Sure, Final Fantasy might be primarily about Tidus, Cloud, Squall and other spiky-haired, androgynous protagonists who may or may not suffer from (false) memory loss, but let's not forget the colorful supporting cast of characters that flesh out your party. In honor of the upcoming multi-world brawler Final Fantasy Dissidia, PSP Fanboy has a gallery highlighting the best side characters in the series. Check it out here.

This week marks the release of the Final Fantasy remake on Sony PSP, the first Square Enix title to make it to the US. The RPG powerhouse showed a multitude of appetizing titles coming to the portable earlier this summer at their massive party at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe.

Long-time Square Enix fans will find yourselves either dismayed or curiously nostalgic (probably a bit of both) by the sheer number of enhanced remakes -- five of the seven PSP titles are ghosts from the company's past with upgraded visuals and new content. What's left is a brawler with an assortment of fighters from the Final Fantasy universe and a long-in-development (though visually impressive) extension of the Final Fantasy VII lore.

Take a gander at the upcoming games after the break.

We made the above picture for a never-to-be-seen feature on Square Enix titles -- and by "we" I mean myself -- but I loved the image so much that I wanted it to see the light of day. We'd love to see this as a limited edition PSP when Dissidia is released. Check out the highlights for today, a say a word for Manhunt's harsh 24 hours:

Joystiquery
Joystiq interview: Sherry Floyd, producer, The Agency
Readers pick best webcomic: Pac-Man secrets
The Guessing Game: Microsoft's E3 Showing
Today's finally understandable video: Boogie

Manhunting
Rockstar's Manhunt 2 rejected by UK ratings board
ELSPA: Manhunt ban is good. Us: WTF?
Manhunt 2 under fire, watchdog demands AO rating for Wii version
No political influence in Manhunt decision says BBFC
Rockstar: We 'emphatically disagree' with UK's Manhunt 2 ban
Retail murder: ESRB rates Manhunt 2 'Adults Only'

News
Quake Wars public beta keys coming this week
Ace Combat 6 flight stick bundle
Microsoft invests in Chinese developer
Rock Band guitar shown in latest GameStop newsletter
Sony cans Connect, pumps up PlayStation
Ubisoft dates Haze, Splinter Cell, Raving Rabbids 2, more
Take-Two not explaining GTA $50 million exclusive
Epic's Mark Rein: No Gears of War 2 at Min-E3
Kutaragi officially retires from Sony
Fox will handle Halo licensing (yeah, just licensing)
Lego reveals more Batman info
Halo 3 achievements unlocked, here be spoilers
Indie dev Chair signs exclusive deal with Epic, new Undertow images
Final Fantasy Dissidia trailer unveiled
Team Fortress will not have cross-platform play, but Valve plays it that way
Quake Wars to have in-game ads
SingStar PS3 track list confirmed
Apple GameTap 'Lite' launches June 28, Intel Macs only
Red Octane says more Guitar Hero II songs coming in July
Warhammer 40K: Squad Command bound for DS, PSP
Gamespot oopsies about Katamari on XBLA

Culture & Community
Blogging through every Legend of Zelda
Computer plays Pong all by itself
Billy vs Steve in the new King of Kong trailer

Those looking for a better understanding of Final Fantasy Dissidia, the Square Enix fighting game coming for the PSP, can finally watch the trailer for the game. The 2 minute, 12 second video breaks down as follows (note: times are approximate):

• 46 seconds of text (35%)
  
• 56 seconds of pre-rendered CG (42%)
  
• 30 seconds of in-game footage (23%)
  

Sounds like a Final Fantasy game to us. (We kid 'cos we love.) The latest from Famitsu reports that the game revolves around two gods, Cosmos (representing order) and Chaos (representing ... well, you know). An imbalance in the world lead to Chaos having an upper hand in an eternal war, and both sides bring forth their best fighters to do battle. Confirmed characters include Warrior of Light and Garland (FFI), Zidan and Kuja (FFIX) and Sephiroth.
[Via PSP Fanboy]

Err, guys? Not to alarm you, but a new scan from Japan's Shonen Jump magazine seems to indicate that Square Enix is looking to revisit the fighting genre. Recently revealed as a Sony PSP title, Final Fantasy Dissidia appears to do away with traditional RPG fare, distilling epic conflict into one-on-one battles between series protagonists, antagonists and, in most cases, exhibitionists.

If you examine the page, you're sure to spy the presence of Final Fantasy IX's rat-tailed thief, Zidane, duking it out with his crystal-hating nemesis, Kuja. It remains to be seen whether Square Enix will include characters from across the series in a Power Stone-esque battle royale, but the possibility is sure to be an exciting one for intense Final Fans. Can Squall mope the floor with Cloud? Will Quina Quen clobber Kefka? Could Tidus and Vaan even manage to injure each other? Final Fantasy Dissidia may just hold the answers. For now, we'd best wait until Square Enix provides some of their own.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

So, we don't know about you, but we love the early stages in a game's life cycle. Take the newly-launched official site for Final Fantasy Dissidia, for example. Thanks to some digging by PSP Fanboy, we know it's a PSP game. Past that, the official site is all mystery. All we get is a logo (seen above) and the phrase "Fantasy is endless, Fantasy has no limited form." Oh, and we learn that the character design is being done by Tetsuya Nomura. Other than that, we're clueless. See, isn't this exhilarating?

What could the game be? Is it part of the Final Fantasy XIII decade? Is it a sequel to Dirge of Cerberus? (God, we hope not.) A sequel to Mystic Quest? (Umm, no.) Sure, we'll learn more during the Square Enix party in a few days, but we're kind of enjoying the mystery at the moment.

Square Enix director Motomu Toriyama hasn't told PSM Australia anything other than what we've already known: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII is a collective of projects that has never been declared exclusive to one platform. Yet, when Toriyama suggests that Fabula Nova Crystallis "isn't just limited to three titles" and that "it's not simply exclusive to the PS3 and mobile phones," so many of us are willing to take a leap of faith, heralding these words as a death knell for Sony, and as a confirmation of FFXIII on Xbox 360. Before you join the feverish mob, remember to draw a distinction between the primary game, currently exclusive to PlayStation 3, and the general series, already totaling three titles (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Agito XIII) and at least one loose logo, Haeresis ("Dissidia" is also possibly linked to FFXIII).

Toriyama has merely reaffirmed that, like Final Fantasy VII, the FFXIII brand will be spun into an array of disparate shards, conveniently linked by a popular title. We may yet see a spin-off on 360 -- or even a port of the PS3 games -- but don't jump to that conclusion based on the PSM interview. Yes, we've still got Haeresis (and possibly Dissidia) without a home, but either DS or PSP, or dare we say Blu-ray, DVD, and UMD, are just as valid destinations as Xbox 360 -- don't count out PlayStation 2 or Wii either. Given all the fuss that Final Fantasy rouses, Square Enix would do best to deliver on all of 'em.

The moral is: Final Fantasy XIII -- the game -- is still exclusive to PlayStation 3.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]