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Kingdom Hearts 3 to conclude decade-long battle, series will continue
Sora and friends have accumulated enemies in numerical entries and spinoffs to the Kingdom Hearts series for the past decade. Kingdom Hearts 3 will be their first original console outing since 2005, but it won't end of the franchise, a L.A. Times interview with Series Director Tetsuya Nomura reveals. "In Kingdom Hearts 3, the battles that the characters have been fighting for the past 10 years will come to a conclusion," Nomura said. "But the series will continue. Only the particular enemy they have been fighting for the past 10 years will come to an end." Nomura said that while everything is still open to change, his team is currently using Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance's combat as a guide for Kingdom Hearts 3. When asked, Nomura did not elaborate on whether Pixar or Star Wars characters have a chance of making it in the game. Kingdom Hearts 3 will release on the Xbox One and PS4 at an unspecified date.
LG smartphone boom follows major R&D reshuffling, says analyst
South Korean electronics giant LG came out swinging with its line of Optimus products at Mobile World Congress this year, delivering the 4X HD, 3D Max, Vu and a trinity of L-series handsets. So how does one shop deliver six handsets to the public, you ask? Resources. A recent note to investors from Nomura Securities reveals that in 2011, the Life's Good gang assigned a larger portion of its R&D team to its smartphone division. The report claims that the company had 60 to 70 percent of its 8,000 person research outfit assigned to the Optimus-making arm at the end of last year. That's up from the 20 percent share of a 6,800 person staff it boasted just 365 days earlier. There's no doubt LG will be looking to steal the smartphone thunder of Samsung and HTC in 2012, but is this lineup of products enough? Only time (and sell-through figures) will tell.
Advent Children may be done, but Final Fantasy VII isn't
The upcoming Blu-ray release of Advent Children Complete represents the end of the Advent Children saga. No more director's cuts, or extended director's cuts, super-special ultimate final director's cuts. This is it -- at least, according to Square Enix producer Tetsuya Nomura.While Advent Children may be done, the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" is far from over. Looks like a feature-length film, PS2 shooter and PSP prequel RPG haven't milked the original PS1 RPG enough. IGN reports that Nomura already has ideas for "the next product in the compilation." Final Fantasy VII remake, perhaps? Or more exciting: a Final Fantasy VII dating sim for the DS. You know you want to win Cloud's cold, broken, emo heart!There may be more FF7 in the works, but fans will have to wait quite a bit to see what's next. With multiple Kingdom Hearts games and two Final Fantasy XIII titles in the works, Nomura has plenty to focus his efforts on.
Demo promised for Final Fantasy XIII
The theme for Final Fantasy XIII is determination, says a new interview in a recent Famitsu. Looking at the long, painful wait that Square Enix fans are enduring for the release of this hotly anticipated title, we can agree.Nomura has been releasing a few cryptic keys on the upcoming PS3 games, many of which are sure to keep the Square Enix faithful guessing for days. According to FF-XIII.net, "2008 will be the year. There will be tons of news bits, info on characters and summons, and an unexpected connection between the keywords Cocoon and Farushi."Thankfully, a playable demo continues to be teased by the development staff, eager to show how the new battle system plays. When asked about the release date, Nomura can only offer the vague: "I wonder when we'll be able to sleep..." If that is a clue, we're guessing it has something to do with Birth by Sleep. Of course, we could be totally off-base with that one. Check FF-XIII.net for more new scans. [Update: Better scans here.][Thanks, Rob!]
Birth by Sleep to take place entirely in Disney worlds
Although Birth by Sleep is taking the franchise to a darker direction, a recent interview with Gemaga magazine reveals that the upcoming PSP Kingdom Hearts game will take place entirely in Disney worlds. IGN notes that "The game takes place in the past, years prior to the original Kingdom Hearts, and the worlds will be updated to reflect this. Nomura envisions having a young Hercules appear in the Hercules world, for instance. New Disney worlds will also appear, as will favorite characters like Disney and Goofy."Development is being handled by the same studio that managed Re: Chain of Memories (unreleased in the States). The battle system employed will be largely similar to the card-based system featured in the PS2 remake. "You set up a card deck consisting of commands that are fed into your command menu," Nomura explained.Details for Birth by Sleep are still hard to come by, but we're intrigued to see how this battle system will feel, especially for Kingdom Hearts regulars. Considering Square's incredible job with Crisis Core, we're confident they can pull off a PSP title that not only looks good, but plays well too.
Birth by Sleep adding new gameplay to Kingdom Hearts universe
Perhaps the biggest surprise of Tokyo Game Show was the debut of three new Kingdom Hearts games from Square Enix. Of the three, the PSP title Birth by Sleep looks to most closely resemble the original PS2 games. In a recent issue of Famitsu, character designer and game director Testuya Nomura explained that although Birth by Sleep will play similarly to the original console games, fans should expect new gameplay in this PSP exclusive prequel. The game has been in development for a long time, but Re: Chain of Memories took much more time than originally anticipated (this is the PS2 remake of the Game Boy Kingdom Hearts game). However, because the story was completed so long ago, the team has had plenty of time to work on the various scenarios in the game. IGN translates: "The game has three scenarios, each told from the perspective of one of the main characters. Yasue joked with the magazine that players may think the game was made by three different teams, as the play style is different for each character due to their varying personalities and abilities." The character growth system will apparantly "shock" players and will encourage players to link up with others. However, don't expect multiplayer: that's reserved for the DS 358/2 Days. The game will feature brand new Disney worlds as well, such as Sleeping Beauty's Forest. Finally, although the game has been in development longer than either the DS or Mobile Kingdom Hearts games, it'll most likely be the last one to see release: it seems to be easily the most ambitious of the three new games.
Nomura denied FFVII limited edition
Looks like Square Enix forgot to save a Final Fantasy VII limited edition PSP for famed designer Tetsuya Nomura. The man responsible for all things Final Fantasy (including Crisis Core) failed to secure a system from the Square Enix shop, and now he has to wait in line just like everyone else. Good thing there's going to be 77,777 systems available. It was originally planned to be far less -- 10,000 units for the entire world to try and grab!Final Fantasy-related mania is going to strike Japan soon, and we can't wait. Stay tuned for more.
Why is Dissidia on PSP?
In an interview with Degenki, Final Fantasy Dissidia producer Tetsuya Nomura explained why Dissidia is heading to PSP instead of other more popular systems (such as the PS2). A translation from PSPHyper shows the reasoning: "PSP was chosen as the platform due to it's ad-hoc mode and the fact that people generally don't like split screen gaming. Nomura said that with its large install base, the PS2 maybe the natural choice but it also means that multiplayer modes has to be played on split screen, which reduce the fun factor by half."While it's true that PSP has ad-hoc support, let's hope that the development team at Square Enix doesn't forget that it also has Infrastructure as well. Although Dissidia seems like a perfect candidate for online play, Capcom's Monster Hunter series shows that online play isn't a significant concern for Japanese developers and gamers.
It's a Wonderful Music Sampler
Not only did people who went to the Square Enix Party get to try a bunch of new games-- and, well, a bunch of new releases of old games-- but they also got a bounty of free promotional stuff, including the set of CDs seen above. It contains songs from the soundtracks of two Final Fantasy spinoffs for the PSP, and from It's a Wonderful World, which is more in line with our interests.The CD's have been ripped, and we've got the Wonderful World sampler available for download. It's J-poppy and synthy! Is it ever synthy.1. Twister 2. Give me all your love[Thanks, Jamal!]
Nomura talks Kingdom Hearts: could it go to PSP?
Kingdom Hearts Network has translated a recent issue of Famitsu. This particular issue is of interest because there is an interview with Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura. In the interview, Nomura talks about the future of Kingdom Hearts: "The announcement time of a new KH project might be announced soon." Of particular interest to PSP owners: "The multi-developing makes me want to put it on something else without thinking. If we follow this idea, it would be hard to choose if to make the game for the PSP, NDS or the cell phone." Not the best translation, but I think we all get the idea. Kingdom Hearts on PSP could be the best team-up for PSP owners since Final Fantasy and Disney. [Via DCEmu]
Kingdom Hearts creator working on new series, not KH III
Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura (Sony-era Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts series) has told Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation that his next project would not be Kingdom Hearts III but a new series. "So it probably won't be just one title," he said.Nomura told us to expect multiple Kingdom Hearts announcements this year. Hidden trailers notwithstanding, we've heard nothing (Mushroom Kingdom Hearts was an April Fool's gag), so it sounds like the next KH projects will be moving forward without Nomura. Given the design precedent he set, we hope the future project director and producers can improve upon the current template.Nomura's new series is purported to share some similarities (like character design, natch) with Kingdom Hearts. According to EuroGamer, a full announcement from Square Enix is expected later this year.
A Wonderful World of brand new screens
Famitsu has some great new shots from It's a Wonderful World that reveal a little more about the protagonist, Neku, and the gameplay of the forthcoming Square Enix RPG -- if, of course, you can either read Japanese or feel like wading through an automatic translator. If you're anything like us, though, you'll probably just stare and poke the screen while babbling about the pretty colors. We're easy to please.
Kojima creates more PS3 analogies
A recent panel interview was held at IGN between Metal Gear guru Hideo Kojima, MGS4 art director Yoji Shinkawa and Square-Enix's own Tetsuya Nomura (pictured right) regarding their take on the PS3. Having likened it to many things before, Kojima had a lot to say about Sony's new box o' tricks, saying "If you think about the future of the industry and game creators, I get the feeling that the winner had better be the movie theater -- or, the PS3. No one will say that the price is cheap." He adds later on that his optimal choice of gadgetry would have been "a PS3 with controls like the Wii."How about Nomura's take? Final Fantasy games were a huge selling point on the PSX and the PS2, not to mention other fantastic Square-Enix RPG's, so his opinion will carry a lot of weight in the Japanese RPGamer crowd. He felt that "as a game machine, it's too expensive." But he softened this typical argument with "Thinking two to three years from now, the PS3 will be the most appropriate."The three also joked about another Zone of Enders title. Maybe they weren't joking -- those were some pretty good games. Either way, it seems the big names at Konami and Square-Enix are voicing their support of the PS3. Whether it hits big right at launch or creeps its way to the summit of the mountain in a few years, they seem to feel the PS3 is going to be it.[Edit: added a reference for the picture, clarifying that it is Tetsuya Nomura -- Should have made that more clear.]
3 Final Fantasy XIII games; 2 just for PS3
Final Fantasy XII won't be out for the PS2 in the States until October, but we now have a glimpse of Final Fantasy XIII thanks to Square Enix's pre-E3 press event -- and this installment in the series won't be coming alone.Like the different titles in the Compilation of FFVII collection of games and movies, the initially announced installments in the FFXIII universe will span multiple platforms which, in this case, include both the PS3 and sufficiently advanced mobile handsets. Not much is known about the mobile-bound Final Fantasy Agito XIII, but the subtitle-less version of FFXIII will concern a gun-and-sword-toting heroine in a futuristic world, while Final Fantasy Versus XIII will focus on "a spiky-haired character," "extreme action elements," and a primary theme of "bonding" (whatever that means). Anybody ready to "resist the world"?The multiple titles might explain the earlier rumor reported in March that FFXIII was "practically close to being finished" (maybe only one of these games was nearing completion). Whatever the case may be, we're just happy that more than one not-so-Final-Fantasy will be hitting the next PlayStation in relatively rapid succession. RPG feasting: on the way.[Via Joystiq]
