With E3 next week, it seems that all the major players in the industry are working to get some news out in front of that crowded gaming news cycle. Of course, shoving all the news out
now merely means that the crowded cycle begins earlier, but hey - I'm not in gaming PR. What do I know? Squenix is in on it, of course; say what you will about their games over the last few years, but they definitely still count as a major player, so there's no surprise to it. Also, we fell a bit behind on our tidbits recently, so we're going to play catch-up and make the list even bigger.
The news from last week that ties right into E3, as you
would see from my post earlier today, pertains to
Famitsu's publishing of development status for Final Fantasy games. The company told the Japanese magazine that the remaster of Final Fantasy X is now 80% done, with X-2 lagging behind at 65%. The new release of Final Fantasy VIII for Windows is up to 80% now, leapfrogging Lightning Returns, which is currently at 70% done. One would think that maybe that low 70% number is what caused the final chapter of Final Fantasy XIII (for now) to get its
Western release date pushed back to 2014.
Speaking of dear Lightning, Squenix are throwing the kitchen sink out there in support of what is assumed to be her final adventure before presumably settling down and installing a small chocobo in her hair. We learned this week, for instance, that
Noel and Snow will appear in Lightning Returns in some sort of adversarial sense. From that new trailer came a
bunch of new screenshots, too; I particularly like that one with the Cactuar statue. There need to be more Cactuar statues in Final Fantasy games. Being a flagship title, of course, means special editions and accouterments. For Lightning Returns,
there will be a big "all Final Fantasy XIII games" collection in Japan that will include the games, an action figure, an art book and some music CDs. It will also include some very strange branding - while the serif, somewhat-condensed font treatment on the collector's box is cool, it has nothing at all to do with any of the branding used for any of the three games thus far. Also special is
this Playstation 3 Controller, in shiny red and, for some reason, equipped with turbo buttons. Because the first thing you want for a Final Fantasy game is turbo (unless you're playing the original NES Final Fantasy. That thing needed it).
Oh, yeah, and
Final Fantasy IV came out for Android. I mean, I guess Android is a thing, still, right? No, seriously, this is a good thing. It's the same game as
released for iOS a while back, and it's still $15.99. It seems like it might not run on rooted Android devices, though. Be wary of that before dropping your cash,
you filthy phone hackers.
Finally, going back a couple weeks, new company president Yosuke Matsuda mentioned when discussing the company's latest financial results that
"it is difficult to move forward on the assumption that many products can cover the tastes of the entire world." The implications of this statement (and you can read more quotes from the source article) are yet to be seen, but the doomsday prophets are already concluding that this could mean more games like Type-0 that face uphill battles for global release. It could also mean, of course, that those sorts of games will face an easier road to localization because not every game will be expected to sell millions of units in every region. At the moment there's just no way to know!
We'll be back next week for coverage of E3 like usual. Square Enix' "Future of Final Fantasy" event is Tuesday, but will be media-only. When we're able to compile information as it leaks out, it will be here. It seems as if since this isn't public, it
could be really good news. However, given that the global fanbase seems to somehow manage to hate everything the company does... I won't hold my breath for something breathtaking?
Source:
Siliconera,
Kotaku,
Engadget
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