News

Because we obviously haven't been spoiled nor teased well enough yet, the folks at Square-Enix have kindly dropped a new Final Fantasy III DS promotional movie - shown exclusively in Japanese retail stores until now - right onto us, and it hurts so good (be sure to click "MOVIE" after the intro).

Among the images and scenes depicted, the CG video offers us a short glimpse of the characters' physical alterations when in the guise of their different job classes, and although a very small portion of the video is dedicated to actual gameplay footage, the real bulk contains cutscenes and impressive FMV.

Movie Screenshots

Secondly, for those looking forward to the next Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters title, Square-Enix has additionally unloaded a rather generous helping of screens honoring the Nintendo DS's upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.

Of the same league as Pokémon, the Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters series allows players to fight with and against a variety of monsters that are reared like pets - a practice that, in the real world, would surely make one legally unfit to care for even a sea monkey. Joker, as previously announced, will be the very first of its type to feature online play, ultimately leading to creature swapping and GP tournaments (where players have their monsters battle other players') on a global scale.

So far, the separate release dates for Final Fantasy III DS have been delayed at least three times, making the current schedule set for August 24th in Japan, September in Europe, and November in North America. As for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, no solid Japanese date has yet been established, and no word on a possible Western launch has been so much as mentioned.

According to this nifty RPGFan article, Square-Enix has released a new statement on the rest of their 2006 releases, including specific American release dates for three games.

Dirge of Cerberus ~Final Fantasy VII~ will be released on the Playstation 2 on August 15th, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime will be released on the Nintendo DS on September 19th, and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria will be released on the Playstation 2 on September 26th.

Also confirmed to be released later this year but after September ends are Final Fantasy XII for the PS2, Final Fantasy III and Children of Mana for the DS, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii, and Final Fantasy V Advance and Final Fantasy VI Advance for the Game Boy Advance. We have no official release dates for any of those six games, but many publications and retailers have already posted release dates for several of them, including an October 31st release date for Final Fantasy XII and an October 30th release date for Children of Mana.

Square-Enix has thrown eager fans yet another bone in the form of some spankin' new media concerning the Nintendo DS's remake of Final Fantasy III. Featured within this batch is a handful of screenshots depicting the different modes of transportation accessible across the game's World Map. The real highlight, however, is a new gameplay movie showing off a brief portion of dungeon exploration as well as the characters engaged in battle - a boss battle.

Final Fantasy III DS is now set to release in North America on October 3rd.

For all those who have complained about our Final Fantasy V data in the past, don't worry, we just finished upgrading a ton of it! And for those of you (roughly 93%) who have never been into that section, well, now you have a reason to go.

We've done a fresh dump of enemy data from the game and input it into our data tables, which freed us up to do a lot of new stuff. For one, we have doubled the details we will give you for each enemy, including various strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and win/steal data. That allowed us to upgrade some other sections too - the magic page now will show you where to buy, win, or steal or learn certain spells, and weapons, armor, and items all crossreference the shop and enemy data tables to pull the same data.

As always, we won't guarantee that some little irritants didn't slip through, but we did a ton of QA work here that should have caught the bulk of it. This project took us several months of starts and stops, and I had a ton of help. Thanks a lot to all of the following:

• Silverlance for generating the data dumps;


• Caesar and Djibriel for analysing, proofreading, and translating the dumps as needed, and checking the input to our tables;


• MogMaster and Karasuman for the help in additional manual data entry after the first batch upload;


• And, finally, Del S for doing more data entry, testing, fact checking, and general raw effort than you can throw a Fire Skill at.

It's been a rather sluggish period for RPG news as of late, but fortunately enough plenty of the latest, juicy media regarding three highly anticipated Final Fantasy titles has been unveiled for the eye candy-craving populace:

First up is a generous portion of cinematic and gameplay shots featuring the blade-and-bullet-wielding heroine of Final Fantasy XIII, mainly engaged in a battle similar to - if not directly from - the trailer. Following close behind are several screens á la Tetsuya Nomura's RPG, bound for the PlayStation 3 like its counterpart, of which few details are currently known - Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The prominent figure in each screen is a black-clad, dark haired man of questionable significance.

Finally, a copious batch of Final Fantasy III DS media has revealed the ever approaching remake - gearing up for its North American launch this September - in its nigh full glory. Among these recent shots are additional battle screens, in-game scenes, and job artwork including that of the Viking, Ranger, Monk, and Geomancer classes.

One of Square-Enix's head honchos presented a ton of new delicious tidbits of news in a recent interview with the Japanese gaming site Dengeki Online, primarily concerning the upcoming PS3 games Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII as well as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP.

First of all, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII were both originally slated for the PS2, but eventually production was moved to the next generation of consoles because Tetsuya Nomura, who was Versus' project director, was still working on Kingdom Hearts II at the start of production. We know that the three games in the FF XIII project (the two previously mentioned as well as Agito for mobile phones) will share the same universe but other than that we have only speculation. Anyhow, here's some big news: FF Versus XIII is going to have an intense action battle system, but the "real" FF XIII is going back to the ATB, with an extra emphasis on speed and chain comboes. The girl from the trailers is the game's main character, but she'll also have allies in battle (surprise, surprise...). Also worth noting, both FF XIII and Versus XIII will have classic Amano logos, but FF XIII's background will be white and Versus' will be black.

Nomura is really set on making FF Versus XIII different from the classical FF tradition, so his team is combining members of the FF VII and VIII teams for visuals and his Kingdom Hearts team for the game's engine and interface (FF XIII is being worked on primarily by the FF X / FF X-2 team) to create a classic FF feel with a new action-oriented battle system. Nomura also emphasized the fact that the word Versus also has two meanings: the English definition of identifying two or more opponents and the Latin definition of changing directions.

And now, here's some interesting news for FF VII fans. The PSP game Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII will be centered around four characters: Zack, Aeris, and two male characters yet to be identified. The game will implement voice acting, a materia creation system, and the abilities of Shinra's SOLDIER members. Unfortunately, Nomura refused to give out any more details.

Source: RPGFan