot more in the writeup, but after TGS, we're hoping to take a short break from squinting at Japanese text really hard.Luckily, the really relevant part of the article is the huge assortment of screenshots, along with concept art like the piece seen here. Crystal Bearers is out November 12 in Japan and December 26 in North America.
TGS 2009: Hands-on: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Seeing that everyone around me was playing the same introductory sequence of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers that I had seen at E3, I loaded up a random save, fairly confident it would place me in another carefully chosen demo location. (Or at least that it would be some other part of the game.) Whether intentional or not, I hit demo paydirt with a sequence of the game that involved combat, exploration and heavy use of the game's telekinetic grappling hook.%Gallery-70584%
Surprise! FFCC: The Crystal Bearers out in North America this December
Wii gamers looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers may find it hard to believe that the action-RPG is coming out at all, after years of wondering what was going on with the game. But Square Enix announced a Japan release date of November 26, giving us hope that it would come out worldwide soonish, if not this year.But it is coming out this year in North America! Barely! Crystal Bearers will be out in North America on December 26, just in time for people to return whatever games they received as Christmas gifts from well-meaning relatives. And just in time for students to spend their holiday breaks tossing Cactuars around.%Gallery-70584%
FFCC: Crystal Bearers now bears a Japanese release date
Four years after it was first revealed, Square Enix has finally announced a Japanese release date for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: November 26. That makes us doubt it'll be out Stateside before the end of the year, but at least it's actually being released. Actually, for a long time we perceived Crystal Bearers as in trouble or delayed, but four years for a Final Fantasy game seems about right! Square Enix also revealed the box art (posted in full after the break), which is both nice-looking on its own merits and evidence that Square Enix is getting around to finally putting this thing into boxes![Via GAME Watch]
How to bear arms in FFCC: The Crystal Bearers
The central mechanic in Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is Layle's telekinetic ability to pick up objects (and people!) and toss them around. These videos from the Japanese Crystal Bearers website demonstrate that Layle can use this ability to do some pretty sophisticated stuff, thanks to the behavior of the things he picks up! For example, in the video above, picking up this archer guy makes him start firing his weapon uncontrollably, for some reason. Layle can then aim his arrows at enemies! After the break, see him using a Cactuar in much the same way. In two other videos, he grabs surfaces with his ability like he's using a mental grappling hook, and, uh, throws gold into a Malboro's mouth to make coins come out. It's a mysterious power.[Via Siliconera]
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: E3 interviews
This week, the Nintendo Channel has been flooded with a variety of interviews about big upcoming Wii titles. There are interviews with the folks behind FFCC: The Crystal Bearers, Red Steel 2, Cave Story, and, as you can see above, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. So, hit up the video above, then if you want more E3 interview goodness, be sure to boot up your Wii and check out what's on the Nintendo Channel.%Gallery-47570%
E3 2009 highlights: The Nintendo roundup
Nintendo E3 2009 checklist: Mario? *check* Zelda? *check* Metroid? *check* Are we missing something? Head past the break to find out!
Interview: Square Enix's Akitoshi Kawazu on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Square Enix's Akitoshi Kawazu was the very first person to diverge from Final Fantasy's formula, while simultaneously inventing it. Following the success of the original game, Kawazu created Final Fantasy II, which set precedent by lacking continuity with the world of the first game, but which also added named characters to the game, and removed the experience point system. Kawazu went on to create the SaGa series, which is most closely associated with the producer, as well as the Crystal Chronicles series. In a group interview with Joystiq, 1UP, and Gametrailers, Kawazu spoke about the game that is now breaking away from the Crystal Chronicles formula -- the Wii-exclusive single-player action RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.%Gallery-3302%
Square Enix admits to slow production pace
Eidos won't be releasing games before they're finished just to hit deadlines, according to Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. Wada told GamesIndustry.biz that alleviating worries like that was "what I hope to achieve for the entire group." However, he noted that Eidos's new parent company must also address a scheduling issue. "But we at Square Enix also have a problem - it takes too long for us to produce a game..."Final Fantasy XIII, which just saw the release of its first demo, was announced at E3 2006. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers was announced at E3 2005, with details only now starting to be released.Square Enix's problem seems to be based on conflicts between management and developers. "I personally believe that having a good cost performance and having a good quality game can co-exist - I think that this relationship is actually a positive one," Wada said. "But when you look to the creators they tend to think that if they're asked to pursue a better cost performance, they have to sacrifice quality."
Crystal Bearers site bears new content
The Japanese Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers site has opened in earnest, free from all the teasing nonsense. The new site features new screens, character portraits (the Yuke, Amadetelion, doesn't look nearly as comical as Yukes used to!), cool video clips that play when you load any page, and a statement from producer Akitoshi Kawazu.According to a translation from NeoGAFfer RPGn, Kawazu draws a line between the very first Final Fantasy and Crystal Bearers, saying that as he initially thought Final Fantasy was "the way you make an RPG." He hopes Crystal Bearers will end up being as iconic for Wii. Or something like that.Along with the site announcement, Famitsu posted some gorgeous screens of the open-world-ish RPG.
Finally, some details on FFCC: Crystal Bearers
The latest issue of Famitsu has a pretty extensive preview for the upcoming Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, a game that we've only recently seen in action. There's no denying it: Crystal Bearers doesn't look like your average Final Fantasy game, let alone your average Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game. That's because we now know it's set in a uniquely futuristic world that has traded in swords for guns. It's a world where magic has been forgotten and where the Yukes have fought a long, vicious war with the Lilties and lost (as in, like, every Yuke). The Lilties are still around, though, and now use the crystals to help people. Enter Layle, the person who has been all over the trailers and art for the game (and in the image above this very post!). As a Crystal Bearer of the Clavat race, he has some unique abilities that allow him to manipulate gravity (not everyone forgot magic, we suppose). The story of the game revolves around him and his run-in with one of the supposedly extinct Yukes.We won't go into the story any more than that in case you're trying to remain pure, but know that the game plans to use the Wiimote in some interesting ways. Since Layle can manipulate gravity, he can do a variety of different things to the environment around him and the objects in it. He can grab demons and toss them at other demons, kind of like a basic attack (though the Famitsu article says Layle will have different options depending on the demon he grabs). If he tries to grab something heavy or stationary (the example given is a ceiling lamp), then it will send him flying toward that object like he's using a grappling hook.If you want to read IGN's summary of the Famitsu piece, then go ahead and give this a click. For those of you that want to look at the pictures, a scan has found its way online here. Oh, and in case you were wondering why it's taken so long to get details on the game, know that it's due to Square Enix not even having started development on it when it announced the title. Smooth move, Square Enix!
