News

In what is turning out to be a great month for mobile Final Fantasy gamers, Square Enix has announced that the recent FFIV 3D remake, previously available only on the Nintendo DS, will be released for all iOS devices on December 20th with an expected price tag of $17.99. The title has been confirmed for Android devices as well, though the release date is left unspecified as sometime next year.

Apparently, in anticipation of the upcoming release, SE is cutting back the prices of their other mobile offerings a bit, so you may want to check out your app store before then.

Source: engadget.com

Because I've missed a couple Fridays, here's an off-schedule Tidbits post of Square Enix news to cover the gap for a bit.

In case you missed the last post, there are big releases for PSP coming from the Final Fantasy franchise very soon. Over the past couple weeks, the company has had a media blowout to share new shinies with the gaming public from both Final Fantasy IV Collection and Dissidia Duodecim. These probably aren't new to the fans who most eagerly await these two releases, but if you're still on the fence or don't have a PSP... well, you're probably not reading this thread, are you? Okay, in that case, it's just for those of you who might be bored.

Here's a list of the new stuff by game:

• Final Fantasy IV Collection
  • New trailer with "Interlude" content bridging the two games
  • Screenshots from andriasang
• Dissidia Duodecim
  • More screenshots from andriasang
  • Low-quality video of the new Desperado Chaos character

Additionally involving both Dissidia and FFIV Collection is the detail released last week regarding some free DLC for Dissidia. Some of it is free to all from the Playstation Store, two new costumes for Cecil can be gotten for free with purchase of Collection, and the last is just for people who belong to the Mobile Square Enix site, which will bring some free new music into the game. All of these promotions are obviously just for the Japanese Dissidia players; does anyone know from other sources or from the treatment of the first game if similar promotions will run here in the West?

Finally, a bit of bolt-on news, unrelated to the PSP; Square Enix tweeted today that they have another new Facebook game in the works. This one will be set in Japan and will center around some sort of group of fairies. I'm trusting someone else's translation, here, possibly to my chagrin. I think that previous Square Enix Facebook games have been modestly successful, though, so whatever's good for the company, why not go for it?

Source: andriasang

A cool week for Square Enix News Tidbits, by and large, but two upcoming PSP games from long-running Squenix franchises got North American release dates this week.

For those who haven't been turned off by the series' lack of desire to maintain a consistent game genre or play style, The 3rd Birthday got a release date as well as a lead voice actress for fan favorite Aya Brea. The game will be available to North American players on 29 March 2011 (which just happens to be this humble author's birthday, so hint, hint); if you pick the game up, you'll hear Aya voiced by Yvonne Strahovski. You might well recognize her name from her work both as a voice actress in Mass Effect 2, as Miranda, as well as her leading role in NBC's "Chuck." If you'd like to get your preorder in for this game via AmaCoN, look no further.

Another game getting a release date this week is the PSP remake of Final Fantasy IV. This one will be dropping on 19 April 2011; if you haven't seen the news, you can note that this remake will be a rollup of Final Fantasy IV with previously-Wii-only The After Years. We know that the game will get a bit of visual polish and new CG, and will probably look a bit like previous Final Fantasy remakes on the handheld, but other than that we're not quite sure which Final Fantasy IV we're getting, exactly. Picking up the game? Let us know, and do it from AmaCoN.

This is shaping up to be a massive year for Squenix on the PSP. Beyond these two games, don't forget that owners of the now-first-generation Sony handheld will be getting Tactics Ogre and the Dissidia sequel, all before the end of Spring. Keeping up will be painful.

Source: IGN, Kotaku

Okay, readers, let's be honest. The majority of us have played Final Fantasy IV. A decent number of us have played it on more than one system. What with the SNES version, PSX, GBA, DS and Wii, that's five different ways to play! I know what you're thinking right now. "Only five? That's pathetic! Final Fantasy I has been released on at least SIX different platforms!" And you would be correct. Square-Enix, apparently realising this, have decided to bring four up to six. By that I mean, bring Final Fantasy IV up to six platforms, and not.... you know what, never mind.

So, my friends, here's the deal. Final Fantasy IV is coming to a PSP near you. HUZZAH! It'll be coming with Super-Turbo-HD graphics, in the same vein as the Final Fantasy I and II remakes from a few years ago and NOT the 3D graphics from the DS remake. No specific release date as of yet, only "Next Spring". That's quite close.

But that's not all. Remember the sequel to Final Fantasy IV, titled "The After Years"? It was originally released on mobile phones, and then released in installments on the Wii Shop Channel. This sequel will come included in the game with the same graphical enhancements. Booya. It is not clear yet whether the sequel includes all of the episodes with it, but one assumes that that would be the only way to go.

Some people might sigh, seeing this game remade for the forty-fifth time (see linked article), but 4 is one of the games that I never really get bored of. Now I'm going to have to find one of my copies of Final Fantasy IV and play it again. Squee.

Source: Kotaku

Lots of stuff going on in the monolithic, despairing towers of Square Enix since the last tidbits. The biggest news of this week has been twofold - well, really only onefold unless you're in Japan.

First, as most of you already know but didn't submit to the news section, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is getting a sequel. It's going to come out next year, and it's apparently going to be called Dissidia: Duodecim, which I feel I must from now on reference as "Dissidia: Duodenum." Looks like Lightning and Kain are locked in as new entries, which is sure to please some people at least. For more discussion about this upcoming game, you can hit up the other, less news-posted thread.

Next, despite the Xbox 360 in a decided last place in this generation's console war in Japan, Squenix announced this week that they're porting Final Fantasy XIII to the console for the Japanese market. It's an "International" edition, and it's going to have an "easy" mode (because Westerners are stupid), and all the voice and sub work will be in English. Should be a pretty easy port, that said, hence the rumored release date of 16 December 2010. As one might possibly expect, a good number of Japanese gamers are up in arms about this turn of events.

Still on the topic of Final Fantasy XIII, you might remember that Motomu Toriyama implied at the Japanese launch of the game that downloadable content expansions could be in the cards, a first for a non-MMO entry in the Final Fantasy series. Nearly a year down the road, though, he's now backtracked, confirming that there once were plans for DLC, but now those plans have withered and died, like a summer blossom in mid-September (okay, so I took some poetic license there). I'm not sure how to feel about that. It seems that the single-player JRPG, as a genre, has survived for many good years without needing to bolt on extra content, and I'm not sure how dedicated the Square Enix teams are to adding new content while still keeping it relevant - were they to release DLC, I have a hunch that it would be primarily minigames. Or maybe Final Fantasy XIII Versus. Who knows?

Last week, Square Enix announced that their Japanese operation is pairing with an unannounced American developer for a new "AAA" game. For those not in the know, a AAA game is one of those that is also known as a "console seller," or a "killer app," one of those games that people fall all over themselves to buy and play. They've got big budgets and big expectations, and a lot of hype. This all sounds well and good, but the presentation announcing this was done as a Powerpoint presentation. Yeah, I know that's how most big games start, but doesn't it kind of melt your enthusiasm to know that the business folk are out there announcing how their goals include a "Metacritic score over 90," "intended for core gamers?"

In the not-news, I noticed the other day on Kotaku that Canadian popstress Lights cut her hair like Lightning. Yeah, nobody cares, but she's cute and so is her music. No sense not giving her a bit of play.

Oh, and speaking of not-news, I just yesterday finished up a hack to our beloved forums. You'll note that I've removed the IM client buttons from everyone's posts, so if you want to find someone's MSN, AIM, Y! Messenger, or... ICQ... you'll have to hop into their profile. However, you might also note that in their place I've installed a spot where you can put in your Facebook ID or vanity name, or your Twitter username, and those will now show up with each of your posts. I, naturally, have added links to both the CoN Facebook page and the CoN Twitter account for mine, because why on earth would you want to see what I myself actually have to say? Big thanks to Death Penalty for helping test this across all our forum skins, and for some quality feedback as well.

Source: SiliconEra, Kotaku

Yesterday, on 6 July, the next three "Stories" in the After Years canon were released to the WiiWare store at a cost of three hundred Wii points apiece. The new stories belong to Edge, Palom, and Yang; however, details around each story are still sketchy in nature.

So, that being said, who among you has gotten these stories downloaded and can fill in the rest of us with regards to what's going down? If you plan to get them, you had best get started as the next batch will be out in under a month's time. After that, there's just the final large chapter coming in September and then this Final Fantasy IV spinoff will be fully in the books.

Source: Wikipedia: FFIV: The After Years