News

Nintendo has announced that they are ceasing production of parts for the Nintendo and Super Nintendo.  

Parts and repairs for the two will still be offered, but only while supplies last.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

/****/

Not the biggest piece of news in the world, let alone the gaming world.  But it is still a little bit symbolic.  

If anyone still uses their NES or SNES (instead of emulating like many do nowadays), it might be wise to get any repairs if you need them (or get the parts so you can make the repairs yourself ) done soon.  I might try to pick up a new 72 pin connector for my Nintendo (Though is it possible to get one of those at any electronics store?) myself.

Sorry we're a bit late on this one - Squenix released about a week ago a trailer for their first outing on the NGC, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

For those who haven't been following this game, FF:CC is another offshoot game that carries the Final Fantasy name, similar to Mystic Quest or Tactics. This one looks to play more like the recent Zelda games, though. The game is classed as an "Action RPG", and, for the first time, true multiplayer will be included.

I believe the video weighs in at about 14.5 MB, and is in Quicktime format. Enjoy!

Watching the video, for me, actually built a little interest in this game that I didn't have before. It's surely a striking game visually, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. If the music in-game is as strong as what Squenix put in the trailer, CC will certainly have a soundtrack worth possessing, too.

According to a recent Square Enix financial discussion,  they plan to release 11 Million units of software in the second half of this fiscal year,  amoung those is Final Fantasy XII.

This puts the release range anywhere from October 1st , 2003 to March 31st, 2004.

Source : Square Insider
------------

I'm personally looking forward to this, not that I know much about at the moment. though.

Still it's Final Fantasy and that's something I look forward to.

Square Enix has sent E-mails notify those who were selected out of the application pool for the Playstation 2 beta test of Final Fantasy XI.  In addition to the game itself, Squenix is also sending participants the Playstation 2 hard drive that is required for FFXI (which has not been released in North America yet).  Whether or not the hard drive needs to be sent back is currently unknown.

Do not fret though if you applied to beta test the PC version of FFXI and did not hear anything.  Squenix says on their website those selected for that test will be notified shortly.  Who knows hoe long shortly is, but it will probably be a month or so.

Source: Square Enix

/****/

I am waiting to found about the PC version myself.  It is cool to hear the PS2 testers are getting a hard drive though.

After hours of work today, the CoN has 34 new pieces of fanart among 23 various FF characters, most of which were drawn by Narratorway, with help from Kame, Hikaroo, Seventh, Bond, and Kris-Chan.  As always, everything can be seen at http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/fanart/.

Also in store for the CoN today is a new FF4 layout of Yang, for Kame.  It's an awesome layout made up of her recently-uploaded artwork in the Site Submissions forum.  Check it out by going to http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/ff4/ and refreshing until it comes up.

Because of final exams I have not been around much as of late, and now that they are over and I'm back home on dialup I am going to be around even less most likely.  I am also going to be out of the country and away from an internet connection for the second half of summer studying at Cambridge University.  Due to my recent absence, and my future absence, I have decided to resign from the CoN Staff.  I feel that I do not deserve to call myself part of active staff when I'm not around much to do anything, mostly because the rest of the staff works so hard and does such a magnificent job with everything.  I don't think it is right for me to share the same title.  

I have discussed my resignation with Josh, and he was kind enough to offer me a position back anytime.  I will most likely take him up on that sometime in the future, but probably not anytime soon, as my classes will only become more and more demanding in the years to come.  

This does not mean I won't be around, I will be around as much as I can chatting it up and posting here, I still enjoy being here and I love discussing this and that with all of you.    I wish Josh and everyone else on staff the best, thanks for putting up with me when I wasn't doing much, and thanks for understanding why I must do this.