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More like Lufia: A Whole Damn Series Resurrected. Square-Enix is bringing back the cult favorite Lufia series (known as Estpolis or Estopolis in Japan) in the form of Lufia: A Legend Resurrected (Estpolis Denki: Yomigaeru Densetsu in Japan), a remake of Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. The game will be a 3D action-RPG for the DS, bringing back the series staples of complex dungeon puzzles and customizable spells and special weapon attacks, but forgoing the traditional turn-based system for an action battle system where party members can perform team attacks.

News of this revival dropped last week in Japan's Famitsu magazine, with a second Lufia spot appearing this week explaining the new battle system. Lufia's developer, Neverland Software, whose more recent games include the Rune Factory series, is running the show once again, this time with Square-Enix producing. If Legend Resurrected is even half as fun as its SNES predecessor, then expect laszlow to make this a day-one purchase.

Source: RPGFan, More RPGFan

Yoshinori Yamagishi is a 20-year veteran of Enix and Square-Enix and a major collaborator with the development studio Tri-Ace - Yamagishi has been a producer on every Tri-Ace game since the first Star Ocean. It's safe to say that he is one of the major architects of the Star Ocean series, although he is not one of the three "ace" designers that inspired the company's name upon its founding. And as soon as the PS3 director's cut or "International" version of Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope is released, Mr. Yamagishi is going to distance himself from the series.

Star Ocean was originally conceived as a trilogy of games. Star Ocean: The Last Hope represented a new, different direction for the series. After the release of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for the PS2, Tri-Ace began to branch out and create games not named Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile, with the development of Radiata Stories and Infinite Undiscovery in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Tri-Ace is also currently working on an RPG called Resonance of Fate. According to his recent interview with a Japanese gaming site, Mr. Yamagishi wants to work on new Tri-Ace intellectual property like those three instead of more Star Ocean sequels.

Source: RPGFan

Earlier today, Square-Enix threw a Final Fantasy XIII party, showing off new screens, information, and what have you about Final Fantasy XIII. There was some nifty news, like the announcement of another Final Fantasy-themed beverage ("elixir") and the revealing of a PS3+FFXIII bundle in Japan, but the real reveal was three numbers: 12.17.2009.

That's right, Final Fantasy XIII will be out in Japan on 17th December of this year. That number was accidently leaked by a few different sites over the weekend, but now it's definitely official. FF XIII will retail for 8800 yen, which works out to be about $95 USD or 57 GBP, usually a price reserved for special editions and bundles.

But who cares about those Japanese? When is it coming out in the United States, or Canada, or Europe? Spring 2010. Square-Enix refuses to give Westerners such precise numbers as they did the Japanese, but Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada claimed that FF XIII is aiming for an international release this spring. Details on the specific date are currently nonexistent, but supposedly upcoming. Keep your fingers crossed.

Source: Kotaku, More Kotaku, Guess who?

Earlier today Kaz Hirai confirmed the upcoming release of the long-suspected new, slimmer model of the PlayStation 3 arriving soon in stores worldwide. The new model contains a 120GB hard drive, maintains all the features supported in the 80 and 160 GB versions, and is approximately 30% smaller and 35% lighter than the current models. The slender new version also has a new, modified PS3 logo etched on the side, and comes standard with the new PS3 firmware v3.0.

Sony also confirmed that the $299 price drop will apply to all PS3s, namely the 80 GB and 160 GB units still on the market. There are also rumors of a second slim PS3 with 200 or 250 GB of storage space, but these are only rumors at the moment.

The new Sony PlayStation 3 will be available worldwide during the first week of September, at $299 in the United States and 299 euros in most of Europe.

Sources (with pictures) courtesy of Kotaku:
Original announcement
Price points
Bonus information with pictures

Asteroids, the 1979 arcade and Atari 2600 classic, is receiving an adaptation on the big screen. Universal allegedly won out over three other film studios for the film rights to Asteroids, and the project will be written by Matthew Lopez and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (a co-producer of Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen).

Now, a screen adaptation of Asteroids is particularly intriguing, since the game is completely devoid of storyline, dialog, or even visuals beyond black and white lines and curves. Check out some Asteroids gameplay here: thanks, YouTube! Universal also has film rights to the classic board games Candy Land and Battleship, which are similarly lacking in narrative.

So what will come of this? No director has been named and the screenwriting process has only just begun, so we know next to nothing about the project thus far.

Source: Gamespot, The Hollywood Reporter

That's right, all of you Wii owners out there can see what Cecil and Rosa's son Ceodore as well as the rest of the Final Fantasy IV cast's progeny are up to today, by downloading Final Fantasy IV: The After Years for 800 Wii points (approximately $8 US).

Originally released for Japanese mobile phones, The After Years is the first of an unknown number of chapters of a new adventure. The planet's second moon has reappeared out of nowhere, and a mysterious blue-clad woman is attempting to steal the world's eight crystals. Kain has also exiled himself to Mount. Ordeals, where he hopes to return as someone cleansed of his inner darkness. If you want to find out how all of this new plot goes down, then it's time to get downloading.

Source: Kotaku