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All your base are belong to Final Fantasy
Gaming magazine Famitsu recently released a list of the 20 most wanted games. Guess what was at the top of the list? Final Fantasy III. That's right, a ton of people are craving this re-release and they want it so bad that they dubbed it more important than even Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. It's also no surprise to see that listed right below FF III is Final Fantasy XIII. As long as Square makes 'em, we'll buy 'em. [Via Advanced Media Network]
A bunch of new FFIII videos
6 new videos for Final Fantasy III have hit the web and present some of the various areas of the game you may have neglected seeing. With some battling, town segments, and a look at the job editor, we find ourselves graciously satiated by the glorious bounty of sustenance each video provides. The videos have showed up on You Tube, however they are of a much worse quality. If you don't feel like waiting for each video to load, check out the post linked back to Joystiq for the You Tube videos. The 6 different videos include: Scene after first boss battle Battle Town Town & world map Job editor (lets you change jobs and shows your character) World map, dungeon, and battle [Via Joystiq]
Final Fantasy III Wallpapers
Yeah, is that not absolutely beautiful? Absolutely breath taking. Best thing about this wallpaper? There are more. Square updated the Final Fantasy III official site today and gave you loyal fans more things to drool over and believe us, you will. [Via Go Nintendo]
Final Fantasy V screens and artwork
Yeah yeah yeah. We all know that this is overkill of FF. But thats what makes our world go 'round. There are more screens and artwork than you care for but it keeps us preoccupied until something Final Fantasy comes out to kill this craving. For those of you wondering about graphics, take a look. The site they are from is a little tricky to navigate around but we have faith in you.
Screenshot roundup: Children of Mana
The US boxart and various screens have been released for the latest installment in the World of Mana series. Children of Mana, which is being developed by Square Enix and published by Nintendo for the DS, is set for release on October 30th in North America. The final game will feature four-player co-op gameplay and see the return of the 8 elemental spirits. The game's homepage for English-speaking readers can be found here, while Japanese-speaking readers can access the entire World of Mana page here.
FF III secures almost 450K copies to retailers in Japan
According to a Dutch gaming site, pre-orders for Final Fantasy III have already hit between 400,000 and 450,000 in Japan. This is just amazing. The report makes no mention of how many of these pre-orders are the bundle packs available to Japanese consumers, yet even despite this omission, we can't help but stare in awe at our jaws, which are firmly planted by our feet on the floor.Is this an indication of what pre-orders will be like when the game releases in the US and Europe?[Via N-Sider]
Final Fantasy III in action
Coming in at almost 4 minutes, this footage of Final Fantasy III in action is likely to cause your salivation for the title to reach new, disgustingly moist, heights. The footage, while hefty on the battling, shows some dungeon crawling and sheds some light on the load times of the title, which are easily put up with.
Square-Enix and Namco-Bandai are on the patch
At a press meeting in Tokyo yesterday, president of Square-Enix Yoichi Wada and vice-president of Namco-Bandai Shin Unozawa talked about the next generation of gaming and the importance of online features. They stressed this was not limited to MMO's but all future titles. A lot of the talk seemed to beat around the bush for lower development costs, citing ad placements in games (ramping it up for the online world ... ads are in a ton of games already, so possibly a randomized billboard or something? You know?) and software updates rather than gratuitous amounts of bug testing. Which is a patch, more or less.So, is releasing software updates better than actually going through bug testing? Sure, it costs less, but those who've played games like Oblivion know that these updates can come too late -- eternally trapped as a vampire since the quest to cure was bugged, unable to enter this guild or that, effectively losing many hours of work on the game. But would such a thing have been caught by bug-testers anyway? If nothing else, the release of next-gen games would be pushed back a lot farther without patches as an option.Hopefully the PS3 will smartly incorporate software testing but not allow unfinished or unpolished games to reach the market (although it does happen...). Oh, about the Playstation 3, Unozawa tossed in: "The Playstation 3 will definately sell." That's nice of him to say! That's "definately" reassuring.
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.]
More Sylphy screens
Man, Xboxygen has gone mental for Project Sylph. It seems like they publish something about it every day now. For day number three -- that's today if you're keeping score -- they've posted some direct feed images of the game. The images reveal a few new details about the game. In addition to the handsome devil you see above -- it is a guy, right? -- the screens show off the game's HUD and what looks like a ship customization feature. Xboxygen also points the way to the official Project Sylph website. It's only a splash page now, but promises to open on July 7th. We'll be sure to keep you informed. We could all use a little space shootery goodness, no? [Thanks again, gaetge]
June 27th says: "No Live for you!" [update 1]
PlayOnline has announced that Xbox Live servers will be down on June 27th from 2:00 'til 6:00 PDT for maintenance. It looks like this will only affect PlayOnline, but it might mean no Live for anyone. No word has actually come down from Microsoft about Live being down so, who knows? The announcement mentions that those already connected to PlayOnline will stay connected, but once you disconnect you won't be able to access PlayOnine until the maintenance is finished. So, 360 Final Fantasy XI fans (both of you) better connect now before it's too late. [Via Xboxic] Update: Reader bigC24 let us know that the Live outage is official. Check out Major Nelson for details.
Best Buy puts up Final Fantasy VII listing
At the ripe price of 60 bucks, Final Fantasy VII for PS3 is showing up on Best Buy's website. Oh but wait, there's more. It even goes as far to list December 1st as being release date, obviously for here in the States. With everyone and their grandmother talking about a next-gen remake, this puts a bit more substance to the discussion (albeit only a little).Now who wants to start taking bids on how long it takes for Square Enix to get this removed?[Via Gaming Horizon]
Confirmed: PS3 motion-sensing controller will work with FFXIII
In an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura about the Final Fantasy XIII project, EGM's Executive Editor Shane Bettenhausen attempts to pry loose rich, succulent information on what is possibly the most desired PS3 title of 2007. Arguments involving the superiority of gears comprised of mainly metal aside, the interview focuses on the background and universe that will encompass Final Fantasy XIII, along with the decisions to go with a tough female lead character. Most interesting in this interview, however, is the confirmation that the PS3's new controller features will be implemented into the final game.EGM: Will the FFXIII PS3 games use the PS3's motion-sensing controller functionality? TN: Yeah, we already have some ideas about how to use it.
EGM sits down with FFXIII developers
It's a fantasy of the final kind that just keeps on chuggin'. Shane Bettenhausen of EGM fame got to talk it up with Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase, Tetsuya Nomura and Toriyama about Square Enix and their Final Fantasy XIII project.While the interview will be appearing in this month's magazine, the whole unabridged version can be seen on 1UP. Mr. Kitase starts it up by conceding that they had originally thought about doing FFXIII on PS2 before deciding that both it and FFVersusXIII would ship on PlayStation 3. On the subject of narrative crossovers, Nomura says that each world is separate and will not allow for other characters meet each other.Of course he follows that up stating that there is the "possibility in the future" of that happening, but obviously they haven't gotten to that bridge yet. Check out the full interview to see what else they had to say (motion-sensing anyone?).
Japanese mags reveal details on FFXIII
Turns out the scenario work on the upcoming game from Square Enix is about 80% complete, according to Motomu Toriyama. Along with the decision to go Blu-ray as one DVD was apparently not enough to contain the beast that is Final Fantasy XIII, the team believes that the shader abilities of the PS3 will help them convey the deep, rich emotion that fans of the franchise demand.
More Final Fantasy XIII images and info
Some more details from Square Enix on the game via The Magic Box: Final Fantasy XIII will not have online functions Each episode will have different and independent characters, the stories also takes place in different times in history The only things in common for the 3 titles are Chocobos, Moggles, magic and myths around the Crystals The Legend of the Crystals is the central theme of the 3 games The latin word "Versus" in Final Fantasy Versus XIII means the change of a direction The latin word "Agito" in Final Fantasy XIII Agito means stimulus or moving violently, this game will have action elements implemented in the system
New Final Fantasy XIII magazine scans
The drool-inducing aesthetics that define the Final Fantasy series never cease to amaze. FFXIII is no exception. Check out these gorgeous scans from a Japanese magazine to get a feel for the upcoming epic. It's being taken care of by the same team behind FFX, and with an all new "white engine" backing it, this title is a serious hook for RPG fans looking forward to the PlayStation 3.
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]
Final Fantasy XIII announced for PS3 [Update 1]
As we just reported, Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for the PlayStation 3 (and, so far, only for Sony's console) -- showing that Square Enix is still supporting Sony. According to Chris Kohler at Game|Life, the trailer "looks amazing. Female main character. Looked like prerendered video, except it was realtime. Dramatic action-packed battles with crazy camerawork."The title is being produced by Yoshinori Kitase (Final Fantasies 5-8 and 10, Chrono Trigger) and directed by Motomu Toriyama (FFX, X-2, and the Final Fantasy VII tech demo shown at last year's E3).As far as we know, this is a PlayStation 3 exclusive. While no love was shown for Microsoft, the Xbox 360 does have three RPGs on the way from Japanese developer MistWalker, formed by Final Fantasy veteran Hironobu Sakaguchi.Update: Gamespot reports that there are actually 3 different Final Fantasy XIII titles. The second title, featuring more spiky-haired madness, is also bound for PS3 and is directed by Advent Children's Tetsuya Nomura. The final game in the XIII trio is destined for mobile platforms.
Random encounters with Final Fantasy parody videos
Western Square fans have been waiting a long time for the next canonical (read: Roman-numeral-bearing, non-MMO, non-X-2) Final Fantasy release--five years if we're not mistaken--and they've apparently taken to creating live-action videos of the game to make the wait easier.
