Ever Heart Odyssey is the name of the game, which is currently in a closed beta over in Japan. Despite the name it appears it has nothing to do with Kingdom Hearts (or Etrian Odyssey, but I'd think that much would be obvious...). The screen shots over at Siliconera show off the character art style which is based off of the avatars from the Square Enix Members community site.
Before you start wondering when this comes out in English, think about how often a Square Enix Cel Phone game comes out here. We got lucky with FF4: The After Years
Source: Siliconera
...I hope you weren't waiting for me to tell you that the game came out this week. Here's some 'news' that's happened since the game came out:
Square-Enix boasts that they've shipped 5 million copies worldwide. Should be interesting to see how that translates to actual sales in a few weeks.
British Final Fantasy Fans hate on the Xbox 360. Though I guess it could apply to Final Fantasy Fans in general...though that Asian guy really seemed into it.
Game Director Toriyama keeps saying that it's too hard to do certain things in HD games.
You know where there's a great place that doesn't complain about Final Fantasy XIII? Our own forums. Quite a few people are giving their impressions as they play, and Cid's Knights are patrolling the threads carefully to make sure we are all safe from spoilers. Go check it out!
...We talked about this contest a month ago, and now a lot of the videos are viewable on YouTube. There's no easy way to search for them, but all videos participating in the competition will have a sort of serial code within their description. Here are a few ones that I liked: FFVIII Parody, Hardcore infomercial (make sure you read the scrolling ticker!), Shameless Cleavage.
Thanks again to Jiro for keeping a sharp eye out
...Website Square Enix Music Online revealed yesterday that Square Enix decided to disband their internal music development team at the end of last year. This follows a string of veteran composers leaving the company in recent months, including the main composer for Final Fantasy XIII, Masashi Hamauzu.
SEMO says that Square Enix will continue to contract future compositions from people they have worked with before, such as Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Shimomura who have long been independant of the company. Read more details at the source
Source: Square Enix Music Online
...In the same Famitsu/Nomura interview in the previous news post, the main focus was on the Kingdom Hearts franchise. In it, Nomura says that the current Kingdom Hearts story is all about Sora, including the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3. He also mentions that he has another game ready in mind for another character that is not Sora. He understandably wouldn't go into it more than that.
As far as Kingdom Hearts games we already know about, Famitsu asks if he's waiting to release Kingdom Hearts III for the KH series' 10th anniversary in two years. Nomura said that's not what he's planning for KH3, but implies that there may be something special for that event.
Source: Famitsu Interview transcript
...Following the release of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep in Japan, Famitsu held an interview with Tetsuya Nomura, the game's producer. Most of the questions were regarding the future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but one statement that's been getting a lot of attention is related to Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which Nomura is also responsible for.
Nomura says that they changed the world map presentation from one style used in a past FF game to another style used in a past FF game (the exact versions were censored in the interview). That change would be major enough to prevent showing the game at the E3 show in June.
Source: Andriasang, Famitsu interview transcript
...[Feb. 10th update: Official Contest Site with details, thanks to our man "Down Under", Jiro]
As of today, FFXIII is exactly a month away from its international release. Retailers are really gearing up for the game, and in Australia they're giving away a Yamaha VMAX motorcycle. To enter, you have to make a 30 second video clip proving that you're the biggest Final Fantasy fan in Australia. For any further details (like who to send your videos to), you'd have to ask your local EBGames in Australia. For now though, have a look at the flyer.
If any of these videos become readily available, you can be sure to see them here.
Source: Kotaku
...The European Playstation Blog conducted an interview with FFXIII Producer Yoshinori Kitase and the director Motomu Toriyama, mostly consisting of user-submitted questions. Find answers to things like why there isn't a Japanese languae track, is there a New Game + (spoiler: no), and one curveball essentially asking about remaking FFVII.
The US Playstation Blog is set to interview these guys as well with more user questions, so you may want to keep an eye out over there too.
Source: EU Playstation Blog
...Technically a rumour because the game was never formally announced, it's no secret that Swedish Developer Grin was working on a Final Fantasy game before they shut down last year. I hinted at the existence of this game in my last news post, but now it appears that actual footage of the game has 'leaked' via a former Grin employee's personal portfolio website. You can view it on Gamevideos.com.
To find out a little more on 'Fortress', which was/is an Ivalice-series game (and a spinoff of FF12 in particular), check out the Wikipedia and Final Fantasy Wiki pages for it.
Source: GameVideos.com, Designer's website
...Edge Magazine posted a rather intriguing interview today with Yoichi Wada (pictured, right), President and CEO of Square-Enix. (The other guy is Phil Rogers, the Eidos boss) It goes a little bit into his professional history, but really gets interesting when he starts to suggest that Final Fantasy may be finished (as it exists now), and that a future Final Fantasy game could be made outside of Japan.
In any case, it's a decent look at Wada's motivations and is something that those of us who like to take a peek behind the industry curtain (and in particular, critics of Yoichi Wada) should take a look at. Check it out at the source below.
Source: Edge Magazine Online, An Audience With: Yoichi Wada
...Reports all around are saying that the Xbox Avatar Chocobo pet has been sent out to all those who participated in the campaign, so check your e-mail if you're one of those that did. As for me, I didn't get one. I don't know why, maybe it's because my account is based in Bermuda. Or maybe this was my chocobo.
If you didn't participate in the campaign but want one (and have an Xbox and too much money), head on over to eBay where there are a chunk of people selling the download code.
...If you have an Xbox 360, head on over to Xbox.com's page for Final Fantasy 13 and register for their promotion there. You'll receive a baby chocobo avatar item, sometime in the future. They mentioned that they're sending out the emails with the download codes 'this holiday season', which could mean now, or next week. Who knows. I signed up for this when the Twitter campaign was still active and I don't have mine yet, so you still have a chance.
Be advised that this offer is region restricted, so make sure you visit the Xbox site relative to your location! Here are some easy links for common regions:
US :: Canada :: UK :: Australia
If you're not from any of those places, just go to Xbox.com first (it will automatically put you in the region you're supposed to be in) and then search for the game.
...I mentioned this before, but this is happening this weekend. If you live in Chicago or can *get* to Chicago for this Saturday, check out the official site for the concert series, or even hop right on over to Ticketmaster to get your tickets. Did I mention that Uematsu himself is gonna be there, and he's bringing some music from Final Fantasy 14 with him?
If you can't get to it this time around, the schedule for next year's tour is also available on the site. Maybe it'll be somewhere a little closer to you. If I can scrape some funds together, I may go to one myself.
...Japanese blog 'Akiba Blog' has taken some photos of the stores in Akihabara set up with FF13 decorations. I was in Japan for the release of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, so I managed to witness (and participate in) one of these 'major game launches' myself. Take a look at them through the 'Source' link below. Be warned about clicking around too much on the site though, there may be some NSFW things.
Source: Akiba Blog
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Not to be outdone by its flashier, more expensive cousins, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for the Wii has revealed its box art. And I might say that they are much more interesting than the FF13 covers. Check them out here - JP :: US :: EU
The US covers for FF13 were also shown, and as expected they are almost exactly the same as the EU versions. PS3 :: 360
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