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Final Fantasy III gameplay footage
A Final Fantasy III (DS) video -- minus the fluff -- has surfaced on YouTube. Although edited, this clip is 3:44 of gameplay footage: a lil' exploring ... a surprise skirmish ... some more explorin' ... a lethargic giant-tortoise boss battle ... a shiny crystal -- you know, classic Final Fantasy. Sure it's garden variety, but it's a proven formula and looking extremely polished at home on DS.
Moogle joins Mario Hoops team roster
A recent Famitsu scan seems to indicate that the obscenely colorful cast of Mario Hoops: 3 on 3 will be joined by a fluffy Final Fantasy favorite -- Moogle. Franchise crossovers are always amusing, though we thought that Square Enix would at least have the good sense to toss Quina Quen from Final Fantasy IX in there. We're convinced that Mario would rather have a freakish, grammatically challenged cook on his team as opposed to a little white creature that's probably a bit crap at playing basketball. [Via 4CR]
Final Fantasy III DS wi-fi feature revealed: emailing?
ClubSkill.com reports that a leaked screenshot from Jump, a Japanese publication, reveals that Final Fantasy III will make use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, at least in part, by allowing friends to send 'letters' to each other. Exchanging these emails is said to trigger special events in the game.Fair enough, but we're still holding out for some true co-op functionality, or even just a simple battle mode. C'mon Square Enix, we play games to take a break from emailing!
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]
Project Sylph scans, see for yourSylph!
French 360 site, Xboxygen, has posted Famitsu scans of Square Enix's upcoming Project Sylph. Xboxic points us to IGN, which has gone to the trouble of translating the scans for some details. The game looks to be an extension of the Silpheed franchise and promises massive space combat and -- of course -- loads of CG cinemas. Hit the read link to see the rest of the scans and some (French) commentary. [Thanks, gaetge]
Final Fantasy XII releasing this Halloween
For those dreaming of the gorgeous gun ballet glimpsed in Final Fantasy XIII, it may come as a rude awakening when we loudly exclaim, "Hang on, we haven't even gotten number 12 yet!" Thankfully, Square Enix has answered our call by officially announcing the North American release date for their next inevitably epic RPG. Final Fantasy XII will be in stores this Halloween, 31 October 2006. If ever there was a good reason for Sephiroth and Rikku cosplayers to head out into public and purchase the game in full fantasy garb, this is it.Not to be left behind on the platform as the Collector's Edition trend train heads off, the game will be arriving in two distinct versions. The vanilla package will retail for $49.99, whereas the Collector's Edition, laced with interviews, series featurettes, trailers, art galleries and ancient evils, will be available at Gamestop and EB Games exclusively for $59.99. Depending on how fond you are of the non-final franchise, that's either a trick or a treat.[Image: Advent Children.net]
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.
Partial Wii launch lineup revealed
According to numerous reports, Nintendo Power has confirmed six Wii launch titles: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Square Enix) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo) Rayman Raving Rabbits (Ubisoft) Red Steel (Ubisoft) Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega) While this list will surely double -- or even triple -- in size as we draw closer to the console's launch, one game that will likely slip out of the launch window is Super Mario Galaxy. Link and Samus will just have to hold it down until the plumber returns in 2007.
A fluff-tacular Final Fantasy III trailer
Game Brink is hosting the official Final Fantasy III trailer, a remake of the original FF III on the DS. The entire 2-minute trailer consists of approximately 10 seconds of total gameplay footage. The majority of the trailer is pre-rendered CG and self-promoting hype. here's how the trailer breaks down: 0:00 to 0:36 -- Fluff text, decreeing this game as "The only Final Fantasy that never reached Western shores." 00:37 to 00:45 -- hand-drawn artwork from the game. 00:46 to 1:19 -- Some beautiful CG work of the main characters riding Chocobos alongside a rising airship. 1:20 to 1:31 -- Actual gameplay footage. 1:31 to 1:37 -- More CG, including our heros facing off against a giant Cerberus-style beast. 1:38 to 2:00 -- More fluff text: "Complete the Fantasy." To be fair, the CG video was impressive and what we see of the gameplay we like. Final Fantasy III is due out late this year.[Thanks, Miyamootoo]
Engadget Podcast 078 - 05.09.06
Now that the plane has landed, we've got our show reg covered and the first of the big three keynotes is out of the way, we decided to hit the mic with some of our fellow Joystiq bretheren and recap day one of E3 '06. No big surprise that Sony dominated today's news, what with their launch date hopes announcement for the PlayStation 3, its pricing strategy, and a new trick for the old dog that is their PS3 controller redesign. Not to be left in the dust, Nintendo did get some Wii launch titles confirmed; yet unconfirmed, however, is that fresh new rumor about the Wii clocking in at $250 when it hits the U.S. streets. Microsoft didn't want to go without their share of attention as well, and confirmed that the Xbox 360's HD DVD drive will connect via USB. (You can imagine our surprise on that one.) Day one is over, day two has just started, but podcast 78 is a go. Get the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3). [RSS] Add the Engadget Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3). [MP3] Download the show (MP3). [OGG] Download the show (OGG). [Vote] Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Host Ryan Block Featuring Joystiq's Chris Grant, Ross Miller and James Ransom-Wiley Producer Randall Bennett Music J J J - 'Suits' in Japan Format 54:28, 24.9 MB, MP3 Program 00:00 - Playstation 3 - Sony's Keynote 35:30 - Nintendo Wii selling for $250? 40:52 - Square / Enix deets 44:19 - Microsoft says HD DVD connects via USB (duh) LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (OGG) Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET, Engadget (Gizmo Project) or podcast at engadget dawt com
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]
Square Enix's E3 roster
Square Enix has revealed a partial list of titles that will be on hand at E3. The lineup is bursting with redonculous amounts of Final Fantasy action: Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII (Mobile) Children of Mana (DS) Dawn of Mana (PS2) Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII (PS2) Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS) Final Fantasy I (Mobile) Final Fantasy III (DS) Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA) Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan (PC, PS2, Xbox 360) Final Fantasy XII (PS2) Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2) In addition, on Monday, May 8, Square Enix will host a press briefing, where, presumably, some juicy next-gen titles (not listed above) will be introduced to the world.[Thanks, Justin]
Square Enix snubs Xbox 360, targets PS3 & Vista for new MMORPG
Speaking with Impress Watch, Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka revealed that Square Enix is working on a new MMORPG for the PS3 and Windows Vista. Tanaka made no mention of an Xbox 360 version, but did confirm the developers' hopes for a worldwide release.Last year, Square Enix showed off a MMORPG trailer at Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference. It was assumed at the time that the Xbox 360 would be home to Square Enix's next MMO project — not just a FFXI makeover. Tanaka's recent comments suggest otherwise.[Thanks, Fan]
Square Enix announces FPS for 360, codenamed 'Project Sylph'
One more interesting tidbit was revealed at Microsoft Japan's recent press conference, it's codenamed, Project Sylph — Square Enix's latest development for the Xbox 360 — and it's not an RPG. Instead, Project Sylph was simply described as an arcade-style FPS, and then Square Enix pointed to E3, where further details will be released.We can't help but feel a bit disappointed by this prospect. Microsoft's consoles have been overrun with FPS games. We thought the point of bringing Square Enix into the 360-picture was to grace the platform with some patented RPG flavor. Change is often good, but is Square Enix headed in the wrong direction with this one?As FFantasy.com notes, sylph has dual meanings: 1) a slender, graceful woman (we're thinkin' Aeon Flux, pictured); and 2) a being that inhabits the air (in the Paracelsus philosophy). Any guesses?Update: "The Sylph summon consists of several pixies that steal HP from the enemy and give it to the characters. In FF4, it only gave HP to the caster; in FF5, the entire party. In Tactics, Fairy did not steal HP, but did heal the entire party" [via Final Fantasy Compendium].
Rumor: Final Fantasy XIII PS3 exclusive at E3
According to 1UP, the May issue of EGM contains a rumor that Final Fantasy XIII will be showing up at next month's E3 for "a brief teaser video and confirmation from [Square Enix] that the RPG will be a PS3 exclusive." RPG fans, rejoice!What's a little shocking is that FFXIII would be unveiled before FFXII is even released outside Japan, but "rumblings" have apparently also been picked up that "Final Fantasy XIII is practically close to being finished" already. With all the delays to XII, it's certainly more than possible that a second team working on XIII's already got something to show by now.It wasn't exactly surprising that FFXIII would show up as a PS3 exclusive--despite certain misquotes to the contrary--but you know that a new Final Fantasy is just what the next PlayStation needs (judging by how previews of FFX elevated the PS2's platform profile). Hopefully this little tidbit isn't EGM's way of stretching its April Fools' coverage to another issue (and another month).[Thanks, Spatlase Disexia]
Metareview - Kingdom Hearts II
A Final Fantasy and Disney Kingdom RPG mash-up? The idea sounded wack at first, but when the original Kingdom Hearts debuted back in 2002, it worked, proving once again that Square Enix could do no wrong (at least, in the RPG realm). Now, the motley crew is back and being heralded by critics — well, most of them... Gaming Age (100/100) - "Kingdom Hearts 2 is a shining example of the "fix what's broken and improve what isn't" mindset. And though the game still has its flaws, they're relatively minor by comparison, a drastic improvement upon its predecessor in all regards." Game Informer (90/100) - "Kingdom Hearts II is a remarkable journey and another Square-Enix masterpiece" [April 2006, p.120]. IGN (76/100) - "Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful title with a great story and fantastic presentation, but because of its major combat flaws (and that fact that it turns its back on exploration and most RPG elements), it does the game a great disservice."
