Square Enix released their Annual Report around 24 hours ago and within it was a section titled the "Creator's Voice" where several of the company's key developers, movers and shakers shared their views on the future of Square Enix and games in general.
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Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is so popular they are having to halt sales! Sorta. It seems due to the overwhelming amount of players, servers have developed issues. To try to help get a foot ahead of their maintenance they have halted sales on digital sales of the game. This Notice was issued:
Important Notice About FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn - Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, we are currently experiencing extremely long wait times for users to be able to log in and play. As a temporary measure, we will halt sales of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN’s digital download products so we can accommodate all of those wishing to play. We are working to expand our server capacity in the coming days.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes.
Launches are usually headaches for MMOs, and many fans are frustrated by these issues. Some like to look on the bright side though, launches like this sometimes mean the game is a hit. That's
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Recently at Gamescon in Germany, Square Enix graced us with even more goodies with Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster! With this new release, these popular entries are getting the all star treatment. Including content that was previously only available to Europe and Japanese releases, this new Remaster will attempt to bring new and old fans back into the series with this fun remaster.
A video was shown at Gamescon showing the comparison of SD and HD within the battles. With a focus on Overdrives this video shows off the differences between the editions. More importantly, it shows off the difference in the newly remastered Battle music! Take a look and listen!
Over 60 tracks have been remastered and rearranged for the release in HD audio. You can notice the improvements from this video and I for one squealed in delight with this upgraded track alone.
Are you excited to hear newly remastered tracks to accompany your gaming experience? Look out for Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD
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Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched! If you haven't heard the news, it's time to step into Eorzea! (Oh come on, this is a final fantasy website, i'm sure you've heard the news). With the relaunch of this MMO, Square Enix released a Launch trailer. The trailer gives a glimpse of the story involved with this new game. Check it out!
Although there have been many server issues with this release, Square Enix has kept an optimistic attitude about it. Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida recently sat down with Playstation's official blog for an interview. When asked about future updates, Yoshida had this to say:
We’re planning on doing a major update every three months once the game has been released, and continuously adding large-scale content. Ongoing support for the game will be included in the monthly subscription.
With a plan of ongoing support, this shows that Square Enix is devoted to extending the content available to players as well as actively fixing any issues that may arise. Yoshida went on to explain about the next patch.
We’ve already begun work on the first update that is currently
Square Enix released a video of Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remasters new Audio drama in english this time! With Tidus's voice actor. As we mentioned before, this new drama will come at the end of FFX and FFX-2 in the new HD remaster. Written by Kazushige Nojima, this new 30 min drama will be entirely new to the series. Take a listen!
We heard his name pronounced as Teedus before in Kingdom Hearts but now from this official audio drama we have it confirmed. Sorry Tydus fans, it's Teedus. (I'm a tydus girl myself).
There were also some screenshots released along with the video. It seems that the battle menu has been overhauled. It looks all new and shiny.
The soundtrack has also been mostly reworked. Over 60 songs on Final Fantasy X have been rearranged and optimized for High Definition audio. Which is 2/3 of the soundtrack. That's a lot of remastering.
As we reported before, Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster will be receiving an extra 30 minute drama scene at the end of the games. An exclusive 2 minute video has been released in Japanese to give a hint of what the scene will include.
With new voice actors as well as the original voice actor of Tidus, they talk briefly of their story. Take a listen: (it's in Japanese though)
Courtesy of Siliconera we have a translation for you!
Tidus: “It’s been two years since Spira entered the Eternal Calm. I was given a new life. For an entire year, I was able to walk alongside Yuna. It was fun. It really was.”
Chuami : “Kurgum and I were walking around the Bevelle stadium road, formerly known as Mika Road. The stadium that should’ve been completed by now is still under construction, so I wonder if the tournament will actually take place here. If not, I wonder how the Spira council will take responsibility. Oh well, it doesn’t matter to me. I have nothing to do with it. The only issue for me is the large crowd ahead,
Gail Simone has been speaking to Kotaku recently with regards to the upcoming Tomb Raider comic which is in the pipeline for next February. Simone is working with Dark Horse comics to help flesh out Lara's story in graphic form.
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It was teased that Lightning from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII would have a Miqo'te outfit from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Square Enix released promotional images on their site to show the outfit off!
The Miqo'te outfit will give Lightning the victory pose from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as well as the sound effects that come with it. The Cloud Strife outfit from Final Fantasy VII will also do the same. During E3 there was a glimpse of a Yuna outfit from Final Fantasy X. This outfit will most likely have the similar victory pose and sound effects attached to it.
What do you think of all this cross promotion and fan service to older fans? Are you excited for all the outfits?
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Square Enix was nice enough today to grace us with a new Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix trailer! This time around it's an introduction trailer. Many fans have been with the series for the past 10 years but others may just be joining us. Square Enix made a trailer specifically for those new fans to be introduced to the series, characters, and story. Take a look!
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Sony just released a comparison video of the beginning Zanarkand scene to show the difference between the SD version of Final Fantasy X and the HD version of the remastered edition. The video is in Japanese still. It's the intro to the game so no spoilers will be shown. So if you're late to the Final Fantasy X party you won't have anything spoiled for you. We recommend you try the game if you haven't! If you can wait for the full HD glory, it'll be a long decade of waiting ended. Check it out!
This video shows the improvements they've made to Final Fantasy X, some more subtle than others. If this remaster proves to be popular, Yoshinori Kistase has said they may look into remastering other FF games as well. The limited edition artbook was also announced with this video. The game will be released for the Vita and Playstation 3 at the end of the year at a price of $39.99 according to Sony.
What do you think about this comparison? Do you think they improved on the graphics?
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Good news if you have both a Vita and a PS3. At the recent Japan Expo 2013 in Paris, Yoshinori Kitase confirmed a much wanted feature for the new Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster: You can use the same save across platforms!
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That's right! Following speculation from the leaked achievement lists for both Final Fantasy VII and VIII the PC version of Final Fantasy VII has now (finally) made it's way over to Steam.
This is the same version that Square Enix released on its own digital dowload store a few months ago. Saves can now be stored on the Steam cloud and have spawned all sorts of "Cloud Saves" references! The character boost functionality is also there allowing you to fully pimp out your roster from the word go if you're only interested in the story.
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According to a Jump article there will be 30 minutes extra added on to Final Fantasy X in the HD remaster by series writer himself Kazushige Nojima. This will be added in to the end of X with a new cast of characters and voice actors. So far this is the most information we have but it's rumored that in the next Famitsu there'll be more details!
Final Fantasy X|X-2 remaster is due out later this year for the Playstation 3 and the Vita. If you missed the E3 trailer don't forget to check it out as well!
After the last weekened of BETA Phase 3, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has now secured a milestone of having 1 million players playing the game. I'm pretty sure most of those players came from EoFF!
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