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Service for Square's newest addition to the FF series, Final Fantasy XI, began yesterday in North America.

For those not familiar with the title, Final Fantasy XI is Square's first Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) release. The game offers players a myriad of gameplay experiences, from customizable characters to multiple platform support.
Character customization includes race, gender, and job class. Available races include Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Galka, and Mithra. Fifteen job classes have been released on the Official FFXI website (including Final Fantasy classics like White Mage, Black Mage, and Thief), along with allusions that other jobs may exist as well.
FFXI has currently been released on both Windows and PS2. Players on both platforms can play and interact on the same realms; additionally, realms are international, allowing players from different nations to team up to complete quests. Also, Square has included an automatic in-game translation system for common phrases to help facilitate international gameplay.

More can be read at Square's recently revamped FFXI site, The Final Fantasy XI Van'Diel Journal

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Hype about the game's release seems high among Caves of Narshe members. In a recent poll on the website, over two thirds of the 201 responding members said they would purchase the game for one of the available platforms. Complete poll results are below:

Thinking about getting Final Fantasy 11?

25.4% - I'll buy it for PS2
34.8% - I'll but it for PC
6.5% - I'll buy it, but I don't know for which platform
16.4% - I'll try it before making a decision
16.9% - It's not for me

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Admittedly, I'm a little skeptical about the game.
After hearing about the major server problems upon initial release in Japan, and after witnessing first-hand the endless shelves of unsold FFXI copies in Japanese gaming stores, I can't help but wonder if the game will really work out to be everything Square's said it will be...

More job classes (14, and 3 special) for the game FFX-2 have been revealed, and are as follows:

Gunner (That common picture of Yuna where her jean skirt is on just one leg.)
Thief
Warrior
Singer
White Mage
Black Mage
Trainer
Dark Gunner
Dark Knight
Gambler
Alchemist
Berserker
Samurai
Mascot
Floral Fallah (For Yuna only)
Machina Muzzle (For Rikku only)
Full Throttle (For Paine only)

Further descriptions, and convenient pictures, can be found at RPGamer

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My personal favourites here are Dark Knight and Samurai. Although there has been much complaining and anxiety over this new job system, I'm looking forward to it.

Square Enix revealed much new information on the upcoming North American release of its MMORPG at the Sony Gamers Day conference.

The planned launch date for the Playstation 2 version is March 2004 and the price is going to be a heavy one. The game will cost $99. The cost includes the hard drive that will be bundle with the game. Note that the game will not be available separate from this bundle. Besides this initial cost, players will have to pay $12.95 monthly subscription fee.

The PC version of FFXI will see a release sometime this fall most likely sometime in October. Hard drive does not figure to be a concern here.

Source: RPGamer

The fourth Front Mission game was announced for Japan back on 4 September, the first new game of the series to be announced for the PS2. This is a franchise that I don't think ever really found its audience in the US or Europe, where the love affair with Mechs never really matched that of Japan.

You can read Gamers.com's take on the announcement, and then pay a quick visit to get a look at the first media released for the game. No word yet on the long-rumoured Front Mission Online.

This game has kind of a cult audience, and I doubt that a fourth game in the series, even if it makes it to US and European shores, will really be a breakthrough game for the franchise. However, Final Fantasy didn't really explode until it hit the seventh game of the series. Odds are that Front Mission will never be another FF, though.

RPGamer has ten new screenshots of Squenix's upcoming title for Nintendo's GameCube.  Hopefully these will help hold over gamers until the game is finally released.  

Not much new information at the moment, but check out all of the CoN's previous news updates at our News forum.

Source: RPGamer

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The screen shots definitely look nice.  I still think the artistic style they are going with is a little different though.

Squenix is considering a port of Final Fantasy III, the only installment of the series that has not had a North American release, to the Gameboy Advance.  The game would be a port of the Wonderswan version and not the old Famicom version.  With the Wonderswan dying (plus it not evening seeing a North American or European release) it would only make sense to port this game.

Source: OPGE

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Too bad it is not FF6.