News

In a surprise announcement, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada confirmed during Microsoft's E3 press conference today that Final Fantasy XIII is to be released on the Xbox 360, contrary to previous expectation that the title would be released exclusively for PlayStation 3. Wada spoke of his belief that this would broaden the game's availability to North American and European players, though neither he nor Microsoft's press release made any mention of a Japanese 360 release, leading to widespread speculation that the game may remain PS3-exclusive in that territory — news which no doubt has all six Japanese Xbox owners up in arms.

A Square-Enix press conference followed, during which producer Yoshinori Kitase and executive Shinji Hashimoto discussed further details:

• There may be differences between the versions due to the capacity difference between Blu-Ray and DVD. However, the current plan is to keep the content identical. One might speculate, therefore, that the 360 version may come on multiple DVDs.
• 360-specific development is set to begin following completion of the Japanese PS3 version, along with English translation.
• This is a relatively recent decision, largely based on the 360's wide installation base outside Japan. This seems to fit with the notion that the 360 version may not hit Japan.
• Uncategorised additional appendage FFXIII:VS will not be multiplatform. (Presumably just like FFXIII itself wasn't. Just saying.)

No release date has yet been announced, but Microsoft's press release indicates that the game will be available to 360 owners "at launch" in NA and the EU, which is presumably a quirky, press-release sort of way of saying it'll be out the same day for both consoles.

It's a good thing nobody bought an expensive, launch-era PS3 just for the promise of a Final Fantasy exclusive. Nobody did that, right?

Sauces:
Microsoft Press Release
Gamespot Story
Kotaku Liveblog (whatever that means) of the SE press conference
Tomato

...and even though we won't have all the details until E3, here's a preview to whet your appetite.

Let's get the big one out of the way: Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, they're still making it. ... That's about it. Anyone who thought that was headed anyone's way this year clearly doesn't remember how long it took the previous installment to make it to market, though, and, this time, there are two games to look forward to. With FFXIII/FFVsXIII still at least a year away, maybe it's time to branch off into some of Squenix's other offerings.

For 360 and PS3 owners, the next great RPG comes in the form of The Last Remnant. Microsoft's deal with the devil means that the game will be exclusive to the 360 for a limited time, but, never fear, Sony fans will eventually get a crack at it. The game will feature a new mixture between large-scale tactics and individual battle control in a quest to save the world.

Sadly, Microsoft might manage to hold onto Infinite Undiscovery. Due in September, it stars Capell (a boy who looks like a boy!) and Aya in a (surprise!) quest to save their world.

The return of the Star Ocean series is the next big thing looming on the horizon. While is seems that The Last Hope might end up a 360 exclusive, remakes of the first two games are slated for the PSP. Star Ocean: First Departure will be available in late October of this year, and Star Ocean: Second Evolution will launch in January 2009. Both games will feature enhanced graphics and sound over the originals, which were for the Super Famicom and PlayStation, respectively.

There's plenty for DS fans to look forward to, too. Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest IV will be making their remade ways to the handheld this winter, and a full remake of Final Fantasy IV is due at the end of this month.

Lastly, if you've always wanted to play an RPG on your iPod, now's your chance--Song Summoner has arrived. The title appears to be a tactical RPG that draws on your iPod playlist to create party members...or "Tune Troopers", as the case may be. If that sounds intriguing, it's only $4.99 to satisfy your curiosity.

So we know that it's been discussed a bit already, but this is news big enough that it simply must be brought onto our front page: Chrono Trigger is coming to the Nintendo DS.

Of course, the new version is going to be somewhat different, very likely in terms of a new dungeon, since that tends to be the stock addition to all of the Square-Enix remakes coming out these days. However, I'd also expect it to contain all of the additional data tables found in the PSX version, and of course the animated cut scenes. Finally, since this is coming out for the DS, there's no reason not to expect a great deal of interactivity between top and bottom screens. Heck, they even say that in the press release.

The final big news for today is that we now have an English-titles trailer; it's nothing amazing, but it does show that the gameplay and in-game graphics won't be changing, and it does give a launch window of Winter 2008, surely meant to imply that it will be launching just before Christmas. We will have, of course, links for you to preorder the game as we get them.

Source: Square-Enix North America

The development team for Final Fantasy IV DS, beyond simply having a blog, is opening itself up for a web-based question and answer session with us, the fans, starting now. This is all being facilitated by the Square-Enix Members Blog, and you have to have an account to participate, but if you don't have one and don't feel like signing up, please feel free to ask your question right here and I'll be happy to submit it on your behalf.

They're a bit nebulous on the deadlines for submitting questions and the posting of the collection of answers, but I would imagine that all of this will be happening over the next couple weeks so that they can publish the final article no later than the North American release date of the DS game, which is still currently scheduled for July 22.

Source:
Square-Enix Members Blog

After months of speculation on the part of its fans, Squenix has finally confirmed the upcoming North American release of three legacy Dragon Quest titles on the Nintendo DS.

Remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI are in the works, and North American audiences can expect to see the first of these, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, on 16 September 2008. The three remakes will feature updated 3D graphics in a similar vein to Final Fantasy III DS and the upcoming Final Fantasy IV DS remakes.

Source: GameSpot

A website for the North American release of FFTA2: Rift of the Grimoire was promised just days ago, and Square-Enix has already delivered. The company has once again put together a beautiful website for the game. As is par for the course for RPG websites by Squenix, not all of the information is available, but we already have access to a page for the story; a page for characters, which includes information about characters Luso, Adelle, Hurdy, and Cid, with spaces for 6 more; a look at five of seven races and some of "more than 50 classes"; and sections under construction for the battle system and multimedia.

In addition, some questions were answered on the Square-Enix Members Blog regarding the game, which says that the storyline of FFTA2 will be completely independent of the other FFT games, so gamers new to the series can jump right in.

The website just makes me more excited for the game. The characters have neat designs and I'm really excited to hear that there will be over fifty classes. I'm hoping that that doesn't necessarily mean class/race combinations, so they could, theoretically, give a Hume White Mage and a Viera Whtie Mage different abilities and call it two different classes, but that could possibly happen. Either way, I'm looking forward to June 24 more and more.

Those links again:
Square-Enix NA FFTA2 Website
FFTA2 Blog Entry
Square-Enix Members Blog