News

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

Following the announcement of the North American release date of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Square-Enix has released the box art for the game on their Members Blog. The blog entry doesn't have any new information regarding the game, but promises more content "soon" and the writer of the entry has spent over 110 hours playing the game. The release is still scheduled for June 24.

I am very excited for the release of this game, even having not played the original Tactics Advance. As Final Fantasy Tactics remains one of my favorite games of all time, I'm fired up over what has been reviewed as an excellent game on a portable console. Stay tuned for the information about the game promised by the blog.

Those links again:
FFTA2 North American release date
FFTA2 North American box art
Square-Enix Members Blog

Square-Enix has opened their North American Final Fantasy 4 DS website, setting the stage for information regarding the much-anticipated remake. The site opens with a beautiful splash screen featuring many characters from the game, but unfortunately there isn't anything at the site yet. However, the actual opening of the site is a good sign for information being translated and updated regularly as the release of the game approaches. In the meantime, you can check out the Japanese site for Final Fantasy 4: The After, Square-Enix's Japanese-only mobile game, to make yourself jealous over what you aren't getting.

I have played FF4 way too many times, on different platforms and translations, and I am still very excited for the game to be released in July. I'll almost certainly be getting it on release day, if I'm not still playing Squenix's current gem, The World Ends With You. The site launch is good news for those of us waiting for another one of the company's trademark gorgeous sites, and The After is fun to look at, even if I can't read it, we're not getting it, and Luca looks like some sort of ridiculous 80's teen idol.

Those links again:
FF4DS NA
Final Fantasy 4: The After

DeviantArt, the well-known online artistic community that has a lot of nice Final Fantasy fanart, a lot of nice Final Fantasy fan artists, and increasingly toes the line of defining the phrase "too much Anime fanart" is currently hosting a competition that might be of quite a lot of interest to the people here who make nice Final Fantasy fanart and our own nice Final Fantasy fan artists.

DA want people to submit works based on the upcoming Square-Enix game "The World Ends with You" and to make this very intresting, they're doing it in conjuction with Square-Enix themselves. Square-Enix have given DA special permission to distribute concept art from the game for use in this contest. Your role as the artist asks for your best works inspired by the art. Ten winners will recive a copy of the game, a six month subscription to DA, a DA t-shirt and a DA Accessory pack. The grand prize winner recives all that plus a written critque of their prize-winning submission from members of the game's development team. For the full information and rules, check the Announcement for the contest on DeviantArt.

"The World Ends with You" is an Action RPG from the same team behind Kingdom Hearts, set in and inspired by the Shibuya district of Tokyo. The game sees amnesiac Neku awake in Shibuya, and told that he must play the "Reaper's Game" or face erasure. Presumably, this is some sort of code for "you're dead," so obviously Neku wants to avoid said erasure (and as the player of the game so do you). To do so, he (and you) must complete a series of missions, and find badges that will let him (again, you) unlock new powers and abilities to help him (that's probably still you) succeed. The game is for the Nintendo DS and will be released in North America on the 22nd of April and in PAL regions on April 18th.

External Links:
Contest Rules and Information
DeviantArt Homepage
Official US Site for The World Ends with You
Official EU Site for The World Ends with You

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, the DS sequel to the GBA game Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, will hit the United States on June 24th, 2008. FFTA2 boasts touchscreen mechanics, more character classes than its predecessor, and several tie-ins to the larger Ivalice Alliance spinoff-series. For example, Vaan, Penelo, Al-Cid, and several other characters from Final Fantasy XII will also play a role in this storyline.

FFTA2 stars a hunter named Luso, who players of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions may have already seen in a playable cameo role. FFTA2 also marks the fourth Square-Enix game as part of the Ivalice Alliance and the third to be released in the United States, after FFT: War of the Lions, FF XII: Revenant Wings, and the Japan-only FF XII International. Set those calendars and charge those DSes for June 24th.

Source: RPGFan