Role-playing fans can slip on their dancing shoes and party like it's 1991. A new interview with Final Fantasy IV director Takashi Tokita in the latest Nintendo Power seems to point to the game's recent DS remake being localized for North American audiences. Oh sure, he doesn't come right out and confirm the localization -- where's the drama in that? -- but given that the article comes peppered with English language screens and the game itself is featured on the cover, we're certainly leaning towards believing that the RPG will soon be getting some domestic love.
Tokita also toys with our emotions, speaking to the possibility of a remake of SNES RPG classic Chrono Trigger provided "the demand is great enough." Though like coming down hard off a caffeine high, he sends us crashing back down to earth by adding that he really wants to "create new titles and not just series installments and remakes." Yours is a cruel love, mon cher.
Be sure to check your teeth for cavities after this post, as Square Enix will bring an extra dose of saccharine sweetness to the Wii this summer by way of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. The game, designed for both RPG enthusiasts and fans who spend their nights imagining dressing up the company's iconic yellow birds, will ship on July 8, and its asking price of just $39.99 won't leave your wallet looking for a phoenix down.
According to Squeenix, this overdose of cute will find Final Fantasy stalwarts Cid and Chocobo hunting for treasure while trying to solve the mystery of a strange town full of people who have lost their memories. The game will even take the cute online via Wi-Fi card battles featuring a darling "3D pop-up book style." Kweh!
We're not sure how he does it or how long it takes him, but animator and generally insane fight choreographer "Montyoum" has once again delved into the many unwritten volumes of fan fiction buried inside our minds and rendered each page in startling, over-the-top clarity. After allowing Samus and Master Chief to find love on the battlefield, Montyoum orchestrated a crossover between the elaborately endowed gals of Dead or Alive and a trio of Final Fantasy femme fatales, labeling the ludicrous result "Dead Fantasy."
Above you'll find the sequel, an even bigger display of absurd acrobatics, imaginative pummeling and blissful ignorance of the laws of physics. We love it.
Watching this trailer may embed some niggling questions in your mind -- questions like: Is it safe to run on top of trains? Why does Cloud have black hair? Who at Square Enix decided that story-rich fantasy and gut-crunching metal were a good mix? However, this video should eliminate any question in your mind that a spiritual sequel to a 3-disc RPG masterpiece could fit on a UMD. Focusing mostly on summons, a Final Fantasy staple, this trailer has pushed our excitement for Crisis Core far beyond our apprehension towards the game. We just hope the final product has music of a more ... listenable variety.
Two crushing disappointments awaited us in the latest Square Enix press release. The first, admittedly, was entirely due to our misreading of the subject line and consequent imagining of the many, many flavors Final Fantasy Tictacs could contain. Just think: You'd have the sour Squall-flavored ones, the spicy Red XIIIs, a couple of Cloud candies (indiscernible from Sephiroth flavor) , the Tidus fruit droplets and ... well, now you see why were so disappointed.
Similarly, we didn't quite appreciate the North American release date for Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. You'll only be able to stick the third part of the "Ivalice Alliance" into your DS on June 24th, which is quite a long way off if you're a Final Fan of strategic RPG-ery. Square Enix promises it'll be worth the wait though, as the grimoire comes packed with 400 quests, "polished game mechanics," stylus controls and new jobs and classes.
We're well aware that only two groups of people are going to be interested in this particular bit of news. The first, of course, is the set of people eagerly awaiting the English version of Square Enix's portable Final Fantasy VII prequel,Crisis Core. Though American fans are due to receive the PSP game later this month, folks in the UK have to wait a bit longer. The wait may not be without reward, however, as a "Special Pre-Order Edition" of Crisis Core: FF7 (complete with obligatory art book and slipcase) has been spotted on certain retailer websites. Eurogamer notes that an announcement is "imminent," and suggests that offers for the rest of Europe may differ.
Oh, and the other group? That would be the smaller and decidedly more eccentric bunch that absolutely hates the F7 key for no apparent reason. We apologize if Google search picked up on our headline and led you astray. Personally, we've never cared much for that tilde key.
[Update: You can now see the special edition (animated and spinning!) on the official Crisis Core website.]
A Square-Enix insider recently revealed that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (formerly The Little King and the Promised Land) would share a May 12th U.S. release date with the WiiWare service, joining Defend Your Castle and Major League Eating: The Game for the somewhat less than auspicious WiiWare launch lineup. The game will set you back 1,500 Wii points, or $15, if you prefer an actual monetary system.
Remember back in the late '90s, when Square was so frustrated trying to fit their opus Final Fantasy VII onto the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 that they made their famous defection to Sony? Well, just a short decade later, China's Shenzhen Nanjing Technology Co, Ltd has apparently done what Square couldn't, squeezing the PlayStation epic onto a cartridge. And not just any cartridge .. a Famicom cartridge. How's it feel to be shown up, Square?
Of course, the conversion isn't perfect. According to a write-up from intrepid blogger CinnamonPirate (who unearthed the 2MB ROM from a Chinese blog) the polygonal graphics and cut scenes are gone, replaced with an impressively wide array of sprites, many stolen from other Final Fantasy games. The story remains surprisingly authentic, though, encompassing the entire three-disc epic while only leaving out a few optional side stories (bye bye, Yuffie and Vincent). The wide array of weapons, magic and materia from the original is a bit restricted in the port, but frankly, we're impressed that features like materia-leveling made it on to the 20+ year old hardware in any form.
The company behind the cart is apparently now primarily makes MP3 players, so our hopes for a Colecovision version of Final Fantasy XII will probably remain unfulfilled.
As we discovered during our trip to Japan's Square Enix store last year, the many worlds of Final Fantasy are pockmarked by some surprisingly deep merchandise mines. No matter what the item -- t-shirts, mugs, jewelery, clothing, action figures or spoons -- chances are a tenuous link can be established between it and your favorite spiky-haired moper. Replicas of the many extravagant and frequently weapons are fine too, just as long as they're approved by Square Enix.
The company today announced a federal lawsuit filed in the Central District of California against "alleged infringers of Square Enix's intellectual property." Specifically, said infringers include "at least" four wholesalers of unlicensed sword replicas based on four video games and a CG movie (likely Advent Children) within the Final Fantasy franchise. "While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them," said Square Enix General Counsel Yasuhiko Hasegawa, "it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience."
The lawsuit has its swordid (OOF!) origins in the recent seizure of a crate full of "counterfeit" replica blades by the United States Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol. Following an investigation, Square Enix located the primary wholesalers and retailers of these "unauthorized products in the United States." We hope this turn of events will serve as a lesson to all of you looking to sell real things based on fake things.
Boy, this is awkward ... After "certain videogame websites" reported last week that Final Fantasy XIII had been promised for 2008, Square Enix has issued this sobering statement: "Any reports of a confirmed release date are erroneous and should be disregarded. Square Enix will make an official announcement in the future concerning the release date when it has been determined."
While we had corrected and reclassified our post as a mistranslation before the release of this statement, we felt it important to highlight Square Enix's official response to the misinformation, despite again acknowledging our error. Is an "our bad" enough of an apology? If not, feel free to take a few shots at us in the comments section. (Hint: This is the one time you won't be banned for it!)
We know that Final Fantasy games, much like fine wine and Radiohead albums, take some time to come together nicely -- still, it's hard for us to believe that Final Fantasy XIII (in all its shapes and forms) will be dropping any time soon. We've had our hearts broken so many times by delays for hotly anticipated titles that we've sadly come to expect them.
Fear not, for the long wait for the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection will be over soon enough. According to FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net's translation (there appear to be conflicting versions), game director Motomu Toriyama teases that a playable demo for FFXIII would be arriving in 2008 to show off the game's revamped battle system. So don your steepled hat and cuddle tight your cactuar plushie -- your chance to sit down with the unluckiest chapter in Square Enix's seminal RPG franchise may have just gotten a teensy bit closer.
[Update: We originally posted an incorrect interpretation of the original translated comments. The post has been corrected and Joystiq apologizes for the error.]
[Update 2: Square Enix has released an official response – and we eat more crow.]
Remorselessly ripped from the special features of CLOUD, a Japanese DVD named after Final Fantasy VII's spiky-haired protagonist, these extended trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus (waiting just behind the jump) are pretty spectacular. We're willing to look beyond the lack of pointy hats and crystals, as we're aching to play the system's first offering from RPG powerhouse Square Enix.
Does it look like 13 will be your unlucky number? Don't worry, the next Final Fantasy franchise is just a decade away.
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.
We can't say we agree with all of the choices presented, though 1UP's criteria suggests that the games featured aren't necessarily "bad," but that all of them "fell short of expectations."
Still, given the sheer number of games out there, there are bound to be bigger, badder turkeys hiding in the bushes. Any more main-course nominees?
This week GameTrailers.com ends their epic Final Fantasy retrospective by going over what it takes to make a Final Fantasy game. The rules to create a FF game worthy to be part of the Roman numeral series are pretty loose, but GT does their best to go over most of the minutia required for an installment in the franchise. Crystals vs. spheres, three party members or four, what role should Cid play? These are the hard questions SquareEnix has to sit down and answer before starting a project.
Go ahead now and enjoy the last retrospective. If you missed any of the episodes they are linked below for easy reference. If you decide to go on a Final Fantasy retrospective today it'll only take a few hours to watch them all. We're looking forward to GameTrailers' next (significantly shorter) retrospective series tackling ... well, they won't tell us. What would y'all want it to be?
Role-playing fans can slip on their dancing shoes and party like it's 1991. A new interview with Final Fantasy IV director Takashi Tokita in the latest Nintendo Power seems to point to the game's recent DS remake being localized for North American audiences. Oh sure, he doesn't come right out and confirm the localization -- where's the drama in that? -- but given that the article comes peppered with English language screens and the game itself is featured on the cover, we're certainly leaning towards believing that the RPG will soon be getting some domestic love.
