News

Sorry for the general lack of tidbits over the last month. It's been a crazy time in Rangersville. Let's catch up a bit, knowing that some of these things might not actually be news to some of you any more. Again, sorry!

The 25th Anniversary showcase that Squenix threw for the Final Fantasy franchise has now come and gone, and it definitely seemed to be quite the to-do in celebration of one of the longest-running and biggest-selling franchises in gaming history. Big names from each of the big three console makers spoke to talk about how Final Fantasy has impacted their own companies and gaming as a whole; no word on if Microsoft was mocked by the other two for not having much to contribute on that score. Shinji Hashimoto took the stage to announce the big bundle, a collection of every one of the first thirteen main-line Final Fantasy games either for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, or PSP. The package also includes a video disc, an artbook, a two-disc music compilation, a special Amano piece, and even a code for a Final Fantasy XIV item (which obviously will be the thing that really moves units). It's on sale on 18 December for about $450 US/350 Euro/280 GBP. If you have that kind of cash laying about - and who doesn't? - there's probably nothing stopping you from ordering from the Square Enix store. You just probably won't be able to play most of the games. Now, if they'd just offer a lesser version of the package without the games, I'd order one right now, I think. I have most of the games in the package already and these new releases don't appear to actually contain anything new.

Also coming from the celebration was the announcement of three new Ultimania books, called "Final Fantasy Memorial." These, too, release on 18 December Each of the three books covers an era of Final Fantasy games, from I - VI, VII - IX, and X - XIV. They can be ordered from the Square Enix shop as well, and there will apparently be a bonus gift for buying all three together. Of course, to do that will set you back another $120 or so. They do promise some new, never-before-seen artwork, and the implied promise of lots of words in Japanese that you probably can't read. Continuing the trend of 25th Anniversary merchandise, there will be novelizations released in Japan sometime later this year of the first three Final Fantasy games. You know, in case you wanted to read hundreds of pages to find out what happens in a game you probably played more than a decade ago. These will cost you a lot less, so maybe they're easier trinkets to pick up for collectors!

The Tokyo Game Show is coming up soon, and that's always a big deal for Squenix. However, and this should not shock you, but there will be no Versus at TGS this year. According to a member of the Japanese Square Enix Members site, Hashimoto has said that XIV and Lightning Returns will be the priorities this year on the Final Fantasy front. However, if you want to see Dragon Quest X in HD, TGS will have a stage demo at the show, running the game on Wii U. With regards to what is playable at TGS, it's not yet known. However, it appears that Bravely Default, Final Fantasy III for PSP, and the rebooted Final Fantasy XIV will be represented along with a variety of other games either developed or published by the many-headed Squenix behemoth.

There's more new news about Lightning Returns coming up, as well, which Death Penalty will be writing up hot on my heels!

Source: andriasang, SiliconEra

The rumored future of Final Fantasy games features in this edition of the Squenix Tidbits, and not all of it is awesome. Of course, most people would probably say that is of zero surprise, but, that's how it is.

Let's get the bad news out of the way: Kotaku reports today that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is finally dead; while the reporting is mostly conjecture at this point, it's pretty reasonable conjecture given the utter lack of visible progress on offer from Squenix. The real question, beyond the simple matter of the game dying, is when it died. Has the company been pouring resources into the development until very recently, or was it quitely shelved a long time ago? The answer to that question might determine what resources are available for other games, which is important due to the widespread notion that the flagship series is worth next to nothing these days. Perhaps having more people available could help.

The next rumor is that Final Fantasy XV is going to be an open world game, in the style of Final Fantasy XII. On top of that, the Squenix source quoted indicates that the game's already been in some level of production for four years, with full development kicking off in January 2010, will have a combat system that calls back to both Final Fantasy XII and Vagrant Story, and will have cities that not only really exist but are populated by crowds of people, not just a few "important" townsfolk. Along with these points, it's also rumored that the game will be released for every platform available in the release generation. Given that the game hasn't even been unveiled officially yet, it would stand to reason that this would include the next offerings from Microsoft and Sony, as well as possibly even the WiiU.

The Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary event is coming up at the end of August, running from 31 August to 2 September. The first day will be for the press and some selected members of the Japanese Square Enix Members site, with the last two days open to the public. While this will obviously have massive amounts of Final Fantasy nostalgia, given the nature of the event, the company is looking to show the future of the franchise at the same time, with events to discuss more of the next aspect of the Final Fantasy XIII series, more information about Final Fantasy XIV 2.0, and a live recording of a Square Enix podcast dedicated to the future of the Final Fantasy series. With this event and the Tokyo Game Show both on the radar, a lot of questions about what's next for Final Fantasy might become resolved very soon.

Source: Kotaku, Gameranx, andriasang

E3's gone away for another year, and as Squenix were largely cut out of the biggest, most-televised events this year, it's time to roll up the news for all of you Square Enix fans visiting CoN. The company showed a large number of games in their booth, as usual, with a great many slated to come out quite soon. Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Sleeping Dogs (you know, the "Dogs" game that falls right behind Watch Dogs and Nintendogs in terms of name recognition) appeared in the booth, as well as soon-to-be-released Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy.

Quantum Conundrum made a big splash, with its release date just a couple weeks away. I think this game was under a lot of peoples' radars, even though the game came from Kim Swift, one of the minds behind the original Portal; the puzzle play reminds me quite a bit of Portal, though the art aesthetic is a bit more Team Fortress, if you're extending the Valve analogy. With its large number of platforms and puzzle-based gaming, it really looks like it could be a mainstream hit - indeed, I've seen coverage of it not only in the gaming media but also already in more pop-culture media such as Entertainment Weekly. Check out the newest trailer, released just before E3, to get a better feel for what's going on and exactly how you might be jumping from dimension to dimension to clear a level.

Speaking of trailers, Squenix cut a new one for Theatrhythm for E3 as well. If you want to watch, make sure to view it full-screen to understand a little bit more about how the gameplay works, as it's really hard to see at the standard size. Then, enjoy the music, as it clearly remains the biggest draw for the title, but also check out more footage of all the different types of game play that make up the game, some of which I had yet to see at much length. There's also a good interview with the game's project manager, which sheds some light on the way the game was designed and where it fits in to the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary theme.

In fact, just check out all of the Square Enix content from E3. There are a ton more interviews there with Squenix personnel about their upcoming games, and I haven't even had time to watch them all myself. While you're there, you can even sign up to win a moogle-and-magenta PS3 or Xbox 360. Maybe you can check out the special cakes Squenix had at their invite-only E3 event.

Square Enix also wasted no time with more news from Japan even as E3 wound down. andriasang has reported in just the last few days, such as a new Transformers-esque racing and battle arcade game that will also be ported to 3DS, a teaser for a new Final Fantasy III release on PSP, and a third demo for Bravely Default Flying Fairy, introducing the battle and job systems.

Finally, surprise! There's another Distant Worlds concert this summer! A couple weeks ago, Dallas was added to this year's slate of shows. The show is this week, but tickets are still available, possibly including VIP tickets that get you in to meet guest vocalist Susan Calloway and Squenix composer Masashi Hamauzu. Free up your Friday night, Texans.

Source: Square Enix Blog, andriasang

Almost two years ago, Square Enix announced a mobile game for Japan called "Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness," which astute readers might have learned about from this very website. The original Japanese release was an episodic game that looked strikingly similar to Final Fantasy IV, and included a five-character party with a job change system.

The news now is that the game's coming out again this summer, and it will now be called "Final Fantasy Dimensions." All the episodes will be smushed into one lump and the package will be available in the Apple iOS App Store. An exact release date is not known, as it's hard to predict an exact date with Apple; additionally, price and supported Apple devices are up in the air as well. The official site for the game is on Squenix' Japanese site; however, I'm not aware of any iOS game that the company has released that hasn't been available in multiple languages for worldwide release, so it should be a foregone conclusion that we're all getting access to it.

Source: andriasang

Okay, yes, there's even more Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC coming. You want to know part of the reason why it's so hard for me to write tidbits these days? Even as much as I like Final Fantasy XIII (and have -2 sitting on my desk, waiting to be played), when most of the news coming out is about DLC, it starts to be a bit soul-deadening. My scarred essence notwithstanding, there's a lot coming down the chute in the near future: Snow and Valfodr are coming to the Colosseum next month, to be followed closely thereafter by a massive update including Lightning's "Requiem of the Goddess," White Mage and Black Mage costumes for Serah and Noel respectively, and a pack of sixteen different costumes for your Moogle. Oh, yeah, and Snow got put in Prada too, and they forgot to tell us before. Almost missed out on that one!

Now that we have that out of the way, check out the new Square Enix streaming music site, which is almost like a Pandora for Squenix tracks. Once you fight your way around the interface a bit, you can listen to tracks streamed through your browser from a variety of Squenix properties. The selection appears to be a bit small at the moment, but it's still a potentially interesting new branding push for the gaming juggernaut, as the music produced by Square Enix remains well-received even as the games it produces sometimes are less so. Were the company to add more tracks and improve the interface, this could be a big winner down the line.

For those waiting to try Dragon Quest X, the first MMO to be put in the hands of Enix' biggest property, you'll still be waiting a while. However, a release date has been announced for Japan, which naturally brings us in the West one hypothetical step closer to playing. The game will be out on 2 August in Japan for Wii; again, no information on whether it will appear as a WiiU launch title in any market. The game will cost 1000 yen per thirty days of play, with small discounts offered for paying instead in 60- or 90-day chunks. You'll be able to register 100 friends within the game, as well, and be able to see what servers they're on and potentially what they're up to. Additionally, the Japanese release will feature free play for children from time to time. There's no age limit, though - not that they'd be able to enforce it, really - and that makes it seem to me more like a creepy trap than anything else. The beta's going well, too, with it looking to expand to up to fifty thousand players in the near future, and 24-hour server uptime coming soon as well.

Source: Final Fantasy XIII Net, andriasang

People have been waiting for Versus XIII for a very long time, which certainly grated on those fans when they instead got Final Fantasy XIII-2 first. Personally, I find that a bit odd, given that it's hard for me to look down on a game in favor of a game that we've barely ever even seen, but to each their own and I digress anyway. The news here is that Squenix are now just flat-out trolling gamers by releasing some Versus XIII content not as a trailer video, or as a demo, but as a DLC track for Theatrhythm. The released track is nice enough, at least in its thirty-second snippet, a quiet piano track with a Japanese vocal. And, I'm sure that instead of actually being a troll, it's more of a "this is a way to show them that we're still going to release this game" sort of thing. Still hilarious if you think back to the fact that it's been over five years since news of the game started coming forth.

Speaking of Theatrhythm, that game was released on 4 April in Japan, and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance released the week before in the same locale. Why is that again relevant? Because this week, both games got their North American release dates officially confirmed by Squenix. The launch order will be different over here; the music rhythm game will be out on 3 July and KH3D will drop on the last day of the month. Apparently there's a fairly critical bug in KH3D that can stop some players from continuing the game - I, unfortunately, have no idea what that is because it's only written up in Japanese. One would assume it would be fixed before the pending Western release.

If you thought the last bunch of Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC was nuts, there's more this week, coming out in Japan on 10 April. This time, Noel can dress up as Ezio from Assassin's Creed, while Serah's new outfit is called "Exposure and Defense" and is based on one worn by a member of Japanese girlpop group AKB48. Also available at the same time will be Gilgamesh, who can be fought and added to your party as a Commando, and Final Fantasy VIII's PuPu (known as Koyo-Koyo in Japan), who can become a Medic. Only Serah's outfit will be free DLC, it seems. The costumes don't stop there, though; while they're not DLC, Final Fantasy XIII universe characters are going to appear in men's fashion magazine Arena Homme+ in the next issue. It appears that this magazine is British, though I've never seen one and therefore can't confirm firsthand; wherever it's published, it features new fashions for men from Prada draped on well-posed Final Fantasy characters, including Lightning. Sazh, in particular, is looking pretty suave.

We'll wrap this week with a bit of MMO news. First, Squenix have decided to do some public demos of Dragon Quest X this spring in Japan, starting at shopping malls in three cities. There won't be any new information coming from these, they're just a chance to get the game out in front of more people than the closed beta allows on its own.

Source: Kotaku, andriasang