Just a few days ago, a rumor that Final Fantasy Versus XIII had been canceled was flying around the internet and picked up by several sites. Eventually this rumor found its way to Square Enix's Yoichi Wada, who tweeted that, contrary to popular belief, the game is still very much alive!
Happy to hear it? Come talk about it in our subforum!
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Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, may finally see his newest game out in English speaking countries! His company Mistwalker developed The Last Story but XSEED picked it up for English translations. Earlier today they announced the release date and a preorder incentive via Twitter.
The music seems amazing already from the trailers. Some fans may even recognize the composer. Nobuo Uematsu joins Sakaguchi in bringing back the very roots of Final Fantasy to a new series. If you have yet to see an English trailer, check it out!
The game comes out August 14th. Pre-order it for the soundtrack!
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Confirmed details--like price and release date--are scarce, but they have confirmed that it will come with a few modernized features. It will have 36 achievements, a "Character Booster" that will let you alter the stats of your party, and cloud saves so you can play it from any computer it's installed on.
A little strange that it doesn't seem like it will be released on Steam, which it was initially rumoured to be planned for. Steam already has systems in place for achievements and cloud saves, so it does seem odd that it's "Exclusive" to Square Enix's online store.
The Final Fantasy series is usually generous when it comes to gifting the player transport. The original alone offered three different modes – four if you count walking – including your own pirate ship, a canoe and an airship. The airship has been a mainstay of the Final Fantasy series, becoming an icon in its own right and one of the few linking points of commonality between all games in the series.
The origins of these airships are often plot points of their own, but often relate to another of the series’ icons – Cid. The various Cids throughout the series are (generally) mechanically savvy, having built the airship himself, or at the very least helping to upgrade or fix it for the party. Despite the frequent medieval settings, the airships are often far more advanced than general society would seem capable of producing. Even in the games with a more science fiction oriented setting, the airships still manage to retain some level of awe.
On occasion, the party’s own airship doesn’t dominate the airways. The Red Wings, from Final Fantasy IV, are a fully equipped fleet of airships – Baron’s very own air force. The skies of Final Fantasy IX are populated by all manner of airships, both civilian and military alike.
If it’s aeronautical adventure you seek, then the Final Fantasy series is sure to have a vehicle for you. Let’s take a look at ten innovative, impressive or just plain insane airships (and other flying machines!) in the Final Fantasy series. Keep in mind that there will be spoilers aplenty here, so watch out!
The Lindblum (XIII)
Beginning with the most recent entry, this airship belongs to the Guardian Corps and serves as their HQ and home, as well as a dock for other, smaller craft. The outer “wings” can extend, which is – although unnecessary and gaudy – rather awesome.
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A few minutes ago, we were shown what seems to be the beginning of a new user interface for Final Fantasy XI.
The dev team displayed freely movable, responsive, and mouse friendly interface windows on their live stream from Vanafest, and said that they are aiming to release the final version of this UI around the same time as the new expansion.
From what I could see from the stream, the visual style of the UI was not very exciting, but it is likely that they'll finish the UIs functionality first, for so to make it look pretty later.
Furthermore, the second job is now confirmed, and has been named "Rune Fencer". They will look something like this:
At VanaFest 2012, the development team revaled a new expansion that will be released sometime next year for Final Fantasy XI Online!
The expansion will take players to an area called Audolin in the "near west", across the sea from Tavnazia, and so far, the addition of a Geomancer job is confirmed.
The name of the expansion is apparently "Seekers of Audolin", but the English title might not be exactly the same.
Another new job will be announced tomorrow. In addition to new jobs, new areas, stories, and monsters plan to be released.
"Enjoy the RPG classic FINAL FANTASY VII for PC, now with a host of new online features"
"Whether you’re a seasoned FINAL FANTASY VII veteran or exploring this RPG classic for the very first time, show off your in-game accomplishments and put your gaming skills to the test with 36 brand new achievements to unlock. Share your profile with friends online to find out who is the ultimate FINAL FANTASY fan.
"Find yourself stuck on a difficult section or lacking the funds to buy that vital Phoenix Down? With the Character Booster you can increase your HP, MP and Gil levels to their maximum, all with the simple click of a button, leaving you to enjoy your adventure."
So E3 is finally over and polished and everyone had a joly good old time. What about our beloved Final Fantasy series you ask? Well, let's get some quick hits on information!
Final Fantasy Dimensions
If you were a fan of the older 2D FF games you're in luck! Coming out for iOS and Android this summer is Final Fantasy Dimensions. E3 showed us some screens as well as gameplay! Old school meets new touch screen technology. The story is completely new and original with all the themes that have held true throughout the series such as darkness, crystals, and light!
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
You love the Final Fantasy Soundtracks? You've been to Distant Worlds? You just can't get enough? Square Enix has heard your pleas and made an interactive game called Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy. They showed off a trailer with the adorable graphics. It shows off the three different modes of event, field and battle. Events pertain to the story attached to the songs, field takes you to the end of the level and battle is well battles! Get your tapping and swiping skills up to par before this one comes out.
Interestingly, there is also a survey on the website that is meant to gauge public interest in the title. You can answer questions like how hot you think Agni is and how interested you are in the world. With enough feedback, they could mould this concept into something we would all want to play.
This pre-E3 week has caused a few interesting rumors to sprout up. XIII Versus re-dubbed to FFXV? Final Fantasy XII is getting a sequel of sorts? Let's dive right in!
FFXIII Versus Changed to FFXV? A New Numbered FF?
Rumor:
A recent video has been making the rounds on the internet this week. It seems to be similar footage of Final Fantasy XIII Versus that we've seen in the past but marked with the Final Fantasy XV logo instead. At the end of the trailer, only Wii U and PS3 were revealed as the consoles. It was in the setting of a conference or classroom, claiming to be a pre-E3 conference.
Evidence:
Fact:
Gaming website, Kotaku, reached out about this video to Sqaure-Enix themselves. What'd they say about it?
Originally Posted by Square Enix
We can confirm that the trailer is fake.
Sorry kids! You'll just have to wait longer! If you'd like to chat about it with the rest of us cool cats here at Eyeson, Go here! Hopefully they'll show us some actual footage of Versus sometime soon.
Remember that episodic cell phone game Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness released only in Japan back in 2010? It looked like an NA port would never happen... until now.
Today Square-Enix announced that at E3 they will be revealing a game entitled Final Fantasy Dimensions to release this Summer for iOS and Android, they also offered up a logo for it, featuring the same character art from Final Fantasy Legends. Clearly this new title is simply the NA version, and I couldn't be more excited!
They describe the game this way:
“Drawing upon the roots of the series with such features as beautiful 2D pixel art, job-driven character growth, additional scenarios in which to inherit the jobs of your adventuring companions, and a classic story of light, darkness, and crystals, Final Fantasy Dimensions delivers the best of Final Fantasy, retro and fresh alike, directly to your smartphone.”
With 16-bit based pixel art and music, and a story hearkening back to that golden era, the game sounds to be everything some of us
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Earlier today, the Japanese Final Fantasy website was updated to reflect the series' 25th anniversary. Clicking on the anniversary logo takes you to a 'Discography' of every numbered game's various versions (so far), with a part of Yotitaka Amano's original art peeking out from behind it.
The site will also feature various messages from people associated with the games in the future. The first message is from Square Enix President Yoichi Wada, who says he looks forward to the next 25 years. Translated by Andriasang, one interesting thing he said was, "In order to make the fans happy, we the developer have just one promise we can make. Outside of talent and ability, we will also make sure development is handled exclusively by creators who feel love of the FF series stronger than anyone else." This could be suggesting that there will be Final Fantasy games made by people other than Square-Enix, which the company has dabbled in before.
E3 is next week, so we can likely expect some special
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Game news site Siliconera was teasing over the weekend that they had an unannounced Square Enix game to reveal to the world, and that game is Catacombs. Initially developed by Cavia--the developers of Nier--before they were closed down, it's a 3rd person action game that was set to take place in New York's Museum of Natural History. Their source was someone who worked on the game before Cavia was closed, so they aren't sure if the game will ever be released.
I suggest checking out Siliconera for the news as they will be featuring more details on what makes the game unique through the week. We don't really get to see a lot of what developers abandon, if this indeed doesn't get released.
Along with a new epic trailer came a set of details and statistics from the beta of the next entry in the Dragon Quest franchise. Square-Enix revealed that the game will allow you to register up to 100 friends and that in doing so you can keep track of which server your friends are on and where they are in the game so that you can easily join them.
They are about to begin phase 2.1 of their Japanese beta which involves sending out 3,000 to 5,000 additional test kits. Currently the beta is only being played by 17,000 but they hope to have between 30k and 50k by the beta's end.