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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

According to Famitsu, the storyline of Final Fantasy XIII will center on the roles of two races within a caste system - the Falsi are an extremely wise people that built the Cocoon protecting the city from the outside, and the Lusi are humans chosen to work for the Falsi. It's unclear where the game's protagonist falls in this cultural hierarchy, but the young woman shown as a friend of the main character is confirmed to be one of the Lusi. Details on the exact nature of the Falsi-Lusi relationship are unclear, but it will take an important role in Final Fantasy XIII's plot.

In addition, summons are revealed to be tools created to assist the Lusi in whatever tasks they need to perform, In addition to Shiva (as in Shiva the motorcycle), traditional Final Fantasy summoned monsters Ifrit, Siren, and Carbuncle are slated to be in the game.

Final Fantasy XIII has no release date in any region thus far, but Famitsu mentioned that FF XIII "begins in earnest" in 2008, whatever that's supposed to mean.

Source: RPGFan
A nifty image
A second nifty image

With the 20th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series just a few weeks behind us, it's high time we had something great to mark the milestone. I'm not talking about a $40 rerelease of the original game--I want something to sum up and celebrate the entire series.

And now, thanks to a PM from Ronin, I have something specific to lust after. Square-Enix has released a 20th anniversary book to collect information and images from the past two decades worth of Final Fantasy games. For about 23 USD + shipping, Amazon will send you 207 pages of images, interviews, and never-before-released content.

Of course, you'd have to be able to read Japanese to fully appreciate the content. This book joins the long list of Square merchandise that is solely, or at least primarily, available to Japanese customers. If you want to feel better about that, go to the product page and make up comments to go with those 2/5 stars reviews.

Thanks again to Ronin for the heads up!

Source: QJ.net