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Dragon Quest IX still exists
We haven't heard much about Dragon Quest IX for a while. Most of the news coming out about the franchise in the last month or so has been focused on the Dragon Quest IV remake, instead of, you know, the new one. These screens are evidence that the game is still being made and still exists, and that non-remake games are still possible these days. Impressively, the more we see of it, the more Dragon Quest IX looks like Level-5's PS2 Dragon Quest VIII. Going full-3D like this is a bold move. Not as bold as making it an action RPG, which didn't end up happening, but still plenty bold for a series that is built on rigid tradition.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep scans reveal bald men
Scans are tricky beasts -- they can be blurry and smothered with Japanese text few can understand outside of the country, they can show off new characters or a game's battle system, or they can just make us scratch our heads and wonder what exactly we're looking at. Lucky for us, these new Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep scans deliver on all three of these fronts.We get to check out images of the main character, who looks quite a bit like Cloud's counterpart, Zack. There's also Roxas, a counterpart for Sora. See, we're already stretching to make connections, like saying this story probably takes place in an alternate world or something. We get to check out profiles of other new characters, like a blue-haired girl, a masked person, and a creepy old dude! The game, visually, is very nice as expected, but since we can't read Japanese, most of the information is left to any kind readers willing to translate as a comment. We'll keep you posted as details emerge.[Thanks, Saigon!]
Chocobo's Trailer
The folks in Chocobo's Dungeon may have lost their memories, but those of us outside remember one thing for sure: chocobos are simply adorable, and baby chocobos rocket right off the cuteness scale. This latest installment in the dungeon-based Final Fantasy spin-off certainly rocks the inherent charm, particularly since it seems to be pulling elements from the recent Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. If the gameplay is as solid as that in DS game, Chocobo's Dungeon should be plenty to tide Final Fantasy fans over until we get something a little more substantial on the Wii.[Via GoNintendo]
Final Fantasy XIII finally operating on PS3 hardware
It was bound to happen eventually. Final Fantasy XIII has been confirmed to have entered the land of PS3 hardware. Yep, the White Engine is up and running on the PS3, so those graphics we've drooled over are apparently going to be exactly what we see in the final build. No surprises -- this is Square Enix, after all. What isn't clear is how recently this change took place. Was it on PS3 hardware at TGS? Was it on PS3 hardware at E3? Either way you paint it, the canvas is still mostly empty; if FFXIII is just not getting onto the PS3 hardware, we'll probably not see it in 2008. Not very surprising, since FFXII took nearly five years to develop, granted there were a lot of hardships felt by many of the people involved in the game during development. Also revealed is that the December issue of EGM is going to feature FFXIII as one of its headlining previews, so if you're itching for info on the game, run out and snag that issue when it comes out. We'll be on top of it as well!
If they have to remake something ....
The age of remakes is upon us. If you're a DS owner, you can hardly escape it ... if you even want to! After all, Square Enix is certainly supplying us with plenty of remakes that promise heretofore unknown levels of awesome, but they're not the only ones crafting games both new and old for the world's best-selling system. Everyone wants a piece of the DS pie, but the question is, which pies are we interested in? There are a lot of games out there, after all, and while we love the Wii's Virtual Console for bringing that (mostly, usually) authentic retro experience, the list of games that could benefit from an update or touchscreen functionality is extensive. We would like to look more closely at what our readers would like to see redone, and why. List your choices. Put on your debating hat and get ready to defend your favorites. From the list you provide, we will select a final list that we'll post as a poll in the coming days, in order to find out which remake possibilities can beat out the rest in a fanboy fight of epic proportions.
TGS hands-on: Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (Wii)
Square Enix's upcoming cute-em-up dungeon crawler, Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu will be released in Japan on the 13th of December. We managed to drag ourselves away from the giant Chocobo guarding the entrance to Square Enix's booth long enough to check the game out.Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is, essentially, a sequel to Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 1 and 2 for the PlayStation. While those games didn't do as well as perhaps they should have (only Mysterious Dungeon 2 was released outside Japan) Square Enix seem to be giving the franchise one more chance on the Wii. This latest iteration maintains much of the cuteness of the previous titles, keeping a consistant art style with all past Chocobo based games, whilst using a softer palette of colours throughout. The world of Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is now full of pastel shades, as opposed to the bright primary colours used in games such as Chocobo Tales.%Gallery-7698%
TGS07: The Last Remnant trailer displays new characters
Okay, first, off, if Xenogears were getting a next-gen makeover, the dude with the eye patch in this trailer would be a pretty spot-on recreation of Bartholomew Fatima. Minus the really long ponytail. That random observation aside, this new trailer for The Last Remnant is exactly what we expected from Square Enix -- awesomeness, mostly. We've all heard the phrases "one young man's adventure begins" and "it's time to awaken" before, but that's all right. We can discount a few cliches here and there. The game looks to be a blast and getting a simultaneous release across two consoles and two countries ... well ... that's pretty cool, too. Still no solid release date, so we expect a fairly vague mid-2008 date to crop up somewhere.
TGS07: Front Mission 2089 announced for DS
Square Enix quietly revealed its next Front Mission project at the ongoing Tokyo Game Show, and it's for the DS! Aside from its name, Front Mission 2089: Border of Madness, not much else has been announced -- we can safely assume, however, that it'll be an SRPG packed with highly customizable wanzers (mechs) and political drama.Previous Front Mission 2089 titles have been released for mobile platforms, but we're not sure yet if Border of Madness will be a port of one of those cell phone games or a completely new entry to the spin-off series. Of course, we hope for the latter. Regardless of its origin, we likely won't see it localized for the US unless we support Front Mission DS's release in the states next month!
Crisis Core sells 470k in first week -- 100k PSPs also sold
Yes, we know. Another day, another half-dozen headlines featuring the inexplicably popular adventure that is Final Fantasy VII. The popularity of the franchise cannot be ignored -- according to the latest sales charts from Japan, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core sold around 470,000 copies in a single week. This also prompted the sale of nearly 100,000 PSP units, which actually topped the number of Nintendo DS Lite units sold. This is something to be celebrated!Even though the DS had to bow out of its almost unending chart domination, the release of Crisis Core didn't take the number one spot on new releases. Pokemon is still the most popular, advancing over the city of Midgar with about a 100,000 unit lead. Regardless, this should be proof positive that the PSP is in no way a failure and that if fantastic games are developed for and released on the handheld, sales will accumulate into a gigantic ball of Meteo-like proportions. Or was Meteo more of a Final Fantasy IV reference? Alas.
TGS07: New DS game aims at the wine-loving crowd
Japan is set to receive a title aimed at wine connoisseurs in Beginner's Wine DS. Aimed at teaching the manners and advice on tasting wine, the "game" will demonstrate proper swirling techniques, as well as aid the user in choosing the right bottle of wine for that romantic occasion. Developed by Square Enix, the title comes stocked with 120 different bottles of wine, a glossary, built-in quiz and a "guide to bluffing knowledge about wine." The title is currently slated for a release of November 15th in Japan.
DS Daily: Is Space Invaders extreme enough?
The new version of Space Invaders has new enemy designs, new music, strikingly new graphics, and some kind of bizarre music/gameplay integration. But it appears to still be your basic Space Invaders-- moving left and right, and shooting at enemies as they descend in formation. It's the same game, at heart, as has been around since 1978. Plenty of people still love Space Invaders today, and we count ourselves among that "number," though we haven't built a career in art out of it or anything. But we also know that we (I) can be a little more retro-oriented than most people. Which is why we're asking you: does Space Invaders Extreme have any chance of holding your interest based on what you've seen (which, at the moment, isn't too much)? Is the basic game too antique for you? What would have to change to suit your tastes?
V-Jump scans reveal Final Fantasy IV release date, Moogle-esque creatures
Much of the art and screens shown in these V-Jump Final Fantasy IV scans has already been revealed in other magazine scans, but there's new stuff, too. Like little white non-Moogle creatures called "Pochika" (or something close) who seem to be able to help out in battle. If you're really concerned about gameplay changes in the DS remake, now would be the time to go buy the Game Boy Advance version. Inheriting other characters' abilities is nothing compared to adorable mascot out of nowhere. And, for the practical-minded gamer who doesn't care what's in the game until you can get it, this scan shows the Japanese release date for the game: December 20th. That doesn't give you much time to learn Japanese! Check out the scans after the break for more FFIV loveliness, and another look at the nice new character models.
Taito introduces Surface-like arcade game
Well, it didn't take long for Microsoft's Surface to trickle down into the fast-paced world of card gaming (ala Magic). Feast your eyes on the next device your children will be shoveling money into like it's going out of style, a new Square Enix (makers of Final Fantasy) and Taito collaboration called The Wheel of Eternity. The card-based RPG appears to function much in the same way that Bill Gates described Surface's object recognition properties as working, "sensing" cards which are placed on the game area, and reacting to their status, movement and arrangement. There's no word on when or if this game is coming to the states, but with kids' unnatural obsession with card games (particularly those of a Japanese ilk), it seems likely this will be popping up on these shores before long.
DQIV gets release date and price for Japan
Square Enix let loose details on the Japanese release of Dragon Quest IV. The title, which will release to the Japanese gaming public on November 22nd, will demand a hefty price of 5390 Yen (comes to about $47). Based on what we've seen, this game is going to take our socks and rock them right the hell off.See also: Dragon Quest IV website launches[Via NeoGAF]
Rez, Ikaruga, Exit confirmed for Xbox Live Arcade
If you missed out on our liveblog of Microsoft's pre-TGS conference in Japan (it does, after all, require an excessive and strenuous amount of scrolling to access), you may appreciate and respond with delirious joy to some of the pertinent news to emerge from it. You should also appreciate the amount of effort that went into the preceding and vaguely professional sentence -- we really just wanted to blurt out that REZ ON XBLA YAY. Ahem. Microsoft confirmed that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's melodic shooter will soon make you hear everything you see and see everything you hear on Xbox Live Arcade. Other things you'll see are waves of hypnotic bullets (Ikaruga), saviors adorned with fine hats (EXIT), pulsating geometric shapes (Every Extend Extra Extreme), flying robots (Omega Five) and... er, some sort of Japanese car (Triggerheart Exelica)? No release dates have been announced for any of the games, though we suspect none of them are likely to come soon enough.
Final Fantasy IV launches dev blog
Do you like blogs? We love blogs, even if they're comprised mostly of indecipherable script from the Japanese language. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's about games.One of the game's producers comments that the title was planned immediately following the completion of Final Fantasy III, but fails to mention how frequently the blog will be updated. So, be sure keep up with the RSS over there.[Via Go Nintendo]
Casting magic in Final Fantasy Tactics
In addition to new screenshots and art, Square Enix released a handful of new gameplay videos from its upcoming War of the Lions game. In these brief clips, you'll see how some of the powerful spells at your disposal. Unlike the Japanese release, the game features a better framerate, making this the single best version of Final Fantasy Tactics you can get anywhere.
Please enjoy new Final Fantasy Tactics art
Click for high-resolution image. Jeanne d'Arc and Disgaea aren't the only SRPGs that will take residence on the PSP. A new PSP-enhanced version of Final Fantasy Tactics, called The War of the Lions, will be available nationwide October 9th. The War of the Lions divide the land of Ivalice in two. The story is told through the eyes of two men as they're entrapped by the war: Delita Heiral and Ramza Beoulve. New to the PSP version is a new job class: the Onion Knight. In addition, the game will be enhanced with new 16:9 graphics, a brand new translation and fully voiced anime cutscenes (the Japanese version did not feature any VA). A new multiplayer function allows you to battle other players, or play cooperatively against the AI. Check out the huge media blowout we secured for you. You'll find new art, screenshots are more in our updated gallery. %Gallery-5456%
Zack boards train, people die, in new Crisis Core vid
Square Enix wants you to know that Zack is one bad guy. Bad, of course, meaning good or cool. This CG video shows Zack dropping atop a train, immediately dodging bullets and generally causing chaos and mayhem. All in good fun, of course. If the video streams a bit slowly for you, then hit pause once while its loading. Give it a few seconds of breathing room, and you should be set. [Update: For more Crisis Core goodness, check out new screens at The Magic Box.]
Austin GDC: Live at the Hiromichi Tanaka keynote
Hiromichi Tanaka is the executive officer of Square Enix and the producer of company's entry into the MMO market, Final Fantasy XI. This morning at the Austin Game Developer's Conference he's going to be talking to us about the challenges of cross-platform design with a design post-mortum of Final Fantasy XI.11:06 AM CST: We were supposed to get started at 11AM CST, but the event seems to be running fashionably late.11:08 AM CST: Introducing Hiromichi Tanaka speaking on Launching Final Fantasy XI on Multiple Platforms.
