News

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.

Everyone knows the biggest gift-buying times of the year are all coming up. If you're not sick of the adverts yet, you will be. So, for our part, we've just released some new AmaCoN features that will make it easier for you to get your stuff, and for us to get our cash.

• All of the game index pages now have AmaCoN links associated with the game.
• All the AmaCoN stores for each country now have links to buy several different kinds of gift cards.
• AmaCoN search has been upgraded.

Finally, the most fun new feature, the ability to take Amazon links you already have and make them AmaCoN links! If you have a public wishlist at Amazon, or want a specific item from any of our Amazon countries, you can plug in your information and have a URL given right back to you, which you can put into an email or post on your own site or blog - anyone who shops for you can use that link and CoN gets the credit.

Easy, fast, and always free; that's AmaCoN. If you haven't been, go now and make these holidays happier for both you and Climhazzard alike.

Square Enix has added a bit more functionality to their official Final Fantasy IV DS website.

Along with a new movie debuted at the Tokyo Game Show in late September, the site also notes an official release date set at December 20 in Japan, and a starting price of 5,695 yen (about $50). A robust (and growing!) character bio section is available on the site, too, including in-game models for each of the characters.

Furthermore, underneath the "Spec" section of the flash site, Square Enix notes a full cast list for all the main characters of the game, leading to speculation that the upcoming DS remake of FFIV will include voice acting.