Are the days of those beautfiul CG movies in the FF series coming to an end? Perhaps.... Square Enix president Youichi Wada recently said that the number of movies shown in FF12 will be scaled down. He also mentioned that the facial animations for the game would consist of 1,400 polygons.

Wada commented on the PSP (Playstation Portable), saying that he believed the handheld would not be as good as the Gameboy Advance and therefore had no plans to port or remake GBA titles for the PSP. He would not, however, comment on any plans to release games for the system.

Our favourite game company also recently announced its profits for the first half of the fiscal year of 2003/2004. Square announced that they have made a consolidated profit of 1.1 billion yen ($10.07 million US) on the sales of 19.7 billion yen ($180.32 million US) for the first half of the year.

They've released the sales figures for North America, Japan and Europe:

Japan:
Final Fantasy XI Rise of Zilart, PS2/PC, 290,000 copies
Hanjuku Eiyuu Tai 3D (Hanjuku Hero VS 3D), PS2, 180,000 copies
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, GC, 380,000 ...

Attention AOL Radio users!
Square Enix recently announced that it be joining forces with AOL to create an internet radio station on AOL's Radio@AOL, Radio@AOL for Broadband and Radio@Netscape. This station will be available under the Soundtracks and More category.

The radio station itself itself will feature tracks from FF11 (and Rise of Zilart), FF7, FF8, FF9 and FF10. The station is the first one of AOL's radio service to be devoted to a single video game franchise. This service will be available starting in April 2004.

[Source: Square Enix USA] ...

In a recent interview, Yasumi Matsuno revealed the following details about Final Fantasy XII:

- The game will be in 2 DVDs
- Very little love elements in the game
- The game style resembles Vagrant Story
- Huge world map
- Many people will be surprised: "Is this Final Fantasy?"
- Tight controls

Be sure to stay tuned for more coverage of FFXII as Square releases more details later this week on Nov. 19th.

[Source: The Magic Box] ...

Square Enix has opened the official website for its new PS2 action RPG, Full Metal Alchemist, a game based on the popular anime and manga series. You can check out the site here.

The game will be released on December 25th in Japan. No North American/European release info has been given. For those who can't read Japanese and want more info, you can check out Gamespot's info pages on the game here.

[Source: RPGFan] ...

Square Enix is making its first action figure offering since the two companies merged.

At the end of March 2004, Square will release "Final Fantasy Trading Arts: Vol 1". This batch of action figures will be similar to trading cards, meaning that they will come in unmarked packages and you will not know which figure a package contains until you have bought it. The first set will contain the following characters: Cloud, Sephiroth, Rinoa, Vivi, Yuna, Lulu, and one secret character.

The figures will be sold at a price of 500 yen (4.50 USD/6.00 CDN).

[Source: Gamespot] ...

As most of you are probably aware, Final Fantasy X-2 will be released in North America on November 18th, 2003; European fans will have to wait a little longer though as the game will not come out for them until February 26th, 2004. For those of you with the ability to play import games (or who live in Japan), FFX-2 International + Last Mission will be released in Japan on February 19th, 2004.

Fans of FFX-2 will also want to pick up the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, which contains a playable demo and some video extras, including FFX: Another Story in English.

[Sources: RPGFan, FFX2.net, OPM] ...