News

If you've been at the forums recently, you not only know about the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier, and you've probably also read some bits and pieces about the contents of the mini-exposition, too. For your convenience, though, we'll roll it up a bit for you here in the news section. Where we ask people to post new news and such!

Anyway, here's the big stuff. As just about everyone knows by now, there's going to be a Final Fantasy XIII-2, and it has a trailer already. This game's still not Versus. That's still its own game, and it has a new trailer too. And after all this time, that's still all it has. If that doesn't get you excited for its prospects, well, there's not much more I can do for you.

In other Final Fantasy XIII news, the game that we always knew as Agito is Agito no longer; the newly mentioned Type-0 is the new name. The other Final Fantasy XIII news is that Type-0 won't actually be a Final Fantasy game any more, but instead is the starting point for a new series.

Square Enix also showed Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix, which is an extended version of the Birth By Sleep game released last year. Previous Final Mix releases in the series have been Japan-only, and have mostly been Japanese releases of the American version, with a bit of bonus content.

The newest Kingdom Hearts will be coming out for Nintendo's new 3DS, and at this meeting, it got a name: Dream Drop Distance. You see what they did there? There are three "D"s in that name. It's on a 3-D system. Et cetera. Sora and Riku both will star.

Duodecim got some significant play as well, with new characters announced, including Gilgamesh. There's going to be a paid demo in Japan, and folks who buy the demo can get Aeris as an assist character in the full game. No word yet on whether that will be a possibility elsewhere, of course. The American release date was announced separately, too - the game will hit stores here on 22 March, for thirty bucks, and it's ready for pre-order on AmaCoN now, as is The 3rd Birthday, which happens to come out a week later.

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff for a meeting that only happened for about three hours. Not knowing Japanese, hey, I might have missed some stuff, too. Feel free to let me know in the comments.


Source: Kotaku, andriasang, Kingdom Hearts Insider

In case you don't already own one of the many, many PSP bundles released in Japan already (and, come on, who doesn't have at least two?), you might be interested to know that there's yet another one coming, this time for everyone's favorite Final Fantasy universe fighting game. Well, the sequel to everyone's favorite, at least. I expect that it will need to be at least released before it's everyone's favorite in general.

Anyway, it looks as if this bundle, in a striking black and white, features artwork by Yoshitaka Amano on the front and the Dissidia 012 [duodecim] logo on the back battery case. Naturally, it's the PSP-3000 model. This is the first bundle to be designed with Amano artwork, and only the second specially-designed bundle for a Final Fantasy game (the first being for Crisis Core) and third for Square-Enix (Star Ocean got one too).

No word yet on whether this one will make it to the West. Keep your fingers crossed, Dissidia fans, or pony up the 23,000 yen!

Source: Kotaku

The Playstation Network, or PSN, is getting a release that many people here may find interesting. Square-Enix, to celebrate the fact that their Twitter acheived 20,000 followers, is releasing Chrono Cross on the PSN. Here's the catch - it's only in Japan. There's been no confirmed release Stateside, but they probably won't be able to keep that away for too long. Chrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger (which CoN covers!), was last released on the PSX in 2000, and now is available mostly to old game collectors and emulators. This should open what many agree is a great game to the public again.

And, hey, this is perfect for me. I just finished Chrono Trigger (much to the amusement of CoNchat, until recently I'd only ever played FF7. I'm looking at you, DP). I've also heard some really good things about Chrono Cross, but also that you either love it or you hate it. So, when CC does eventually get released in the States, I imagine anyone who played Chrono Trigger on the DS will be snapping this one up too. You heard it here first!

Source: RPGamer, US Playstation Network

If the title doesn't quite grammatically add up for you, it isn't my fault. That's the currently-official title for what was previously known as the Fabula Nova Crystalis press conference.

The newly-named press event has a new date as well: January 18th, which is seven days later than the original. The name change most likely reflects the content of the event, which, from the beginning, was never going to be simply restricted to games falling under the Fabula Nova Crystalis banner. It seems to be Nomura's party, so we'll likely see whatever else he's up to (Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts 3D).

In addition, the event will now be open to fans. It's in Japan, of course, so that doesn't really have any importance to most of us. Since I have a sneaking suspicion that R51 won't pay for my flight over there to check it out first hand, I'll just keep posting details as I hear them.

Source: IGN, 1st Production Department Premier Site

Oh shoot, I accidentally said everything in the title.

Unsurprisingly, Square Enix has delayed the PS3 release of Final Fantasy XIV. Yoichi Wada, the company's President and CEO, said the following: "We deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that Final Fantasy fans have come to expect from the franchise." He did not, however, explain why a lack of enjoyability did not prevent the company from releasing the PC version. In addition to all the work being done to improve the PC edition, the team responsible for the game is being restructured. The hope is to release a fully updated game that takes into account all of the "improvements we have planned." Looks like you'll have to wait until after the originally-planned March 2011 release date. If you were waiting in the first place, of course.

The Mindjack news is actually quite interesting. It seems that a few people have gotten the chance to test the game's combat system, and the report is relatively favorable. While there are a few complaints with some of the basic combat controls, it appears that the 'hacking' system on which the game is based was done quite well. The host player can take control of fallen foes, drones and enemy combatants. In addition, outside players (called hackers) can enter the game as data clouds and hack the minds of enemy combatants in order to assist the host player. With all these options, players can do a lot of mind-hopping, which should make for a fast-paced, unique combat atmosphere.

Source: IGN, IGN

If you haven't already heard tell, Square-Enix has announced sparse details on a trading card game that offers Dissidia-like gameplay, but without need of a console!

Already developed is a website with a few card samples based around Dissidia-styled Cloud, Sephiroth and Zidane, but some telltale silhouettes should easily shed light on some more heroes to come.

It seems like a potentially exciting game with more to draw on than such gaming TCGs as EverQuest or World of Warcraft, what with Final Fantasy having so many incarnations, with different characters, skills, monsters and summon to conjure up into card form. It seems like an interesting step that will likely only go well for the giant that is Square-Enix and raise an entirely new fanbase for the series, and possibly breath life into the old.

As of yet, there are no details relating to a North American release, but it is still incredibly early in development.

To view some card samples, check out the sources below!

Source: Final Fantasy TCG Site, andriasang.com, RPGFan.com