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Of course, Square Enix was quite involved in press conferences yesterday, where Rise of the Tomb Raider got a fair bit of air time with live gameplay (Microsoft) and the announcement of a Final Fantasy 7 remake, as we've already reported, generated a whole lot of buzz (Sony). Today, however, Square Enix had their own dedicated press conference at E3, which brought some long-awaited news, some surprises, and some vague announcements. Here's our play-by-play recap.

Phil Rogers (CEO for the Americas / Europe) kicked things off on a serious note by reflecting on the company's new attitude, one which began with the A Realm Reborn and has been evident with the handling of Final Fantasy XV (which will not be heard from again until Gamescom, as we learned in the last Active Time Report). Square Enix, he said, is more committed to gamer feedback and satisfaction than ever before; he continued to insist that today's conference would prove that the company is "unique in the industry in terms of the variety and depth of the experiences we create."

Next up was a trailer for Just Cause 3. There wasn't much new to say: with a December 1 release, at this point it's just a waiting game. Blow stuff up. For liberty. And stuff.

Yosuke Saito (Business Division 6 Director) took the stage next for the surprise announcement of a new NieR game, as yet unnamed. A little bit of animation and a series of art pieces followed. In keeping with the world of the first NieR game, these alternated between luscious natural environments and the crumbling relics of an industrialized civilization gone before. Square Enix will be working with Platinum Games on the title; Yoko Taro will be directing. Taro appeared onstage with a mask resembling Emil, a character in the first NieR game. While the title is still very early in development, fans of the original will be happy to know that the sequel will have the same composer.

Rise of the Tomb Raider was up next, and though the game has already had some time in the spotlight at E3, director Brian Horton talked about the quality of Lara's character model, which accumulates scars, dirt, and snow over the course of gameplay. The game is due out November 10. After Horton, Patrick Naud (head of SE Montreal) introduced Lara Croft Go, a mobile title in the vein of the studio's Hitman Go. Naud promised the best elements of Tomb Raider distilled into a simple yet engaging game with, if I may add, a neat-looking art style.

Shinji Hashimoto (Kingdom Hearts series director) was next up, introducing.... the Final Fantasy 7 trailer shown last night. He stuck around to introduce..... Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key, a mobile title in development for Android and iOS. Just as the disappointment became palpable, Hashimoto introduced what fans had been hoping for: Kingdom Hearts 3. A trailer showcased gameplay and confirmed the appearance of elements from Disney's Tangled and the rock titan from Hercules. Aside from some dialogue reflecting on the legendary Keyblade War, there were no plot-related details.

This was followed by a replay of the trailer for World of Final Fantasy, which was also shown at Sony's event last night. The game's director, Hiroki Chiba, explained that his inspiration for this title was to create a game that would make Final Fantasy available to gamers of any age and any gender. We're pretty sure it is being developed specifically for CoNtoddler, but Square Enix was not available for comment. Expected 2016 release.

Hitman, the sixth installment in the series, was revealed at Sony's press conference yesterday. It got slightly expanded treatment today, with lots of emphasis on the openness of the game world and the myriad possibilities it allows for uniquely executing hits. Some hits, it was revealed, will only be available once for a brief window of time and never again, further raising the stakes of execution. Pun intended.

Next was Star Ocean Integrity and Faith, the fifth title in the Star Ocean series. After replaying the original announcement trailer, director Shuicki Kobayashi took the stage to show the title's first gameplay trailer. He emphasized seamless exploration to battle transition and said that, in an effort to respond to criticism of Star Ocean 4 being too cinematic, the game would employ a balance of "dynamic cutscenes" interwoven with gameplay in order to enable the same degree of storytelling without less interruption from more traditional "static cutscenes." Kobayashi stressed that the final project -- with an anticipated 2016 release on PS4 -- will run at twice the fps as today's trailer.

After this, we heard from David Anfossi and Mary DeMarle of Eidos Montreal on the highly anticipated Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Set in 2029, two years after Human Revolution, tensions between augmented and unaugmented humans have heightened even further, to the point of a "mechanical apartheid." As established in the game's announcement trailer back in April, Adam Jensen is returning as the game's protagonist. Today, however, we saw first gameplay trailer, featuring additional augmentations, upgradable weaponry, and some pretty graphics. Mankind Divided is anticipated for an early 2016 release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Finally, Yosuke Matsude (Square Enix President) gave a bit of air time to the already-announced Final Fantasy Portal App, available this summer, that will apparently provide news on the series. Much more mysteriously, he made one final announcement: an all-new RPG project from a new studio created specifically for the purpose, Tokyo RPG Factory. All there was to show were a few art pieces depicting a "delicate and wistful" atmosphere, the codename "Project Setsuna," and a projected 2016 release.

And with that, the 70-minute conference concluded. All in all, it is safe to say that 2016 is looking to be as busy a year for Square Enix as any.

Source: Square Enix Youtube Channel

So, they showed nothing on FFXV? Nothing at all?

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 20th June 2015 23:19)

So, they showed nothing on FFXV? Nothing at all?

Correct, they announced a couple weeks ago that with Episode Duscae 2.0 coming out, they weren't going to be ready to update at E3. They're holding off until Gamescom. See: http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/news/article/...0-type-0-to-pc/

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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Quote (Rangers51 @ 21st June 2015 10:49)

Quote (BlitzSage @ 20th June 2015 23:19)

So, they showed nothing on FFXV? Nothing at all?

Correct, they announced a couple weeks ago that with Episode Duscae 2.0 coming out, they weren't going to be ready to update at E3. They're holding off until Gamescom. See: http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/news/article/...0-type-0-to-pc/

It's looking like Gamescom has the potential to be a big event for Squenix. Usually, I would expect them to wait for Tokyo Game Show, as they've traditionally done, but if they've looking to release big material at Gamescom they may accompany it with expanded details on the new Nier game or the unnamed new project they announced (the Tokyo RPG Factory one). We also have a surprisingly small amount of Star Ocean 5 info for how far along they say the game is, so it's possible we'll get a more thorough look at that as well.

Or, you know, they might only show FFXV and leave everything else for TGS anyhow.

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