Square-Enix has just released what the Lodestone is calling the opening movie for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Check out the official prologue for ARR!
This video actually starts with the awesome finale cutscene of FFXIV 1.0, with Eorzea under attack and the secret of Dalamud revealed. After that scene (around the 5:45 mark), the movie cuts to the reborn realm where our heroes were transported, with their chocobo mounts conveniently waiting for them.
The movie doesn’t add much to previous trailers, but it sure makes me excited to start exploring the new Eorzea right along with them.
...
The accuracy of the common mantra “sex sells” is apparent in all forms of media: from movies and TV shows to magazines to video games. Sexy, scantily clad female characters in video games are widely celebrated, from Lara Croft to, well, the entire Dead or Alive cast. If you were to ask gamers who the most well-known Final Fantasy woman was, the buxom Tifa Lockhart would undoubtedly be a popular response. But these characters have also received criticism for their appearance.
Commonly, a female character’s outfit or pose is not out of any practical reason such as protection, comfort, or ease of movement, but to arouse the viewer. If video games were to be believed, skin-tight and revealing clothing is the most comfortable and practical clothing available for all circumstances, and that bending over sexily is the most natural position for a woman to be in. But if the male characters tried to similarly show themselves off, the results would be patently silly. Why is this any more tolerable coming from women?
If the men posed like the women in comics. "HULK GROPE!"
A common response to these points is that the game developers
...
This weekend UFFsite.net launched it’s Fanzine project, Final Fantasy, Celebrating 25 years. The e-magazine is 129 pages long, revisiting each main Final Fantasy title, Interviewing the current FF Staff, and previewing future Final Fantasy entries.
...
The Speed Demos Archive is once again raising money by speed running through various games very quickly! Gathering donations for the Prevent Cancer foundation. A team of gamers, this year including our very own Denmark, will be quickly working their way through a various amount of games from Jan 6th through the 12th. In fact it's a whole whooping 115 games to be played!
If you donate you may also have a chance to get some prizes! Some of the highlighted games are:
Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Zelda: Wind Waker
Super Metroid, Zero Mission, Metroid Prime 1 and 2
Mega Man 4, 9, 10, and X
Metal Gear Solid 3
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Castlevania 1 and 3
Mass Effect
Portal 2
Doom 1 and 2
Devil May Cry 3
New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii
StarCraft 2
Final Fantasy IX
Of course there are many more than that but as you can see Final Fantasy IX is their very last game. That's right! After a week, FF IX will be there to end the whirlwind of gaming
...
Happy New Year's to you, Eyes on Final Fantasy! Welcome to 2013, and time for a new showcase to enjoy! The last year have introduced us with these weekly showcases featuring some wonderful fan art by some amazing artists. We've also had a special showcase featuring artwork made for our Final Fantasy Anniversary Ciddies, and some of the artists that were featured in past showcases have even joined us in our forums! What a great year it was, and hopefully this new year will be more of the same! 2013 will be a good one, for sure! Enough of that, it's time to check out the first showcase of the year! Let's see what we have for us to enjoy!
A rather nice artwork featuring three of Final Fantasy's finest heroes! We have Squall from FF VIII, Cloud from FF VII, and finally Noctis from FF Versus XIII. They all look badass in this.
I hope you've enjoyed some festivities over the New Year period! EoFF does not get hungover (even if its members do!) and keeps on producing enjoyable events and threads. Go check them out!
Freya created a lovely re-cap outlining some of the best events and goings on on EoFF in 2012.
A hearty congratulations to Shusuika whose brilliant piece "Duck Turks" was declared the winner in the Anniversary Art Contest.
If you didn't know, Sony has stopped production on PS2's recently. No more will be made. It's generation is officially over. Square Enix isn't quite done with it yet! Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin is one last expansion to the MMO for the ps2. This week cover art was released for it. This will most likely be the last new cover art you will ever see for the System.
The Xbox 360 version looks near identical to this one. If you live in the west then unfortunately you wont be able to get the PS2 version as only the PC and 360 version will be available outside of Japan.
Not only that but some screens and trailer were recently released for the Expansion.
Seekers of Adoulin will have two new classes, the Geomancer and the Rune Fencer, as well as the new city, Adoulin. While you wait for XIV to come back out with Realm Reborn, jump back onto XI and join in on the expansion goodies! Expect it out on March 26th 2013!
It is now 2013, and so, as we previously announced, the Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 servers have been shut for good. Now we can only wait for the beta and the promise of the relaunch.
Naoki Yoshida, producer for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, posted a Happy New Year’s message today on The Lodestone. In short, he promises that no effort will be spared to make ARR a great game. He also urged everyone to mark Janaury 7th on our calendars, but would not say for what. Beta tester applications? The anticipated benchmark? A new trailer? All of the above??? We’ll have to wait and see.
Yoshi-P also threw in the following artwork:
You might be wondering what that little purple thing is on the end. Well according to a new post on the developer’s blog, it looks like ARR will include baby behemoths – that are way less scary more cute than their grown counterparts. Here’s some more artwork from the developer’s blog:
Aw, how cute! I’m sure it’ll be at least a year before this little thing could viciously slaughter
It's the new year today. 2013 is finally here! But let's not forget 2012.
This past year has been one of the best on this site in many of its long running years. Square Enix has been giving us the thumbs up: sending us posters, mentioning us in tweets and on their facebook. We held the poster giveaway contest that brought back many of our beloved members as well as graced us with some new ones. With the help of members here on the forums and Pike's help on twitter and facebook we were able to give out all the posters! We were one happy community with all our pretty Amano posters! Final Fantasy XIII-2 Came out this past year and although we visited SE for a first look late 2011 we did hold a giveaway for our members for a collectors edition early in 2012! DMKA won it! Two giveaways in one year! That's pretty lovely for our members. Who knew posting on an internet forum could get you free stuff?
We've created a community art group on Deviantart which helped create our first FF fan art contest! Those artist helped us out to make
...
Kingdom Hearts, if you didn't know is getting an HD remake! Everyone scream in excitement! Done? Good. If you're a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series but weren't able to play all the entries on the various consoles, fear not! Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD remix will contain the HD versions of Kingdom Hearts, RE: Chain of Memories and the theater version of 385/2 Days. It'll be pretty and able to run on the new HD consoles.
Recently released at Jump Festa 2013, the first HD remake trailer was posted. Let's catch up and squeal a bit more.
Sure looks pretty doesn't it? The remix will include skills and gameplay similar to the Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix version to challenge the player more and will include the final mix version of the First game.
Recently released as well were some beautiful screenshots.
I included our friendly final fantasy faces of Squall er... Leon and Yuffie for all you drooling fanboys/girls. Far more screenshots are available if you'd like to check out them out here. They all look
...
There have been many speculations over the addition of a multiplayer option for the new "Tomb Raider" reboot. As of yesterday, it has been confirmed.
The confirmation was given by Crystal Dynamics Global Brand Director, Karl Stewart through Twitter.
No details have been given yet, but it has been said that all will be revealed in the next issue of "Official Xbox Magazine". The retail listing for "Tomb Raider" on the GAME website has stated that the game will feature a "variety of multiplayer modes."
Fans are wondering what these multiplayer options will entail; as it will be the first game in the series to feature them. Some fans are concerned that any multiplayer features may take away from the quality and the intended direction of the game, but many are very excited to learn more about them.
Whatever Crystal Dynamics have designed for this game, it's sure to get people talking and give the franchise a completely new feel.
Square Enix has released a gameplay trailer for their new upcoming title "Gyrozetter". Gyrozetter is a game that is anime meets transformers, that will be released on the 3DS. It's hard to make out exactly how the game will play from this trailer, but there appears to be a world-traversal mode where you control a human boy. There is also an exploration mode where you play as the mech being able to transform into a hot rod whenever you'd like.
...
A new video of alpha footage was released for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. This time we get to take a look at instanced dungeons. Check it out below!
The players here are taking on the Tam-Tara Deepcroft. The video shows the group exploring the dungeon, taking on a variety of foes with the new fast-paced and dynamic battle system, and conquering the dungeon's challenges to keep going deeper. The atmosphere in particular looks great, with the lighting and shadows making it really look like the party is in an underground dungeon.
According to the FFXIV Community Rep who posted the video, this is the last video in the Alpha First Look series. The videos haven’t shown much in the way of content, as the alpha test does not have most of the content available. But they did a great job of showing just how committed the development team has been to remaking the entire game for the better: from the interface to crafting to the battle system. Final Fantasy XIV has truly been remade from the ground up, and so far looks
...
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn producer Naoki Yoshida issued his 40th Letter from the Producer today as 2012 and ARR’s alpha test draw to a close.
Yesterday, the FFXIV development team released the beta roadmap for ARR, and, as I pointed out then, the roadmap is a ways behind schedule. Responding to that lateness, Yoshi-P said that it is because the development team is holding itself to high standards, and not allowing itself to sacrifice quality for expediency – which is what caused the original FFXIV’s disastrous launch. He asked that the players continue to bear with him.
Yoshi-P also noted that the development team is already making changes to ARR based on player feedback from the alpha test. I look forward to seeing some of those changes in action in the beta.
2012 closed the door on the troubled history of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0. As we move into 2013, there is, for perhaps the first time in this game’s history, a future filled with promise. We will have to see if A Realm Reborn
...
It is almost time for the Beta test for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and Square-Enix has just released its new development roadmap. The Alpha test mostly involved stress testing the servers, but the Beta test will involve finalizing the game: rebalancing level progression, the battle system, and crafting, as well as eventually importing FFXIV 1.0 characters and data. There will also be beta schedules for both the PC and Playstation 3 systems.
People eligible to participate in the beta test include: Legacy status holders, service account holders, and those selected through the upcoming beta test application site (due out in early January, 2013), which will screen applicants similar to the alpha application site. Players can apply to participate in both the PC and PS3 beta tests, and those with a Square-Enix Members code that came bundled with Final Fantasy XIII will be given priority for the PS3 beta.
The beta will include four phases to begin in mid-February, 2013, with a 1-2 week debugging transitional period between phases. The first
...
EoFF on Twitter
Today's Poll
