News

Massive amount of Square Enix news tidbits this week, since I took a couple unplanned weeks off, there. Sorry about that, I know that all of you out there are dying to not comment on these posts.

As usual, most of the small news items you might have missed have to do with Final Fantasy XIII. You know, it's coming out in Japan next week and all. With regard specifically to the Japanese version, you might have missed the reveal of this game's Cid, with the surname of Raines. He's meant to be a general in one of the military factions in the plot; however, as is usual, he doesn't seem to have much traditional military look to him. You'll see him somewhere along the line in a game that is fifty-plus hours long, according to director Motumu Toriyama. And, as you may have noticed along the way, the official box art for the US and European versions of FFXIII was first published this week, too. To me, personally, it seems a bit too minimalist, but if you still had any doubts about seeing it for the Xbox 360, well, rest assured that this is not a fake.

With all that real game-type news out of the way, check out some of the goofy hype machine that's still working in support of the new flagship release. If you're in Japan, you can get the chance to smell like Lightning (the character, obviously, not the meteorological event). It's peachy! It's rosey! It's musky! It's over eighty bucks! Probably tough to import, too, as it's no doubt a flammable liquid. Over here, though, your goodies are a little less pricey and a little more useless. Thanks to all the people who tweeted about Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox (you're welcome - ugh), anyone who registers for it on Xbox.com will get, sometime this month, a free baby Chocobo for their Xbox Live avatar. Certainly cheaper than the pets you can buy; I'm sure it will go well with my University of Illinois hoodie just fine, though.

Now, let's move on, shall we? Despite the fact that Squenix is laying off again, in Europe, there are still new releases in other series coming soon. An unofficial Twitter announcment implies that Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep will in fact make it out of Japan, notwithstanding any rumbles to the contrary. Not only that, you'll also get to interact with Zack of the Final Fantasy VII universe. Does that get a fangirl squee out of anyone? Yeah, didn't really think so. Finally, on the Enix side of the house, note that a western release of Dragon Quest IX has just gotten a little closer to reality, now that the game's name has been trademarked in several languages for the European Union. Leave a slot in your DS for 2010 for a cooperative, customizable JRPG, it seems.

Again, apologies for missing a couple weeks. It probably will happen again pretty soon, given the holidays coming up, so if you feel like filling my shoes, go for it!

Source: Kotaku, SiliconEra, Go Nintendo

More like Lufia: A Whole Damn Series Resurrected. Square-Enix is bringing back the cult favorite Lufia series (known as Estpolis or Estopolis in Japan) in the form of Lufia: A Legend Resurrected (Estpolis Denki: Yomigaeru Densetsu in Japan), a remake of Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. The game will be a 3D action-RPG for the DS, bringing back the series staples of complex dungeon puzzles and customizable spells and special weapon attacks, but forgoing the traditional turn-based system for an action battle system where party members can perform team attacks.

News of this revival dropped last week in Japan's Famitsu magazine, with a second Lufia spot appearing this week explaining the new battle system. Lufia's developer, Neverland Software, whose more recent games include the Rune Factory series, is running the show once again, this time with Square-Enix producing. If Legend Resurrected is even half as fun as its SNES predecessor, then expect laszlow to make this a day-one purchase.

Source: RPGFan, More RPGFan

The Square Enix news tidbits for this week get a big flourish, as Squenix have just officially dated Final Fantasy XIII for North America (and, if you believe the video, also probably Europe?). The games for the two platforms will launch simultaneously on 9 March, 2010, which seems pretty fast; however, Yoichi Wada did just say the other day that the company was done with the Japanese version and was already applying just the final touches to the Western one. The official release announcement comes with a slick video as well, which you can watch at Kotaku or, probably, on Playstation Home.

If you haven't preordered yet, you certainly can - AmaCoN has not updated the release date as yet, but it surely will quite soon.

That's the big news of the day, but you might also be interested to know that Dragon Quest VI for the Nintendo DS has been officially dated for Japan, and that the first official release for the West should follow soon after; additionally, the company brought forth two more classes for Final Fantasy XIV, the Pugilist and Gladiator, silhouetted against the very same backdrop we've all already seen.

Have a good weekend, and I hope to see your Final Fantasy XIII preorders showing up in AmaCoN quite soon!

The title explains it all, really. Put it into your calendar, and we'll find out what's in store for us then.

What? You don't understand? Yes, maybe this topic title was a bit of a conundrum, but it's not that hard to figure out.

A HENCHMEN INVENTOR TENT UNTO

* footbigmike waves wand

ANNOUNCEMENT NOV THIRTEENTH

So, there you have it. Five days until a Final Fantasy XIII upate from Square-Enix. A demo? A release date? FFXIII on the Wii? Who knows. Hopefully happy fun times will be in store for us!

Source: Final Fantasy XIII.net

First news tidbits for November; possibly also the start of the AmaCoN Holiday Rush™? Seriously, get all your friends and family to buy stuff from AmaCoN this holiday. It usually makes up about 30% of our revenue for the year.

Anyway, here are some Square Enix News Tidbits for you. With the launch of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan getting ever closer, Square Enix have announced the release date of the official soundtrack. There will be, kind of typically, two versions—a four disc standard and five disc limited edition, with the differences being packaging, an extra disc with parts or all of Episode Zero and of course availability. Both sets will be available on 27 January in Japan, and with only about $14 difference in cost, I predict that there will be a rush for the more special-er version.

For those who don't care about the Japanese accouterments, though, you can note that Yoichi Wada thinks that "progress is good" on the Western front, and that he thinks it's possible to see a launch either in Europe, North America, or both before the end of April 2010. That seems like marketing talk, and I would expect to be waiting a bit longer than that, personally. AmaCoN still has it for 20 June 2010, for instance.

On the business front, it seems that the layoffs previously reported are now mainly done, with a grand total of ten percent cut globally. Perhaps not surprisingly, revenues for the last half-year were also up by almost exactly a third; of course, our readers who know a bit about business also know that revenues are almost never the same as profits.



Source: GamesIndustry, Kotaku

They're not actually spooky at all, sorry. With another quiet week behind us, about all I have for you today are updates on releases, thanks to Squenix sending me a nice email outlining all of the North American ones. You'll no doubt wonder, as I am, how they're deploying so many remakes of ancient games.

Here's the brief list of what's coming up, according to Square Enix:

1. A Shantotto Ascension, the next Final Fantasy XI pack, released this week;


2. Space Invaders Extreme 2 for the Nintendo DS has also dropped (seriously? Is there a market for Space Invaders?);


3. Arkanoid Plus has become available on WiiWare (again, seriously?);


4. An update to the mid-80's shooter Thexder has come online for PSP downloads—and if you remember anything about the original, kudos to you.

Since we're here, too, you can note that Hikari no 4 Senshi came out in Japan yesterday, too. Still no word on a Western port.

Enjoy your halloween! Post your costumes and pumpkins in General Topics!

Source: Square Enix