News

The world certainly is full of oddities. Gackt, a very popular singer in Japan, recently reached an agreement with Square-Enix concerning the game Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. More specifically, the deal entails the following:

• Gackt will provide music for the game, including two songs entitled 'Redemption' and 'Longing'.
• He'll be reserved a place in the game itself as an "important character". Instead of using a CG likeness, Gackt will be filmed by a camera and then entered among the computer generated scenes.
• Gackt will receive a custom clothing design by illustrator Tetsuya Nomura, and he'll be able to wear the same outfit on his next concert tour.

This won't be the first time Gackt has had a major part in a video game title; he starred in the main role in the beat-em-up Bujingai: The Forsaken City last year and has served as the physical inspiration behind a number of other characters. It's currently unknown just what significance Gackt's presence will have in the game, especially with Dirge of Cerberus only three months away from its January 26th launch date.

Source: Games Are Fun

Since its Japanese release on September 14th, Square-Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the movie continuation to the critically acclaimed RPG, has sold over 700,000 copies. In addition, it's been reported by the company that the limited edition DVD Box and first print limited edition have all been sold out, and the UMD version is also selling very strongly, although its offical sales numbers were not announced.

This overwhelming popularity has served to encourage Square-Enix to surpass this success in the future, according to the CG movie's producer Shinji Hashimoto, who added that expectations for the North American and European releases are extremely high.

Source: RPGFan

Advent Children has been given an official Japanese release date of September 14, 2005. Tetsuya Nomura, director of the Final Fantasy VII digitally animated movie sequel, announced the date and promised that the movie will experience no further delays. US release is expected to closely follow that of Japan.

According to previous announcements from Sony Computer Entertainment, Advent Children will be available in DVD and the Sony-PSP-friendly "UMD" formats. It will carry a price tag of 4,800 yen ($44-$48) in Japan. No word has yet been given on a US price tag.

This will be Tetsuya Nomura's first feature-length film, though he has long been affiliated with Square Enix and the Final Fantasy series. Nomura has worked on character design and graphics for such games as Final Fantasy X and Chrono Trigger, as well as the original Final Fantasy VII.

Further information may be found at Square Enix's Official Advent Children Site and the unofficial AdventChildren.net.

It appears that Square Enix's love affair with FFVII spin-offs is not yet over. Courtesy of RPGamer, the latest FFVII spin off is to be called Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Aside from this, there are three other known spinoffs; Advent Children, Before Crisis, and Dirge of Cerberus.

This title will be released in 2006, and is said to be an action RPG, unlike the original FFVII. The character designer will be Tetsuya Nomura, and Yoshinori Kitase and Hajime Tahata will also be involved with the project. There is also a website already set up for this game, which will be made for Sony's handheld PlayStation Portable.

Further information can be found at RPGamer.com

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Another spin-off. I'm not really sure what to say, I'd like to see more information on this. An action RPG might be interesting. Unfortunately, there's no time period so far.

Yep, you guessed it. They're making another FF7 spin-off game, this time starring Vincent. It's called Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus, and will not be produced for the cell phone market, unlike the FF7 Shinra game. It will be a playable game, unlike Advent Children, but they're not releasing if this is going to be an RPG yet. Not a whole lot of details are known, but you can check out the logo and one piece of propaganda.

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Well, I'm getting sick of all these spinoffs, personally. I don't find myself interested in any of them, and although I liked Vincent, I still don't want to buy this one. I'm concerned with maybe playing through the original FF7 once more, not with getting all the money to play/watch the spinoffs. Discuss!

Courtesy of RPGamer , we now have two magazine scans featuring Reno and Rude of the Turks (and that weird pirate guy who is the magazine's mascot), and everyone's favourite female martial artist, Tifa Lockheart (plus a smaller picture of Cloud, and what looks like Aeris.) I also see Red XIII, and Cid.

Note: you may need to copy/paste the picture urls.

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I'm pleased the pictures so far. We have a badass Rude, a hot Reno, a butt-kicking Tifa, as well as the appearance of other characters such as Cloud (who we've seen), Cid, Red XIII, and what looks to be Aeris. Let's hope they decide to put Elena in there too; the Turks need all three members.