News

*That aren't really sequels.

After all kinds of cheeky proding from Josh, I've decided to finally get my act together and do that news thing!

First off, what is already old news: the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix release last week. The package deal includes a remake of the original KH game, KH: Re: Chain of Memories, and videos from the DS title 358/2 Days.

Next, we've a series of news regarding Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. The game, as you may remember, has been out in Japan for over a year now and selling/reviewing very well; earlier this spring, it was confirmed for a 2014 release stateside. Recently, however, a separate, enhanced version of the game has been announced - Bravely Default: For the Sequel - which will be released in lieu of the original outside of Japan (still in 2014). The enhancements are drawn in large part from a whole heap of player suggestions, making this a bit of a standard of late for Square Enix. Check out those two Siliconera links below if you'd like to see a taste of what the anticipated title will look like via comparisons to its original incarnation.

But here's where things can get confusing if you haven't been keeping up with your Square Enix handheld news lately. Bravely Default: For the Sequel isn't a sequel in itself; it's a version of the original improved in large part for the sake of making the also-recently-announced sequel-proper... about which we know little as of yet!

And now on to that other piece of Square Enix news, FFXIV: A Realm Reborn (all these colons in titles are cramping my style). As of only a few hours ago, digital sales of the game resumed for PC and PS3 after having been closed only a few days after its late-August release due to widespread complaints regarding excessive wait times. Square Enix apologized for what it described as 'unprecedented demand,' and has spent the last month adding new servers in order to increase overall capacity as well as capacity for individual Worlds (as well as refunding some of folks who got in on the party late).

How has the new title been received, you may ask? Places like Metacritic and Gamerankings are giving it scores in the mid-80s (out of a hundred), which isn't too shabby, especially when you consider the scores for the original FFXIV were about half that, and that (I assume) awful load times were taken into those considerations. But no need to trust them! Here's what our members had to say about its Beta phase. I know several of these folks have kept up with the game: what do you think?

Source: Siliconera, Siliconera, CVG

The Square Enix news tidbits have been on hi-ya-toos for way, way too long. It's hard to get back on that wagon, so it's a fine time to remind the readers that we'll gladly solicit news from any of you out there. We generally ask that you be marginally literate, but we're flexible.

So, what have we missed recently? Well, plenty of Squenix news, of course, but really, not that much. As we all know, the times between E3 and Tokyo Game Show can be a bit quiet for the company, and the biggest releases coming up in the near future for the Japanese giant aren't quite yet here. That said, let's spend some time on those releases now, starting with A Realm Reborn. The Final Fantasy XIV reboot will be released for PC and PlayStation 3 in just a couple days, now; in fact, those with early access to the release should be getting it in a matter of hours.

To keep the appetite up for the game, Squenix have been showing quite a bit of video. A couple days back, a video premiered showing off more than a half-dozen high-level dungeons in different environments, complete with some requisite big evil like dragons, Marlboros, and Tonberries. Everyone's favorite, Magitek Armor, even makes an appearance towards the end. More recently (today, in fact!), another video came out, this time giving the glamour treatment to Primals, the name given to high-level bosses in the game. These, too, look pretty brutal - an enormous behemoth at the beginning might be the least impressive beast shown.

The next big (brand-new) release for the company once XIV is out the door is, of course, Lightning Returns. This game has had what seems like dozens of small parcels of data revealed over the time since its announcement; this week, another trailer came out, featuring a lot of combat, a fair chunk of Sazh, and a pretty blunt question: who will you save, and who will you sacrifice? Much further back in history, the company also made public that Vanille would appear in the game, under the protection of a religious faction in control of one of the game's four unique continents. The same article revealing Vanille also mentions a bit about shopping in the game, and how one will be able to buy real battle equipment but also fashion accessories for Lightning in the game's stores.

In news that will be potentially extra-interesting to those who enjoyed our Seiken Densetsu 3 podcast, Squenix have registered for trademarks on "Rise of Mana" in both Europe and Japan. The Mana series has obviously been one of the most extensive for Square in the last twenty years, behind only Final Fantasy, so it's no big surprise that something else would be showing up in that series; however, given that there's no other information, and the company's recent track record with their use of legacy IPs, this could well be a social game.

So, we can't really cover everything, of course, not when we sit on news for a month before posting it. So, let's wrap up with some fun merch news! Since everyone loved All the Bravest, of course, they'd probably want some keychains, right? Maybe a set of twenty-nine? No joke, some of those would be pretty great to have, but you can only buy the whole set at once, and the retail price comes out to about a hundred and ten dollars American. So... let me know how they turn out when you get yours. And, since I can't let Slime-related merchandise slip past me, despite not having played a Dragon Quest game in, like, twenty-five years, let's wrap with that. Here's a USB-based controller that looks like a fat DualShock 2 with a bunch of Slimes on it. It's currently only for Japan, and is listing at $40 equivalent, which is a bit steep. But, it's USB, so there are no importing issues if you simply must have it; however, if you want a wired controller for your PC, you really can't do any better than the one you can already get for an Xbox 360.

Let's call that a day for these tidbits. I know you all, you stopped reading paragraphs ago, right? If not, we'll try to keep up on the news a little better going forward!

Source: Siliconera, CVG, Nintendo Enthusiast

This week's title sounds a bit like "kneecapping." However, this week's crew was really, legitimately excited about a lot of E3 2013 and as such we mostly didn't turn the snark up to crippling levels. We had some miscommunications around episode eight that ended up nixing our original plans for the episode theme - was lucky for us, then, that we had E3 the week before recording and we had a lot to say about it. Lucky even moreso because the very time we recorded was the time that Microsoft were making their epic turnaround on their always-online, Kinect-watches-you-sleep plan.

Because of all that, we had good times! We talked quite a bit about the E3 that Square Enix had (spoilers: general consensus was that it was quite good), and we also hit all of the other big names in gaming briefly. There are plenty of references to 80's pop culture, and even, I do believe, a nice callout to Fisherman's Horizon - at least, if it didn't get cut. I can never remember what I leave on the cutting room floor. Anyway, join me, Tiddles, lasz and Jav for episode eight, available right now for streaming or in the source links for subscription time.

Source: The CoNcast Subscription Feed, The CoNcast on iTunes

The coolest thing about Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (well, okay, certainly one of the coolest things) is the soundtrack, which bridges the width and breadth of the main-line Final Fantasy catalogue and then some. Not only that, some of the songs are remixes and new arrangements that haven't been heard anywhere else, which is certainly a formula made to stir interest in a packaged OST set.

After a year on the shelves, this demand will now be met, at least in Japan. On the last day of July, a five-disc OST will be released for 3990 yen; that set will be split by the nature of the music contained therein. One disc will be for Event Stage music, another for Field Stage, and so on. The final disc will contain those specific new arrangements and remixes, but just like in the game itself, every track has been remastered from its original incarnations.

Odds are that this will be a set you have to import, but if you've enjoyed Theatrhythm or even just want a Final Fantasy soundtrack set that is more of a series greatest hits collection, this one will be worth checking out despite it being pricey. Hit the sources links below to preorder from Play-Asia.

Source: SGCafe, Play Asia

E3's all done now for 2013, and this was a pretty big one for Square Enix. Well, at least the Square side of things. We reported earlier in the week the biggest news from the company, both that Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 were coming for the PlayStation 4, and then just a few hours later that the same games were also meant for Xbox One.

Final Fantasy XIV was also announced for PlayStation 4, with an upgrade system for users who want to start on PlayStation 3 and then move on up. New screenshots and trailers emerged for the Final Fantasy X and X-2 updates, and there was not just a debut trailer for Final Fantasy XV, but also a followup video showing the first elements of high-fiving, male-centric battle first appeared in the private "Future of Final Fantasy" event but was later released to YouTube.

Obviously, all that made for the biggest news of the conference. However, it's worth noting that Squenix put together a blog post to cover all the little things they did, and it has other videos such as new videos from Lightning Returns, the official announcement trailer for Murdered: Soul Suspect, and the kinda-creepy iOS action RPG Bloodmasque, in which your hack and slash master shares your face.

All in all, this was probably one of the better years the company's had at E3 in a while. They were definitely showstealers at least twice, and the release schedule coming up in the next year is looking pretty solid. And we're not even to the Tokyo Game Show yet.

Source: Square Enix Members Blog

Final Fantasy VII Remake for PlayStation 4!

No, just kidding, I couldn't resist. While the "Future of Final Fantasy" event was invite only with no stream or public video released (at least, not yet), you can't stop the liveblog freight train. Now that the event has been over for a bit, here's what came from it:

• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be released for both PS3 and PS4. If you buy on PS3, you can port your data to PS4 later. No word on whether you have to buy the software twice, though.
• XIV also got a pretty serious new trailer.
• New Final Fantasy X HD remake screenshots were bouncing around.
• And, hey, a new trailer for that too!
• New gameplay work-in-progress from Final Fantasy Versus XV 13 was shown for the first time.
• Oh, yeah. And XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 are not Sony exclusives. They're also coming to Xbox One. Goodness. It's currently unknown if those games will have simultaneous releases on all platforms, though, or if some limited exclusivity will apply.

So, yes. That's some news, right there. I believe the Xbox fankids might feel like they have a bit more fight left in them now than they did late last night. Thoughts?

Source: RPG Site Twitter, DualShockers