New Final Fantasy game announced in Japan

[Crossblades]

Info
New Final Fantasy For Mobile Platforms - Wireless News at IGN (http://wireless.ign.com/articles/110/1107550p1.html)

Pics
IGN: Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Dark Screenshots, Wallpapers and Pics (http://media.wireless.ign.com/media/081/081482/imgs_1.html)



Square Enix is going totally retro for its next mobile Final Fantasy game. One look at the visuals for Final Fantasy Legends, and you'll probably be reminded of a classic Super NES Final Fantasy game.

There's good reason for this. Legends is being developed by the makers of Final Fantasy IV: The After. Gamers in America will presumably remember The After as a Wii Ware game, but in Japan it originated as a cell phone title.

Fully titled Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness, Legends is a completely original title from the FFIV The After team. It's being made in the vein of a classic FF game, with 2D sprite visuals, a story centered on basic FF series concepts like crystals and light and darkness, and a job system for character growth.

Like FFIV The After, Legends will be an episodic release. The first prologue episode will be free, with subsequent episodes costing 315 yen to 525 yen.

Japan will get this original Final Fantasy game in September. For international audiences, perhaps Legends will follow the path of FFIV The After and be ported over to Wii Ware.

[Bastian]

I am a million times more excited about this than FF14 or 15 or whatever the newest unreleased one is. I had been very excited for The 4 Warriors of Light, but this looks much more my style. I'm so glad that they finally realized there are fans out there who hate the new 3D styled games and long for the 16bit era FF to return. Yay!

[Del Murder]

Sounds cool, though the grind in FFIV: The After Years did get annoying. Hopefully they will make the battles in this game less frequent.

[Evastio]

Sounds awesome. :D

This is the first original 2D retro FF we've had in a while.

[Elpizo]

It won't come out here on anything I can play it on, anyway, so, not interested. Unless they announce PSN release in Europe.

[Levian]

It'll probably end up as WiiWare eventually, maybe I'll get it then!

[Mirage]

Doesn't look too interesting. I mean, if the gameplay turns out to be better than in FF5, it might be worth a shot, but no one knows yet.

[Evastio]

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100829123723/finalfantasy/images/f/f1/Hikari_to_Yami_no_Senshi_Art.png

More details about the game have been revealed. (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Legends:_Hikari_to_Yami_no_Senshi)

The Warriors of Light and Dark title refers to the fact that the story focuses on two groups: the Warriors of Light and the Warriors of Darkness.

The official site (http://www.square-enix.co.jp/mobile/ff/ffl/) for the game is also up. It confirms that the game will have a job system. Managing and levelling jobs for two teams seems rather tedious, though I'm hoping it'll be easier mastering jobs in this game than in FF5.

I have to say that this game is the closest thing we'll be seeing to an old school FF. Though I think that it's good enough for me, except for the whole potential buying all of the episodes issue.

[qwertysaur]

I like the artwork :p

[Elpizo]

I suppose it was only a matter of time before SE used a dutch word as a character name. But seriously, Nacht? That's plain and simply "Night" in dutch. How can I ever take this game serious should I ever play this when I'm playing as the night? XD

[Depression Moon]

Stopped reading at for mobile phones.

[Crossblades]

Stopped reading at for mobile phones.



Japan will get this original Final Fantasy game in September. For international audiences, perhaps Legends will follow the path of FFIV The After and be ported over to Wii Ware.

[Depression Moon]

still won't be able to get it.

[Bolivar]

I was hoping they'd do a FNC title on the DS or PSP like this, but i guess this is better than nothing!

[Evastio]

The FF Wiki (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Legends:_Hikari_to_Yami_no_Senshi) reveals that defeating each episode will unlock a new job. The jobs are Freelancer (default), Warrior, Thief, Monk, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage, and Summoner.

I should hope that Freelancers are strong enough and don't need abilities from other jobs to be strong. Otherwise, going through your very first episode just to unlock one job only using Freelancers would really suck. Also, I hope each episode isn't that expensive. That would sure suck paying a lot of real money just to have all of the jobs available, when practically every Final Fantasy gives you all the jobs within the game without any additional cost.

Also, anyone think that one or more of the characters in this game will be in Dissidia Duodecim?

[Evastio]

Update on news of the game.

I was wrong about the jobs you start with, fortunately. You actually start with all of the jobs I listed. Either that or buying the main game will let you have access to all the listed jobs (except for freelancer, which you likely start with) at a certain point in the main game. It turns out that the episodes will unlock new jobs besides those eight listed ones, Dragoon being one of the episode specific jobs.

[Bastian]

Of course it will be coming out as WiiWare at some point. And I will be in heaven! Finally a TRUE successor to FF 1-5! This is exactly what I've been wanting for a decade and a half now!

Well. Assuming the story is good. It SHOULD be with Takashi Tokita as the mastermind behind it. But we will see. The premise is interesting at least. I wonder if these Warriors of Light and Warriors of Darkness are in two separate worlds? Alluding to Final Fantasy III?

As for it being episodic . . . Yeah, that's a bit annoying. I'd rather they just release the whole game all together. It's not the price that I'm concerned with (because all the episodes add up to about the price of a regular game these days) it's just my impatience. If I finish a chapter and want to continue on but can't because that next chapter isn't yet released, that's just frustrating.

[AntagonistGB]

Of course it will be coming out as WiiWare at some point. And I will be in heaven! Finally a TRUE successor to FF 1-5! This is exactly what I've been wanting for a decade and a half now!

Silly Bastian, Final Fantasy IX has been available for purchase for over ten years now. :)


I suppose it was only a matter of time before SE used a dutch word as a character name. But seriously, Nacht? That's plain and simply "Night" in dutch. How can I ever take this game serious should I ever play this when I'm playing as the night? XD

Well, the other main guy, Sol, his name means "sun" in a number of languages. Square has a hard-on for these naming schemes (weather names in FFVII-XIII, earth/sea/sky names in KH, etc.) and just figure we're too stupid to notice if they try and be subtle.

Seriously though, between this and 4 Heroes (which I really should get around to picking up) I'm much more interested in Square's side-projects these days than whatever they're vomiting up in the main numbers.

[Bastian]

Of course it will be coming out as WiiWare at some point. And I will be in heaven! Finally a TRUE successor to FF 1-5! This is exactly what I've been wanting for a decade and a half now!

Silly Bastian, Final Fantasy IX has been available for purchase for over ten years now. :)

Oops! Overlooked IX. Yes, I add that to my list of Bastian-approved FF games. IX is amazing, but even IT feels like a completely different beast from 1-5. FFL really looks like it could have been FF7 had they released just ONE more on the SNES.


Seriously though, between this and 4 Heroes (which I really should get around to picking up) I'm much more interested in Square's side-projects these days than whatever they're vomiting up in the main numbers.
Hear hear! I've been way more excited about 4 Heroes than any main FF game in a LONG time (since IX). I still haven't picked it up though. :/ But that's mainly because 1) I'm dirt poor right now, and 2) I think I might be getting it for free. We'll see...

But I hope to god they localize FFL FAST and get it out on WiiWare soon!

[Roogle]

Of course it will be coming out as WiiWare at some point. And I will be in heaven! Finally a TRUE successor to FF 1-5! This is exactly what I've been wanting for a decade and a half now!

I find myself being more excited for this title than other Final Fantasy titles in the works, too. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was the first game that I played consecutively from start to finish in many years, and I look forward to receiving another game in its style in a couple of years.

I assume that these games have a much lower cost of production, so I wonder why they insist on making only a small amount of these?

I do not hold any disdain for the current generation of role-playing games, but I feel like they cannot capture the type of gameplay found in the older games with a modern equivalent. From what I have seen, games like Final Fantasy XIII try to create new systems that are very hit or miss with some people, including me.

[Roto13]

Huh. I didn't know about this. I hope North America gets it in some form or another. (One episodic cell phone port to WiiWare isn't much of a precedent.)

Shame about the graphics, though.

[Bastian]

Shame about the graphics, though.[/COLOR]
Eh? What? It's intentionally retro. Thank goodness. I'm giddy to be playing a brand new 16 bit (32?) era game again.

I'm with Roogle. This Final Fantasy is way more exciting to me than anything since FFVI. The graphics look fantastic. The story sounds interesting. The only thing I'm a little worried about is the lack of Uematsu. I hope that the person they hire in his stead makes an effort to mimic his style or it might be the weak link in the armor.

[Roto13]

Shame about the graphics, though.[/COLOR]
Eh? What? It's intentionally retro. Thank goodness. I'm giddy to be playing a brand new 16 bit (32?) era game again.

It could have been retro without being ugly. It looks like Final Fantasy IV. It should look like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger.

[Omni-Odin]

Ya that looks like arse. Unlike apparently everyone else, I think Square should move the f on. How many times can we re-create the same game? Or add a ridiculous set of After Years for a game that was completely alright to begin with!!?? (That game was annoying and unnecessary.) I do agree XII and XIII were nowhere near as good as some of the older ones, but why not put time and energy into making a great PS3 game. It is possible. Freakin cell phone games? I can't believe they're still doin this crap.

[Roogle]

It could have been retro without being ugly. It looks like Final Fantasy IV. It should look like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger.

Yes, this is true. The truth is that Square Enix can easily make a Final Fantasy game in much higher resolution graphics while retaining the old feel of the original games. This is something that they shy away from in Final Fantasy, but it is something that has worked for the Dragon Quest series for over ten years.

Some good questions to ask is, "How would you feel if Final Fantasy XIII looked like Final Fantasy IV?" or "How would you feel if Final Fantasy IV looked like Final Fantasy XIII?"

[Del Murder]

They did do a 3D version of FFIV, and it was awesome.

[Roto13]

Ya that looks like arse. Unlike apparently everyone else, I think Square should move the f on. How many times can we re-create the same game? Or add a ridiculous set of After Years for a game that was completely alright to begin with!!?? (That game was annoying and unnecessary.) I do agree XII and XIII were nowhere near as good as some of the older ones, but why not put time and energy into making a great PS3 game. It is possible. Freakin cell phone games? I can't believe they're still doin this crap.

I somehow doubt development of this cell phone game is getting in the way of Final Fantasy XV. I like this type of game and I really want to play it, and I like the idea of a retro art style, but there are better looking retro Final Fantasy games to based it on.

[Bastian]

It could have been retro without being ugly. It looks like Final Fantasy IV. It should look like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger.
Ooooh, I see. I suppose the graphical style of VI was more detailed, wasn't it? Maybe because it looks so much like IV and IV happens to be my favorite I love the simpler graphics? But I get what you're saying.


Ya that looks like arse. Unlike apparently everyone else, I think Square should move the f on. How many times can we re-create the same game? Or add a ridiculous set of After Years for a game that was completely alright to begin with!!?? (That game was annoying and unnecessary.)
Except that a lot of us liked The After Years. In fact, it sold extremely well... So, while I understand it wasn't your cup of tea, for a lot of us it was exactly the tea we'd been missing.


but why not put time and energy into making a great PS3 game.
The development team on Final Fantasy Legends has absolutely nothing to do with the console Final Fantasy games. It's the team that just did 4 Heroes, and before that The After Years.


Freakin cell phone games? I can't believe they're still doin this crap.
They do it because it sells extremely well in Japan. Here? Not so much. That's why they keep making them for Japan and then turn them into something profitable here (WiiWare).

[Crossblades]

New chapter released

RPGFan News - Final Fantasy Legends Mobile Gets A New Chapter (http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2010/756.html)



Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness came out for Japanese iMode cellphones a few months ago, but Square Enix has been releasing content for it ever since. A couple of months ago, they added a chapter which introduced the dragoon Barbara. Yesterday's new chapter, titled The Bard's Love, takes place after that one. Sol and his group arrive at a port town named Rusalka where they keep hearing a singing voice at night, and according to tales, the voice belongs to a witch.

Turns out it's actually a bard named Eduardo who meets a mermaid one night in Rusalka and instantly falls in love with her. Once you finish this chapter, which is free, you'll unlock the Bard class, whose only command is the Sing command.

As well, check out our gallery below for five screens and two pieces of art from The Bard's Love chapter!

[Vyk]

Somehow I missed this before. I am intrigued

[Crossblades]

Dark Knight chapter released

RPGFan News - Final Fantasy Legends Mobile Gets A Dark Knight Chapter (http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2011/1015.html)



Square Enix's Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness (for iMode cellphones in Japan) gets a new scenario every once in a while, which continues the game's story and allows the player to unlock a new class upon completion. The second scenario in the Chapter of Darkness is no different. The Dark Knight Volume follows Nacht and his crew as they leave the elf village (which was in the Ranger Volume, the chapter's first scenario) and travel far, now headed towards the dwarf village. There, they hope to recruit some pint-sized allies, but upon leaving the forest near the village, they're greeted with a Dark Knight holding a sword covered in blood.

After players clear this scenario they of course will unlock the Dark Knight class. The Dark Knight Volume is now available for download. For some new screens and art, check out our gallery below!