News

After months of speculation on the part of its fans, Squenix has finally confirmed the upcoming North American release of three legacy Dragon Quest titles on the Nintendo DS.

Remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI are in the works, and North American audiences can expect to see the first of these, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, on 16 September 2008. The three remakes will feature updated 3D graphics in a similar vein to Final Fantasy III DS and the upcoming Final Fantasy IV DS remakes.

Source: GameSpot

When the Castlevania series hit the PlayStation 2, a divergence occurred. Konami struggled to get 3D vampire killing just right on the consoles, but continued the beloved Symphony of the Night style on Nintendo's handheld machines. Fans of the castleroid style of Castlevania games will not be disappointed. A third DS Castlevania title has been announced and rated by the ESRB.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has been registered as a trademark in the United States, and a rating of T for Teen now appears on the ESRB website. Furthermore, the name has been registered in such a way as to imply that there will be an online component--hardly surprising, given the nature of the DS and online capabilities employed in the past for DS Castlevania games.

We don't have a date, an official comment, or much else (though I believe Lasz had some maybe screenshots several months ago), but we DO have a reason to rejoice.

Now, tell me that Alucard is returning as the hero, and I'll die happy.

Source: GameSpot

With the 20th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series just a few weeks behind us, it's high time we had something great to mark the milestone. I'm not talking about a $40 rerelease of the original game--I want something to sum up and celebrate the entire series.

And now, thanks to a PM from Ronin, I have something specific to lust after. Square-Enix has released a 20th anniversary book to collect information and images from the past two decades worth of Final Fantasy games. For about 23 USD + shipping, Amazon will send you 207 pages of images, interviews, and never-before-released content.

Of course, you'd have to be able to read Japanese to fully appreciate the content. This book joins the long list of Square merchandise that is solely, or at least primarily, available to Japanese customers. If you want to feel better about that, go to the product page and make up comments to go with those 2/5 stars reviews.

Thanks again to Ronin for the heads up!

Source: QJ.net

One of the CoN's affiliates, SquareSound, has announced a contest for the musically-inclined. The contest, A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu, will focus on arrangements of the many works of everybody's favorite video game composer.

Details are provided in the link, but, basically, all you need to do to enter is submit a MIDI or MP3 of your arrangement of one of Uematsu's works. Note that this isn't limited to his compositions for the Final Fantasy series!

And here's the part you've been waiting for: the prize. The creator of the winning composition will receive two tickets to the upcoming Distant Worlds concert where they can meet Uematsu in person!

The deadlines are 14 January 2008 for registration and 8 February 2008 for the completed submission. Hop over to SquareSound for more information.

...but don't get too excited.

The continuation of Cecil's epic story probably isn't going to be within your reach. FFIV: The Big Whale Flies Again (okay, I completely made that title up; the real title is Final Fantasy IV the After - Return to the Moon) will appear in 2008 as a cellphone exclusive.

The story will follow the travails of Theodore, a young boy descended from Cecil's noble line.

Hey, at least we're getting FFIV DS, right?

Source: neogaf

Thanks to Crazyswordsman for the heads up!

My first reaction was a general blah to news of a sequel to any Final Fantasy game. Generally speaking, I don't think there's much room for two epic, world-shattering adventures in the same setting... and we've already seen the IQ-lowering power of FFX-2.

Then again, FFIV did leave some room for further development, and it sounds as though we're leaving the previous cast of characters behind. What do you think? Are we missing out on something?

Still no official announcement from Squenix, but GameStop claims that Crisis Core will ship to US customers on 28 March 2008.

Hopefully, this means that something more specific will be coming soon.