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Looks like Squenix released some of the very first character renders for Crystal Chronicles yesterday. The renders, apparently by a Toshiyuki Itahama, all look more than just a little bit creepy. Kinda like some sort of demonic-looking dolls I would have been scared of as a kid, or last week. The center male and female remind me a bit of Zidane and Garnet, too.

The quality of these renders is on par with anything recent the company has done on PS2, but how will the in-game graphics match up on the two competing systems?

The tidbits about this game keep trickling in, but nothing seems to be concrete enough to form a real pre-launch opinion, in my mind. We really need to start seeing some more detail soon, especially with the Japanese launch looming.

Maybe abound is an exaggeration, but Square finally has release dates set for the North American versions of Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.  GameCube and PS2 owners should be happy to hear that each gets a game on the same day:  November 8th.

Squenix will be handling the publishing of FFX-2 while Nintendo will be handling Crystal Chronicles.

Source: OPGaming

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November is about five months away.  Hopefully the games will actually be released then.  I might purchase FFX-2 during winter break after the Fall semester.

Squenix has announced that first Final Fantasy game for Nintendo's GameCube has been delayed again.  The game was scheduled to be release in Japan on July 18th.  Now it will not be released there until August 8th.  

There is no word on any North American or European release dates,  but one can only assume that they will be pushed back as well.  For more info on Final Fantasy Chronicles, see R51's news update from yesterday and earlier new updates here at your Caves of Narshe.


Source: Games_Are_Fun

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Not really much of a delay in my eyes. What is it, 3 week?  That's nothing.  Many games go through much longer delays than that and if it does improve the game they could increase the delay and it still be fine by me.

Sorry we're a bit late on this one - Squenix released about a week ago a trailer for their first outing on the NGC, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

For those who haven't been following this game, FF:CC is another offshoot game that carries the Final Fantasy name, similar to Mystic Quest or Tactics. This one looks to play more like the recent Zelda games, though. The game is classed as an "Action RPG", and, for the first time, true multiplayer will be included.

I believe the video weighs in at about 14.5 MB, and is in Quicktime format. Enjoy!

Watching the video, for me, actually built a little interest in this game that I didn't have before. It's surely a striking game visually, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. If the music in-game is as strong as what Squenix put in the trailer, CC will certainly have a soundtrack worth possessing, too.

According to a recent Square Enix financial discussion,  they plan to release 11 Million units of software in the second half of this fiscal year,  amoung those is Final Fantasy XII.

This puts the release range anywhere from October 1st , 2003 to March 31st, 2004.

Source : Square Insider
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I'm personally looking forward to this, not that I know much about at the moment. though.

Still it's Final Fantasy and that's something I look forward to.

Square Enix has sent E-mails notify those who were selected out of the application pool for the Playstation 2 beta test of Final Fantasy XI.  In addition to the game itself, Squenix is also sending participants the Playstation 2 hard drive that is required for FFXI (which has not been released in North America yet).  Whether or not the hard drive needs to be sent back is currently unknown.

Do not fret though if you applied to beta test the PC version of FFXI and did not hear anything.  Squenix says on their website those selected for that test will be notified shortly.  Who knows hoe long shortly is, but it will probably be a month or so.

Source: Square Enix

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I am waiting to found about the PC version myself.  It is cool to hear the PS2 testers are getting a hard drive though.