Imitation isn't only the sincerest form of flattery, it's also the most legally actionable. At least it is to Square Enix, which recently won a plagiarism case against South Korean music video producer Fantom to the tune of 16 million won (approx. $17,400).

The case centers on the video for the song Temptation Sonata, in which live actors recreate a scene from Square Enix's animated movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. According to a judge for the Seoul Central District Court, the video "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors," from the movie scene. We're not sure how the judge came to such an exact statistic, but who are we to argue with such an official sounding pronouncement?

A comparison of the videos (both viewable below the break) shows much more than a passing similarity between the two, and Square was definitely within its rights taking legal action. That said, we have to wonder what Square Enix felt it had to gain from a court case. Is this video really hurting the company's ability to milk insane amounts of money out off the Final Fantasy franchise? Does seeing the video makes someone less likely to buy a copy of Advent Children? What's next, a legal case against the makers of College Saga? We just hope the negative PR associated with this case is worth the massive $17,000 pay day Square Enix made off of it.

Unlike its PSP counterpart, the Nintendo DS has been no stranger to North American Square Enix releases. Chocobo Tales, Final Fantasy III, Children of Mana and Dragon Quest Rocket Slime have all graced their presence on Western shores. And Square Enix is far from done supporting Nintendo's money-printer.

Of the eight titles, we've got 4 Final Fantasy games, 3 strategy games, 2 remakes, and one surefire Japanese phenomenon by way of Dragon Quest IX. Have a look at the publisher's upcoming selection after the break.

As with every Square Enix title that comes out on the Nintendo DS, the upcoming Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate has a limited edition DS Lite bundle coming for ¥21,840 (approximately US $177), according to Famitsu. The bundle comes with the above DS Lite and game.

Like Revenant Wings and Final Fantasy III before it, the bundle and console are sold in Japan only. By merit of having all games be region-free, these bundles are at least import-friendly if you want to continue playing games in languages you understand.

[Via Siliconera]

According to the latest issue of Famitsu, a very credible Japanese gaming periodical, Square Enix will announce a new chapter in the Star Ocean series at the Square Enix Party mid-May. The party is also purported to be showing off 10 Final Fantasy titles, including a "Final Fantasy that is not known by anyone," according to ad for the event.

As for which console the next Star Ocean will appear on is unknown. Developer tri-Ace, who is also known for Valkyrie Profile and Radiata Stories, has predominantly worked with Sony hardware. Their most recently-announced project, Infinite Undiscovery, is the anomalistic Xbox 360 title.

[Via Wii, PS3 Fanboy]

Square-Enix recently announced a handful of non-games for the Nintendo DS, proving they can do more than milk the Final Fantasy franchise. What sort of winning ideas are in the pipeline? How about DS Yoga Lessons You Can Start Today, Flower-Blooming DS Gardening Lite, and Why Not Listen to Classical Music On DS?. The company is also planning a line of practical applications for the DS, such as travel guides for Italy, Hawaii and New York.

If Nintendo can score a goal with a brain training game featuring a jaggy-faced Japanese scientist, who's to say these won't catch on as well? Now all we need are You Can Knit! Easy Stylus Touch Fun and Organize Your Final Fantasy Re-releases and Remakes Collection and we're set.

Never trust retail listings as concrete evidence of future releases, but GameStop has an interesting page up on its website for Square Enix's Project Sylpheed, here spelled Silpheed. What makes the listing all the more bizarre is its bargain price of $39.99 and its publisher, Microsoft Game Studio (which, oddly enough, is also listed as the developer).

Of course, the actual developer, Game Arts (Grandia, Lunar series), has used many publishers -- Grandia II, for example, saw Square Enix publishing the title in Japan and Ubisoft publishing in US and Europe. We don't feel this has anything to do with Microsoft trying to butter up Square Enix while Final Fantasy XIII's exclusivity is supposedly in discussion, but that Square Enix had no interest in distributing the title outside of Japan. But, if the $40 price is accurate, how much faith does Microsoft have that US audiences will embrace the game? There's so much about the listing that feels shaky.

No announcements have been been made by Microsoft, Game Arts or Square Enix. According to the listing, Project Sylpheed will be released July 11.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

IGN has some of the details for the upcoming Square Enix party in Japan, which could result in overload for Final Fantasy fanboys and fangirls in attendance. The tip of the iceberg includes:

• Dragon Quest Monster Joker (DS, playable)
• Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wing (DS, playable)
• Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP, playable)
• Itadaki Street DS (DS, playable)
• Dragon Quest Swords (Wii, playable)
• It's a Wonderful World (DS, playable)
• Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII (PSP, playable)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (DS, playable)
• Final Fantasy XI (PS2, X360, Windows, playable)
• Final Fantasy (PSP, video)
• Final Fantasy II (PSP, video)
• Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road (Arcade, video)
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete (Blu-Ray, video)
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Mobile, video)

Partygoers will also be able to play a slew of mobile game demos, and will be going home with exclusive Square Enix goodies, some of which can be seen here. Give us the slime from Dragon Quest, and we might be able to pretend like we experienced all this first-hand.

Friend codes. Nintendo's self-imposed restriction on online gaming has been a burden to many who want to play with their friends without having to share a different 12-digit friend code for every game. When the Wii was revealed to have a console-specific friend code, we thought Nintendo had somewhat listened to the community's grumblings. When Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first online Wii title, launched in Japan with friend codes, we realized the folly of our optimism.

Square Enix's Senior Vice President Hiromichi Tanaka empathizes, highlighting the friend code system as the primary reason they haven't brought an online game like Final Fantasy XI onto the console. In an interview with Cubed's Adam Riley, Tanaka reveals that the RPG powerhouse is now in negotiations with Nintendo about "resolving this point of contention." A publisher of Square Enix's magnitude does not necessarily guarantee Nintendo will listen, but perhaps Nintendo will ease off or at least allow exceptions for some titles.

Then again, Final Fantasy XI on the Wii would surely be profitable even if gamers were required to enter over 300,000 12-digit codes to fully experience the world. That's how much, we suspect, Wii owners our clamoring for Nintendo to join the rest its brethren in this generation.

[Update 1: As White Rose Duelist and others have pointed out, Pokemon Battle Revolution's extra friend code might be an exception and not a rule, and Elebits is a cited example where one can exchange in-game pictures with Wii friends. However, as we do not have any other details from impending online games, and Nintendo has not readily clarified, we're just not sure.]

This is what happens when the composer of soundtracks for Godzilla vs. Biollante (great flick, by the way) and Enix' Dragon Quest series gets his own way. Dragon Quest fans in Japan are advised to form an orderly queue right about now, for Koichi Sugiyama and his band are coming to a town near you*! The composer, who bears an eerie resemblance to a cheerier clone of former NCL dictator Hiroshi Yamauchi, is conducting a five-date tour in venues across Japan. It all kicks off (we predict a riot) in Tokyo on February 26. Tickets are on sale now, starting at ¥3,000 ($25 in real money).

*Assuming, that is, you're somewhere near Tokyo/Nagoya/Sapporo. And if you are, check out Sugimania.

You won't find Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura's new portable RPG on a Sony or Nintendo handheld. Monotone was developed exclusively for the mobile phone market and is a subscription-based (¥210 per month; under $2) puzzle-RPG, in which the protagonist must restore color and sound to his world (and no, he's not a wolf-god).

For a limited time, Square-Enix is accepting fan-submitted content, presumably to inspire new characters, monsters, and quests that could be added to the game at a later date. There's also an in-game points system, which encourages players to redeem their hard-earned points for ringtones and wallpapers. Monotone is currently available on Japan's DoCoMo network. In other words, you won't be playing it.

Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Square Enix's senior VP Michihiro Sasaki got downright cryptic when asked about his company's next-gen alliances:

"We don't want PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them. But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much."

The statement seems to be a clever way of masking Square Enix's uncertainty about the PlayStation brand. There's no denying that the PS3 price tag will affect the console's user base, and Square Enix clearly doesn't want to commit its franchises solely to a Sony platform that won't necessarily dominant the developing generation of hardware. Of course, Final Fantasy XIII & Final Fantasy Versus XIII are already locks for PS3 -- but ultimately, both could also be released onto other platforms. But then there's Kingdom Hearts, which as 1UP notes, has not been bound to a next-gen platform.

Keep an eye on Square Enix developments. Either the company will spread its franchises across several platforms -- including Xbox 360, if the console starts picking up sales in Japan -- or Square Enix will dive head first into multiplatform agreements, which may be the only economically viable solution.

As we just reported, Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for the PlayStation 3 (and, so far, only for Sony's console) -- showing that Square Enix is still supporting Sony. According to Chris Kohler at Game|Life, the trailer "looks amazing. Female main character. Looked like prerendered video, except it was realtime. Dramatic action-packed battles with crazy camerawork."

The title is being produced by Yoshinori Kitase (Final Fantasies 5-8 and 10, Chrono Trigger) and directed by Motomu Toriyama (FFX, X-2, and the Final Fantasy VII tech demo shown at last year's E3).

As far as we know, this is a PlayStation 3 exclusive. While no love was shown for Microsoft, the Xbox 360 does have three RPGs on the way from Japanese developer MistWalker, formed by Final Fantasy veteran Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Update: Gamespot reports that there are actually 3 different Final Fantasy XIII titles. The second title, featuring more spiky-haired madness, is also bound for PS3 and is directed by Advent Children's Tetsuya Nomura. The final game in the XIII trio is destined for mobile platforms.