Nearly every Final Fantasy VII fan is familiar with the emotional roller coaster that is the possibility of Square-Enix remaking the game. Things first got kicked off after a tech demo was shown at E3 a few years ago on the PS3 from Square-Enix. Over these last few years, the rumor has existed, been denied, and then brought back up again multiple times.

However, Squaer Union seems to give us a pretty big hint that the game could be remade. In an interview with the director of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core by Official Playstation Magazine, Hajime Tabata was quoted as saying:

"The possiblity [sic] for a remake may become greater if, for instance, the schedules of the original members of the Final Fantasy VII development team, such as Kitase and Nomura, open up[.]"

Does this mean that once Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII are completed and released that they'll get started on a remake of Square's most popular game ever? Only time will tell...

Square really likes to keep Final Fantasy XIII under wraps and lead Final Fantasy fans all over the world on a bit at a time with new information. Here's a quick summary of our knowledge thus far:

There are three versions of Final Fantasy XIII.

The games will likely be released at some point in 2009.

The games will be for the PS3.

The graphics aren't going to disappoint.

That's pretty much it until today. Square Enix announced yesterday that Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be the first to have a soundtrack released... And it's coming out on March 26. Sure, it spoils some of the fun of discovering new tracks in the game, but it still gives you something to drool over and make the release of Final Fantasy XIII all that much more exciting for you.

[Source - GameGrep]

By Avalith

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Final Fantasy Versus XIII [PS3]

Japanese game magazine Famitsu really loves Square's newest additions to the Final Fantasy empire. I take that back. They must REALLY love it. In fact, they love it so much that they dedicated a massive twenty-seven pages of their latest issue to Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

To view these scans, feel free to visit the source for this article.

New magazine scans have been released for Final Fantasy XIII!

Scan 1

Scan 2

Scan 3

Scan 4

[Source]

To mark the release of the Cloud Art Book (and DVD which comes with it containing trailers of FFXIII) Media Works have opened up an official website for the book which contains extract from the book, as well as confirms the existence of the trailers relating to FFXIII and FFvsXIII.

In a recent press release, Square Enix has finally confirmed an EU release date, set for the 15th of February, early next year. Exclusively on the DS, Revanant Wings is basically a follow-up to the popular Final Fantasy XII, describing what happens to the many heroes of that game once it ended.

A full copy of the press release can be checked out here!

It's something most PS3 and FFXIII fan have been hoping for, but have yet to hear about it... well it seems the tide has turned and we may very well have gotten some exclusivity news about FFXIII, here's a quote, courtesy of FF-XIII.net (link below)

Kitase: The Blue-Ray's disc space and the PS3 HDD's standards has helped us a lot in terminating (mostly, if not absolutely) loading times.
Kitase: Just like how 7 was a huge improvement from 6, the improvement between 12 and 13 may be big too.

Nomura: Our programmers were asking, "is it okay if we program it as a PS3 exclusive? If you're thinking of porting it to other consoles, we might have to change the specs to follow suit the others." And I answered, "PS3 exclusive, of course."
Nomura: The staff just showed me how it looks to fly with an airship while in the World Map. It's been awhile since I last saw something "FF-ish".
Nomura: We haven't announced who else are in the Versus team, but we've got some big names.

Although the Tokyo Game Show has come and gone, what seems like weeks ago, we are still waiting for many trailers that were shown at the event. One of which is the Final Fantasy IV trailer, which has finally been released and is now available for download:

Here's 5 Seconds from the Final Fantasy XIII trailer shown at TGS2007:

A huge number of Screenshots here, well I might as well put these lot together:

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core



Dissidia: Final Fantasy

If you were hoping for more screenshots from TGS... well wait no longer

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Screens:

TGS2007 Is truely here, take a look at these beuties:

Final Fantasy XIII

Screens:

Chocobo's are most definitely cute and Square know that all Final Fantasy fans would hate not to see Chocobo's in an FF game, and realising this, they've created many Chocobo related games. Well here are scans from the upcoming Chocobo Game (along with scans from Tactics Advanced 2 and FFIV DS).

Chocobo's Dungeon


Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2


Final Fantasy IV DS

ruliweb2.empas.com has recently posted up some interesting news on their Bulletin Board ... apparently Square Enix is planning on announcing yet another title for the Fabulla Nova Crystallis series. This new game will be the fourth game in the Final Fantasy XIII universe.
The site claims that Final Fantasy Melody will be announced for the Playstation 3 at TGS 2007, and that a logo has already been revealed.

It seems that Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core is living up to it's hype. On the first day of it's release, around 350,000 copies of the game were sold ... and the number is still climbing!

With the soaring sales, high Review ratings, and good publicity of Crisis Core, Square Enix are hoping to double their takings by the end of the week ...

Yesterday, on the 13th, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core was released in Japan and quite a few of you will have ordered it internationally even though it's in Japanese anyway! So if you're looking for help, discussion or other fans then make sure to head over to the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Forum.

It's a video that's sure to get your excitement levels up. It's five minutes of a story revealing video from the up coming Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Be warned the video below contains Spoilers (and it is also in Japanese )

This time, the screens focus on the Nibelheim incident that was shown in the original Final Fantasy VII (PSone), featuring familiar characters: Sephiroth, Cloud Strife, Jenova, Zack Fair, and Tifa Lockhart.

First-Class SOLDIER Genesis, a bikini-clad Shisune, and a new character (Hollander), also appear in the screens.

The game is set for release in Japan on September 13th.

Check out the screens on GameGrep

Coming soon to a DS near you is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals: Rings of Fates. Whilst we have to wait a bit longer, the game is nearing release in Japan, and to mark this event have released two TV Adverts to promote to game. Why not take a look for yourselves via our sister site GameGrep.

It's not everyday that Square-Enix releases special Final Fantasy products, and whilst potions have been released in the past, this time square are releasing an even more special Potion packet for Final Fantasy fans everywhere. Releasing as part of the FFVII 10th anniversary and made once more by Suntory in Japan, 77,777 bottles of these potions are set to be released to unsuspecting consumers for a whooping 3,980Yen (US$32).

The release date is also none other than co-inciding with the release of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. As a special pack, along with the potion, consumers will also be recieving a book called the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania containing every title in the compilation of the Final Fantasy VII series.

We've all been waiting a long time for news regarding the game, and the hopes that we may even get a Release Date for the much awaited Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, however the game was missing from E3 (as said by Square that it would be) and so very little new information has come recently.

However, in today's PlayStation Premier press conference in Tokyo, Square have revealed information regarding to the status of both the games, and currently they are only 13% and 1.5% completed (respectively). This doesn't seem to fare well, and could mean an even longer wait for fans of the game to get their hands on the next FF instalment.

With TGS coming soon, what information about FFXIII will they be releasing at the event?

Square Enix is currently auditioning people to sing the song “Theme of Love” in the upcoming remake of Final Fantasy IV. According to Weekly Famitsu, the company is only looking at Japanese citizens of at least 18 years of age. Applications can be sent until July 31 and further details can be found on the DS game’s website.

While still in Japanese, unfortunately, the A2 site, following a similar design as what we saw with the Final Fantasy XII site, has been released for public viewing, as seen here!

The following information will be made available:

Sub quests will have an effect on storyline

The world map will be split into areas, and areas will be further split into stages.

Fulfilling certain conditions unlocks new areas.

Monsters will have ranks and some other features not yet revealed.

The Judge and Law systems remain as a trademark of FFTA. With a Judge in your clan, your members can only be revived if you don’t break any of the clan laws. Opponents can also have a Judge on their team.

The prison is now gone. You can earn merit points for having a Judge in your clan.

No opening FMV.

Controlled by both stylus and the D-Pad.

10 new jobs if you count the different races.

News via PALGN.

By Mishtram

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Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire [DS]

Final Fantasy: Dissidia was a surprise for many people when it was announced as a one on one fighting game to mark the 20th year (yes, the big 2-0!) of Final Fantasy, containing, much like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the remnants of many of the heroes, and villians, from past popular Final Fantasy games. Unfortunately, only a few have been mentioned, but one of them is the ever popular Sephiroth, who seems to return with every reincarnation of the infamous Final Fantasy VII game.

Crisis Core is mentioned to seem to have better graphics, with the premise of the game being to fight in a 3D environment in what is described as "over-the-top fisticuffs and dazzling displays of magical prowess."

So early on, we can't expect much news, but just give us a little time, and hopefully soon the Final Fantasy portal will be able to report more!

[Source]

Eurogamer was recently lucky enough to go and grab themselves an interview with the creators of one of the most recently planned games for the series, Final Fantasy XIII. While still heavily restricted and a little rambling when it comes to discussing Nomura, a few things pop up with fans looking for news will like to see, such as the below:

A smile, then: "What I want to do is to examine the humanity of the characters in this game. This is not going to be a fantasy world in the traditional Final Fantasy sense. Rather it's based in the world today with all of this world's ugly issues. There's this mainstream tradition of Final Fantasy games and, in Versus I'm trying to propose new vision of how a Final Fantasy game can be. The game's going to be more human than the science-fiction caricature we so often see. It will focus around current world events - in that sense it's darker."

We wonder if this style is perhaps closer to Nomura's heart? "Yes, this game might be closer to my real-life taste than kingdom Hearts is, for example, but there are undoubtedly areas of crossover. Kingdom Hearts is an example of a game world which I have worked on which is full of good things, light and magic. That's fine but I've worked in these worlds for a long time, perhaps too long, and it's time to work on a new kind of world - a bleaker place. This kind of theme is traditionally unappealing to a mainstream audience who want to role-play in generally happy and safe worlds. It's a challenge."

Once again, we are going to be watching as things are switched about in the Final Fantasy genre, this time focusing mainly about the world that it is set in, focusing on one which is more "real" and similar to our world rather than the fantasy worlds we have become so accustomed to in the many games and remakes over the past many, many years.

All in all, some interesting news.

[Source]

IGN recently got the chance to speak with the head team members of two Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (The Nintendo offshoot of the current series, originally appearing on the GameCube and now on the DS), about the current construction and design being put into those titles and past experiences with them as well.

The team members will discuss a variety of topics with you, ranging from things like the Moogle Painting game, to using the WiFi Option (they couldn't tell use much about online play) and a few other questions about gameplay.

While short, it is informative, and is well worth the read!

In the original Crystal Chronicles, you could level up your character but once the game's complete you couldn't do anything with that levelled character or the items collected. Does Ring of Fates have a similar focus to encourage levelling up and crafting and collecting items?

Kamiyama: Nice question! Yes, we learned lessons from the past version. The crafting and levelling feature is still in the game. But we've made it more indepth where you'll be able to craft items and see them in use on the character physically. We can't go into any details on how this affects multiplayer.

[Source]

With the Square Enix Party 2007 having started today, in preparation for much Final Fantasy related news, here are the scans of the Pamphlet relating to various Final Fantasy games that are in development:

Two New Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core screenshots have been released. Click on the thumbnails below to see the full size versions.

Final Fantasy fans might not be so kind towards Matt Hawkins. He mentions that he us often negative when it comes to the gaming industry, describing himself as such; "I'm a big fan of wrestling managers who like pissing off the audience."

Perhaps this is what he had in mind when he listed Final Fantasy VII as one of the worst games to hit the gaming market. While many who played the original might put VII at the top of their favourites, this man places it as one of the worst, placing it as number one on his list of the best of the worst. Whether or not you agree with his comments, the article is definitely worth the read through.

He said "Final Fantasy VII," released in 1997, brought down the role-playing genre by popularizing simplified gameplay — overly emotional story lines with an ultimately weak antihero — and made it acceptable for role-playing games to be extremely long. "To be considered a valid role-playing game [after that,] you had to be 80 hours long ... I don't have that much time!"

Don't worry, FFVII wasn't the only epic game to have made the listing -- Zelda games, GTA game and Kingdom Hearts II (which Neoseeker has portals for, please see the bottom of the left bar for each) all also received low ratings, alongside World of Warcraft (Neoseeker portal in development). He said that these games are often negative influences, and have a number of other problems with a few of the games (for example, he dislikes Shenmue as he finds it boring, and he says that GTA has little sophisticated content behind it.

You can find the entire article here.

News about a Final Fantasy XIII demo hit the internet running a few days ago. While there is no exact release date, it's suspected that this will be coming out later this year over the Playstation Network. Hopefully, further information can be found fairly soon about a number of specifics, ranging from the release of such a demo to if it will actually exist in the first place.

EGM explains, "Xbox Live may be the download hotspot this spring (thanks in large part to the Halo 3 multiplayer demo), but late this year the honour will go to the PlayStation Network. We hear that Square Enix will release a demo of its highly anticipated role-playing game via Sony's online marketplace."

[Source]

As many of our regulars probably know, we recently reported the opening of the Official Crisis Core site, however, unfortunately, everything was in Japanese. Recently, Gothic Girl, a member of Neoseeker, of which the Final Fantasy portal is a subsite, provided us with a link to the translations for the story and the character pages, which can be found here.

On that page, Angeal Hewley and Zack's profiles are both in English, and some basic background into both Shinra company and the SOLDIERs.

Recently this trailer of the upcoming remake of the original Final Fantasy on the PSP has been released. You can be sure this will be an absolute hit on the console with its ff6-style graphics and exclusive FMV!

If you didn't follow the previous news here is a brief summary:
Squaresoft decided to make yet another remake of the first two FF games which were originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1990 (in Japan it was first brought to the Famicon in 1987). This means that 2007 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Final Fantasy series!

The remake will feature:

Extra dungeons from the GBA version

Improved graphics

Monster Encyclopedia

CG intros from the PS remakes

Artwork Galleries

By teodortenchev

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Final Fantasy I (Import) [PSX]
Final Fantasy II (Import) [PSX]

The official Crisis Core site is up! Unfortunately for those of us who don't speak Japanese, we won't be able to delve far into the site, but some of the visuals which you can see are worth seeing. Hopefully, this is a precursor to a soon to be released English version of the site, so we can go a bit more in depth about the game.

At this time, all that's really available is a few character biographies, a cool background, a bit of information and the main plot, which, of course, is all in Japanese.

As many fans to the series know, the storyline of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core is a prequel to the events which occurred in Final Fantasy VII, based around the character Zack Fair. A few other characters, such as Cloud Strife and other fan favourites such as Tifa are to make an entrance into the game as well.

At this time, the game is an action RPG slated for release on the PSP only. We'll keep you guys updated as more Final Fantasy news hits the net.

GameDaily recently reviewed Final Fantasy XI, the only MMORPG currently released in the Final Fantasy series, which recently switched over the the Xbox 360 platform. While generally enjoying the gameplay, the reviewer, Bryan Dawson, notes that the game is beginning to show it's age, with it's gameplay surpassed by the market conquerers like World of Warcraft (of which a Neoseeker Portal is currently in construction for!) and graphics easily beaten out by many games, which is especially bad for owners who have just switched over from playing Oblivion.

What they did mention was the worst problem, in their opinion, was in game communication. While the article implies that the community is fine as it is, the ability to communicate over a 360 is difficult, especially for those which do not have the keyboard and have to rely on the directional buttons and an online keyboard, a pain for any who have attempted to use a Xbox controller for such a task.

All in all, if you pick up a USB keyboard and find some friends to party with, Final Fantasy XI is an enjoyable experience. However, if you don't have both of these, you may find yourself wishing you had spent that $50 on something else. The game does offer you one month free before charging $12.95 per month, so you'll be able to test things out at the price of a $50 game purchase (at least it's not $60). The game controls well with the Xbox 360 controller (aside from the d-pad issues), so if you can get over the lackluster graphics you should be able to enjoy yourself. Of course we're eagerly waiting news on the upcoming next generation MMORPG from the Final Fantasy XI development team, but for now FFXI should hold you over in terms of MMORPGs for the Xbox 360.FFXI is dated and showing a bit of age, but it can still be fun with a USB keyboard and some friends.

You can read the entire review here.

I must be dreaming. I'm dreaming about a game. I can't remember this happening before. Which game? The game you're reading about. It's a classic. The best Final Fantasy in ages. The emperor reigns back in his RPG empire. It's all true

I thought I was dreaming too when I came across this review! While Final Fantasy games have been raking in incredibly positive reviews for decades now, it's rare that you ever come across anything which actually leaves you shocked when reading it, and that has happened now -- Final Fantasy XII has gotten 99% as a score from Fragland, with only one component, the Audio quality of the game in the form of the soundtracks, taking away from the score.

It was made all the more fantastic in the fact that the reviewer had found some of the Final Fantasy series past games to have been a series of failures. Final Fantasy XI did not bring massive online play to the people, for example, and he disliked all the women running around with guns.

While he is impressed with the game, what he notes most is the positive changes to the game. As he says, he enjoyed the many shades of gray which are within the game, the change from Random Encounters, the gambit system and the change from the sphere grid to the License Board.

Ivalice is an atmospheric world. Your new virtual environment is breathtaking. Square-Enix worked hard on the world they created with Tactics to make it even nicer. XII really takes the last bit of power left in the old PS2 and uses it to the max. I don't know how they did it. The architecturale masterpieces are rapidly followed by another. The cities are so big you can lost. This is never irritating because Ivalice lives. There's always something to do. Final Fantasy is a mixture between good old fashioned romance and cutting-edge technology. That's no different with XII. Technik, magic, dusty old Persian villages and flying islands. It's all in the game, EA would say.

Read the entire review, here.

The boxscan for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion Wars have been revealed:

After many years of waiting, Final Fantasy XII was finally released in Europe and Australia, and it has already risen to the top of UK sales. With 53.5 percent of all full price PlayStation 2 sales being made from FFXII, it has also become the fastest selling game of the series.

Two new videos showing ingame footage of the upcoming nintendo DS title revenant wings have been released on gametrailers.

Gameplay Trailer 1
Gameplay Trailer 2

With Final Fantasy XII just a week away, news has surfaced that Star Trek veteran, Patrick Stewart, will be the voice of Final Fantasy XII, well as far as the adverts go. Starting Feb 19th, the adverts will be shown all over Europe and Australia and will be in a downloadable form from Neoseeker.

Square-Enix recently announced the release dates for two PSP games: Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition in Japan. Respectively the dates are April 19, 2007 for 3990 yen and the end of May.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The lion war is more than just a port to the PSP. Besides the newly added cell shaded animated cut scenes and remastered soundtrack, new gameplay material has also been added. If Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 wasn't enough in the original, the new cameo and also playable character is the sky pirate himself, Balthier, straight from Final Fantasy XII. Alongside Balthier are new classes such as Gaffgarion's Dark Knight, the classic Onion Knight class, and more to come in the future perhaps. Official scans can be found here http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1686/21222viploader396284122wr1.jpg, and here http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2254/21227viploader396285122av3.jpg.

At Jump Festa 2007, Square-Enix has revealed a few plans for their upcoming titles. Among one of those is a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, currently under the subname of "The Lion War". While there are no official release dates as of yet, an official trailer has been released and can be found here.

With the introduction of Final Fantasy III, many players rushed to go and pick up their very own copy of the only final fantasy known to have never have hit western shores, now only striking the sands after a decade of waiting. The game was welcomed openly, as a few choice reviewers across the net gave the game consistently average to high ratings.

Kevin Chen of Gamers Mark was one such reviewer, giving the game a solid eight out of ten, making it a recommended buy for most players.

Of course, it’s easy to complain about FF3’s shortcomings and utter ruthlessness. But through all the whining and the nitpicking, it’s crucial to keep FF3 in perspective -- this is the Final Fantasy installment that hasn’t seen American shores in over a decade, and it brings some of the tightest combat and the tensest boss battles that’ll ever pass our way. It’s a fine piece of work from the realm of old-school RPGs, and as far as remakes go, it’s a title that sits squarely on the pinnacle of achievement.

[Source]

Gauntlet Entertainment, out of the University of Calgary's news site, recently released their list of the top ten games in 2006, ranking such games as Gears of War for the Xbox 360 highly, while reserving the lower spots for Bethesda's continuation of the world famous The Elder Scrolls, dropping Square Enix's creation, Final Fantasy XII, closer to the end of the spectrum in eighth spot, beating out both Oblivion for the Xbox 360 and Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Wii.

8. Final Fantasy XII- PS2

In the mid '80s the Final Fantasy series began and has since become the most easily recognized RPG franchise in history. With a multitude of spin-off games, this marks the 12th in the Square Enix numbered series. With each new and fantastic story there's just enough common ground shared with predecessors to keep franchise fans coming back. A huge innovation in this newest installment is a real time battle system, remnicent of popular online "massively multiplayer" games. This change makes this the most innovative Final Fantasy since the release of Tactics. Giving the player this new battle system, a deep upgrade system, and a number of characters going up against an impossible evil make this a great addition to Final Fantasy and RPGs in general

Congratulations to Final Fantasy!

[Source]

Our last article made an attempt to guess the release date for Final Fantasy XII based on sites around the net, and finally it has been confirmed to be launching on 23^rd> Feb 2007. What's more is that like the US release, there will also be a midnight launch event. More details about the event will be given as we get closer to the release.

Coming up to two months since the US release of Final Fantasy XII, many fans that are still without a copy of the game, have been eagerly been waiting for some news regarding the European release. Whilst there seems to be no official announcement regarding the game, 23^rd Febuary 2007 seems to be the date chosen by most if not all sites, including Gamespot and IGN.

You can also start preordering the game for the European release from Play.com and Amazon UK.

We've waited many months for this, and it's finally here, a trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XII. A visually stunning trailer, you can download it right here from Neoseeker:

That's right, fans! Final Fantasy III, not Final Fantasy VI with the number changed to III, but the original Final Fantasy III was released in North America on Tuesday, November 14. You can find it on EBGames.com for $39.99 USD.

Dengeki Playstation, a popular PS3 gaming magazine in Japan, had an interview with character designer Tetsuya Nomura and game director Motomu Toriyama about game design for both the next generation titles coming out for the PS3.

Within the interview, they speak about the white engine, where it is hoped battle scenes that were similar to those from Final Fantasy VII.

On character details, the Male character, who's eyes turn red when he wields a sword, unfortunately, will be the lead in the upcoming Final Fantasy games, meaning that, while the much loved female character will be a heroine, the Final Fantasy series will not break from tradition.

Current development has Versus set at 1% completed, and Final Fantasy XIII itself at 3%.

[Source]

Square Enix announces that Final Fantasy XII. the latest installment of its acclaimed console RPG series, has begun shipping to retailers and should be making its way to stores by the time you read this. Gamers who shop at GameStop/EB have bonus option of purchasing a special Collector's Edition of the game featuring a bonus DVD with all sorts of goodies.

"FINAL FANTASY XII is the most accessible RPG yet, allowing casual and hardcore gamers to truly customize the complexity of the game to their playing style," said Daishiro Okada, President and COO, Square Enix, Inc. "We're also very pleased to be able to provide several exclusives for the North American release including true 16:9 functionality, additional voiced CG sequences and a truly special Collector's Edition. The Collector's Edition comes with completely unique packaging, in-depth interviews with the development staff, special trailers, a history of the FINAL FANTASY series and several other features. We are extremely proud of both versions of FINAL FANTASY XII and hope gamers will enjoy our efforts."

Early reviews of the final retail build highlight a remarkably different experience FF fans can expect, right down to the all-new battle system.

In a recent Question and Answer session with Gamespot, Final Fantasy XII's producer, Akitoshi Kawazu mentioned

We can release the UK version first because the English is already done, then yeah, it might be possible to release it a little bit sooner, but they really want to release it simultaneously over here, so...

With the English version done, it seems the only thing keeping Final Fantasy fans in the UK from getting their hands on the version is the localisation for the game into the various other languages.



And also be sure to comment on what you think of this....

With only a little over a week left till the release of this much awaited game, it seems that the official site has finally been updated with more information regarding the game although most fans of the game will know the details of the game from the Japanese release, those that have kept themselves spoiler free, or have simply been waiting for information that hasn't have to be translated will be happy to see the information available.

Along with the information the Summons section of the site has also been updated along with a couple others.

Square Enix has declared that October 11th is now officially Final Fantasy Day, celebrating the event in the Big Apple today, showing off some superb game graphics today, which you can check out here (click 'Play Video'). After, of course, a lengthly QA session with Final Fantasy Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu and Square Enix President Daishiro Okada, providing some insight into the game for delighted fans waiting nearby.

Turn out for the event was better than expected, as was the overall event itself being run at better than expected levels. Hit the source below to get a look at some of the crazy costumes people showed up in, including a woman in a wedding dress, and a man dressed in a complete suit of armour!

Final Fantasy will also be making a show at Digital Life expo, where they will have a working preview of the game available for play. Only 2 weeks left 'til the release, folks!

[Source]

The series of PC Final Fantasy XI games will be expanding to include yet more features with a whole new 2007 release including Treasure of Aht Urghan, which will be going against the name just mentioned, being released this year, November the seventh.

The original cost of the package will be thirty dollars, and thirty days free subscription. However, for each month following, this special addition collection will cost $12.95 a month to run.

For more information, click the source below.

[Source]

It's not every day that a game is referred to as a self-love fest of the creators, but that Clayton "Alkaiser" Chan, the writer of the Netjak review which gave Final Fantasy: Dirge of Cerberus (DoC), insists the game is based on.

"What I ended up with was an 8-hour Tetsuya Nomura self-love fest."

Netjak recently reviewed one of the newest games in the Final Fantasy series, the Final Fantasy 7 spin off, DoC, in which the site gave the game 4.5... out of a possible ten!

The game was hit hard in a number of categories. While recieving better than average marks for voice acting the the sound track, Chan equally disliked the lack of a plot, or anything that was remotely unique about this game over the other two bits of Final Fantasy VII. Once again, the world is in danger from a larger threat, with yet another two secret groups of merciless killers, all of which Chan is quick to point out, is defeated by the main character, Vincient, alone while the others within the game can't handle them themselves.

He also mentioned that the graphics were merely ok, and that much of the gameplay mechanics, as mentioned by him, were very "vanilla", with little in the way of interesting additions to the game, especially when you want to set this apart from other third person shooters currently out in the industry.

Finally, it was also docked massive marks for having absolutely no replay value, especially when it comes to having different characters to play as. In the article, he writes that he expected to play as Yuffie or Barret in the game, given that one has a massive gun grafted on his arm and the other is predominate amongst the other characters, and is highly disappointed when he doesn't get to play either.

"If you're a fan of Final Fantasy VII, do yourself a favor, pretend that this doesn't exist and hope that if a remake ever does happen, that it gets done under the care of someone else."

[Source]

Final Fantasy XII gets it's first lookover from GameDaily, focusing mainly on the battle system and game world that have been used in the game, remarking on the Gambit system and how it works in general.

Chris Faylor, the author, points out several things when it comes down to the battle system, and that is that a good bit has changed consmetically to it overall. The old way of switching screens into a combat mode, where everyone lines up in a nice, neat line, has been remodeled into a new random encounters system. Depending on range, you will have characters up close and personal, or you will have some standing back and dealing out massive damage at a distance, all in an environment which you can rotate at any time with the camera.

While speculation had been running on whether or not free camera control would change this into an action game, Faylor wrote that it does not. An action bar fills up, which at the end, causes that attack or such to be used. You can't dodge techniques just by throwing the analog stick to the side, keeping much of the core gameplay which was Final Fantasy within the game. The battle menu continues to be there as your main interface during combat, although now it can be pulled up at any time.

Faylor also goes into some discussion on Gambits. While some previews have mentioned that this may take some of the interest out of the boss battles, Faylor mentions that this is not the case, as some boss battles require that the gambit system be weakened, or, indeed, even removed entirely for the match, so as to not get characters killed when no clear strategy for the fight is evident.

One of things that really stand out in this incarnation of Final Fantasy, is the game world and the plot. Both are huge and complicated, requiring hours to figure it out or piece them together. While other games make the world look large, the sheer amount of people wandering around show the true size of this game's, and the wilderness is supposed to be extremely vast. The diversity of the species is also easily recognizable, with Humes, or humans, not totally dominating the fore-front, with several other races also wandering around the game place.

The plot, on the other hand, is supposed to be complex, and not easy to figure out early on. The writers played for ten hours, and by then had met no person which could be the leader of evil, although has met several evil people.

To check out the article, just click the source below.

[Source]

These days, piracy happens quite often around the world, and has become a problem that the game industry has yet been able to handle. However, it's rare that a game is leaked out illegally onto the internet, with apparent full playability and in English, as with what happened yesterday with the RPG-series giant Final Fantasy and it's newest incarnation, Final Fantasy XII.

Last night, several articles on the news sharing site Digg.com came up, mentioning that the hit RPG game to hit the world in thirty days had been leaked onto the internet, and was being downloaded freely.

The pirated version had been up on the internet for several days, although there has been no given estimates to how many supposedly loyal Final Fantasy fans decided to skip around the law and download the game without legal consent. Square Enix has also not commented on the matter.

Whether or not this pushes back the release date or how it could effect the sales figures for the game remains a mystery, although the hope is that it will not be too draining overall.

While the previous rumour of Gears of War being leaked have been proven false, Final Fantasy has been confirmed to have been leaked.

As for legal action, last night Square Enix managed to have the entire Torrent listings of the supposed original site removed, which caused thousands to rush and try and get it before all copies disappeared. What Square Enix plans to do to the offenders who are known to have downloaded this content is unknown.

[Source]

Cubed put up an article with a promotional video for Final Fantasy V and VI, the games being ported over to the Gameboy Advance, four hours ago. Within the three minute and thirteen second video, you get a chance to see some of the gameplay as it will appear in the game.

The port will also contain some added bonuses and material, along with a number of visual changes to alter it both for the GBA and for a newer market than that in 1992 and 1994, when those games were released for the first time.

To catch a look at the video, just hit the link below and click the play button over the video screen. Check out this article to see the release date for V. VI is predicted for Q4 of 2006.

[Source]

The Witchita Eagle recently released an article on the internet about their impressions of Final Fantasy XII. With the release of it now only a month away, we get a little more of a peek at the Gambit system and characters in the game.

The Gambit system is essentially a strategic combat AI built to give characters commands with engage automatically when certain triggers happen. For example, you could set someone to attack characters who are of a certain HP primarily, with a certain attack. This allows no character to deviate from an attack plan set up by you, at a new layer of micromanagement for the Final Fantasy series. However, the article mentions that this does tend to take away some of the feelings of achievement from finishing a major boss battle, due to the automation of your party being more important than the actual work you put into the battle.

They also make mention of the shift that Final Fantasy has been making towards the online community, mentioning several forms of gameplay that have been changed to reflect that. However, the game has managed to create a steady and well made storyline that typically is not found in most MMORPGs, with political tension and characters with multiple layers to their personalities involved.

For more, read the source below.

[Source]

A Final Fantasy III screensaver is available for download on files.neoseeker

This months Electronic Gaming Monthly came with four pages of information on FFXIII with many new interesting details:



Talk about them in the forum.

Thanks to Secret Soul for the scans

Improvements are a necessity when it comes to games, and the best way to make improvements is after getting feedback. FFX was improved greatly between the NTSC and PAL versions and one can only assume and hope that the same will be true for the FFXII. However, right now the main focus is the upgrades and improvements that are and have been made to the NTSC-U/C version. There has been no real announcement from Square regarding this like they did for FFVII:DoC, but fortunately many magazines who have had the chance to play the games have allowed us to get an understanding of what improvements are on their way:

1. The game will now have Wide-screen support
   
2. Many scenes that were simply subtitled in the Japanese version, will now have full voice acting.
   
3. Guests will also have Mist Knacks (unconfirmed) - all we have to go by is this scan showing the Guest Vossler's MP gauge flashing

Lets hope that there are more improvements besides these, however to know exactly what improvements were made, we'll have to wait for the US release.

Square-Enix has finally confirmed it's game Final Fantasy III for the DS will reach North America on November 14th, 2006. As previously announced Final Fantasy III DS will be released in Japan in a few days. Final Fantasy III DS is a port of the original Final Fantasy III which was the last FF title to be released on the Famicom system (Nintendo). However, it was never released in America unlike the other titles in the popular RPG series. The port will feature a few changes that incorporate the DS touch screen system and updated storylines and character personalites.

The most delayed Final Fantasy with numerous controversies surrounding it, the game is finally hitting the shores in just over two months. It usually hits you when we start getting reviews for the game, and that is exactly what PSM magazine have done. They have released a 14page review of the game giving FFXII a score of 9.5/10. You can read the review in the latest PSM magazine, however for those that cant for what ever reasons, here are some low-res scans:

A new game has been announced relating to Final Fantasy, however it isn't a 'normal' Final Fantasy game but about Chocobo's. The game will be called Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book and will be released on the Nintendo DS.

Theres little information available for the game, however three Scans have surfaced:



Talk about the game in the forum: Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book

Final Fantasy Radio, one of the many fan driven stations on AOL, is a channel on AOL focusing on music from the Final Fantasy Series, including from the main composer, Nobuo Uematsu, and other composers as well.

Originally shut down in 2004, Square Enix and AOL recently brought it back due to the overwhelming support and requests from the past fans.

[Source]

The next FF Advance release date has been announced, with V coming out October the 12th in Japan 6th of November in the USA. There's no definitive answer on all the extras the GBA version will have or on a European release date.

Thanks to Eureka for pointing this piece of news out to us!

18 new screens have been added to the Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus gallery:

Final Fantasy fans have been waiting almost four years for the next in the installment of the series, however the wait is now coming to an end. The Japanese version which was released in april this year was a massive hit, and we have the same hopes for the English (NTSC) version which is being released on October 31^st 2006. With a special collectors eddition, available via the Gamespot stores and EB Games, you will also get a DVD including/understanding the Japanese promotional trailer cards and much more.

The news means that European fans should be able to get a copy sometime around late December or Early January, however don't take my word for it, we still have to wait for the official word for the PAL release.

To accompany the release date we now also have a very beautiful english website to take a look at, along with an english trailer:

Square-Enix has confirmed Final Fantasy XII will hit stores in the US on October 31st. Both a regular version and limited edition version will be sold for $49.99 and $59.99 respectively. So before trick or treating better head to your local game store this Halloween.

August 24, 2006 marks the Japanese release date for Square-Enix's port Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS. An American release date is set for sometime in September.

Six new V-Jump scans have been released for the new Final Fantasy XII: Fabula Nova Crystallis saga:

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus has been on the wishlist for many Final Fantasy Fans for a very long time, and with the Japanese fans being able to experiance it last Feb, those that had to wait will be delighted to hear that the Game will be updated for the US release.

Here's a quick list of the upgrades that will be taking place:

1. The Speed at which Vincent runs is now 1.2 times faster.
   
2. In the Japanese version, running whilst aiming lowered your speed... well no more.
   
3. A "Double Jump" move has been added to Vincents list of moves.
   
4. "Dive-roll Dodge" is now the Dive-roll Dodge and Dash
   
5. Limit breaks will be much harder to come by, it will no longer be detracted from your magic bar, but you'll have to find single-use limit break items to invoke them.
   
6. Easy mode was simply too easy, and so they've replaced it with an "unlockable" Extra Hard mode.
   
7. Online mode has been removed completely.
   
8. 40 Extra special missions will be available in extra hard mode, adapted from the previous multiplayer content that was removed.
   

Discuss your feelings about these "upgrades" in the forum.

10 New Scans have appeared in Famitsu Magazine for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII two of the new games announced at this years E3. Click on the images below to enlarge them and talk about them in the FFXIII forum

With E3 preperations coming along great, Square have released the first details on Final Fantasy XIII which has now been officially confirmed for the PS3, however ALONG with that, they have now officially announced Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which although you may not guess straight away, but it is infact a SEQUEL to FFXIII. Both for the PS3, wether its exclusive to the console is yet to be seen, however it seems likely.

FFXIII will like the origional series be an RPG, however FF Versus XIII will be made by the team who have made Kingdom Hearts and will be an "extreme action game"

Another concert by the Composer Nobou Uematsu has recently been announced as well as a new song. As I covered his previous concert which can be seen Here, I am very pleased to see another concert coming soon. Featured will be a new song for PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.

Concerts will be located in the US and Europe like Chicago, Stockholm, Philadelphia, Vienna (Virginia) and Toronto. The first concert will be in Chicago on May 27th 2006 and prices will go from $35 to $125. Paying $125 allows you to meet several special guests on the tour. Which may include Yuzo Koshiro who has also been announced to appear on the tour, he is well known for his music in the Sonic The Hedgehog series.

Sadly unless a California location is announced I will miss out on this, but will continue to cover it as more news is given.

The song can be heard at the Official Website as well as more information on the locations as well.

11 New V-Jump Magazine Scans have been releashed showing various aspects of the game which is to be released in a couple of weeks time in Japan. Click on the Screenshots below to enlarge:

The Final Fantasy XII potion drink which was previously announced has now been tested by Final Fantasy fans. Many fans who went to Nobuo Uematsu's concert were given an oppotunity of a lifetime to try out the clear blue drink, and their reaction to the drink was "tasted like a nutritional supplement drink with a fresh aftertaste".


Hopefully Japan wont be the only country to get to taste the Mysterious Blue drink, and although no release date for the drink is released, I'd expect it to be released along with FFXII which is due out in March.

Japan's leading maker of third party accessories, Hori today announced its newest line of PlayStation 2 memory cards. Simultaneous to the release of Final Fantasy XII on March 16th, the company will release a Final Fantasy XII memory card bundle. In addition to a memory card bearing the game's logo, this limited edition bundle will also include a memory card case capable of holding up to two memory cards and six stickers. The bundle carries a suggested retail price of 3,200 yen ($27.14 US).

Source: RPGFan

With the recent lack of information for FFXII, we were glad to be able to find Magazine Scans with new information. Shonen Jump has got a page full of new information regarding FFXII along with information on a FF & DQ Itadaki Street for the PSP, click on the below image to enlarge and take a look:





Thats Not all that we have, although this is slightly late, last month Famitsu published 8 new scans for FFXII which can also be found in the Magazine Scans gallery. Click the images below to enlarge.

It was previously believed that Advent Children would be released at the end of this year, however, it now seems that the release date has been pushed up, and has an estimated release date of 24^th April 2006 for both the US and UK.

You can pre-order this title from Amazon now:


With a long delay, we shall also be getting a bundle of extra's:

• Story digest
• Deleted scenes
• Featurette: "Making Of Final Fantasy VII"
• Footage of Final Fantasy VII at the Venice Film Festival
• A sneak peek of the games in the upcoming "Compliation of Final Fantasy VII" series

Although the news hasn't been confirmed by Square Enix just yet, The Digital Bits is reporting the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie will be released in the United States sometime before the end of 2006.

An editor at The Digital Bits, who appears to be in contact with Mike Stradford, a Sony executive, had this to say on the movie's slow release:

Mike Stradford told me that Sony's working hard to get the film released on DVD here in the States by the end of 2006. Apparently, it's taking a little extra time to work with the director to get all the supplemental elements finished, but the title is on track for release sometime later this year.

Square-Enix has confirmed a release date for Final Fantasy XI (on the Xbox 360) and Treasures of Aht Urghan, across all platforms.

In North America, both games are to be released on the 18th of April. Two days later, they'll be released in Europe and Japan.

With the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XII, official memory cards to the game have been announced. The 8MB memory cards will be white and come with a case and stickers of various FFXII members. The memory cards will be available with the release of FF12 at a price of 3,360 Yen ($29).

The Star Onions group with composers Naoshi Mizuta, Kumi Tanioka and Tsuyoshi Sekito is planning to play in the Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival 2006 in Santa Monica California. They will be playing on the final day of the event which starts March 9th to the 11th. Time is expected to play from 9pm to 11pm (tentative time) and all the music from Final Fantasy XI should be included.

Yes I The RPG Info Man will be attending the event myself and have a full report on it as soon as I see it. For more information check out the Official Site.

If you've been unfortunete to not have seen the new Trailer on the Google Video Player, or you simply want to watch it when ever you want to, you can now download the trailer from http://files.neoseeker.com

It seems that in preparation to the release of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, which is due to be released in 2 days, the Offiial site has been once again updated.

The new updates include:

A New Background

A Countdown to the Japanese release

Credit to Ray_Masamune for pointing this out in the forums

By Krunal

Start a Forum thread on this news story

PLATFORMS

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus [PS2]

New scans of FFXII have been released by V-Jump showing screens of the Gambit system in action, along with three judges and many other things. Head on over to the Magazine Scans Gallery to take a look at them, or click on the minipics below to enlarge them:

The two high-quality FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus trailers which were shown in Japan, showing many new scenes . The first is 2 Minutes long, whilst the second is 1 minutes in length.
Download the trailers from the below links:

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During Jump Festa 2006, a new high quality Video of FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus was shown, and the trailer has now appeared over the net although, it is only has only appeared on Video Google for now.

»Jump Festa 2006 FFVII: DoC Video (Google Video)

With only a couple of months to go for the release of the Japanese version of FFXII, a trailer has been released onto the internet. The Video shows many key sequences of the main storyline, and partially feeds the never ending thirst for more information on the game.

However, by feeding this thirst, it opens up many more questions about the storyline. However, I don't want you to take my word for it, but download it:

Suntory is developing a Potion Drink based off of the Final Fantasy XII game. The drink is said to be available March 7th and will come in 120ml bottles at price of 191 yen ($1.66 US). A Final Fantasy XII Premium Box will also be released and will include a 100ml bottle with a decorative cork and 3 Final Fantasy XII collectors cards priced at 600 yen ($5.21 US). There will be 6 different types of corks and 27 different cards available, so Final Fantasy Collectors be on the look out for this, though importing it seems like the only option.

A new update straight from the Dirge of Cerberus website tells us that Masashi Hamauzu will be composing the music for the game. Masashi Hamauzu is well known for his work on Final Fantasy X, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, Unlimited Saga, Musashi: Samurai Legend, SaGa Frontier 2, and Front Mission: Gun Hazard.

Soundtrack to the upcoming Square-Enix game "Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-" includes nearly seventy music tracks plus the themes "Redemption" and "Longing" as performed by Gackt on two CDs! Limited edition includes deluxe box "Cerberus Complete Case" which is designed to hold this game soundtrack, "Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII" PlayStation 2 game, and Gackt's single release "Redemption" (*note PlayStation 2 game and Gackt's single are not included in this release and must be purchased seperately).

Preorder Now!

Credit to ffinsider.net for this.

Over in the General FF Forum a member called Delfonic has posted up a Top 50 FF Moments list. It's excellently compiled and worth reading through.

Check it out!

Following recent announcements, it's been revealed that another character is going to be in Kingdom Hearts 2. Some of the older FF fans (who were introduced to the series before VII) may remember a character called Setzer Gabbiani. He was in FFVI and will be along side other FF characters:

Yuna
Paine
Rikku
Cloud
Leon
Auron
Vivi
Yuffie
Aerith
Selphie
Setzer

One too many, perhaps? Discuss it with other fans in the KH2 forum by clicking the link on the right!

On December 17th and 18th Square will be showcasing many upcoming games such as FFXII(PS2), FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus(PS2), and FFIV(GBA) at the Jump Festa in Tokyo, Japan.

All 3 of the Final Fantasy games will have a trailer but only Final Fantasy XII, and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus will be playable.

Source: IGN

According to the Final Fantasy XII Website, new info on the characters Vayne and Larsa is out.

Vayne Carudas Solidor is 27 years old and the son of Gramis, who is the 11th Emporer of Arcadia. Gramis had four children but two died in battle and Vayne is now the eldest and heir to the throne. It is said there is a conspiracy behind the deaths of his brothers.

The other character is Larsa, the 12-year old fourth son of Gramis and Vayne's younger brother. He is 2nd heir to the throne and tries to get the respect of his brother and father often.

Square Enix announced new features in the GBA version of Final Fantasy IV Advance, the game will be released in Japan on December 12:

* Original Difficulty - the US version of FFII was the "Easy Type" version with lower difficulty
* Extended dialogue scenes and intermediate sequences - taken from Final Fantasy Chronicles for PSone in 2001
* Monster Encyclopedia
* Music Player
* Training Area
* New Interface Design
* New dungeons with over 50 levels and monsters from the FF series

Source: The Magic Box

The official FF XI: Treasures of Aht Urghan website has been opened up. At the moment, information is low with only two text based pages (even then - minimum content) but there is an "Unexplored World" page with some lovely screenshots. Take a peek!

If you hadn't thought about buying FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus already, news about whats to be included with the Japanese release of the game may convince you otherwise.

Along with the third entry into the Final Fantasy VII Compilation (Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus) a DVD full of extra's entitled "Final Fantasy VII: Reflections" will be included. Currently the known extra's in the disc are:

1. FFVII: Advent Children and FFVII: Crisis Core trailers which were shown a few months ago at the Square Enix party
   
   
2. The Trailer for FFVII: DoC from the Tokyo Game Show (TGS)
   
   
3. And most likely, the most anticipated extra ~ The Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo for PS3. Although only created as an example of the PS3's power, the Demo has sparked many romours about the game to be remade, and Square have said firmly that, the demo being included with the game does not mean that they will be remaking the game. Wether this is true or not... only time will tell.
   

More news about the Extra's DVD will be released as the time comes closer.

According to Playonline we can expect some new updates mid-December. I quote:

1. Additions to the Fellowship system
   
2. New areas
   
3. New quests
   
4. Additions and adjustments to the battle system
   
5. Additions to fishing
   
6. And more additions and changes covering a wide range of activities!

Recently, IGN also posted their thoughts and new screenshots on the demo. You can find them here.

Thanks to Vito Raliffe for mentioning this on the forums.

1UP.com have a huge Final Fantasy XII preview. They managed to get their hands on a demo version (which came included with Dragon Quest VII). They've got a five page preview up, which includes numerous aspects of the game and what we can be expecting. They've also got a big batch of new screens on their site as well. For anyone who's delirious in anticipation of the game or just a casual gamer, check it out!

Review and Screenshots.

The Box Scans for Nintendo's Final Fantasy IV Advance port have just been released and can be seen here:

A release date for the recently announced port of Final Fantasy IV has been confirmed by Square-Enix. It's going to be released on December the 15th.

Thanks to RPGFan.com for this news.

Square-Enix has revealed that it plans to bring Final Fantasy V and VI to the GBA in 2005. The news follows the previously announced port of Final Fantasy IV. Square Enix have stated that they will be improving both titles for their GBA port.

RPGFan.com have nine new screenshots of the recently announced FFXI expansion, Tales of Aht Urghan.

Take a look.

Final Fantasy XII has been delayed a number of times, and still there is no confirmed release date for the game, although its expected to be some time in April/May next year.

However, for the fans that want to experience the game early on, will be glad to hear that the North American version of Dragon Quest VIII will feature a playable demo of FFXII. Dragon Quest VIII will be hitting the shelves on November 22nd, however European fans will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on DQVIII and the playable demo of FFXII.

According to sales figures, Advent Children has sold over 200, 000 copies in Japan. This makes it the third best selling DVD in Japan, this year. There is little doubt that the hype will continue so expect this figure to rise over the coming weeks!

This years Tokyo Game Show has shown off several new games and Square-Enix has taken this opportunity for several of it's titles. Among them is the latest Expansion for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI entitled "Treasures of Aht Urhgan". Several new additions like new areas, new storylines and the addition of the Blue Mage job class as well. Blue Mages of course use Blue Magic which is learned through other monster's attacks.

No official release date has been confirmed.

According to Animenation a release date for the upcoming DVD Final Fantasy VII Advent Children has been set for November 29th in North America. However, there is no word on the UMD yet, but it is assumed it will be out the same day as the DVD. The movie has already premiered in Japan and the DVD has been released too.

This has not been confirmed by Square-Enix yet but gives us a good idea on when to expect it.

Previously released on the Super Nintendo (SNES), Final Fantasy IV (II in Japan) will be ported to the GBA handheld system by Nintendo. This news comes after several other ports, including Final Fantasy III for the DS. Several additions include new dungeons and difficulty settings (Japanese and English were different). More news on this to come.

Today heralds an important mark on the Square-Enix calendar, for it's the debut of Advent Children in Japan. Much to the celebration of eager fans who have waited for two and a half years. The premier played host to many famous Japanese stars, which included musicians and acters as well as the staff from Square-Enix. At the end of the showing Director Tetsuya Nomura thanked fans for their hard work and support.

For any Japanese visitors who are interested, the UMD and DVD versions will be released on Wednesday the 14th of September, next week.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world still has some more time wait.

According to reports Square-Enix has delayed it's beta testing for Dirge of Cerberus to an indefinite date. Dirge of Cerberus was to have an online multi-player mode but at the final preperations for testing it was determined that it needed some fine tuning. The date was originally set for September 1st, no news on a new date has been given but will be reported here when it is announced.

Square Enix has announced their TGS (Tokyo Game Show 2005) line up. Fans who were hoping for something from FF XII and Crisis Core will be dissapointed. However, there will be a playable demo and trailer of Dirge of Cerberus, FF XI and FF VII: Before Crisis.

The other games included in their line-up are:

Code Age Commanders
Kingdom Hearts II
Front Mission Online
Front Mission 2089
Dragon Quest II: Akurei no Kamigami
Portpia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
Musashiden II Episode Zero
EverQuest II: Desert of Flames
Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion
Seiken Densetsu Project (The World of Mana)

From Advent Children.net comes a fully translated post by Tetsuya Nomura on August 8th at the Shin-Ra website. Here is full quote:

"A message from staff to all you Shinra execs:

2005/8/8@Recent status report - Nomura

Nomura speaking. I'm about to nod off here...but the site's just been renewed so if I were to say nothing it'd seem rather cold, won't it? Thus I'll make the effort to let you in on the latest.

First off, I'd like to offer my sincerest thanks to the many people who came to the Square Enix Party 2005. I was pretty much stuck behind the booth the whole time but the cheers and claps that I sometimes hear coming from the mini-theatre had me feeling very moved. Speaking of the Party, a lot of interviews that I got kept asking me the same thing; "What about all those things that people misunderstood?"So let me take the opportunity to clear some things up.

I know some of you may think that the Limited Edition box looks like it's made out of skin but the truth is, it's just a prototype design printed on a regular paper box, not something that's fashioned out of some poor animal's hide. In the exhibition area, the paper box for the mass-produced version sits right next to this prototype design so, I'm not too sure whether it's the likeliness to real skin of the prototype design, or if the print made too deep an impression or even if the explanation provided at the exhibition was insufficient, but to everyone who were misled, please accept my deepest and sincerest apologies. If it were real leather, trust me, the prize wouldn't be as you've seen. I'm really sorry for the confusion caused.

Now, for the actual thing itself! The project has finally reached completion!!! Lots of problems kept popping up at the last minute so it almost gave me a heart attack but well, we made it and now it should reach you on time! Well, we've got roughly about a month more, haven't we? Man, that was REALLY close...I'm tellin ya, SO many problems came up. I'll tell you all about them the next chance I get, OK? Since there's so much left we have to do in preparation of the approaching release date, we've been super busy.

The commercial is being put together as we speak, so I'd have to go back to the studio for a bit to oversee the last of the finishing touches. I think it'll hit the TV stations somewhere mid-August to September. Anyway, if I get anymore info on that, I'll be sure to kiss and tell, no worries. As for the North American version, there are still several people we have yet to decide upon so I guess we'd better hurry our asses there as well...only 3 characters left, though! But we can't seem to find someone who's able to hit the right note on them...

This may be a little early but also on the actual product, just let me explain the order in which to watch your DVD. For the Limited Edition owners, it's from the "LAST ORDER" OVA. For the mass-produced version owners, you watch it from the original digest called "REMINISCENCE". After that, you may proceed to AC itself. Of course, you may choose to skip REMINISCENCE but I recommend going through it anyway because who knows, you may just discover many things. As for the Limited Edition, when watching DISTANCE, which showcases the making process and accompanied by commentary, I would strongly urge for you to watch it right to the end. Lots of spoilers, you'll find.

Also, the Making might come off as a technically revealing sort of hard interview, what with commentaries that are presented as conversations between primary staffers and all, so it's more like a complete breakdown of sorts. Some of you might not be so hot about that so let me apologize beforehand. We did it this way because we wanted you to feel as if you're part of the process while watching it. It would greatly please us greatly to know that you'd be as absorbed into the whole process as we were while making it.

Now I'll go on to explain a little about the public cinema release. In truth, AC was never intended to be the sort of movie you'd go watch in a cinema so we didn't take it as one when we made it. This means it's void of the usual flow, format and general treatment you would see in a made-for-big-screen kinda movie. And eventhough it seemed impossible, we tried to negotiate and discuss our way through but even with the company's (SE) best intentions, there were limits we couldn't cross no matter what. However, driven to answer all the many requests and demands to see it on the big screen, we've somehow managed to whine our way into getting a not-so-conventional way to publicly show it to you all. And this is possible thanks to the goodwill of certain companies related to the industry.

However, I'm still sad to say that, as much as we want to, we might not be able to answer to those who have been looking forward to see it on major big screens across the city. There's a lot left that I can't say so please feel free to check the AC website for more pending updates. Details and the Japan Premiere will soon be announced on the official website.

And lastly, Venice. Thanks to everyone, we've once again been invited to show our work there for the second year in a row. Thank you so much! It's truly a pleasant surprise to find out that we're able to attend despite almost not being able to make it in time. Speaking of almost being out of the competition, it seems that, unlike last year, we'd be able to walk on the red carpet this year! w00t! And if that's true, we should be so nervous by now but due to our busy schedule, we don't have time even for that. For instance, right after we return from Venice, there'd be the Japan Premiere, public screening and release date to take care of. Not only that, there're still the preparations that need to be done in regards to many other related things and let's not forget the North American and European releases. Of course, before all these, there's still the matter of KINGDOM HEARTS II, and there are more that need our attention even BEFORE this one, believe it or not. Having typed all this down, I now only realize how close we're really cutting it. This isn't good, there's just not enough time to go around.

Which brings to mind something. Recently there's only been announcements and apologies, there really hasn't been any room for mischief and light humor on our end, has there? And I want to keep on with this little messages right up to the date of release but come to think of it, I'm the only one still writing this. These days, the 4 people from the PR dept holed up in the operations department office have worn themselves out working all the way till morning (these guys were placed in charge of handling the PR side of everything, from AC to DC to KH) so maybe something in them shorted out because every line they utter now seems to inevitably have something or other to do with the likes of AC, DC and KH. And, late at night, on the floors where there is little people, you'd suddenly hear a voice going "A duel do the death that lasts for days!!"(line uttered by Azul from DC) as late-night staffers amuse themselves with an unique online recreation of the game (DC) via the office network."

A new TV commercial for Advent Children in Japan has just been released and can be viewed Here. It's pretty short with no new scenes but still amusing lol.

RPGamer.com has some new screenshots and artwork available.

[Screenshots]
[Artwork]

Some good screenshots of Vincent can be seen.

The main theme of Advent Children has been announced as "Calling" performed by Kyousuke Himuro. The song will be included with the 2-disk soundtrack coming out in Japan on September 28th.

Much to the dismay of many fans, Square Enix has confirmed FFXI will need a hard drive to be played on the Xbox 360, meaning gamers will have to fork out extra cash (for the premium package) if they wish to play the only console version of the game to reach the USA. This has also came as a blow to Microsoft, who has discouraged developers from creating games that will not use the hard drive.

According to several sites and sources the Final Fantasy movie Advent Children that continues the story of Final Fantasy VII will be delayed in North America. Previously set for a September 14th release it now seems to be pushed back to the "Holiday Season" which will likely be around November or December.

Previously announced here, we now have the latest scan of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 Ultimate Box set that will be released in Japan on September 8th. Inside the the box set will be a bonus DVD Eternal Nagi Season (Eternal Calm), which highlights the events between X and X-2.

Here are some new scans in of Final Fantasy XII:



Big thanks to Fantasy-Source for the scans.

Square-Enix has announced that they wish to acquire 247,900 Taito shares worth 45.16 billion yen (409.10 million USD). Electronics maker Kyocera that holds a 36.02% stake in Taito, has already approved Square-Enix's takeover bid. Doing this will also give Square-Enix some rights in the arcade business, arcades and RPGs? Sounds interesting.

[Source]

More in on the Final Fantasy Movie Advent Children, Square-Enix has announced the promotion campaign and will only be playing in theatres for a week, and only in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya. The premiere will be at Virgin Toho Cinemas located in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills on September 8th at 19:00 JST. Then other shows will take place from the 10th to the 16th at Toho Cinema Nagoya Bay City and the Toho Cinema Nijou in Kyoto. However, only members of the Shinra Company club may apply for one ticket per person and they are not accepting any new members.

[Source]

Square-Enix has finally announced the official soundtrack to it's upcoming move Advent Children. It will contain two disks and include music from the movie and Final Fantasy VII. It will be available in Japan on September 28th, for 2,850 yen ($26.01 USD). A North American date has not been announced.

Music can also be heard in the background of the Japanese Official Site.

"Square Enix has filed a video-game related trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for "The Star Onions." The Star Onions is also the name of a musical group led by several Square Enix sound staff, who perform on the upcoming Final Fantasy XI arrangement album The Star Onions: Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel. The Star Onions' name was likely inspired by Final Fantasy XI's Star Onion Brigade, a group of Windurst children who often get involved in comedic misadventures.

There is no other information concerning the trademark at this time, or if it is directly related to the band or the child group. The arrangement album is due in Japan on the 24th of this month for 2,500 yen ($22.40 USD)."


No real info on if this is for the music group or game group, but it is likely that the album will be coming the U.S.

Advent Children receives a PG-13 rating and new information about the plot is given.

The Plot occurs 2 years after the events on Final Fantasy 7 terminate. A new disease known as Geostigma surfaces and spreads throughout the remnants of the planet. The hero of the story, known as Cloud, lives his life in seclusion, and maintains his own delivery job which is situated near his long childhood friend, Tifa, near the 7th heaven bar. Tifa's main job is to look after the children who are inflicted with Geostigma. One day Cloud receives an interesting phone call from the ex Shinra President, Rufus, asking for his services as a bodyguard from a mysterious man named Kadaj, who is somehow linked to Sephiroth. Traveling with Kadaj, are his two brothers, known as Yazoo and Loz. Upon their meeting with Cloud, they reveal that they are after their mother, which is none other than Jenova, and they also believe that Cloud knows of her whereabouts. The old gang from FF7 reunite to fight these new foes, and solve the mystery behind Jenova and the new Geostigma disease.


[Source]

Earlier we got an announcement that it was possible that the latest movie from Final Fantasy, Advent Children, could come to theatres. Since then no info has come up, until now. It has been said that Advent Children will be shown in theatres in Japan and nationally. Square-Enix plans to premier the movie on September 8th in Japan and on Septmber 10th nationally. These will come out just days before the release of the DVD & UMD which is schedueled for the 13th.

Still it is unconfirmed at the moment and a premiere in the US looks grim.

[Source]

Due to a severe medical illness, Yasumi Matsuno, the original creator of Final Fantasy XII had to resign from his position as director. He apologized for the delays he caused, and will be replaced with Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa.

Hiroyuki Ito was the director of Final Fantasy IX, and Hiroshi Minagawa has been a long time friend and staff member of Yasumi Matsuno, working in almost every title Yasumi Matsuno has developed.

Because of his absense, the two new directors will work on the game, with supervision from Yasumi Matsuno.

At Square Enix Party 2005 it was announced that Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII will have an an online-enabled multiplayer mode. In this mode players can play as SOLDIER and can fighter together, in missions or in a versus mode. Starting today Square-Enix will be taking in applications for beta testing, where the beta test will begin this fall.

[Source]

Final Fantasy XII was featured a lot on day 2, today Hitoshi Sakimoto took the stage to discuss FFXII's soundtrack. According to Sakimoto he has completed 70-80 songs and was currently working to adjust the event scene-related songs. After the discussion 4 soungs were played and the voice actors took the stage. Vaan (Kouhei Takeda) and his girlfriend Pannelo (Yuna Mikuni) both discussed their roles in the game.

[Source]

The staff at IGN.com were among the many gamers in Japan able to play Final Fantasy XII at the Square Enix Party. Hundreds of kiosks for the game were available, each of them having long lines and crowds. Here's their new impression of the battle-system, and more playable information.


[Final Fantasy XII - Hands-on]

At the Square Enix party, information on the theme-song has been revealed. The song will be performed by Angela Aki. And composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Apparently, the song was completed a mere two weeks ago. More news of Final Fantasy XII, as well as other Final Fantasy related titles to come. The title of the song is called " Kiss me good-bye".

Some new scans are in of Final Fantasy XII. These can be found at RPGamer.com:

Propaganda Scans

By RPG_Master44

Start a Forum thread on this news story

PLATFORMS

Final Fantasy XII [PS2]

Square-Enix has just announced the opening of it's own merchandise story in Tokyo. It will be located on the ground floor of the Square Enix Hatsudai Building in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The store will feature merchandise of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest and Full Metal Alchemist. It is set to official open August 16th, and will run until August 31st. After that it will only be open weekends and holidays from 11:00 until 19:00 JST.

[Official Square Enix Character Goods Shop/Show Case Website]


[Source]

Information from the Square Enix party has already been released regarding Final Fantasy XII's Japanese release date. The date is set at March.16,2006. With an American release soon to follow. More information is soon to come in the following days.

CD Japan has revealed Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children's limited edition box cover. CD Japan is also open to sell in both the US, and Japan. The images used on the cover are new artwork designs of Cloud and Sephiroth.







[CD Japan - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]

Square-Enix has announced that it will feature Final Fantasy XI for the X-Box 360 at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. The event takes place August 17 to 21 and the game will be featured at both the Square-Enix booth and Microsoft's Xbox booth. Players will be able to play the first versions of the game and see characters specially created for the event. Also special giveaways will take place also icluding a new CD-Rom with a trailer or as well as a link to access a free trial of the game.

[Source]

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus will be receiving a story update in next week's issue of Shonen Jump. Information to be revealed includes story-line on the character Reeve, Cait Sith's controller, and the leader of the World Restoration Organization (W.R.O). The second character to be revealed is a character named Azul, who is a Deep Ground SOLDIER who has appeared in the Before Crisis episodes. Another mysterious character announced is a strange looking person in white and brown rags, who's carrying a shuriken with a pink bow. Which leads us to believe that may be Yuffie Kisaragi.

The next update focuses on Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus's online play, in which you can challenge other players over a network, and compete in teams.

Square-Enix has announced it's Final Fantasy XI: The Vana'diel Collection to be released August 16th for only $29.99 (US). The collection will include Final Fantasy XI, Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia and Tetra Master on one DVD. Other things like a 30 free days of play when registering and a Collector's Card to go to iTunes to get free FFXI music downloads are going to be included as well.

Really a good buy for anyone who has been thinking of picking this game up but hasn't yet.

[Source]

X-Box Summit 2005 has already kicked off and ammoung the games demonstrated was the new Final Fantasy XI to make the 360 console. First a E3 trailer was shown then an actual game demonstration was shown off by Square Enix producer Hiromichi Tanaka himself. Beta tests are still schedualed but are told to be done on an unseen scale, what that will be we will have to find out.

You can check out the videos of the gameplay at IGN.com right Here

Square-Enix will be releasing a Advent Children trailer with the Steamboat DVD. Steamboat is another animated movie by Katsuhiro Otomo. The trailer is pretty much the same as the recent one released with a few additions but mostly the same.

[Trailer]

[Source]

This is not an official update, more a personal update. As I said I would work on translating some things for you all from the Japanese website, so now that I got some free time I was able to do so. First off the schedualed line up:

There will be videos and such shown at the Mega theater of FFXII, Kingdom Hearts 2 and FFVII: Advent Children.

July 30th:

10:30: History of Grandia

There will be a live rock performance and the cast will make an appearance as well.

12:30:

Seems to be a performance by Kenichiro Fukui.

14:30: Final Fantasy XII premium stage Vol.1

Nobuo Uematsu and others guests make an appearance and also a big announcement is to be made relating to FFXII.

July 31:

11:00～13:30

On two stages,

Alchemy Teacher and Code Age Commanders.

Performance for Alchemy Teacher with various images and videos.

16:00: Final Fantasy XII Premium Stage

Special guest who performs the music makes an appearances and answers questions. Also voice actors and new information.


More to come soon.

An action packed video has been released showing clips from both Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.

The video is available for download from Gamespot:

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has been confirmed to be seen at the Venice Film Festival this year. Last year, Square Enix only showed an approximately 25 minute trailer of footage. Now, Square Enix plans on showing the completed version of the movie August 31st - September 10th.

Square Enix, and other subsidiary companies under it have apparently been waiting for development-kits of the Playstation 3 to venture off into making new gaming series. Apparently, they're waiting to see if the Playstation 3 can really provide them with the tools to create what they're envisioning. Due to the announcement of the Playstation 3 utilizing various software tools, Square Enix and other interested companies can receive sample kits to test out the Playstation 3's potential.

Square-Enix filed a trademark for the name "Treasures of Aht Urhgan", which apparantly may be the next sequel to their PS2/PC MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. Still no confirmations on this but more info is sure to come soon.

Also "Scars of War" is another unknown trademark filed by Square-Enix.

A new trailer for this game has been released, this news coming from IGN.com and RPGamer.com.

[Trailer at RPGamer.com]

The trailer starts off with Tifa recalling her and Cloud's promise he made in their childhood. Then shows off some nice animated scenes of Cloud's battle with Sephiroth at Nibelheim 5 years ago. Also some views of Zack as well can be scene as well. All in all looks good as the first trailer of this game.

From the FF12 scans that were shown off earlier some new details of the dark haired character were revealed. Also revealed were two brand new summons.

Vayne Kaldas Soridor who was the dark haired man featured is the 27-year-old son, heir of Gramis, the Emperor of Arcadia. He is very well respected by the commoners and gives it back as well. He is also leader of the Judges and is very noble, even with all his power.

Also two brand new summons, not only to this game but to the Final Fantasy series in general have been revealed. Hashmarim is an earth based summon and Berias is a fire based summon. The summoning system will also seem to be similiar to Final Fantasy X in the summons will take the place of the players in battle.

Another thing that was mentioned is a huge announcement from the Square-Enix Party 2005 later this month will be given. What that is we will have to wait and see, but be sure the FF Portal Team will bring it to you as it's announced.

[Source]

Here are some scans of Final Fantasy XII just released.

Here are some new scans from the upcoming movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.







The third scan shows off some nice merchandice which will likely be available at the Square-Enix Party 2005.

GameInformer magazine also had this small blurb regarding next generation consoles in their "Loose Talk" section for industry rumors.

"Final Fantasy Looks to Next Gen

In an interview with Japan's Famitsu Magazine, Final Fantasy XII producer Hiromichi Tanaka said that he and his team are working on an MMORPG for the next-gen consoles. However, it is unknown whether this upcoming title will be a FF one or not. In other FF news, after whetting our appetite with it's Final Fantasy VII PS3 trailer, FFX producer Yoshinori Kitase has said that Square Enix is indeed working on an FF title for the PS3, but he would not divulge if it would be FFXIII."

Thanks to GameInformer Magazine for the information!

A very long time since there was much information about DoC, however GameInformer have broken the silence, and gave us screens and abit of information that is more than welcome.

We always knew that it would be a third person shooter from the screenshots, but now we also know that they will display on screen the amount of HP the enemy has lost, much like they do in other Final Fantasy games which keeps the sense of the RPG alive. View the magazine scan below to read about the features, and don't forget to pick up a copy of GameInformer for even more details.



Thanks to our resident Staff Editor Crazy Daisy for the scans, and also to GameInformer for the information.

New Promotional content for the Square-Enix Party 2005 is released. Amoung the content added are a Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII CM, Square-Enix Party 2005 CM, and Advent Pieces: Limited Promotional Video. There are some technical difficulties with the videos though so once that is sorted out I will add them. For now there are some new scans for Advent Children.

Scan 1

Scan 2

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

By RPG_Master44

Start a Forum thread on this news story

PLATFORMS

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children [Movie]

Square-Enix has opened it's Official Site to help promote and inform people of the for the Square-Enix Party 2005 which will take place July 30th-31st. The party will feature over 50 games from multiple platforms. The official site is in Japanese but I will attempt to translate some of it later on for those to read.

Here is the title line up for the FF Titles:

Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cereberus
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2

Many of the featured games however show basically merchandise for the games like nechlaces and rings. For once items that were once only featured in magazines can now be bought in person. What I am expecting is new info for Final Fantasy XII and Dirge of Cerberus, which are to be featured. Also new images or perhaps trailers for Advent Children look to be featured as well.

Other big titles that look to be featured are the upcoming World of Mana title which up until now has had little info on it. Big sequels like Kingdom Hearts 2 and Grandia 3 are featured as well.

That's all I can translate for now, new sections (in the Amusement area) also look to be added once the party finishes like a Square-Enix Party 2005 Report, which I will translate for you all once it comes out.

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

In the August 2005 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly it has been reported under good authority that Square is in fact working on a FFVII remake for the PS3. You may remember the FFVII tech demo showed off at E3 and how it was quickly shot down that there was a remake in the works. But it appears that was all a cover to keep the game under wraps.

A full quote can be found in the forum thread linked with this news report.

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

Square Enix has announced a new Final Fantasy XI album that will be called The Star Onions Final Fantasy XI: Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel. This album will be performed by The Star Onions, a new band formed by the composer of Parasite Eve II and Final Fantasy XI, Naoshi Mizuta. It will be available in Japan on August 24th for 2,500 yen ($22.40 US) and it's catalogue number is SQEX10050.

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

A Korean website called Ruliweb has leaked several new details about the gameplay of DS version of Final Fantasy III. The addition of a "Defense Meter" is said to be added and will play a critical role in battles. When attacking an opponent you must first take down there defense meter before causing any damage to them. It's still unknown if this is only for enemies or playable characters at the moment.

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

Square Enix has announced that they will be re-releasing PS2 titles under the Ultimate Hits label. Amoung the titles released will be Final Fantasy X and X-2, as well as Kingdom Hearts and Final Mix for 2,800 yen ($25.25 US). Final Fantasy X and X-2 will also be released in a special Ultimate box set for 5,600 yen ($50.50 US). The Ultimate Hits titles will be released in Japan on September 8th, no plans for a North American re-release of these titles has been announced.

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be released on September 14 with a price-tag of 4,800 yen. [ About $49.99 ] The UMD version will come with special versions of the OST music featured in the movie. Most of the features from the DVD will remain in the UMD version, as well as Japanese/English subtitles.

Dengeki Playstation magazine will feature a 4 page spread featuring new screenshots from Advent Children, new screens of LAST ORDER - Final Fantasy VII and some images of the merchandise available with the purchase of the limited edition DvD!

(Credit also to Slifer4000)

-->View the new Dengeki scans<--

Square Enix held it's stockholder meeting recently and amoung the topics discussed relating to Final Fantasy was on Final Fantasy XII. Square Enix hoped to sell three to four million copies of Final Fantasy XII in Japan however current budget assumes sales of less than three million copies.

Also trailers of Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children were shown but were the same as the ones shown at E3 so no new information was available.

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

The Neoseeker's Final Fantasy Trivia Tournament has begun! This trivia--hosted by RPG_Master44--lets users join and test there smarts for Final Fantasy games; letting them compete against someone, until a final winner emerges. Currently the first round has started. If you still wish to participate, you will need to reserve a spot to get the possibility on taking part of the trivia as well. Read thread for further information about reserves.

Don't forget to take a glimpse at the thread daily, since there you can see whats going on with the rounds and such matters.



[Final Fantasy Trivia Tournament Thread]

Square Enix recently spoke about some of the specific events that will take place on toward the end of next month. [ July 30 - 31 ] Final Fantasy XII is set to be the main focus at the party, with various events such as interviews with the voice-actors. It's described as having a 'talk-show' setting.

On July 31, Final Fantasy XII will be playable, with updates, as well as new features.

Square Enix recently announced that their upcoming event held at the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan will come with a small fee of 1,000 yen. [ Roughly ten dollars in American money. ] It hasn't been confirmed if tickets will be available the day of the event, but tickets are available through Ticket PIA.

Here's a list of confirmed games to be shown in footage or playable demos.



Final Fantasy XII (PlayStation 2)
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Code Age Masters (PS2)
Fullmetal Alchemist 3: Kami o Tsugu Shoujo (PS2)
Grandia III (PS2)
Heavy Metal Thunder (PS2)
Musashi Samurai Legend (PS2)
Slime Morimori: Dragon Quest 2 (Game Boy Advance)
Final Fantasy XI (PC, PS2)
Front Mission Online (PS2)
EverQuest II (PC)

An interview was recently published in Japan's Dengeki PlayStation magazine with the Executive Producer of Square-Enix, Yoshinori Kitase. Kitase has been known for his previous involvement in the two biggest Final Fantasy games: FFVII and FFX.

The first thing that Kitase was asked was to explain his specific role in the new FFVII Compilation games. He told the magazine that he has a direct role and refered to it as "directly creating data" with Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core.

He also mentioned that the storyline for Cerberus will be all about Vinvent as he was one of the most loved and mysterious characters of FFVII, even though he was an optional character. He also explained that you can expect the game to have quality of gameplay and graphics similar to that of FFX.

He also made a mention to the genre for the game which is "Gun Action RPG", which will mean that although it is a shooter (like games such as Half-Life) it will maintain the RPG elements which make up final fantasy games, such as upgrading weapons using Materia (although this is not confirmed to be in the actual game) or leveling up in each battle. For Crisis Core, Kitase states that we can look forward to action gameplay that will have players hooked.

On a quick side note, for the people who were worried about romours that the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children would not have English Dubs, Kitano has mentioned that to keep the feel of similarities the actors which will be doing the voices for Dirge of Cerberus will be the same ones doing the voices for all the compilations, which includes Advent Children.

And now, the news which will excite most FF fans, which is closely following our previous article about the two new Final Fantasy under way.

Kitase was firstly asked about the FFVII clips, and he told the magazine that although it was a great representation of the PS3's capabilities it was actually rushed, and created in a short time. This leads on to our next part, the new FF game for the PS3. Kitase stated that he cannot comment any further however he did tell us that it is being developed by some offshoot of the team which created FFX. This could mean that the game will be the next one in line, in other words Final Fantasy XIII however, he did not confirm this.

The limited edition of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has been confirmed in Japan and will be sold for 29,500 yen ($274.83 USD). Remember that these prices are for the DVD version of the CG movie only.

The content of the limited edition's DVD will look as follows:

• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie (length: 97 minutes)
  
• Final Fantasy VII Digest (length: 30 minutes)
  
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Official trailer (length: 2 minutes)
  
• Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Trailer (length: 10 minutes)

Furthermore, this box set will ship with the following items:

• A figure set of Cloud and his motorcycle
  
• A special DVD featuring the following contents:
  
• Last Order Final Fantasy VII OVA
  
• Making-Of footage
  
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Venice Film Festival trailer
  
• Various other Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailers
  
• A voice recording-enabled libretto replica
  
• A cup
  
• A t-shirt
  
• A key holder
  
• PlayStation One RPG Final Fantasy VII International (this four-disc set will come in a special packaging)

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be available in Japan on September 14th and the same for the US. The limited edition however has not been announced for release outside of Japan.


Thanks to rpgfan.com for the information about what the DVD will be shipping with.

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

Producers Yoshinori Kitase and Hiromichi Tanaka confirmed that their respective production teams were working on a new Final Fantasy game for PlayStation 3 and a new MMORPG respectively. Rumors have been around for months but it is finally confirmed. Kitase is head of Square Enix's first production team and he was working on a new Final Fantasy installment for Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3. Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of Final Fantasy XI, confirmed that his team was working on a new MMORPG.

[Source]

The RPG Info Man strikes again ^_^

The latest issue of Famitsu magazine reports that the same team responsible for Final Fantasy XI is going to create another MMORPG for next-generation consoles. Information such as title has not been disclosed, and hasn't been specified as a Final Fantasy title, or a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XI.

Along with that information, Hiromichi Tanaka also stated the quality of Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360; he mentioned that the graphics would be able to utilize PC quality, and were testing their possibilities for further enhancement.

The Advent Children (US) site is finally back after being offline for a coulple of days. A few much needed updates have been added and there is now new downloadable content, character bio's, the E3 trailers and much more!

A countdown has also been added to the main page so you can now count down the days to AC's september release date.

[FFVII:AC Official Site]

After looking around Squares website, I clicked on the offcial FFVII: DoC website to just see if there were any changes, and to my surprise, its changed quite abit. The website now has a section for the story, characters and a few other things. This is great news to all those that have waited a long time for this.

It also confirms that Cait Sith will be a main character and although what it says has not yet been translated into English, be sure that when its translated, the information will be posted here.

[FFVII:DoC Official Site]

Two new scans have been revealed featuring the lead character of Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent Valentine. Click on the images below to see a bigger picture.



Thanks to a visitor in our forums for the images.

With the FF VII: Snowboarding mini game making it's way to mobile phones, there seems to be mixed reactions about the game. With some fellow Final Fantasy sites looking upon it rather negatively.

What do you think?

Let us know in our forums, more specifically the discussion thread on the mini game located here. You do not have to be a member to post.

In a Q&A with Gamespot, Wada has told us about the some of the FF titles slated for a release.

Final Fantasy XII

Wada has commented that although at this years E3 FFXII wasn't playable he Square Enix will have a playable version by the end of July and which point they will be holding a private show in Japan. He said that the reason it wasn't playable was quite simly timing. We are all hoping that after the private show they decide to bring out a demo of the game like they have done with previous FF games.

Final Fantasy VII: AC

The comment that Wada has made for FFVII:AC has worried many English fans as he has said that he is considering to release a Japanese voice with English subtitles as opposed to dubbing the film in English.

Final Fantasy VII: CC

At the pre-E3 conference a trailer was shown of Crisis core which is yet to reach the fans, however, in the trailer there was an Anime-like appearance which suggests that this was just a graphical demo of the game and that the game will not be like that. He has commented on the fact that he expects the title to feature a new game system that takes advantage of the PSP's hardware.

[Source]

There will be a Fan art section for the FFVII Advete Children and FFVII in the Portal where anyone with a little bit of skill can post their fan art!

We would like you to submit your fan art. Get more informaiton and post your fan art here or here

Your Fan Art will be judged by Wraith and if good enough will be put on the Portal. So show us your skill and show us your art work.

Square-Enix has declared support for PS3, the last in the next-generation consoles. As seen in other news postings below the developer has already pledged support for the Nintendo Revolution and Xbox 360 with more Final Fantasy titles planned.

A tech-demo based upon Final Fantasy VII was shown as the E3 event showing (despite complaints over recent titles such as X-2) that the series is far from failing but is continuing on into the next generation stronger than ever.

Square-Enix has confirmed a September release date for Advent Children. The DVD will become availiable on the 14th of September in a simultaneous Japan/North America release. The retail cost for the DVD is believed to be 4,800 yen ($45.66 US).

Yesterday we heard the news that FFXI was to be on the XBOX 360 Platform, and now they have released two gameplay movies showing the world of Final Fantasy XI on the XBOX 360.

You can watch the gameplay movies at [Gamespot]
Or you can Click here to download them:
[Gameplay Movie 1]
[Gameplay Movie 2]

Gameplay movies courtesy of Gamespot

An interview with a company representative at E3 said that 'development has been coming along nicely' they say that Before Crisis will provide American gamers with 'an unexpected experience'.

When the game was released last September the American mobile phones were too primitive to support the game. Now that mobile technology has advanced in the US they are finally able to port it onto US mobile phones as well!

[Source]

In Sony's Key Note speach, they showed some amazing footage of games to come and demo's created for the unvieling of the PS3. One of these videos included a Technical Demo of the PS3's abilities, and the demo was of none other than the Opening sequence to FFVII.

You can download the video [Here]

You can also see some screenshots of the video in our FFVII Galery

Square has yet again shocked us by announcing that they will be released Final Fantasy XI Online for the XBOX, this will be the first Final Fantasy Game to reach the XBOX although FFXI has previously been on the PC.

You can read more of the article at Gamespot.

Source - Gamespot

"Square Enix is extremely honored to have had the chance to provide you with this technical demonstration of what the Cell processor can bring to the PlayStation 3 and the world of gaming. We are committed to fully backing SCEI's new computer entertainment system and plans to bring the Final Fantasy series to the PS3 are just beyond the horizon." -- Yoichi Wada, President, SQUARE ENIX


With this news, we can hope to see the Final Fantasy series in a new light, with enhanced features. Most developers aboard for PS3 projects have had only positive remarks, and are very excited for the possibilities.

The new FFXII trailer has been released at Gamespot. It shows many new scenes and you will be delighted.

[Download Video]

Yes I know that alot of updates have been made, but that is the reason why people have been waiting so patiently for E3, and now that its here, we can just let it all out. Enjoy the news :)

Below are links to previews to the Gamespot Articles which will tell you alot about the games, and reveals information previously unknown.

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Preview on Game Spot

It seems that Zack Will be in the game maybe as a lead character, it is still uncertain however. Pictures of Cloud and Sephiroth were also in the trailer shown at E3. Hopefully we will have for you

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus Preview on Game Spot

Final Fantasy XII: Preview on Game Spot

It seems that Square have decided to give us the release dates of some of the most anticipated FF games

However there is some good news and there is some bad news. I'll start with the Bad News.

It seems that they have YET AGAIN delayed FFXII's release date, however, worse is yet to come, acording to RPGFan the release date has been pushed back as far as April 2006. It is now said to be released AFTER Squares next fiscal year in April. However, this could mean anytime after April, and we may have to wait another year for it to be released.

Heres something we do already know, and well the good news (of a sort).
Final Fantasy VII's spin off games:

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

have yet to be given a date, however as you already know Advent Children has now been given the official date of September 14th 2005. Shortly after this, it is to be released on UMD.

Keep reading for more information from E3.

Source

A new Advent Children Trailer has been released, it shows MANY new scenes, and many summons can be seen in the video as well as all of the Final Fantasy VII Characters.

You can download the file [Here]

We will soon be launching our own Trailers section for the portal where you will be able to download the trailers.

UPDATE

Many new Screenshots have been added to our Advent Children Gallery which can be found here
Please remember that the pictures will reveal ALOT of spoilers.

So far two new pictures have been released for DoC at this years E3.
Click the images below to see them:



Remember the Portal will be constantly be updated so check out for the updates.

New picures of Final Fantasy XII have been released at E3 and you can find them at IGN.

The pictures show a few new scenes, and most of them are very interesting.
You can view the pictures by clicking on the link below.

[IGN Pics]

UPDATE

Rather than creating a new article, I'll just add it here.

We have new screenshots for the game from the E3 Expo and they can be found in our Screenshots Section.




Current New Screenshots Count: 10 14

As well as the recently released scans for Dirge of Cerberus, new Advent Children scans have also been revealed:



As you can see from the title they have also released an International Release date for Advent Children. The release date for Advent Children in Japan and the US is 14th September 2005.

Unluckily those of us in Europe will still have to wait for the movie to be released worldwide before we get a change to see it.

However, Square Enix has vowed the European release for the year of 2005. No specific time has been disclosed.

[Picture Source]

V-Jump magazine has revealed new images from FFXII including one where we can see Ashe kissing Reks. Also shown in the magazine scans are the new models of Ashe and Vaan. While the differences are only slight, Ashe's face looks to be a little more true to her in-game appearance, while Vaan's hair has been changed, and his face looks a bit more mature.



[Source]
[Image]

We have been waiting since last summer when we first saw the first glimse of Dirge of Cerberus. Now after waiting a long time we have more news on the game. The latest issue of Shonent Jump Magazine revealed many new screenshots. It also told us that the game will play as a "Gun Action RPG".
Among the screenshots was Vincent in action from a third person perspecitve aswel as a first person perspective with a sniper rifle.
More details on the game should be released in a weeks time during the E3 Expo.

You can view the image by clicking on the picture below:


[Source]
[Picture Source]

It seems that iTunes have seen the market that is the Final Fantasy world, and decided that they want a share in it. The big company Apple iTunes will be selling Final Fantasy music from Final Fantasy I all the way to Final Fantasy XI and will also include music from Dear Friends, and two Black Mages albums.
Apple have also created a section dedicated to the musical compositions of the Final fantasy world.

[Apple Itunes]
[Source - IGN]

Final Fantasy XII, we have all been waiting for it for a long time, and after MANY dates being pushed back, we are all hoping to hear news about the game in this years E3, which is taking places in a few days.

Whilst that happens, IGN have declared FFXII the FOURTH most anticipated game at the Expo, and with good reason.



Taking 3rd place in IGN's most anticipated games is Kingdom Hearts 2, followed by Okami and with SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS taking 1st place as the most anticipated games to be shown at E3.

However, here at the Final Fantasy Portal we are also waiting for Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus which looks to be an equally good game.

[Source - IGN]

Tetsuya Nomura recently discussed the current state of the games he's working on, mainly Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.

He mentioned that Crisis Core would have a unique battle-system, and was eagerly awaiting it's arrival on store shelves, while, with Dirge of Cerberus he merely mentioned that a much needed update would be revealed at E3.

It was also mentioned that more details on FFVII:Advent Chilren will be released soon.

[Source]

Square Enix recently announced the official list of games to be shown at the popular gaming expo, E3. An anticipated title -- Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core has not been put on the list, and has no word of being covered at the event.

Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)
Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Radiata Stories (PS2)
Romancing SaGa (PS2)
Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia (PS2, PC)
Front Mission Online (PS2, PC)
Final Fantasy II (Mobile)
Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII (Mobile)
Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding (Mobile)
Font Missions 2089 (Mobile)
Hexcite Fusion (Mobile)
Musashi Mobile Samurai (Mobile)
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (DVD)

[Source

Square Enix has updated their official site with various merchandise items for the popular Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children sequel, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerebus.




[Merchandise Index]

Square Enix recently stated on April, 15 that a hacker attack on the Final Fantasy servers at approximately 09:00 JST, which led to the servers being temporarily shut-down for maintenance, and an investigation.

Since then, Square Enix has filed a report with the police to pursue the hacker/s legally.

TOKYO--Square Enix today revealed that a limited edition version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children would complement the regular version at release. There were no specific details on how it would differ from the standard release other than the comment that "bonus merchandise not available in the normal edition" would be included. Square Enix said it would be making "a major announcement" regarding the upcoming computer-generated movie in May. This news follows the recent launch of Advent Children's English-language Web site.

[Source]

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core's official site has been updated with a change in the expected release date. What used to say "Early 2006", has now been changed to a slightly more vague date of "2006". No word has been given on a specific North American release date.


[Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Official Site]

The official English site for the upcoming UMD/DVD release has finally been opened. Although this update doesn't necessarily come with updates just yet, we'll probably be seeing some new English information/footage through the site, and through other forms of announcement.

[Official English Website]
[Source]

Shounen Jump will have a feature with Advent Children in their May edition.


[Source]FFAC - reunion

Thanx to Unknown2 we have the translation of the scan:
[Full translation]

JUMP Magazine has published a new scan of the upcoming DVD movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The scan contains only two new images, one of Cloud, the other of Kadaj, and offers very little in terms of new information.

The scan does contain a revelation that new information will be made available about FFVII:AC thru JUMP Magazine in their May 16th issue. This for the most part confirms that the movie will not be releasd until sometime after E3 2005, which begins the same day.

[Source FF Insider]

Square Enix has finally revealed its mystery title for Sony Computer Entertainment's new handheld PlayStation Portable. Titled Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, the action RPG is being produced by Yoshinori Kitase, head of the company's first production team and directed by Hajime Tahata, who also served as director of the recently released cell-phone based Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII. As with all installments of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Tetsuya Nomura will serve as character designer.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will be available in Japan sometime in early 2006.


[Source]

The Official website has finally been released after much delay. The website is currently in the very basic stages and like the FFVII: Crisis Core website it only has a the bare details of the game, all in Japanese.

[Official Japanese Website]

Square-Enix are apprently planning an update to the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI at the end of April The update is expected to include standard upgrades like new quests and monsters but most eagerly awaited is the expansion on the background history of story elements (such as Promathia).

The Seattle Symphony will be performing a Final Fantasy Concert in the Pacific Northwest city during their upcoming season.
Christian Knapp will be the conductor of the compositions made by Nobuo Uematsu who is known for his music in Final Fantasy Games.
The concert will be held on the 13th and 15th of July. The tickets start from $20 and more information about the event can be found [Here]

[Source IGN]

After a meeting with Bloomsberg, Square-Enix's president Youichi Wada told them that Final Fantasy XII will not be coming out in Spring 2005 as previously promised. However, Wada has promised that starting April 1st which will mark Square-Enix's second year, that they will be adopting a One Game Per Month Strategy
This will mean that although no release date has been given, FFXII will be released so that it doesnt have to compete with other Square Enix's top sellers such as the Dragon Quest and Star Ocean series. This may mean a late 2005 or an early 2006 release for FFXII.

[Source]

It appears Famitsu magazine, and the staff at Square Enix have given an informal apology to the press and it's eager fans awaiting the teasers Square Enix has been giving out on the game. They mentioned that they would like to release an update of the game when the weather warms up, and that they've been working night and day on the game to ensure it's quality.

For those of you interested in the NTT DoCoMo's P901i cellphone, you know have another reason to be curious. Owners of the latest Japanese cellphone from the NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 901i range (the P901i) will be able to play the great classic Final Fantasy II on their cellphone, as it comes pre-installed with it.

If you have a different version from the FOMA 901i range then you can also get your hands on this opporunity by downloading Final Fantasy II on your cellphone later this month.

A new Advent Children trailer has been released on the Official Advent Children website which can be viewed from the Official Site here.

Yesterday the Official Advent Children website released an Online Survey for its fans to fill in. The survey is in Japanese, however, an English version has also been added to the site.

[Online Advent Children Survey - English]
[Online Advent Children Survey - Japanese]

As serious as Final Fantasy storylines get, we all enjoy abit of humour to go with it. Check out these two comics involving FFXI created by Ctrl+Alt+Del

[Comic 1]
[Comic 2]

On stage were Square Enix’s own Akitoshi Kawazu accompanied by Shigeru Miyamoto at the NDS press conference in October. “This is the first time that Final Fantasy III has appeared on hardware outside of the NES, isn't it?” Miyamoto commented. Previous attempts to port it to the Wonderswan were scrapped even after its long development period. “Over the past 15 years we've tried numerous times, but as we couldn't get it to work, this time we've decided to make the game for DS.” Kawazu replied.


No gameplay footage was shown, but Kawazu hinted at a few things. "The interface has completely changed," he said. "Please look forward to seeing how the game has been given a new life."


No release date has been set, in fact, not many details were spared about the game at all. All that’s known is that the game will feature both touch panel and dual screen support, in order to collect crystals throughout the game.

It seems Square Enix will be creating a line of merchandise for the upcoming UMD/DVD release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Included in the merchandise launch are new figures of various characters.

[Vincent Valentine]
[Tifa Lockheart]
[Sephiroth]

Final Fantasy XII was to be released for US fans in the end of 2004, but after many delays it was said to be released in February and then again in April. However, unsurprisingly it has been pushed back yet again to October 14th 2005. This is still the un-official date, but with Square keeping a tight lip about its upcoming games, the release date by GameSpot is the closest to a release date we'll get for now.