News

In the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused horrendous damage and loss of life in Japan not yet a week ago, there have been a number of game companies who, even with their own ability to work and earn money curtailed, have picked up the mantle to donate funds to the relief effort. Level-5, Konami, Capcom, Nintendo, Namco Bandai, this list goes on and on, and as of today it now includes Square Enix, who are throwing 100 million yen of their own into the effort (for the rest of us, that means a little over 1.25 million American dollars, or just over 900,000 Euros).

Have you been wanting to donate money to the cause of rescuing Japan from the aftereffects of this quake? I know Japan has a special place in many of our hearts as video gamers, so I can't blame you for it. If so, maybe you should take a look at Siliconera, who are hosting a raffle with a Cecil Harvey Dissidia figure and some other assorted swag, with all proceeds from the raffle going to the Red Cross for disaster relief in Japan. Alternatively, you can also visit Google's donation page and donate directly.

Source: andriasang, Siliconera, Google

It was just a couple weeks ago that we found out about Final Fantasy III for iOS devices. Well, okay, the CoN News Team missed it entirely, but member Aeris-Logan did not. For those who have missed it, the Final Fantasy III release for Apple hardware will be a port of the Nintendo DS version, altered obviously to allow the use of a single touch screen without control pad.

Things have been moving fast since then, though; not only is the game going to drop in March (and March is over one-third over already!), it's going to get a simultaneous worldwide release on iTunes in eight languages. In addition to the obvious Japanese and English, players who read French, Italian, German, Spanish, or two variants of Chinese will get a localized version as well - that's significant effort going into this release.

The final release date hasn't been announced, and iTunes does things on its own schedule anyway. Pricing isn't out yet either, but other similar Squenix games on the service sit at $8.99 in the United States, even older games. Expect that price or your local equivalent.

Source: Siliconera

Because I've missed a couple Fridays, here's an off-schedule Tidbits post of Square Enix news to cover the gap for a bit.

In case you missed the last post, there are big releases for PSP coming from the Final Fantasy franchise very soon. Over the past couple weeks, the company has had a media blowout to share new shinies with the gaming public from both Final Fantasy IV Collection and Dissidia Duodecim. These probably aren't new to the fans who most eagerly await these two releases, but if you're still on the fence or don't have a PSP... well, you're probably not reading this thread, are you? Okay, in that case, it's just for those of you who might be bored.

Here's a list of the new stuff by game:

• Final Fantasy IV Collection
  • New trailer with "Interlude" content bridging the two games
  • Screenshots from andriasang
• Dissidia Duodecim
  • More screenshots from andriasang
  • Low-quality video of the new Desperado Chaos character

Additionally involving both Dissidia and FFIV Collection is the detail released last week regarding some free DLC for Dissidia. Some of it is free to all from the Playstation Store, two new costumes for Cecil can be gotten for free with purchase of Collection, and the last is just for people who belong to the Mobile Square Enix site, which will bring some free new music into the game. All of these promotions are obviously just for the Japanese Dissidia players; does anyone know from other sources or from the treatment of the first game if similar promotions will run here in the West?

Finally, a bit of bolt-on news, unrelated to the PSP; Square Enix tweeted today that they have another new Facebook game in the works. This one will be set in Japan and will center around some sort of group of fairies. I'm trusting someone else's translation, here, possibly to my chagrin. I think that previous Square Enix Facebook games have been modestly successful, though, so whatever's good for the company, why not go for it?

Source: andriasang

Final Fantasy VI is on the way to yet another release, but it's still not the rumored 3D remake for the Nintendo 3DS. As close as you're getting now is the Wii, and Japan is as close as it is getting to Western gamers, at least for now.

Coming sometime in March, Final Fantasy VI will cost 900 Wii Points, a little higher than the standard cost for Super Famicom games. Like other VC games, this will be a largely-untweaked port of the original SFam/SNES release. There's no word yet whether it will get the same treatment for the West, though I wouldn't be shocked to see it over here quite soon.

Who knows, perhaps it will have some bearing on that FF6 remake that so many people want to see on the new Nintendo portable. If you have a Wii and under ten bucks to drop, maybe give it a go if and when it gets here, eh?

Source: andriasang

It would be more convenient for everyone if they would just add all their dates at once, don't you think? The Distant Worlds team left some gaps in the 2011 schedule when we last heard from them, but it's now time to start filling a few in.

First up is the first time that Distant Worlds will hit the five boroughs of New York City: 1 and 2 April 2011. Uematsu will attend, as will FFXIV vocalist Susan Calloway for these Friday and Saturday night shows. It appears that these shows will be the first Distant Worlds shows to play Final Fantasy XIII and XIV music in North America.

Between New York and Chicago, Atlanta is getting two shows too, on 6 and 7 May. There's no further information as yet as to who might attend those shows as a celebrity guest, but since they're not saying, that doesn't look good. Still, if you're in the South, it's probably a much easier concert to see than New York!

And, if you just can't get to any of these shows, you're not alone. But on April 1, you'll be able to get a live performance DVD on AmaCoN for both North America and Europe. They're not up for preorder yet, but we'll provide the links just as soon as we have them!

Source: Distant Worlds

A cool week for Square Enix News Tidbits, by and large, but two upcoming PSP games from long-running Squenix franchises got North American release dates this week.

For those who haven't been turned off by the series' lack of desire to maintain a consistent game genre or play style, The 3rd Birthday got a release date as well as a lead voice actress for fan favorite Aya Brea. The game will be available to North American players on 29 March 2011 (which just happens to be this humble author's birthday, so hint, hint); if you pick the game up, you'll hear Aya voiced by Yvonne Strahovski. You might well recognize her name from her work both as a voice actress in Mass Effect 2, as Miranda, as well as her leading role in NBC's "Chuck." If you'd like to get your preorder in for this game via AmaCoN, look no further.

Another game getting a release date this week is the PSP remake of Final Fantasy IV. This one will be dropping on 19 April 2011; if you haven't seen the news, you can note that this remake will be a rollup of Final Fantasy IV with previously-Wii-only The After Years. We know that the game will get a bit of visual polish and new CG, and will probably look a bit like previous Final Fantasy remakes on the handheld, but other than that we're not quite sure which Final Fantasy IV we're getting, exactly. Picking up the game? Let us know, and do it from AmaCoN.

This is shaping up to be a massive year for Squenix on the PSP. Beyond these two games, don't forget that owners of the now-first-generation Sony handheld will be getting Tactics Ogre and the Dissidia sequel, all before the end of Spring. Keeping up will be painful.

Source: IGN, Kotaku