Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima left his job at Square Enix Japan last month. The 39-year old had part in Square's first production team, working on stories and scenarios for FF VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2 and Kingdom Hearts. These aside, he was also the director of the strategy RPG Bahamut Lagoon and worked with Akitoshi Kawazu on Racing Lagoon.

[Source: RPGFan] ...

Square-Enix has launched the official site for Kingdom Hearts: Chains of Memories for the Game Boy Advance.

Currently, the website contains information regarding the story, the world, the battle system, and events. Also, two official wallpapers are available for download. To visit the official site, please click here.

Kingdom Hearts: Chains of Memories will be available in Japan during 2004.

[Source: AllRPG] ...

According to the official Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children website, a major update is due to be posted in the very near future - possibly this week. As of yet, there are no clues as to what this update is, but it sounds quite important. Take a look at the official website yourself by clicking here.

The movie is set to be released on DVD, but there are some rumours about the possibilty of downloading the movie from the official site. The movie may also be shown at selected cinema screens, but as of yet, nothing has been confirmed.

[Source: Final Fantasy: Advent Children] ...

Ziff Davis Media have decided to give away some very nice FFX-2 merchandise. There's quite a lot of good stuff to win in this competition. Take a look:

Grand Prize: Final Fantasy X-2 Game for PlayStation®2
3 Final Fantasy 1/10 Scale Action Figures:
Yuna, Rikku & Paine
Final Fantasy X-2 Official Strategy Guide
Final Fantasy X-2 Poster

Ten Second Place Prizes: Final Fantasy X-2 Game for PlayStation®2

You can click here to enter the contest.

[Source: Ziff Davis Media] ...

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 ...

Square-Enix has announced that they have sold a total of 1.55 million copies of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA worldwide. 460,000 units have been sold in Japan, 760,000 units in North America and 330,000 units in Europe. In case you didn't realise, this is a very good number for Square-Enix, and it's definitely a good sign for their future.

Also, on a side note, Square-Enix has sold 51,291 units of their Game Boy Advance action adventure game Slime Morimori Dragon Quest since it's release on November 14th of this year. Again, another good sign.

[Source: The MagicBox] ...

According to Square-Enix, their Internet service (Playonline) has smashed through the glass ceiling by reporting a total member count of over 400,000 users. That's quite an impressive number of players for a
service which hasn't been in existence for all that long.
The release of the PC MMORPG Final Fantasy XI
in the USA added over 100,000 users, and more are joining every day.

Two more titles, Ambrosia Odyssey and Front Mission Online, will become part of the Playonline service next year. These should again increase the already huge member count.

[Source: Optigamer] ...

A limited edition Official Final Fantasy X-2 Signature Series Strategy Guide has been released by Bradygames.

The contents of this guide are as follows:

* One of three covers; Paine, Rikku or Yuna.
* A white slip-cover dusk jacket with Yuna on the front.
* Nearly 300 pages.
* A double-sided poster.
* An exclusive Artbook that slips into the case.

Click here for more information.

[Source: AllRPG] ...

An all-star cast of talent from Final Fantasy’s past gathered today in Tokyo to promote the imminent release of FFXII. Lots of details concerning the game were revealed by those present, including:

- The World of Ivarice (the same world as Final Fantasy Tactics, but a different time period), dominated by two rival empires: Arcadia and Rosaria. The two sides have been entrenched in a bitter war. A tiny kingdom, Dalmasca, has been caught in the middle of the conflict due to its strategic importance to both sides.
- The lone survivor of the Dalmascan royal family, Princess Ashe, joins a resistance force to free her country from the seemingly invincible Arcadian forces. Despite the will to emancipate her kingdom, the task does prove impossible.
- A young man named Vaan, who has lost his parents in the war, meets Ashe, and their encounter changes the entire world.
- FFXII will contain an equivalent to FFT’s Judges: the Knights of Terror.
- The game will introduce different languages that are spoken by different races, and will also include unique ...

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] ...

Final Fantasy X-2 finally went on sale today, and it's being lapped up by fans and non-fans alike. The game (as we already know) is quite a departure from the normal style Final Fantasy games we're used to, and it also contains various different endings.

FFX-2 is retailed for $49.99 in North America. As a side note, if you are interested in receiving promotional items along with your purchase of the game, outpost.com (i.e. Fry's Electronic) store is offering FREE official FFX-2 promo posters.

The launch of Final Fantasy X-2 is supported by one of the largest television advertising campaigns to date for the series, which will kick-off December 1 and continue through January. The spots will run in various time slots on target network, cable and syndicated programming such as Comedy Central, MTV, Spike TV, WWE and UPN (WWE Smackdown).

The combined print and online advertising campaigns will reach millions of gamers over a course of three months, from November through January. A playable demo, a short movie titled "FINAL FANTASY X-2: Prologue," developers' interviews and an in-depth look at ...

IGN has released a review of the North American version of the game, and boy, did it score highly! IGN has given FFX-2 a whopping 9.5 out of 10, and has described the game as "one of the PlayStation 2's best videogames yet".

Check out the six page review by clicking here.
Also, take a look at the screenshots and
movies from the game by clicking here.
(You'll need QuickTime Player to view these movies).

X-2 is also beginning its advertisement campaign across America and Europe in order to inform fans and non-fans alike that it is coming! X-2 is sponsoring "Armageddon"
on December 15th, which is an event promoted by
World Wrestling Entertainment. This type of event usually gets a lot of publicity, so Square-Enix are really going the right way with this campaign. Final Fantasy and Wrestling...who would have thought it possible?

[Source: IGN] ...

Nintendo of America recently announced - or rather, reconfirmed - that Square Enix's multiplayer GameCube RPG Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles will be released in North America on February 9th, 2004. Along with this announcement, the North American packaging has finally been revealed as well. In addition to giving a good look of four characters in the game, it also reveals the game will be carrying a "T" (Teen) rating.

Take a look at the logo here and the box art here.

[Source: RPGFan] ...

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] ...