News

Final Fantasy XIII may remain a far off dream, but the distant echoes of series spin-off Crystal Chronicles are quickly approaching. "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time" has been given an official release date of January 29 in Japan, and is expected to hit the North American market sometime this Spring.

Like the rest of the Crystal Chronicles series, the gameplay of Echoes will heavily rely on action-RPG aspects and puzzles, rather than the traditional turn-based combat of the main Final Fantasy series. Echoes will be available on both the Wii and the Nintendo DS, and the game will take advantage of the two systems' interconnectivity to allow online multiplayer. Additionally, Nintendo seems to have realized that we're tired of letting those dozens of Miis we made on launch day languish without a purpose in life; players of the Wii version will be able to import their favorite Miis into the game.

Source: GameSpot

I've never been a fan of the Crystal Chronicles series, but even I'm tempted by this. The short blurb about the story in the above link sounds like it could be interesting... as long as we don't find out that the heroine is sick because she ate dragon grass not once, but twice. Stupid princesses who eat dragon grass two--count 'em, TWO--times deserve what they get. Really, the Crystal Chronicles line always seemed to me like a kiddie version of the (occasionally) more mature main series storylines. These saccharine tales of precocious fourteen-year-olds aren't quite as cute now that I'm not fourteen, yanno?

After more than two years of vagueness, Square-Enix finally drops a bomb on Dragon Quest fans - Japan will be getting the much-awaited DS game on March of 2009. Very little is known about the title thus far other than there are customizable characters and it will take advantage of the DS's wireless capabilities, but since it's a Dragon Quest game it will probably sell like funnel cakes once it eventually comes out.

Source: Kotaku

Tecmo, the Japanese publisher of video games such as Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, and Fatal Frame, has not had a very good year. After releasing XBox 360 action title Ninja Gaiden 2, game designer Tomonobu Itakagi and several other employees sued the company for unpaid overtime work relating to Ninja Gaiden 2. Other headaches included disappointing sales for Fatal Frame IV and the resignation of several top company officials.

But here comes Square-Enix to the rescue! According to Kotaku, Square-Enix is planning a friendly takeover of Tecmo in a similar manner to which happened to Taito in 2005. If the takeover is successful, Tecmo would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square-Enix, and if the wage issue is resolved, Tecmo's successful Team Ninja studio (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive) would be making games for the big S-E.

Source: Kotaku

Also: wtf? Kingdom Hearts Gaiden?

After too much waiting for a game that doesn't require any real localization at all, Amazon.co.uk now has a release date for Final Fantasy IV DS; it's September 5, 2008. Of course, that's coming up in just over three weeks, which really makes sense given that there wasn't any real localization necessary. As usual, AmaCoN tries hard to get all preorders to you on the actual release date of the game, so you won't have to wait: order now.

The other new release dates for the day are for the new Harvest Moon games, for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, subtitled "Island of Happiness" and "Tree of Tranquility" respectively. While the Harvest Moon series has always been a bit niche, even for a series that has been going on for over a decade, I know there are quite a few fans who might be looking to pick these games up; if you're one of them, you can preorder now for a DS release on August 26 and a Wii release on September 16. Not only that, Amazon preorders for these games pack in farm animal plushies as bonuses. So, uh, get your farm... animals?

Final Fantasy Dissidia actually had some footage released recently, ahead of it's projected December 2008 Japanese release date. Dissidia is described as an action-based fighting game with RPG elements and featuring two characters from each of the first 10 games, a protagonist and a villain. Overall, though, it's likely to be the FF answer to Super Smash Bros. in that it features a number of characters from different universes fighting each other, and there might even be a plot this year.

What is known, is that the character list has a number of confirmed cast members. Not every game has both characters revealed yet, the bad guys being wheeled out for some games, but in those cases it's pretty blatant who the "Other" one will be, and in one case, the other one is a bit puzzling really. It's probably a safe bet to assume that on top of these 20 there may be secret characters as well, but don't count on it. And without further ado, here are the ones you can count on seeing.

From Final Fantasy: Warrior of Light and Garland
The Warrior of Light and Garland, though both fighters, have some differences. The former uses swordplay and shield, a possible balance between offensive and defensive play, whilst Garland has a sword that can become a battle axe, for an ever changing but from the look of it offence-heavy fighting style. The arena where they fight appears to be the Chaos Shrine, location of the final boss battle of Final Fantasy.

From Final Fantasy II: Firion and Emperor Mateus Palamecia
Firion's fighting style seems to revolve around versatility, able to change weapons mid-battle. He has access to swords, spears and bows amongst other weapons, a veritable walking armoury. Mateus meanwhile appears to use magical attacks predominately, and is able to transform into the Emperor of Hell. Their battleground seems to be Pandaemonium, capital of Hell and twinned with Cardiff.

From Final Fantasy III: Onion Knight and Cloud of Darkness
The Onion Knight is apparently able to change jobs mid-battle, with Sage and Ninja confirmed so far. Others are likely, but only those are confirmed. The Cloud of Darkness meanwhile is, in case you didn't know, actually a woman giving Ultimecia a run for her money in the "ridiculously revealing costume" stakes. Her appearance has altered to have pale instead of orange or green skin, but she can apparently transform into the green-skinned variation seen in FF3 DS. The fight between the two occurs in FF3's World of Darkness.

From Final Fantasy IV: Golbez
Confirmed in a trailer at Square Enix's DKΣ3713 event (The name referenced the games displayed and also is a fun game to guess exaclty which games it in fact had at it! Don't google, that's cheating.), nothing has been revealed about Golbez except his presence but it's likely he'll fight Cecil.

From Final Fantasy V: ExDeath
Like Golbez, nothing confirmed and revealed only in the trailer at DKΣ3713. Likely to fight Bartz.

From Final Fantasy VI: Kefka
Kefka's confirmation in the game came at, you guessed it, DKΣ3713, and tells us the same as it told us about Golbez and ExDeath, except that Kefka apparently hints at his opponent being female. It's probably safe to bet it's not Relm or a post-op Locke.

From Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth
No one should be surprised at this one. His opponent hasn't been announced but really, who was it the other seventy times they put him in a sequel or spin-off?

From Final Fantasy VIII: Squall and Ultimecia
Gunblade-wielding social recluse mercenary Squall fights with his Gunblade of course, and can use his Renzokuken attack as well as transform his weapon into the Lionheart. Ultimecia meanwhile uses swords and axes made from magic, as well as time manipulation and possibly even summoning and junctioning. Their battle occurs in Ultimecia's castle.

From Final Fantasy IX: Zidane and Kuja
The rules are simple. Two Monkey Enter, One Monkey Leave. The Genome brothers face off in Memoria, and apparently both use their Trance forms in combat.

From Final Fantasy X: Tidus and Jecht
Yeah, you read that right, Jecht. Not Seymour. Tidus fights his dad with his overdrives, whilst Jecht can transform into the Final Aeon, which might actually explain this somewhat bizarre pairing. The creators have stated they seek to use this as a "What-if" scenario as well as expand the interaction between the two characters.

From Star Wars: Nobody
And hooray for that.

Sources: Official Site
IGN videos and information on the game

Two games previously announced as being released only for mobile phones, Final Fantasy Agito XIII and The Third Birthday ("Parasite Eve 3"), are receiving PSP ports as early as 2009. Square-Enix disclosed this information at a private expo to media and select fans currently taking place,

Very few details are available on Agito XIII, but it is said to be an RPG with online elements and a cast of at least twelve characters. The promotional posters for Agito show a silver-haired character (no word on gender) holding a deck of cards. The Third Birthday is a spinoff of the cult favorite Parasite Eve series, starring Aya Brea several years after the events of Parasite Eve 2, dealing with an outbreak of monsters called The Twisted.

There is no official announcement for a release of either of these games outside of Japan, but here's one PSP-owning Parasite Eve fan keeping his fingers crossed.

Source: Kotaku
Also: Vampire pumpkins and watermelons