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Square Enix to fill PlayStation Home with Final Fantasy XIII tchotchkes
Want to decorate your virtual home with a knife-wielding monster, or an elusive sentient cactus? Of course you do. And for you, Square Enix is offering a selection of Final Fantasy XIII items for PlayStation Home starting this Thursday. "Items to collect," the press release reads, "include a sofa, table, chair, shelves, planter set, Cactuar and Tonberry figures, and stuffed animals." You can see some of the goods with which you can festoon your nonexistent digs above. Square Enix didn't price any of them, but it ranges from 100 to 200 yen (around $1-2) each in Japan. It's a small price to pay for your very own Tonberry.
PS3 Final Fantasy XIII includes 'XIV' bonus item, chance for beta access
Last night, during the -- super awkward -- Final Fantasy XIII launch party in San Fransisco, Sony's Rob Dyer took a big shot across the bow of any Microsoft representatives in the audience by promising a pending announcement of exclusive content for the PS3 version of the game. Today, on PlayStation Blog, Dyer revealed that the PS3 version includes a "secret in-game item" for Final Fantasy XIV -- a similar, or perhaps the same promotion offered in Japan. Additionally, PS3 players can enter for a chance to beta test Final Fantasy XIV, which has only been announced for PS3 and PC. The in-game item might be interesting (baby chocobo vanity pet, please), but we're not really enthralled by a "potential opportunity" to get in on the beta. A potential opportunity? So there's a chance that there's a chance we'll be able to get into the beta? Well that's slightly better than no chance of a chance, we suppose.
Final Fantasy XIII launch party equips +10 awkwardness
What do Cerny Games' Mark Cerny, Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor, Microsoft's Corrinne Yu, and Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart have in common, besides being game developers? Absolutely nothing. Yet, Square Enix managed to sit them down for an hour long roundtable discussion to talk about one thing: how awesome Final Fantasy (and Final Fantasy VII, in particular) is. To say it was awkward is a tremendous understatement. Certainly, there's much cause for celebration. With the game first announced nearly four years ago, the impending release of Final Fantasy XIII feels like a much needed breath of relief. It was Square Enix's night to celebrate its work, and with a red carpet entrance for key producers and voice actors it carried an aura appropriate for the return of the long-awaited flagship franchise. With some glowing reviews, this launch party could have rested solely on the game's merits. A cheerful (and perhaps slightly mistranslated) speech from Square Enix president Yoichi Wada set the right tone for the evening, with Wada wearing a Fal'cie tattoo on his hand calling the audience to join him in a quest to save the world; however, the evening took a quick turn for the bizarre. A visually breathtaking 3D trailer for Final Fantasy XIII was marred by the host's obnoxious desire to watch it a second time in quick succession. The roundtable discussion that followed highlighted the franchise's accomplishments, twisting them into an overview of these developers' shortcomings. There was an almost defeated attitude with the panel, many admitting their inability to match the sheer production values of a Square Enix joint. The evening escalated to quite possibly one of the most awkward toasts we've ever encountered. A Microsoft spokesperson took the stage, congratulating Square Enix on bringing Final Fantasy XIII to Xbox 360. Shortly thereafter, a Sony spokesperson also took the stage, emphasizing how Final Fantasy is a PlayStation franchise, and how XIII is best on PS3, on a single Blu-ray disc -- the way it was meant to be played. The audience was abuzz like a Joystiq comments thread, and champagne was had by all. Congratulations on releasing Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix! %Gallery-87750%
Pounce on these Final Fantasy XIII deals at Target and Amazon
After you heard what we had to say about Final Fantasy XIII, you may very well now be itching to finally get your own hands all over the thirteenth entry in the FF series from Square Enix. Lucky for you, dearest reader, we've got news of a couple ways to save some dough on your purchase this week. Target is offering a $10 gift card with purchase of either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version, while Amazon is offering a $10 pre-order incentive credit towards future video game purchases for both versions as well (oh, and also, the game costs $56.99 instead of $59.99, which is kinda nice). Sure, neither offers a free rideable chocobo or anything wonderful like that, but that $10 at Target could potentially buy pizza bagels. And did you know that when pizza's on a bagel, you can apparently eat pizza at any time? Madness! Source 1 - CAG Source 2 - Target %Gallery-41346%
Digital Foundry: 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII 'adequate but a touch disappointing'
So, you read our review of Final Fantasy XIII and are prepared to pick it up next week, but you're not sure which version to buy? If you're basing your decision on graphical fidelity, the A/V experts from Eurogamer's Digital Foundry suggest you go with the PS3 version of the game -- as seen in their quartet of video comparisons, the 360 version suffered a bit of resolution reduction during its trip between platforms. No, the difference in quality isn't groundbreaking or anything. We just wanted you to know all the factors before making a decision. Both versions have their strengths and weaknesses -- for instance, the 360 version requires you to change the disc two times, but the PS3 version of the game is unplayable once every 1,461 days.
Review: Final Fantasy XIII
There is a moment in Final Fantasy XIII where everything just clicks. The intricacies of the completely overhauled combat system come into focus; the meandering, convoluted story begins to take shape; the characters stop being insufferably standoffish and begin to coalesce into an engaging menagerie of heroes; the character progression system begins to offer the player a variety of thought-provoking choices; and the game begins to live up to your (I'm assuming) lofty expectations, and Final Fantasy XIII becomes an experience which can go toe-to-toe with the best entries in the franchise. The game gets exceptional after this one moment -- but, regrettably, this moment came for me after suffering 15 hours and 30 minutes of pure, unadulterated tedium. %Gallery-41346%
Square Enix details upcoming membership rewards
If you're in North America and you've been dutifully collecting Square Enix games, you may have some free stuff headed your way. The end of the current reward period for the Square Enix Members club is coming up on March 31, at which point Square Enix will ship out rewards depending on your "tier" rank -- a status awarded based on the number of games you've registered through the program. For the mere seconds of work we just spent registering a single game, we hit "bronze" status and earned a postcard set featuring Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Star Ocean The Last Hope International artwork. Silver members will get a desktop calendar with artwork from Final Fantasy XIV, Front Mission Evolved and other games; Gold members get a music compilation on CD; and Ultimate members will get an 8GB iPod Touch and a free Square Enix game to play on it!
Kitase: Final Fantasy VII remake 'unrealistic,' would take too long to develop
Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase recently gave what appears to be the final word on the possibility of a FFVII remake during an interview with TechDigest. "If we were to recreate Final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together," Kitase explained, "so it's looking pretty unrealistic!" Ultimately, the chances of a remade FFVII getting developed are slim, but not non-existent. "If it were possible that we had all the right facilities and the right environment to be able to make and prepare a Final Fantasy VII remake within a year, we'd very much like a go at it," Kitase said. So, there you have it. If you want to see Cloud Strife in HD, all you have to do is recruit and bankroll a gargantuan Square Enix development team. Piece of cake!
Final Fantasy XIII UK launch event rewarding cosplayers
Square Enix, apparently, is all about the cosplay. Just today, the publisher announced that it'll be rewarding the first 50 people dressed in "Final Fantasy costumes" who arrive at the March 9 launch event for Final Fantasy XIII with a free copy of the game's soundtrack. Oh, and also, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase and art director Isamu Kamikokuryo will be there, signing whatever you want. The release further entices attendees with "high-profile DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane," who'll no doubt be spitting hot fire into a mic all evening. The event kicks off at 5:30PM at the Oxford Street HMV in London and runs until the sun comes up -- or 7:30PM, whichever comes first. %Gallery-41346%
This is what Final Fantasy XIII looks like on Xbox 360
At least see the high-res version before you start arguing. Multiplatform games are rarely as scrutinized as this. However, Final Fantasy XIII's fall from PS3 exclusivity has certainly sparked countless fanboy battles that rage online and, unfortunately, in our own comments section. Square Enix has recently released new images of the Xbox 360 version in action, and there are some noticeable differences, particularly when one looks at the Nomura-styled hairdos. We've donned the game a rather obscure nickname -- "The Reverse Ghostbusters" -- due to the visible disparity between the two versions. Regardless, it seems like a more-than-competent port -- a fact that the most vocal of you will likely ignore in the comments below. %Gallery-85971%%Gallery-85352%
Nomura 'not sure' about Final Fantasy Versus XIII at E3
As Square Enix developers are prone to do, acclaimed Final Fantasy lead Tetsuya Nomura recently dropped some vague information about one of the handful of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII games that was announced like, a million years ago (okay, okay -- in 2006). Apparently, due to the display of the world map not being up to snuff, Final Fantasy Versus XIII may not make an appearance at this year's E3. "We were hoping to debut it at E3, but we're not sure now," Nomura told Famitsu (as relayed by FF-Reunion.net). "For displaying characters on the world map, we were originally planning on using the method used by 'FF#,' with a small Noctus running about on the screen, but that didn't look too great, so we ended up switching to the method used by 'FF#.'" Allegedly, the "#" designations used by Famitsu in the preceding quotation were an effort to mask the particular Final Fantasy installments Nomura was referring to. "Famitsu had to block them out," explained Andriasang. Nomura also suggested that Versus might be benched for E3 2010 in order to give other Square Enix titles at the show more time in the spotlight. Nomura did not mention Agito XIII in the Famitsu article, but did note that, in terms of other projects, "There are a number of them, along with some for which we need to begin preparations for a reveal." That's right -- forget about finally showing us more of the game that was announced four years ago, bring on Final Fantasy XV! [Via Andriasang]
Final Fantasy XIII director comments on linearity, early reviews
If you're an avid follower of pre-release review scores for super anticipated titles, you've probably noticed the scattershot scores garnered by Final Fantasy XIII. Most critics' biggest complaint with the game is its linearity -- a qualm which the game's director, Motomu Toriyama, claims to be a hang-up that's native to Western audiences and reviewers. During a recent interview with Xbox World 360 magazine (via CVG), Toriyama explained, "we think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view." He later added, "when you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... it becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom." We'd advise Toriyama to take caution when badmouthing freedom, lest he wants to become the subject of a scathing Toby Keith song.
Yoshinori Kitase: Cut Final Fantasy XIII content will not return as DLC
That "entire game's worth" of content that was reported to have been cut from Final Fantasy XIII? Well, don't expect it to return in the form of DLC for the game. Speaking with Joystiq, FFXIII producer Yoshihiro Kitase said of the trimmed elements, "There wasn't all this other stuff that we wanted to include but had to cut. It was more of a selective process you'd find in any development process, where there were a lot of ideas but then we chose the best of those to include in the final game. The things that were cut either didn't make sense in the storyline, would slow down the pace of the game or were otherwise unnecessary." Kitase wanted to stress his "final word" on topic, telling us, "There is no plan for these things that were cut -- because they weren't essential to the game -- to be revived as downloadable content," laughing as he remarked that he wouldn't want to add back in the stuff he didn't think should be in there in the first place. We're cool with that, as long as they didn't cut out a "Meanwhile ..." segment that just happened to be a remake of Final Fantasy VII in its entirety.
Resonance of Fate launches March 16 (yes, one week after Final Fantasy XIII)
We've already pointed out a handful of times that there are just a few too many JRPGs boldly standing up against Final Fantasy XIII's near-guaranteed dominance in terms of sales. It seems that at least one of those is moving out of its previously believed same-day release date with FFXIII, with Sega telling us in a press release yesterday afternoon that the it's "happy to announce that Resonance of Fate, the next RPG coming from tri-Ace, will be launching in North America on March 16" on both Xbox 360 and PS3. Clearly Sega is counting on die-hard FF fans to rush through the big release in under 168 hours, just in time for its bullet-riddled affair. We'll certainly see how it all shakes out in a few months when the sales numbers arrive, but we're betting the ground will be littered with chocobo feathers when it does. %Gallery-63415%
Final Fantasy XIII gets two launch events in San Fran and a mess of new screens
We might normally start a post on a regional game launch event (or events, in this case) by questioning if you live in or around the geographic location in question (San Francisco), but with a game like Final Fantasy XIII, we're not entirely sure if that kinda thing matters -- we hear that FF fans can be a bit ... dedicated. That said, Square Enix is holding two separate parties celebrating the March 9 release of its next in the Final Fantasy series. Both are limited to Square Enix Members, with the launch party on the evening of March 8 limited even further to just 50 Bronze (and up) Members while the day event is limited to "200 Members and their guests." In order to snag yourself an invite, you've gotta have one of those snazzy Square Enix Member IDs and enter the sweepstakes right here before February 23. After you hurriedly enter the contest, come right back here and check out the 20 new screenshots of FFXIII that we've dropped into a gallery below. We command you. %Gallery-85352%
Greenberg: No plans for 250GB Xbox hard drive outside of bundles
If you've been downloading demos and premium themes at a furious pace in anticipation of an upcoming 250GB hard drive for Xbox 360, you may want to rethink your data footprint. Speaking to Joystiq yesterday at X10, Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Product Manager Aaron Greenberg told us that the 250GB hard drive is likely to remain exclusive to limited-edition bundles. "We did it with the Modern Warfare bundle, which, as people know, was a huge success, completely sold out," he reminded us. "We're excited to bring it back with the limited edition Final Fantasy bundle." Greenberg said that the limited nature of the bigger drive is "part of what makes it special." Greenberg also mentioned that much of the Xbox 360's functionality, like Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter, and even the Zune Video Marketplace, doesn't require storing big files on the hard drive. "That said, we understand that game demos, a lot of the game add-on content does take up space." "We're always evaluating," he said, "but for now we feel like the 120 is serving us very well as the standard offering, and then having the 250 as a limited edition is a good balance." Keep some space in your browser cache free for our full interview with Greenberg.
Two Xbox 360 FF13 bundles for Europe, faceplate pre-order bonus for all
Clearly not content with just one measly Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 mega bundle, it looks like Europe will be receiving a second bundle as well. Europe will be receiving the same Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition bundle that was revealed at X10, which includes the game, a 250GB hard drive, two wireless controllers and downloadable Avatar goodies. Speaking of Avatar items, the release actually reveals what they are: a Rosch outfit, a Nabaat outfit and a Chocobo pet (the same one you might already have, we're assuming). The release didn't specify a price, though Amazon UK lists it for £249.99 ($391). In addition to that bundle, however, the region will also be receiving the Final Fantasy XIII Elite bundle, which includes the game, a single wireless controller and the standard 120GB hard drive. Again, no price was revealed, though Amazon France has it listed for €249.99 ($340). Finally, the press release reveals just how you can get your hands on one of the limited edition, promotional FFXIII faceplates. The faceplates will be offered as a bonus for anyone who pre-orders the 250GB Special Edition console. Major Nelson also revealed on Xbox Live that the faceplate will be a pre-order bonus for the North American Special Edition console as well. So, if you really want that faceplate, you'd better be ready to plop down 400 bones for it.
Xbox 360 retailing in a Final Fantasy XIII bundle for the rest of us
Japan's been Final Fantasy-ing for a while now, but it looks like an import FFXIII PS3 isn't your only shot at pointy-haired excellence. Outside of Japan, Microsoft has the exclusive "official" Final Fantasy XIII bundles, in the form of a $399 Xbox 360 that packs a 250GB HDD, two controllers, a standard edition of the game, and some exclusive avatar downloads. Separately available will be some limited edition faceplates (pictured after the break) created by designer Tetsuya Nomura, but if you want a full console paint job you're still going to have to turn Japanese and fork it over for a PS3 -- or level up on your Bob Ross technique and paint it yourself. The bundle should hit stores March 9th.
Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition Xbox 360 Bundle includes 250GB hard drive, will cost $399
Click to embiggen. Launching simultaneously with Final Fantasy XIII in the US is a limited edition 250GB Xbox 360 console. Included in the box is a copy of the game, two wireless controllers, a headset, a FF-branded hard drive, and "exclusive downloadable avatar items" -- perhaps something to go with your pet Chocobo. All of this will be packaged together for $399, according to Major Nelson. Microsoft is trying to make sure Final Fantasy fans from the PS2 generation will choose Xbox 360 as their console of choice. The carefully worded press release notes that this is "the only console outside of Japan to be bundled with the game." In other words, don't expect the limited edition PS3 to make its way Stateside. Ever. In addition, Microsoft also plans to release a Final Fantasy XIII faceplate designed by Tetsuya Nomura and not included with the special edition bundle. The press release doesn't explain exactly how to get one, only stating that a "very limited number" will be available "promotionally in fixed quantities across select retailers in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand." %Gallery-85272%
Ars mole: Splinter Cell: Conviction, Final Fantasy XIII getting 250GB Xbox 360 bundles
We're devoted fans of the Ars Technica mole, who has nailed big stories like the PS3 Slim and the Resident Evil 5 bundle. As a result, we feel pretty comfortable getting excited about two new Xbox 360 bundles Ars highlights today. The first, a Splinter Cell: Conviction-themed bundle, will reportedly include a not-in-any-way-branded system packing a 250GB hard drive, two black controllers and the game, all for $400. The other bundle will, according to Ars, have all the same specs except with Final Fantasy XIII and white controllers. Considering the the mole's track record, we wouldn't be surprised to see an official announcement any day now.
