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In a recent issue of VJump, There are two pages dedicated to FF: Crystal Chronicles. They show new artwork of the main characters and a moogle carrying a letter.

Here are the Scans :

Scan 1
Scan 2
Source: Square Insider

Apparently Mog Central has returned to the Final Fantasy world, with Moogles in Multi-Colored trousers and no arms.

Also, the skills / magic system seems to be based on the FF7 Materia System. You will be able to add various crystals to gain new magic and skills, and also to increase your stats.
Source 2: Square Insider

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The moogles in these scans scare me. They look like some kinda pieced together genetic creature or something.

The Materia-esque gameplay will make this game really interesting, IMO. Giving it a depth to the character customization and allowing everyone to have a differnt type of character if they wanted. I wonder if they will have to have a Phoenix-Final Attack combo. heh.

Shareholders of Square and Enix met in Tokyo yesterday to vote on the merger agreement between the two companies. As expected, it was approved.

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2003/021303a.html

The companies will each publish one more game under their separate titles (Final Fantasy X-2 from Square and Dragon Quest Monsters III: Caravan Heart from Enix)  Their companies will officially start their operations together on April 1st under the title of the Square Enix Corporation.  The first title published under their new name will be Vision of Ziraat, the Final Fantasy XI expansion set.  

The merger will help reduce costs by allowing Square to no longer be force to publish games through Sony Computer Entertainment. Instead, they can just do it through means already in existence at Enix.

Source: RPGamer


While this merger should be good because saves the two companies money, I think it will be even more important because of the creative infusion it should provide to each company.  In many's opinion, the Final Fantasy series has become stagnant in its recent releases.  Final Fantasy IX was a good game [especially after FFVIII (keep in mind that this is entirely my opinion )], but it was not great by any means.  It was just not all that memorable of a game especially after many of the previous incarnations of the series.  FFX had a very good plot, but it lacked in the area of gameplay.  There was not much you could not get by without just pressing the X button.  Hopefully, the best of both companies will shine in Final Fantasy XII when it is released.

On Enix's end, hopefully with the "Square" part added to their name, their games (which are usually of high quality) will be a bit more successful in the North American market.

From http://www.rpgamer.com/...

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2003/021203b.html

Hey, I know for a fact that we have at least one forumgoer from Australia, so this is valid.    Australians will now have the opportunity to pick up a Playstation 2 unless they previously imported one, and there's a specific little package available that will give them a free game upon purchase.  The most notable of the five available games is Square's recent release, Kingdom Hearts.

I think that a package like this is going to attract many Australians to the deal and will just help to broaden Square and Sony's hold on the video game market.  Though Gamecube and XBox are putting up a fight, Sony is still the leader in the market and hey, getting another continent will only add to the mix.  When their first taste is of a certain company, in this case possibly Square, they may just follow that company and its games for quite awhile.  I know the first RPGs I played were all from Square and I followed the company for quite awhile before discovering some third party companies, so this is a good, smart move by the companies.

Source : The Magic Box

A little while ago, Square released a teaser poster and a little information about Final Fantasy XII.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game122502g.htm

The poster looks alot like a Final Fantasy IX city would if it were set modern day, not suprising because the art director ,Hideo Minaba, also worked on FFIX.

Also, the character designs are by Akihiko Yoshida, who worked on Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics, so there should be some interesting character designs coming out of this.

It looks like it will be an interesting game, just from that poster  and the people working on the project. We'll see how everything unfolds.

It appears that Square and Disney's relationship will last beyond their game for the Playstation 2.

http://www.ffinsider.net/news/news.php?id=308

Square and Disney have plans to release a Kingdom Hearts movie.  There is no script for this movie as of right now, but it is in the works. Since there isn't even a script yet, it most likely will be quite sometime before this movie would be released to theaters. Not much information is known otherwise as of yet either.

Other plans for the Kingdom Hearts line include a possible television series and a sequel to the PS2 game.

Source:

Final Fantasy Insider

This brings up a popular discussion topic. Do video games translate well into movies?  Tomb Raider? I haven't seen it myself, but I heard it wasn't all that spectacular.  Mortal Kombat? Eh, it was alright. One of the few video game movies that I've watched more than once.  Super Mario Bros. the Movie? It was a tad bit different.  It also had bad luck in the timing of its release though.  Street Figher the Movie? I can't remember much about it so it couldn't have been all that great. It does have the redeeming fact of Ming Na playing Chun Li (*waves to Beth* She has nothing on you, Honey) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within wasn't so bad  if you ignored the "Final Fantasy" in the title. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Video games do not cross over well into Hollywood.

That said,however, if there ever was any video game turned movie that had a chance of doing well, it would be this one. Especially with Disney working on it.  There are those who love and those loathe the company.  Personally, I'm indifferent. But whether one likes Disney or not, it has to be recognized that they have been quite successful.  I'm not sure how  big a role Square would play in its production. I can't see it being too large though after the hit the company took after FF:TSW didn't meet their expectations (That's probably a gross understatement, I know).  Their role will probably more conceptual than anything else.  I don't know if I'd go see or not, but can this movie possibly hurt Square Enix at all?
Let me know your feelings about it.

RPGamer has some new screen shots of the much anticipated Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Check them out here: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ffta/fftass.html

The images look fairly nice for the GameBoy Advance. Is it just me or does it look like they are using cel-shading?

FFTA is scheduled for a Valentine's Day release in Japan. We'll have to wait a little longer before it come out in North American or PAL versions.

It was originally thought that Square was going to simply port FFT from the Playstation, but it is an entirely new game.

Sources: RPGamer
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