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Namco Bandai, in an interview examining the history and future of the Xenosaga RPG series, revealed that the third installment, due out near the end of the month, is intended to be a mixed bag incorporating the many requests of fans and the creator's own ideas, ultimately ensuing in what the company perceives as the perfect handling of the game's mechanics and storyline.

Like past installments, Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra is said to feature a large volume of cutscenes; noticably more than Episode II, but quite a bit less than the visually overloaded Episode I. According to Namco Bandai, this "middle ground" helps to produce the best pacing to balance the story and gameplay.

It's been additionally confirmed once again that Xenosaga Episode III indeed marks the end of main character Shion Uzuki's story arc, yet no word was given on whether the upcoming game will introduce a new one. Interestingly enough, although the company previously announced that the newest title may also be the final chapter of the series itself, very little was declared in regards to that prospect during the interview.

The Xenosaga series was at one time expected to last up to six installments, but because of lackluster sales of the first two games the length was shortened down to three. Fortunately, Namco Bandai currently appears to be on the side of fans by seemingly allowing the series one more shot at success - an outcome that should be determined by the overall sales of Episode III. As the company recently beamed, "if reactions are good - who knows!"

Aside from the main series, the company remains undecided on whether any of the three Japanese-exclusive titles - Xenosaga Freaks, Xenosaga: Pied Piper, and Xenosaga I & II DS - will ever make their way to the West. However, the company has divulged plans to put together an English rendering of a movie on the Japanese Xenosaga website as a means to further illustrate the events which took place during the single year between Episode II and Episode III.

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra is set to launch in North America on August 29th.

Source: RPGamer

Because we obviously haven't been spoiled nor teased well enough yet, the folks at Square-Enix have kindly dropped a new Final Fantasy III DS promotional movie - shown exclusively in Japanese retail stores until now - right onto us, and it hurts so good (be sure to click "MOVIE" after the intro).

Among the images and scenes depicted, the CG video offers us a short glimpse of the characters' physical alterations when in the guise of their different job classes, and although a very small portion of the video is dedicated to actual gameplay footage, the real bulk contains cutscenes and impressive FMV.

Movie Screenshots

Secondly, for those looking forward to the next Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters title, Square-Enix has additionally unloaded a rather generous helping of screens honoring the Nintendo DS's upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.

Of the same league as Pokémon, the Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters series allows players to fight with and against a variety of monsters that are reared like pets - a practice that, in the real world, would surely make one legally unfit to care for even a sea monkey. Joker, as previously announced, will be the very first of its type to feature online play, ultimately leading to creature swapping and GP tournaments (where players have their monsters battle other players') on a global scale.

So far, the separate release dates for Final Fantasy III DS have been delayed at least three times, making the current schedule set for August 24th in Japan, September in Europe, and November in North America. As for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, no solid Japanese date has yet been established, and no word on a possible Western launch has been so much as mentioned.

According to this nifty RPGFan article, Square-Enix has released a new statement on the rest of their 2006 releases, including specific American release dates for three games.

Dirge of Cerberus ~Final Fantasy VII~ will be released on the Playstation 2 on August 15th, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime will be released on the Nintendo DS on September 19th, and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria will be released on the Playstation 2 on September 26th.

Also confirmed to be released later this year but after September ends are Final Fantasy XII for the PS2, Final Fantasy III and Children of Mana for the DS, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii, and Final Fantasy V Advance and Final Fantasy VI Advance for the Game Boy Advance. We have no official release dates for any of those six games, but many publications and retailers have already posted release dates for several of them, including an October 31st release date for Final Fantasy XII and an October 30th release date for Children of Mana.

Square-Enix has thrown eager fans yet another bone in the form of some spankin' new media concerning the Nintendo DS's remake of Final Fantasy III. Featured within this batch is a handful of screenshots depicting the different modes of transportation accessible across the game's World Map. The real highlight, however, is a new gameplay movie showing off a brief portion of dungeon exploration as well as the characters engaged in battle - a boss battle.

Final Fantasy III DS is now set to release in North America on October 3rd.

For all those who have complained about our Final Fantasy V data in the past, don't worry, we just finished upgrading a ton of it! And for those of you (roughly 93%) who have never been into that section, well, now you have a reason to go.

We've done a fresh dump of enemy data from the game and input it into our data tables, which freed us up to do a lot of new stuff. For one, we have doubled the details we will give you for each enemy, including various strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and win/steal data. That allowed us to upgrade some other sections too - the magic page now will show you where to buy, win, or steal or learn certain spells, and weapons, armor, and items all crossreference the shop and enemy data tables to pull the same data.

As always, we won't guarantee that some little irritants didn't slip through, but we did a ton of QA work here that should have caught the bulk of it. This project took us several months of starts and stops, and I had a ton of help. Thanks a lot to all of the following:

• Silverlance for generating the data dumps;


• Caesar and Djibriel for analysing, proofreading, and translating the dumps as needed, and checking the input to our tables;


• MogMaster and Karasuman for the help in additional manual data entry after the first batch upload;


• And, finally, Del S for doing more data entry, testing, fact checking, and general raw effort than you can throw a Fire Skill at.

It's been a rather sluggish period for RPG news as of late, but fortunately enough plenty of the latest, juicy media regarding three highly anticipated Final Fantasy titles has been unveiled for the eye candy-craving populace:

First up is a generous portion of cinematic and gameplay shots featuring the blade-and-bullet-wielding heroine of Final Fantasy XIII, mainly engaged in a battle similar to - if not directly from - the trailer. Following close behind are several screens á la Tetsuya Nomura's RPG, bound for the PlayStation 3 like its counterpart, of which few details are currently known - Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The prominent figure in each screen is a black-clad, dark haired man of questionable significance.

Finally, a copious batch of Final Fantasy III DS media has revealed the ever approaching remake - gearing up for its North American launch this September - in its nigh full glory. Among these recent shots are additional battle screens, in-game scenes, and job artwork including that of the Viking, Ranger, Monk, and Geomancer classes.