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Okay, so, we admit it; the re-emergence of Moogle30 was utter shenanigans in honor of one of the best days of the year. Not so bad, right? Besides, you all are (we think) quite lucky; while M30 and all his antics were a gag, the blistering-hot new Chrono Trigger section absolutely is not. If you want to talk about a labor of love, well, this is a prime example—this section of the site really began even before Caves of Narshe 5, when Neal wrote his first Chrono Trigger walkthrough (the child of which we use on CoN today), while Tiddles temporarily worked on a CT site of his own while simultaneously helping develop the fifth full revision of CoN. When we heard a Nintendo DS remake was in the works, we decided right away to put all that experience to use and spent the next several months compiling all the information into a usable package for you guys, the gamers.

While we didn't get the section out as soon as we wanted to, I think you'll agree when you go to visit it that the section is among the best that CoN has ever put out, and our reputation for quality game coverage continues with every revision we make. The extra time was worth it to us, and we hope it is for you too, especially as you dust off your old carts/discs or pick up the (pretty great!) remake for NDS. Not only did we pour a ton of effort into the section, doing so sparked us to update and upgrade other parts of the site as well to give everything a bit of a facelift and to give you guys all the more reason to keep coming to CoN. Here are some highlights of what to look for in this launch:

• Chrono Trigger coverage for both the original SNES (which also covers the Playstation port, which changed very little indeed) and also the Nintendo DS remake that launched in the United States in December 2008;


• Updates to our fanart section to display CT fanart along with all the other Square-Enix games for which you might want to submit;
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• Revisions to all the splashy images on the landing page for each game to match our pretty new style instigated by the revisions to site skins for our tenth anniversary in 2007;


• The Caves of Narshe YouTube channel, which started about six months ago to host, specifically, Chrono Trigger ending videos and Final Fantasy VI desperation attacks but has quickly expanded to more video than we can currently organize on the site itself (but we'll work on it!);

This new section would have been impossible years ago, and the main reason why is because of the people. We had a great group of people pull together to work on this section; as I mentioned in passing above, Tiddles' love of this game (and Neal's excellent walkthrough) were of course the catalysts to making this section a reality; even though I wrote the vast majority of the display logic to get the data to your browser, I was only the instrument of their inspiration from years back. Additionally, I can't give thanks enough to everyone else who helped this section become reality. The list is extensive, so please feel free to visit the section landing page to get the whole list, but I do want to thank all the regular chatters who were always willing to lend a hand in helping me understand a game that I haven't played tons, as well as all the more standard acts of data collection and testing. I have to especially thank footbigmike and Olly, the former for being willing to do any task I threw at him pretty much any time, and the latter for always keeping a smile and a snarky comment on hand throughout the drudgery of user testing.

That leads me to a final critical point for this message, and that involves updates to the staff page. As we all get older, our lives become more and more complex and it becomes harder and harder to ensure time for a hobbyist pursuit like CoN. As you should no doubt understand, CoN is a volunteer organization, and as such it can be really hard to keep with in the face of so many other things that we all deal with day in, day out. So, we're losing some staff members today, unfortunately, and adjusting the roles of others; I want to thank each and every one of my staff, those leaving and those staying, for their hours of work and for helping me to enjoy my hours of work just a bit more. I also want to make sure that everyone out there is ready to give props to our newest addition, though, coming on officially today with the CT section and YouTube channel already under his belt, footbigmike. This guy is a fantastic example of just what I like in my CoN members and my friends; he's reliable, smart, and just showed up in chat one day and very quickly became part of the very fabric of the site's community.

Oh, and speaking of chat, if you've ever talked in there you've contributed to chat's latest milestone. While all of the Moogle30/Stockbreak madness was underway, chat very quietly hit the threshold of four million lines chatted. That's a four with six zeroes after it, you see.

For the curious, by the way, the four millionth line in chat happened at 13:56 American Eastern time on 1 April 2009, and it was this absolute gem: [13:56] Gabe: I'll do you fast, Peppy. Of course, if that doesn't prove it to you, check the stat yourself at the bottom of the chatstats, page one. Further, to commemorate the occasion, I even managed to root around on Climmy and dig up stats for the entire history of chat (less a few days that are missing due to system crashes, cross-country moves, etc.). We'll update the big stats about once a month or so, and regular stats will be sure to stay on their schedule of updating every two hours.

Now that we have the new section up, of course, we'll be moving on to other projects that we hope you'll like. We don't necessarily know what those are yet, but we're thinking. So, that means we're willing to hear from you. New game coverage? New toys to play with on the site? Shut down and move on with our lives? We'll listen to just about anything, because, heck, we like the attention.

Hi everybody!

I'm Moogle30. You might remember me as the original creator of CoN. Yes, you heard that right: R51 likes to keep it quiet these days, but this was my site! Check the history if you don't believe me - there's almost no mention of me any more but those old URLs give it away!

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase: I'm back, and now I'm running things again, this site are going to improve!
We're going back to our nineties peak, you'll see. The years of stagnation are over. Kupo!

Check back later today for some exciting announcements about the site's future! Also if you think you can be part of this new site, let me know because I'm looking for good new people!

Source: CoN Staff Page

Could this be the start of a trend? First Japanese cellphone-exclusives The Third Birthday and Final Fantasy Agito XIII receive PSP ports, and now we have a WiiWare port for the cellphone-exclusive Final Fantasy IV The After: Tsuki no Kikan.

This sequel to Final Fantasy IV is planned to be released in monthly installments over Japanese cellphones. Virtually all of the surviving characters from Final Fantasy IV make appearances, with a few of their offspring as playable characters (Cecil's son Theodor and Yang's daughter Ursula). Kain makes a key appearance as one of the game's major antagonists. The game uses a traditional SNES-era Final Fantasy interface, with 2D sprites, the ATB system, and random battles. The stats of players and appearances of monsters vary on lunar phases, which can be changed by spending the night at an inn. In addition, players can execute powerful "band" attacks that require any two players taking action, similar to Twin attacks in Final Fantasy IV DS or Dual Techs in Chrono Trigger.

The ESRB (North America's rating organization for videogames, the equivalent of Europe's PEGI or Japan's CERO) has published ratings for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years as a WiiWare game dated for 2009. This is all the information we have on a non-Japanese release, and hopefully we'll have more information soon.

Source: Kotaku

For a brief run in the late 1990's, in case you somehow were not aware, Squaresoft partnered with Eidos to release a couple games for Windows 98. These two games, of course, were the two smash hits Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Of course, back then it was pretty hard to future-proof games like those, so once Windows XP became the dominant OS in the Windows world, a lot of people gave up on making the games work and as such they've been largely relegated to the bin. Since then, Square-Enix has largely turned a blind eye to the platform; while FFIX, FFX, FFXII, and other games from the stable could have been ported to Windows such as the earlier games were, the only Squenix game that's made it to the desktop has been the MMO Final Fantasy XI and its expansions.

Backstory aside, all that is due to change as of the last week of March. That is the day that Square returns to the PC gaming world by releasing The Last Remnant for the Windows platform, first in retail stores in the EU, followed by the same in the US, followed by Japan on April 9. And, in case you don't feel like dragging yourself to the shops, don't fret - part of this return to Windows includes a release on Steam, also on April 9, marking the first time that these two titans of gaming will work together (though hopefully not the last).

What does this mean, exactly? Well, really, it might not mean that much in practice, but there could be several outcomes. First, of course, is that the game tanks or is severely buggy on Windows, driving down sales and ending this new digital distribution strategy before it gets off the ground. However, it could also with success be another hit against the Playstation 3, giving Square-Enix another Microsoft-backed gaming platform on which to release its games. Finally, let's not forget that Squenix actually owns Eidos now, which in theory would pave the way for a prepatched re-release of both of the previous Final Fantasy PC games, give a leg up in producing more ports of other games from the massive library of S-E games, or even lead to a Games for Windows version of Final Fantasy XIII. For those gamers like me who find a new Windows rig every couple years to be a far better investment than a gaming console, the hopes are high.

Sources:
CVG

Wikipedia

Valve/Steam

For those who don't proclaim themselves "otaku" or whatever appropriated Japanese term is de rigueur these days, you've probably never had a chance to play Dragon Quest V. The original was released only in Japan (of course), for the Super Famicom and later in a remake for Playstation 2, but never off the islands of Japan.

No longer, though; as of today, you can get this game for your Nintendo DS in the US (Friday in the EU), with the enhanced 3D of the PS2 remake, but with an additional character as well. Not only that, if you're a member of the Square-Enix blog, there's also a bunch of e-tchotchkes released today as well.

This release means that every Dragon Quest game but VI has been released in the United States now; DQ6 is in development at this time but has no official release planned for Japan, the US, or the EU at this time.

Pick up your copy of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride from AmaCoN:
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (US)

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (UK/EU)

Sources:
Square-Enix Members
Wikipedia

...because the next installment in everybody's favorite RPG series has been confirmed to be a Japan exclusive for 2009. Sadly, North American audiences can't expect to try the first next-gen Final Fantasy until after April 2010... and if you're in Europe, well, don't hold your breath.

Oh, well. In the meantime, why not go pick up Final Fantasy Legend II? Or Chrono Trigger? Or Dragon Quest IV? Again?

Source: GameSpot