News

Active readers of CoN news (and of course, Distant Worlds fans) will already know that there's one more show coming in North America in 2014: Toronto, December 6. That show will be conducted by Arnie Roth, and will feature regular contributor Susan Calloway as a vocalist. Uematsu will be in attendance as well.

With the upcoming list getting thin, it's about time for some new shows to get announced for 2015, and that list is here! On January 31, the team will do two shows in New Jersey, at the Performing Arts Center in Newark. There will be a matinee and an evening show on the same day, and VIP tickets are available that include meet and greet packages. Not only will these shows include Roth, Uematsu and Calloway, they will also feature the first North American performances by Rikki, the original vocalist for Suteki Da Ne from Final Fantasy X. Tickets are on sale now.

In May of 2015, the series returns to St. Louis, Missouri for shows on the 15th and 16th. Uematsu won't be there, but Roth and Calloway will be performing and the composer for Final Fantasy XI, Naoshi Mizuta will be in attendance for the first time. The program will be changed up somewhat, bringing back the Final Fantasy VI character medley first performed for the 20th Anniversary show and two new arrangements from Lightning Returns and Final Fantasy VII. In addition, each show will have two other new additions to the program; the first will add in new Final Fantasy X and XIV music, and the second will add in Eyes on Me and Melodies of Life. These tickets are also on sale now.

The spinoff series from Distant Worlds, covered in our last post, has wrapped up its live performances in America for now, and has just two more upcoming - one in London on Halloween, and one in Paris on November 30th (tickets available now). However, a recording from a previous London performance is coming soon for purchase. It's described as "over sixty minutes of music and a virtually all-new repertoire" performed by a much smaller chamber orchestra. It seems like a digital performance is already available to buy from Bandcamp for a minimum $9.99 purchase, but there's no indication as to what will be different about the new release or whether it will be available only digitally or also on physical media.

Source: Distant Worlds, A New World

Square Enix has been active lately, which is surprising given how close we are to the Tokyo Game Show, at which the company traditionally has a pretty strong showing. Here are the highlights of the past few days, pertaining to several titles.

Type-0 HD was announced for PS4 and Xbox One back at E3, but now we've gotten a bit more context thanks to an interview with the title's director, Hajime Tabata. The title, originally for PSP and as-yet unreleased in the west, has apparently been in development on these systems since 2012, before the consoles were yet detailed to the public. As such, the process of HD-ifying Type-0 has been treated as a sort of trial run for the company on the new systems for later projects, with many of the developers moving from work on Type-0 over to Final Fantasy XV. Tabata further insists that since the game will be an all-out refurbishment of the original, he wanted to make use of the best systems available.

We learned from a trailer about a week ago that the upcoming Theatrythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call would have at least one tune from Type-0. That's what we call buildup.

There's a tiny bit more Bravely Second news courtesy of the recent Square Enix Presents Japan episode. The game will feature new jobs as well as returning ones from Bravely Default. Re-iterating what has been heard before, the folks in the episode promised that this sequel will focus on story over exploration, but that through plot the world of Luxendarc will be expanded in terms of both lore and geography. Bravely Second should get a fair bit of showing at TGS, including a playable demo with combat. We have also learned that the title is set for a winter release in Japan.

Finally, as part of the whole batch of Sony news , Square Enix announced Dragon Quest Heroes, to be developed by Omega Force, the studio behind the Dynasty Warriors and, recently, Hyrule Warrriors titles. Accordingly, this will not be a main series title; instead, it'll be in the hack-'n-slash the studio's other products. The game has an original cast of characters, but in the announcement trailer you can see a couple classic attacks from the series as well as several characters from earlier titles DQ4 and DQ6. How these series cameos feature has yet to be announced.

Source: Siliconera, Siliconera, IGN

We haven't talked about Final Fantasy Explorers since it was first introduced in June, and with a big batch of recently released interviews and clips we now know much more about what the game will be.

In case you've forgotten, Final Fantasy Explorers is an MMO monster hunting game (yes, think Monster Hunter) that features gameplay elements characteristic of the Final Fantasy series.

These include a recently-announced Trance system somewhat akin to that of Final Fantasy IX, a swath of famous weapons and armors from throughout the series (in fact, the game is reported to have over 500 pieces of equipment, which are created with raw materials obtained from battle), and major enemies and summons from the series who will serve as the marks players will hunt (Shiva and Ifrit have been featured in trailers, unsurprisingly, but less recent series mainstays have been confirmed as well, like Fenrir and Ramuh). Crystals are involved as well, as the things players are trying to obtain by defeating marks.

The most notable traditionally-FF element of the game is a combat system structured around jobs. Those announced so far include the Ranger, Paladin, Freelancer, Black Mage, Time Mage, Ninja, Knight, White Mage, and Monk. While developers have promised that the job structure and acquisition of abilities from other jobs won't be as rigid as in previous games, a recently announced aspect of combat, Resonance, will encourage players to use their job's abilities to work together in order to boost damage output, healing effectiveness, and other stats.

The biggest question right now is: will we see Final Fantasy Explorers in the west? A Japanese release date on the 3DS has been scheduled for December 18, but nothing has been said officially for other markets. While the name "Final Fantasy Explorers" has been trademarked in the US, Square Enix has been hesitant with exporting multiplayer titles designed for handheld devices, leaving it as yet uncertain whether European and North American audiences will get a chance to play it.

Source: Siliconera, Kotaku

First off, Square Enix is bringing the MMO Dragon Quest X to the 3DS in Japan in September, adding this incarnation to PC and Wii versions. As yet unreleased outside Japan, Nintendo has in the past said that the series is unmarketable to the West... sorry, DQ fans (if you're out there).

More relevantly, Square Enix has also recently announced partnering up with Dontnod Entertainment (who did Remember Me) on a new IP called Life is Strange, to be released digitally as episodic content. While set in the generally non-fantastic environment of an Oregon community, it involves a protagonist who has a new-found, distinctly fantastic ability to rewind time. Finding an old friend missing after her own period of absence, protagonist Max (female) teams up with Chloe (...also female) to get to the root of things. The official blog announcement says that one's actions in one episode will have far-reaching effects over those to follow, saying that sometimes-surprising consequences of actions will comprise a major part of the experience. It also promises that the title will be a completely new direction for the company.

In company news, Square Enix has announced a new press... system, Square Enix Presents Japan. I use 'system' instead of conference because it isn't exactly clear yet how it will function; with its first "episode" on August 25th, its second on August 28th, and additional episodes expected sometime after, it seems more like a semi-regular company update. Each program will involve staff from the title(s) in question and feature inside looks into their concept, development process, etc. According to the Square Enix blog announcement, the focus will be mostly on providing in-depth information rather than new announcements, but that both can be expected. The original post seems to suggest that coverage will also be made available to American audiences as well, though how is unclear.

The first of these will focus on Bravely Second, and is expected to reveal new information about that title as well as a sense of the Bravely series as a whole. The second will focus on Square Enix's Extreme Edges team, which publishes Western/violent games in Japan (like Kane & Lynch or Modern Warfare). Final Fantasy Explorers will be the subject of the third scheduled program - as well as our next newspost sometime tomorrow!

Dragon Quest IV was the final game of the series to be released for the Famicom, back in 1990. Since then, it's been released in Japan on the Playstation, and in all territories again for the Nintendo DS, receiving the typical graphical and other enhancements along the way. The game's humble origins but number of remakes and ports would seem to make it a prime candidate for a new mobile release, and that's just what has just happened.

The game tracks closely to the most recent remake, and becomes the second Dragon Quest game released for mobile devices, after VIII. The game is listing in the States at $14.99 for both iOS and Android platforms.

Also, check out that website. So many images.

Source: Dragon Quest IV Official Site

As part of their larger Legacy of Music Campaign and as promotion for Theatrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call, which will be available for the 3DS starting September 16th (September 19th in Europe), Square Enix will be hosting a Legacy of Music Contest. The object of this contest is to produce an arrangement / performance of the series Main Theme (yes, this 'main' theme) using whichever musical instruments or not-instruments you so choose. The winner will receive a trip for two to a Distant Worlds concert, "AND MORE!" Check out the submission guidelines if you're interested, and if you win, don't forget who wrote the newspost that inspired you :D

In addition, Square Enix has announced a free 14-day trial for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. There are some limitations involved of course (you cannot exceed level 20, for instance), but for anyone who has wanted the chance to poke around A Realm Reborn, here's your chance. The only eligibility requirement is that you have not purchased the game before (or participated in Beta), but you can transfer a character created during the free trial to the full version of the game, should you decide to upgrade.

Source: http://na.square-enix.com/us/blog/theatrhythm-final-fantasy-curtain-call-legacy-music-campaign-contest-final-fantasy-vii-vignette, http://www.ffxiv-freetrial.com/us/