Welcome to the Caves of Narshe

I have felt for a while that not enough people go to the fanart galleries here on CoN to show their appreciation for the artists who have contributed here, some of them for going on a decade. I understand that a lot of folks don't feel comfortable leaving comments on art, especially if the folks in question are not artists themselves - as someone who once was in that position of discomfort, I know that it can be a tough barrier to hurdle.

I want all of us to feel like we have some interaction with the artists here, though, because we want to keep our fanart section going and bringing in as many new artists as we can to supplement those who have submitted dozens of pieces. Even if you can't speak to the composition or lighting or media of fanart, the artists still love it when you're willing to at least subjectively decide how you feel about art, both as a whole and on their individual works.

So, starting today, you can now show a little bit how much you care about CoN's artists by voting on fanart and being rewarded with site awards for doing so! We'll keep track of how many ratings you make, and your account will soon be able to show off just how much time you spend looking through our galleries.

A few things you will want to know: one, we've reset the tracking of ratings on all fanart, so yes, you can re-rate fanarts you've rated once before. Also, we don't track the number that you rated, only that you rated. If you really feel that something deserves a low grade, give it - nobody will ever be able to call you out for it. We want honesty in our comments and ratings, because that's what makes them valuable. Finally, you can only receive credit towards site awards by being logged in when you make your votes (by checking the "remember me" box when you log in). If the site doesn't thank you by name after you rate a fanart, you probably didn't get credit. Edit: If your name doesn't show up but you're definitely logged in, though, you did get credit, don't worry.

So, please, use some of your time over the holidays of the next couple weeks to show your appreciation for our artists. You can bling out your own profile a bit while doing so, and then everything's a bit shinier sitewide.

Well, it's not the PlayStation Network. It's definitely not Steam. However, the Square Enix Members site does share one thing in common with those two: it's an online gaming portal and community site that has had personal data compromised by external intrusion so far this year.

Note: You can ignore the more sensational headline in the link above if you're worried about financial information being compromised, if, say, you play Final Fantasy XI - no credit card information was stored on the hacked server, according to Squenix.

At this time, it's unknown how deep the intrusion went, and how many members might have been impacted, or how much data was accessed from those members. Squenix as yet aren't even confirming that data was definitely taken, but, come on, we kind of know how this goes by now. If there's evidence of an intrusion, it's safest to just assume that everything they had got boosted right out the back door.

Is anyone out there even a member of this site? I have been for a few years, but have found it of precious little use for me personally as yet.

Source: Kotaku

With only a couple days between now and the Japanese release of the sequel to FFXIII, I figured I should probably curb the studying and start doing some work around here.

Forgot what was happening? Feel free to check out this recap from IGN. After four hours of playing, the reviewer expressed satisfaction at the amount of exploration available, among other things, and concluded by saying basically the same thing people have been predicting for a while: "Final Fantasy XIII-2 has serious potential. It seems that the developers at Square Enix took consumer feedback seriously when designing this sequel." Of course, potential doesn't translate to anything concrete.

Until only a few days ago, that is, when Famitsu posted its review for FFXIII-2: a perfect 40. The reviewers echoed the praise expressed above (that the developers had taken feedback into account), approving of the time-traveling system, greater freedom, more sidequests and strategic gameplay. They did predict that players may be frustrated by being limited to only Noel and Serah.

What does a Famitsu score really mean anymore? There have been three perfect scores recently: Skyward Sword, Skyrim and now FFXIII-2. This makes FFXIII-2 only the 18th game to receive a perfect score (and it is certainly in good company), but it does seem that Famitsu is become slightly more lenient. For instance, the scores of previous FF titles:
FF1 35; FF2 35; FF3 36
FF4 36; FF5 34; FF6 37
FF7 38; FF8 37; FF9 38
FF10 39; FF10-2 34; FF11 38
FF12 40; FF13 39; FF13-2 40

The record certainly hints at a trend, but who knows if that means FFXIII-2 is unworthy of the score? The reviewers certainly had plenty of good things to say about it.

I predict the fanbase will be divided, as per always, but us stateside folk will have to wait until January 31st to see for ourselves.

Source: IGN, 1UP

Following multiple claims denying any release for Xenoblade Chronicles in the United States or Cananda, Nintendo backed off from that stance when a release date for the fan-favorite Wii RPG infiltrated the internet - April 3rd, 2012. This leak was followed by an acknowledgement from Nintendo in the form of several pieces of Xenoblade Chronicles concept art on Nintendo of America's Facebook page.

This is wonderful news to Wii-owning RPG fans. Xenoblade Chronicles is developed by Monolith Soft, makers of the Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos games for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The company was founded in 1999 by former Square staff that had previously worked on Xenogears and Chrono Cross, among other titles. Xenoblade Chronicles has received rave reviews from critics, with a MetaCritic score of 92/100 and a GameRankings index of 93.82%. RPG Fans in the Americas have been petitioning-slash-clamoring for an official English-language release in North America for over a year now, with no dice until yesterday's leak.

We still have six months before this comes out, but it's a very positive announcement that many gamers have been hoping for. [pretend that this space includes a conclusive, funny, thought-provoking statement and not laszlow drawing a blank from all the painkillers]

Source: GameSpot, concept art gallery from GiantBomb

Final Fantasy XIII-2 inches ever closer, so it's no surprise that the week's news is primarily related to the sequel inbound. Kotaku posted not one, but two articles this week with nothing but new screenshots, and it seems that the hottest thing revealed within (no pun intended) is the new merchant, Chocolina, who dresses up like a chocobo on fire - if the chocobo wanted to show some skin. I'm hoping that getup is all faux chocobo, or else PETA will be on Squenix' case now that they're done with Mario.

The sequel also changes up the battle system a bit, as well as the excellent battle music, from its predecessor. It looks like the changes are subtle - to me, the battles in the video seemed a little faster-paced from what I've seen so far in Final Fantasy XIII, and the addition of quick-time events with chained combos from different party members looks good. It appears that you might be able to change the party leader during combat as well, which perhaps will also mean a change in the "hey, your leader's dead, no reason to keep fighting now game over hahahaha" aspect of the first game.

Also, for some reason, there will be DLC to allow Noel to dress up as Assassin's Creed's Ezio. This paragraph is short because, really, what else are you going to say about that?

An interview by Destructoid with Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama has been making the rounds since being published last week, and it seems to have caught a lot of people's attention for the fact that it seems to indicate the possibility of a Final Fantasy that is a first-person shooter. Naturally, this has a lot of people up in arms (again, no pun intended), but if the quote is correctly written, the interview really says nothing more than "anything could happen at any time." There could just as easily be a FPS Final Fantasy as there could be a cart racer set with Final Fantasy charact... okay, well, that's a bad example.

Last news of the week, breaking just today, is that there actually will be a new action-RPG IP coming from Square Enix in the near future, once they can finish all the hires they want to build the game out. The first image representing this game was released today, and it means very little. If you presented the image without content, I would have guessed Devil May Cry at first. Not sure what that means, to be honest, but, hey, there's a big white owl.

Source: Kotaku, Destructoid

Yep, hot on the heels of the launch to the PlayStation Network, Chrono Trigger is now coming to iOS "next month." An exact release date is not yet known, since it has to go through the iTunes store; the price is still unconfirmed as well (though other releases have been at around the sixteen-dollar price point). Eurogamer also claims that a port for Android is on the way, as well.

The game's going to be released worldwide, and will be available in seven different languages. It is not yet clear from which version this port will be derived, so the presence of the Toriyama animated cutscenes or Nintendo DS bonus content is, as yet, unconfirmed.

Source: Eurogamer.net, Kotaku

In what must seem like breakneck speed relative to the development of Final Fantasy XIII (or, of course, Versus), Final Fantasy XIII-2 is about to be released; it's almost exactly a month away in Japan, and it's due in the West in about twelve weeks. As it approaches, news of preorder bonuses collector's editions has broken, as seems to be the way with all blockbuster releases these days. In Japan, the Xbox 360 version will come bundled with a calendar showing stills and character renders from the game - just the kind of awesome bonus that is good for forever exactly a year. That's all the news from the land of the Big Red Dot, but, here in the United States the collectors editions are getting to be a bigger deal.

For an MSRP of eighty dollars, American gamers will have a crack at a pretty solid collection of goodies. The box art will have some very classy silver-on-white Amano artwork, and inside the package will rest an artbook and a four-CD soundtrack set. Beyond that, there are pre-order incentives being offered (it's not yet clear, but I assume these will be for both standard and collector's editions) at various retailers. I'll ignore for the moment that I really hate the idea of offering different bonuses for different retailers, and I'll just tell you what you can get: At Best Buy, you'll get a hardcover book that tells the story of the time between Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel; at Gamestop, you'll get a code for a DLC costume for Serah; at Amazon, you'll get a bonus boss battle against Omega - no indication if it's a similar Omega to a past Final Fantasy game, but this Omega can also become a playable character. Odds are that everything but the book will be available for free or as paid DLC eventually, though, so it would seem on the surface that Best Buy is the way to go.

Elsewhere, Final Fantasy Type-0 sold a half-million copies in its first week of Japanese release. That puts it roughly on par with some of Squenix' other big-time PSP releases, such as Crisis Core and the first Dissidia. That half-million number made Type-0 the best selling game on the market last week. And it still doesn't have a Western release date.

For those still excited about Dragon Quest X, the first MMO bearing the Dragon Quest name, we got beta details this week. If you're reading this, well, you're not in the beta. At least not yet. This initial round is only for Japanese players, and you must have a Japanese Square Enix Members account. The application process is kicking off soon and is competitive, not first-come, first-served. Also, since there's no such thing as a WiiU yet, this beta will be taking place solely on the current Wii.

Last, for the business-minded folks, Square Enix revised their projected earnings for the first half of the current fiscal year. The net sales only went up a bit, but the FY operating income and net income saw their projections double. Perhaps all is not yet lost for the company that seems to have lost its shine over the last five years or so?

Source: andriasang, Kotaku, 1up

Seriously. It's Halloween weekend, I've been working my butt off all day, and I have a pumpkin to carve. Let's just get through this as fast as we can.

At Nintendo Direct last weekend, a new video of Kingdom Hearts 3D debuted. I understand absolutely none of it, since it's in Japanese and I've never played a Kingdom Hearts game. Sora (and Neku from The World Ends With You) is there, though, and there's some gameplay and a large bouncing hamster-looking thing. And there will be 3D involved. Let your imaginations run wild!

Final Fantasy Type-0 released in Japan yesterday, too, ending months of infotrickle. andriasang gave a helpful final rollup of the most recent information, including details on the growing cast of characters, information about the Chocobo Breeding functionality, airships, and a lot more. They also detailed the odd way in which you'll have to swap UMDs. Essentially, you'll get to play the prologue and the last chapter on the first disc, and everything else on the second disc. The reason appears to be tied somehow to the multiplayer component. If you want to see a chunk of that opening sequence from the first disc, they posted that too.

Finally this week came the announcement that Squenix are teaming with Japanese mobile platform Mobage again. We've talked about their partnerships before, but this one is conceivably a bigger deal, because it involves the company's signature franchise, Final Fantasy. There's not much known about it yet, other than it will be an RPG that connects with your friends, or "where you fight for your friends," which could be construed a number of ways. Square Enix also says that it will connect to Type-0 in some way, and will be available this winter.

There, done. Candy time!

Source: andriasang

Long Roman numerals carry the week this week for Squenix tidbits, with a bit of Arabic thrown in for good measure.

The biggest news coming today is that Final Fantasy XIV is getting a full-on reboot. Such a thing was going to be necessary at some point, as the reaction to the initial version was almost uniformly negative. Yoichi Wada took the original team all off of the project, installed some new folks, and as of today, the game is relaunching in a Version 2.0 mode. The new version completely redoes the way maps are generated to avoid the loudly-decried repetitiveness of art assets. It will have a new graphics engine to support this goal. The UI layer is being redesigned, and the community aspect of the game is being re-engineered to include PvP, revised markets, and in-game mail messaging. Of course, it won't be a free game any more in the next few months, but those are the breaks when you're dealing with most MMOs.

You'll have to wait a while if you want this new and improved game, though; their current development roadmap calls for all these fixes to be complete by the end of February of next year, with "worldless party matching" and porting of current user data to the new servers to be complete by March. That's just for PC - the changes for PS3 won't be available until the end of 2012. Of course, with the bad taste the first version left in everyone's mouths, how many people actually will want this new and improved game anyway?

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is also trudging along. I present to you another long trailer for that upcoming release without comment, since yet again I've failed to finish XIII myself and don't want spoilers. Along with that new trailer comes word that there's going to be a ton of downloadable content for the game - enough that there will be one to two DLC releases every month, though for how long is unknown. Looks like part of it will be in costumes; while it's pretty awesome that downloaded alternate costumes will work even in cutscenes, I think that's going to be a hard sell for most gamers unless the content is dirt cheap.

(By the way, if you love long trailers, check out this new one for Type-0. It's twelve minutes long, for crying out loud. It feels very Crisis Core-y to me, which makes me fairly interested.)

Last this week, check out the gallery of screenshots debuting Square Enix' new game engine, called "Luminous Engine." It is early and it's clearly under the dual clouds of "marketing spin" and "controlled demo," but the company says it can do real-time photorealistic rendering of scenes, supports DirectX 11, and can cut development costs by thirty percent through enhanced development efficiency. Could this mean a new era of promptly-released, enjoyable games? Or just faster-to-market mediocrity? Oh, future, tell us now!

Source: Kotaku, andriasang, Final Fantasy Union

Earlier this week, the Playstation version of Chrono Trigger arrived on the Japanese Playstation Network, "on schedule," according to andriasang. While that's good news in and of itself for Chrono Trigger fans, the official North American Playstation blog announced the very next day that the English-language version would be available on PSN next Tuesday, as well.

Of course, since this is a PSN release, you are in fact getting the Playstation version of the game - while this adds the quality animated cutscenes from that version, there's also a chance that it will come with the gameplay lag common to Square's PSX port from the original SNES version. It also will lack any of the bonus content added to the Nintendo DS version.

In related news, the author of the Playstation blog post also hints very heavily down in the comments at Chrono Cross joining Trigger on the PSN in the very near future.

Source: Playstation Blog, andriasang