Tietra would celebrate her birthday today. But she can't. Because she's dead.


And that's where we come in to remind everyone of this poor, unfortunate soul! Tietra is the sister of Delita Heiral, the Deuteragonist/Antagonist/Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain/je ne sais quoi of the game. Needless to say, her death is a big turning point in the game, though little attention is given to her as a character. But what we do learn of her is pretty sad.

Tietra's only friend was Alma Beoulve, Ramza's sister who, just like her brother, treats Tietra on equal terms depite her being of lower birth. Due to the kindness of Alma and Ramza's father, Lord Barbaneth, Tietra and Delita could enjoy a certain degree of luxury, and thus Tietra could attend the academy with Alma. Sadly, though she hid the fact from her brother, she was not treated well by her other peers, and her ...

So the day has finally come. The day when, as some more cynical individuals may say, we grant attractive people gifts in exchange for sexual favors. Most of us just call it Valentine’s Day and some of us treat it as a special day when we celebrate that crazy little thing called love. But did you know February 14th is also the day Final Fantasy Tactics was released in Japan? Yes, this game turns 13 today. I feel old.

I played this game very many years ago, back when I was still a kid, and I was already quite appreciative of it. But it wasn’t until recently when my wife played FFTA that I noticed may have much more to do with Valentine’s Day than is initially apparent. I have this theory that every Final Fantasy at least, if not every JRPG (or we could even go even broader than that, but I’m not that bold), is in essence about love. Or at the very least, love is to some degree important to the experience, if not to the plot.
So starting ...

Winter is finally letting go, so the days aren't as cold anymore and my hands are no longer sand paper. Might have to do with the fact that I decided to ditch the iPhone in favor of my beloved little black DS Lite to play the Zenithian trilogy of the Dragon Quest series. Though that of course meant I had fewer opportunities to play, I'm glad that I've rediscovered the joy of playing a good old classic JRPG cuddled up in my chair under a warm blanket. Although this time around, I'm a bit less enthusiastic.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen tells the story of the Chosen Heroes who are destined to save the world from an evil overlord. By now, you can probably see a pattern. However, as Dragon Quest is not as stale a series as many would have you believe, there are some interesting twists to this story that are still pretty groundbraking. The story is ...

Today is the day everyone's favorite gambler, Setzer, celebrates his birthday! ...

As the skin on my hands gets drier and drier, I just have to ask: “why do I keep doing this to myself?” The winter is a terrible season for mobile gaming, even if you’re only using one hand. And yet, I just can’t stop. I did not expect to get this invested after that one little iPhone game. It was just a way of coping with the daily commute. But here I am now, with sandpaper skin, blown away by Dragon Quest III. ...

Earlier this week, Final Fantasy Explorers released in the US, receiving mixed to positive reviews on metacritic. Today, this multiplayer adventure is also available in Europe, so if you want to connect with some friends on another continent, you can do that now! Just make sure they have the same game. It really doesn't work otherwise.

Final Fantasy Explorers features a Monster Hunter-esque action RPG battle system with 21 jobs available for you to customize your character, alongside cameos from classic FFs including heroes, monsters, and Eidolons. While the game can be enjoyed as a completely single-player experience, the multiplayer aspect - both local and online - is a big drawl

Are you getting FF Explorers? Or maybe you have it already? Eager to play with your friends overseas? Let us know! ...

A new spin-off entry in the Dragon Quest series called Dragon Quest Builders came out in Japan today for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and the Playstation Vita.

In a unique twist, the game can be best described as a Dragon Quest/Minecraft hybrid. Indeed, the game uses a voxelated graphical style reminiscent of the popular sandbox game, and it involves gathering materials such as slime remains.

The game is set in Alefgard and follows the bad ending of Dragon Quest I, wherein the protagonist accept's the Dragonlord's offer to rule together, but is in fact tricked by him and killed, resulting in monsters overflowing the world. Our new protagonist sets out to set right what once went wrong, and that's how Dragon Quest Builders begins.

There is no official release date in the West for this game, and there have been no announcements in that regards so far. What do you think: will this game get released here? Does it look ...

Ten years ago, the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII was still in full force, whetting our appetites and making all nerds speculate whether this could mean that an actual remake is in the works.

Years later, the compilation seemed to fizzle out after just three games (one of them Japan-only) and a movie, but after all this time we're getting a remake after all! Happy day! Still, before we had the remake to be excited about, we could play Crisis Core and the game we're talking about today which is Dirge of Cerberus.

Dirge of Cerberus is an interesting little game as it is the only game in the Compilation that is a direct sequel to the original game. It stars Vincent Valentine, one of the most popular characters from FFVII, as he deals with his inner demons and saves the world from a new threat that is actually much less new than we initially expect. The story may leave a lot ...

As the cold, wintry days grew shorter and colder, and the bus drives took longer and longer (because bus drivers are always somehow surprised by the arrival of winter, despite the fact that it snows every friggin’ year in here), I had more time and incentive to game on my phone. As luck would have it, the follow-up to that little game I reviewed a while ago was also available for download on iOS. And so I downloaded it, and got myself hooked yet again.


Dragon Quest II is a sequel to the original game, taking place a hundred years later in the same world. After the son of Erdrick, the hero of the first game, completed his quest by felling the evil Dragonlord (his Dragon Quest, if you will… see what I did there?), he went on to explore the rest of the world, establishing new kingdoms throughout. For a century, the world has enjoyed peace, with the original hero’s offspring spreading ...

This week, as reported by Siliconera, Hajime Tabata has disclosed some new information regarding magic in Final Fantasy XV. Apparently, the system is pretty deep - spell effects will be different depending on the area where it's cast, so while casting a Fire spell in a dark, moist cave won't be too harmful, doing it on a bright, sunny day in a grassy plane is probably something you'd rather avoid, since you can even hurt your party members with the huge flame that will inevitably appear.

Another interesting element to the scan is Noctis fighting a Magitek armor. So now we can rest assured that, yes, Magitek armors are still there. So while there may be no trace of Stella and switching party members, at least this element of Versus was left in. Will we be able to ride them, though? Who knows. ...

Since Final Fantasy Explorers is coming out next week (January 26th and 29th for US and EU respectively, of course ), it's time to get hyped up! Square Enix have provided us a new trailer, filled to the brim with action-packed monster fights!


What's interesting is that we get more details about how the classic Final Fantasy characters factor in the game. Apparently, thanks to magicite quests assigned by moogles, you can gain the ability to turn into one of the iconic characters from Final Fantasies IV through XIII during something called Trance Mode. How exactly that will work we have yet to see, but the wait won't be long since it's less than a week until we can finally get our hands on this!

Though the trailer presents only Cloud, Yuna and Lightning, there are actually many more FF characters to play as, including Cecil, Tifa, Squall, ...

Around thirty years ago, most people would scoff at the notion of video game music being a valid form of art. But now things are different. We have entered an age when not only video games themselves are being accepted as an artistic medium, but even their specific elements – music included – are not denied their value. It is no understatement that a large part of this change in attitude can be attributed to the influence of JRPG composers, a lot of whom have worked for Square Enix at least for some time. So let me start this article series, dealing with those very individuals, by talking about the most famous female video game music composer in the world.


Born in 1967 in Japan’s Hyōga prefecture, Yoko Shimomura exhibited a great interest in music from an early age. Around the age of four or five, she started taking piano lessons and soon started even composing her own melodies. She graduated from the Osaka College of Music in 1988, majoring in piano. Though she was set to begin her career as a piano tutor, she instead decided to follow her passion for video games and after sending in samples to multiple companies, she was taken ...

On Sunday, January 10th, the world suffered a terrible loss. Choosing the words to describe how powerful David Bowie’s presence was in the artistic world, is difficult. At least to me. Which is why I’ll use these paintings to illustrate what I’m talking about. Because Bowie influenced more than music, and these pictures are one of the things that connect Bowie to Final Fantasy.


Yoshitaka Amano needs no introduction. A world-renowned artist with a distinct style, he is famous for combining elements of art nouveau and traditional Japanese woodblock prints. In our circle, he is known as the Final Fantasy artist. He has served as the lead character designer for Final Fantasies I through VI. Of note is the design of the Emperor from Final Fantasy II, who is explicitly modeled after Bowie’s portrayal of Gareth the Goblin King.

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Final Fantasy Tactics is an undisputed classic, if a bit obscure. Still, those who have played it are sure to remember Ramza Beoulve, the game’s protagonist, who has become the template for all Matsuno protagonists – strong, yet kind, and always trying to do what’s right, even if he has to suffer for it. While Ramza’s name and birthday can be changed at the start of the game, his default birthday is, apparently, January 12th! And that’s today!

So happy birthday, Ramza! Here’s a couple pieces of trivia to commemorate this occasion.

• Though Ramza’s appearance does not change base on class, it does change over the course of the story twice. This is the most out of any Final Fantasy, excluding other titles with job systems.
  
• Despite him sporting three outfits, the added FMV cutscenes in The Wart of the Lions in chapter 4, where he should be wearing his final outfit, still present him as wearing the black armor

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