News

Let me preface this two ways: first, by saying that there's some real editorial in this news, and second, by saying that I actually don't have an issue with the pricing Square Enix put on some of their mobile games. Despite the market saying that games need to be free or under a few dollars for mobile markets, I think that games with real depth and quality shouldn't sell themselves short for a few bucks. I personally don't see an issue with $15 - $20 for games like Final Fantasy I or Final Fantasy Tactics or Secret of Mana; if I played more games on the go (and didn't already have FF1 and FFT for my PSP), I would strongly consider buying at those prices.

That said, Final Fantasy Dimensions recently released at $30, and the new Demons' Score game mentioned earlier today came out at $44. Those are serious console-level pricing schemes for games that are simply not console games, and a lot of people take offense to that level of wallet-lightening. Very few, if any, other developers take this pricing model, and that is why in his article today, Kotaku writer Jason Schreier calls this phenomenon the "Square Enix Tax."

Schreier interviewed Squenix headquarters via email, in an exchange published on Kotaku today; you might not be surprised to know that the company largely defended their price points and incremental cost models, and do not seem to see much middle ground between the undergrowth of sub-five-dollar apps and the peaks of pricing that their games represent. Even worse, for me, is the company's apparent lack of interest in making their games available to multiple devices for one purchase - if there are upgraded versions for higher res devices (think iPhone relative to iPad), not only should one purchase always make both available, cloud save availability should be a must.

Do you own any Squenix games on mobile? If so, are they the lower-cost remakes and ports, or are they the full-on, $30 and up new (or new-to-the-West) games like Dimensions? Has their pricing structure scared you away personally? Is this a sign of Squenix trying to reinvent the mobile gaming scene, or a sign that there's a new platform and a new set of customers that they just don't understand?

Source: Kotaku, Apple US App Store

If you want your news more timely, don't forget that you can always submit it yourself! No, seriously, please.

This is a Tokyo Game Show wrap-up, and it was a little special this year because as we've talked about before, this is the 25th Anniversary of Final Fantasy. Because of that, this year's showing at TGS was as much about history as the future. In fact, there really wasn't anything shocking for the future that came out of TGS this year.

For instance, Squenix showed what all is in the 25th Anniversary Ultimate box, which we've discussed a bit before. They also showed a new dual-wield light-gun arcade game called Gunslinger Stratos, which has some pretty convincing looking guns aside from having analog sticks and buttons on both.

Also during TGS, the company released the first trailer for the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix coming out next year in Japan. The subtitles are unofficial and are not indicative of a pending Western release, of which none has been announced as yet.

More visually, check out this art gallery celebrating the 25th Anniversary from the booth at TGS. There is some ridiculously awesome work on display from a big chunk of the series - what I wouldn't do to have some of those folks posting here! Also visually, from PAX Prime, Squenix just published a recap video from their sidecar event showing what we all missed out on, with gameplay stations, some toys, and what generally looks like a press conference. Maybe it's just that it's been cut down to a minute-long video, but it looked a little underwhelming to me.

Finally, there've been two releases of note since my last delayed tidbits: Final Fantasy III for PSP came out in North America, and Demon's Score, an original iOS rhythm title, was released worldwide (an Android version is coming soon).

So, if these tidbits are too slow for you, please do feel free to help us out a bit. We credit our contributors and give awards to those who do it often enough, which is obviously the next best thing to getting paid.

Source: Siliconera, Kingdom Hearts Insider, Square Enix North America

Ah, top x lists. Defined solely to create arguments and page views among a site's readership, because nobody has ever agreed with such a list completely, ever. IGN knows this, as do we all, and right here I'm going to throw them some more page views out of the goodness of my own heart.

Well, not really. I'd have a hard time caring about this, given how generally without merit I find most of these lists, but this one is tailor-made for CoN: three of the games we cover are in the top five, and not one of them is Final Fantasy VII.

Don't worry, Final Fantasy VII is on there! While Square Enix claimed over a quarter of the spots on the overall list, the games we cover came in as follows:

• Final Fantasy VI: 1st
• Chrono Trigger: 2nd
• Final Fantasy IV: 5th
• Final Fantasy VII: 11th
• Final Fantasy Tactics: 14th
• Final Fantasy I: 73rd

The only game of ours that didn't get included was Final Fantasy V.

Enjoy arguing the list here, at least until they release a new list. Have fun - it's miserable to navigate.

Source: IGN

Sorry for the general lack of tidbits over the last month. It's been a crazy time in Rangersville. Let's catch up a bit, knowing that some of these things might not actually be news to some of you any more. Again, sorry!

The 25th Anniversary showcase that Squenix threw for the Final Fantasy franchise has now come and gone, and it definitely seemed to be quite the to-do in celebration of one of the longest-running and biggest-selling franchises in gaming history. Big names from each of the big three console makers spoke to talk about how Final Fantasy has impacted their own companies and gaming as a whole; no word on if Microsoft was mocked by the other two for not having much to contribute on that score. Shinji Hashimoto took the stage to announce the big bundle, a collection of every one of the first thirteen main-line Final Fantasy games either for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, or PSP. The package also includes a video disc, an artbook, a two-disc music compilation, a special Amano piece, and even a code for a Final Fantasy XIV item (which obviously will be the thing that really moves units). It's on sale on 18 December for about $450 US/350 Euro/280 GBP. If you have that kind of cash laying about - and who doesn't? - there's probably nothing stopping you from ordering from the Square Enix store. You just probably won't be able to play most of the games. Now, if they'd just offer a lesser version of the package without the games, I'd order one right now, I think. I have most of the games in the package already and these new releases don't appear to actually contain anything new.

Also coming from the celebration was the announcement of three new Ultimania books, called "Final Fantasy Memorial." These, too, release on 18 December Each of the three books covers an era of Final Fantasy games, from I - VI, VII - IX, and X - XIV. They can be ordered from the Square Enix shop as well, and there will apparently be a bonus gift for buying all three together. Of course, to do that will set you back another $120 or so. They do promise some new, never-before-seen artwork, and the implied promise of lots of words in Japanese that you probably can't read. Continuing the trend of 25th Anniversary merchandise, there will be novelizations released in Japan sometime later this year of the first three Final Fantasy games. You know, in case you wanted to read hundreds of pages to find out what happens in a game you probably played more than a decade ago. These will cost you a lot less, so maybe they're easier trinkets to pick up for collectors!

The Tokyo Game Show is coming up soon, and that's always a big deal for Squenix. However, and this should not shock you, but there will be no Versus at TGS this year. According to a member of the Japanese Square Enix Members site, Hashimoto has said that XIV and Lightning Returns will be the priorities this year on the Final Fantasy front. However, if you want to see Dragon Quest X in HD, TGS will have a stage demo at the show, running the game on Wii U. With regards to what is playable at TGS, it's not yet known. However, it appears that Bravely Default, Final Fantasy III for PSP, and the rebooted Final Fantasy XIV will be represented along with a variety of other games either developed or published by the many-headed Squenix behemoth.

There's more new news about Lightning Returns coming up, as well, which Death Penalty will be writing up hot on my heels!

Source: andriasang, SiliconEra

While CoN turned 15 this week, the slightly bigger news for the year remains that the Final Fantasy series itself turns 25 this year. We discussed back in March the special website set up for the Japanese Squenix audience, but on Wednesday (again, the day after the massively more important news), the company released an English-language celebration site as well.

So far, there's not a lot of information on the English site; however, along with the launch of the overall site there is a teaser article advertising a pending series on the history of every numbered game in the series. There's no indication on when the individual game articles will be published, but no matter when that is, there should be some very interesting information contained therein.

Happy birthday again, Final Fantasy, and thanks.

Source: Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary

Another year, another birthday message (last year not withstanding, during which time I was far too preoccupied with the impending presence of my flesh-and-blood baby to actually write much for this baby I've had fifteen years now). That's right, scorekeepers at home, this birthday is our fifteenth, and you might have noticed we've given the site - and we hope you - a present in the form of a shiny new revision. We've taken the liberty of generously forcing all of you to see it, though all of our classic skins are still available for you to switch back if you don't think the new skin, called "Skyglade," is the fanciest thing we've ever done. If you want to switch back, though, you can; the way to do it on the site is on our style selector, and the way for the forums is in your control panel. And, if you're not seeing it on the site but think you should be, try to reset your CoN skin selection entirely.

Skyglade represents years (on-and-off) of design work on the part of Tiddles and myself to make sure we could bring you something that freshens things up without losing the qualities people enjoyed most in Persona (fanart in particular, which you'll have seen before if you're a forum regular, designed especially for this theme by Rujuken). Not only that, you'll notice that all our themes are carrying a special anniversary version of our logo. As I've said before, the Caves of Narshe is a hobby run by professionals, so if you want to know more about why Skyglade is the best thing we've ever done for the site and its users (like it or not!) check out our freshly-updated CoNHistory.

Fifteen years is a long time. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: over that kind of time, a lot of things change for all of us. It's made it mostly impossible to churn out content at the
rate we once could, which makes all the more proud of our accomplishments so far this year. It's among our greatest sources of pride that we can still be here presenting you this site, a site which we're still excited to improve. A site which we hope, and indeed know, is still useful and relevant to players of the old games, and can continue to be over time. We owe a great debt to every single human, animal and robot who has helped us along the way, including Climhazzard, from the patient staff who've tirelessly trawled through game data, to the fanfic writers and fanartists, to every single forum poster and chatter who's stopped by and chatted with us along the way.

I've mentioned before that our fifteen-year mark predates just about every Final Fantasy site that still exists, but thinking of fifteen years made me wonder what other sites on which CoN has seniority. Here's a few: Livejournal. Myspace. Facebook. Twitter. Flickr. Photobucket. Microsoft. (At least Microsoft was almost as ugly back then as CoN.) CoN is even older than Wikipedia! Anyway, listing those is certainly just a conceit - we'd never be considered to be in the ballpark of any of those sites, but it's worth noting that you don't just start a site and keep it going that long unless you have at least some of the dedication required to build a sustainable project from the ground up, and we do have that in common with those web Illuminati.

The sites in that list, even the ones spiraling into oblivion, are an interesting part of CoN's evolution, particularly as it relates to our slowing community growth. We know that we can never supplant Facebook or Twitter. We know that the way we operate the informational sections of our site is no longer trendy in the face of crowdsourced content. We're cool with it, because we're not looking to be everything to everyone. We are looking to remain the best source of gameplay information for the games we cover, and we are looking to keep you reading this interested in talking to all your fellow CoN members. Of course, we want you all to stay involved, and we'll do everything we can to help. We know that we're a niche, and we're thrilled that you choose to spend some of your attention and time with us - we know firsthand that the supply of both is finite and more and more splintered every year. So, if you don't have the time to come here and post or chat the way you used to, that's alright. We understand. Try to do us a favor, though - if you're on your social network of choice, why not share or retweet our posts and content? The more people we expose to CoN, the better off we are as a community. If you don't think your friends will care, then you're hanging out with the wrong folks online and need to spend more time here, anyway. Of course.

Some things don't change. We're here, and so far in 2012 we've done a pretty bang-up job of new content. Our Final Fantasy V Advance project was a bit of a shambles in 2011, but we stepped up and really got it done in 2012. Skyglade was two completely separate projects for years before now, and it's just in the last few months that we got together and really made it happen. There's still life in this site, and that means there's still something for you to contribute. Among Square Enix fans, you guys are pretty much the best of the best, and that's why we're here. We want to hear from you, and we want to continue to create the content that creates more of you. You can say what you will about the state of Square Enix and the Final Fantasy franchise, and you should. But what CoN has is the kind of Final Fantasy that gamers everywhere should experience, and that's why we're all here. We want to continue to be the best portal on the internet to evangelize some of the finest games yet made, and the best way to do that is for all of us to be here and continue to do what we've done for one, two, five, or even fifteen years.

Insert "Challenge Accepted" meme here. Except, please, totally don't. You know that we don't roll that way. But take today to get back in touch with us - we've got small tokens of appreciation for those who do!