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Want more Kingdom Hearts? Wait until mid 2007, then...
At the Jump Festa event the other week, there was hinted a new Kingdom Hearts project with the sparkly letters "New Project Starting in 2007". Granted, the trailer that revealed the hint had a multitude of games featured, but it seems most likely it was referring to the Disney/Square magic. Now that rumor has been confirmed -- Famitsu magazine got confirmation from the big boys that something is indeed cooking for Kingdom Hearts next year.Tetsuya Nomura, the game's producer, stated that there are multiple projects slated for the series. Some are games, some will be something else entirely. What other medium could they possibly exploit? Certainly not the animated/CG film industry? Disney has no pull in that area, no sir, no way... What do you guys think the "other" projects could be? Film, comic, theme park? Leave your thoughts and we'll report new details when they surface in mid-2007.
More Kingdom Hearts in 2007
Brace yourself for this one, folks: Square Enix is taking a successful franchise and furthering it with sequels galore. Kingdom Hearts producer Tetsuya Nomura told Famitsu that there will be multiple KH projects in the works, with announcements coming in 2007.We're not going to make any assumptions as to the future console of choice for Kingdom Hearts 3 (or whatever crafty subtitle they decide), especially after the Dragon Quest DS shuffle. If multiple projects are in order, however, the true successor in the series will probably go to a home console, with portable systems receiving the side stories (see: Chain of Memories).Square Enix hinted at forthcoming 2007 announcements during their presentation at Jump Fiesta; are these two news bits related or does the RPG giant have more secrets in store for next year? And while we're at it, what Disney movies has the series overlooked in merging the two companies' icons?
Today's hottest game video: Link vs. Riku -- FIGHT!
We wonder how much time these guys spent on this thing. If it was more than one Sunday afternoon, then we fear for their souls. It starts off pretty decent, and the costumes are nifty (check out Link's ears and Riku's hair -- dang), but then we get to the fighting and it just slows. way. down. Watch as I SWING WITH MY SWORD AND THEN ... *tap*. Check out Link's off the rock spin move, eh? He's so proud of it that he does it several times.The video ends with, "It's not over yet." Dear god, why not? Is there a sequel brewing? Don't get us wrong, it was a nice effort ... just two minutes and 41 seconds too long. Check it out after the jump.
Monotone: Square-Enix colors the mobile kingdom
You won't find Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura's new portable RPG on a Sony or Nintendo handheld. Monotone was developed exclusively for the mobile phone market and is a subscription-based (¥210 per month; under $2) puzzle-RPG, in which the protagonist must restore color and sound to his world (and no, he's not a wolf-god).For a limited time, Square-Enix is accepting fan-submitted content, presumably to inspire new characters, monsters, and quests that could be added to the game at a later date. There's also an in-game points system, which encourages players to redeem their hard-earned points for ringtones and wallpapers. Monotone is currently available on Japan's DoCoMo network. In other words, you won't be playing it.
Square Enix commits to no one! Or is it everyone?
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Square Enix's senior VP Michihiro Sasaki got downright cryptic when asked about his company's next-gen alliances: "We don't want PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them. But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much." The statement seems to be a clever way of masking Square Enix's uncertainty about the PlayStation brand. There's no denying that the PS3 price tag will affect the console's user base, and Square Enix clearly doesn't want to commit its franchises solely to a Sony platform that won't necessarily dominant the developing generation of hardware. Of course, Final Fantasy XIII & Final Fantasy Versus XIII are already locks for PS3 -- but ultimately, both could also be released onto other platforms. But then there's Kingdom Hearts, which as 1UP notes, has not been bound to a next-gen platform.Keep an eye on Square Enix developments. Either the company will spread its franchises across several platforms -- including Xbox 360, if the console starts picking up sales in Japan -- or Square Enix will dive head first into multiplatform agreements, which may be the only economically viable solution.
New Square Enix games revealed for DS and PS2
And quite unbelievably, one of them happens to be a Final Fantasy game. Confirmed by IGN and triumphantly splashed across the pages of Famitsu Shonen Jump, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings will bring the world of Ivalice to the DS. In case you've spent the last year traipsing about a disturbing parallel universe devoid of oxymoronic names, you'd note that the PS2 version is due for a release this Halloween. Judging by the more youthful appearance of the protagonists -- that's Vaan and sandwich soundalike, Penelo -- it would appear that Revenant Wings is a prequel of sorts. It makes sense, since they all die at the end of the PS2 adventure anyway. No word yet on what the gameplay entails, but given the Ivalice setting, a direct continuation of Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced wouldn't be out of place at all. If it's a more original experience you're after, the second DS game to be announced by Square Enix may do some naughty and unmentionable things to your fancy. It's a Wonderful World looks to be the end result of Kingdom Hearts and Jet Set Radio colliding violently on the freeway. Incidentally, that's exactly what happens at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. That brings us to the final game shown on the scanned page, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. The PS2 screenshot reveals a new card-based battle system, possibly indicating some connection to Chain of Memories on the GBA. Square Enix will no doubt clarify once the Tokyo Game Show begins later this month, but until then, feel free to scrutinize every last bit of the full scan. [Note: This post contains fake spoilers! Thanks, Phantom42!]
