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As you may or may not be aware, 2012 is the 25th anniversary of the birth of Final Fantasy. Square Enix have been pulling out all of the stops in celebration of this milestone, and one of the many ways of marking the date is a series of 'Distant Worlds: Music from the Final Fantasy series' concerts. There are only a few of these 'Celebration' edition concerts taking place - one in Chicago on 7 December 2012, a couple in Tokyo and Osaka at the end of December; and the first one was in London on 2 November, for which this lucky writer was fortunate enough to have a ticket.

This was the second Distant Worlds concert that I have had the pleasure of attending. My first was in November of 2011, and was also at the Royal Albert Hall in London. As such, I was in a reasonable position to notice the differences between a 'standard' concert and the Celebration event. The Celebration event certainly does provide some special moments to commemorate the series' anniversary; but it comes with a catch - the promoters know they have a cash cow in hand and are taking advantage of it. Ticket prices had an (arguably justifiable) 25% price increase, and a programme cost £25 (in comparison to £5 the year before). This was somewhat harder to justify, no matter how glossy the paper is (which, if you're interested, is very glossy).

Digressions aside, the concert itself was very impressive, and a fitting tribute to the 25th anniversary. The Royal Albert Hall is an imposing and grand venue which contributes greatly to the feeling of being part of a prestigious evening. Slightly surreal additions to such a classical venue were the incredible cosplayers in attendance (various Turks, mages, Clouds and Squalls were visible, as well as the occasional Zack, Sephiroth, Yuna, and a very detailed Lulu), but they certainly helped to create a memorable atmosphere. Guest appearances were made by notable figures such as composers Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, although Uematsu did not treat us to an instrumental solo - which he did at the previous London concert. There was also a very special appearance by Hironobu Sakaguchi - the father of Final Fantasy. All three of these esteemed guests were seated in amongst the audience. Performing guests included soprano Susan Calloway and J-Pop's Crystal Kay; while the main performance came from the musicians of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Arnie Roth.

The evening kicked off with a medley from the first three Final Fantasy games, before touring its way through the main series in chronological order, each piece accompanied by a specially edited mixture of game footage and relevant cut-scenes. Each instalment in the series was represented by a single track - some which had been played before, some not. Some choices were surprisingly abstract (Phantom Forest from VI, anybody?), and a few of the selections were obvious and inevitable. No prizes for guessing that VII was represented by One Winged Angel - which Arnie Roth attempted to liven up with a karaoke style sing-along; the words being provided in subtitles upon the video screens. Unfortunately, most of the audience seemed too unwilling or uncomfortable to join in with the Latin incantation, resulting in less than stellar participation and leaving the work to the experts of the London Voices choir.

After performances reflecting the first ten entries of the series, the audience was guided into the intermission by a specially re-imagined Chocobo Medley. This was performed to the backdrop of an endearing montage depicting the Chocobo (large, small, and even Fat) throughout the ages - which drew many an "awwww" from the viewers! Particular mention during the piece has to go to the choristers and their intermittent chant of "HA!", which was perfectly and hilariously synchronised with footage of Sazh's little chicobo (one of the few positive contributions to the series made by XIII, in my opinion) chirping from atop his afro-nest.

After the interlude, the chronological tour was completed with pieces from Final Fantasy XI through XIV (the theme of XIV being performed by Susan Calloway), before the audience was treated to four additional performances: Final Fantasy VI's Theme of Love; Eyes on Me (Final Fantasy VIII), performed by Crystal Kay in a version which was at times both startlingly similar and staggeringly different to Faye Wong's original; an extended version of Maria & Draco (the opera from Final Fantasy VI), complete with newly composed battle music to complement the narrative and operatic performers playing out the parts of Draco, Maria and Ralse; and a medley of battle themes, which culminated in a rather familiar 9-note fanfare. The evening was finally (sorry, couldn't resist) completed with a standing-ovation-induced encore performance of the haunting Final Fantasy opening theme - a piece of music which positively shimmers when performed on string instruments and accompanied by a choral overlay. With that, the concertgoers stumbled back out of Uematsu's realm and into the reality of a cold London night - probably off to play the nearest Final Fantasy game they could find!

Many of the pieces throughout the concert were suitably emotive, although I must confess to feeling less moved by the music than at my inaugural concert where I had goose bumps for over an hour without reprieve. But perhaps that distinction should be chalked up to novelty. It was also noteworthy that many of the arrangements played were reworked and remastered especially for the series of Celebration concerts. In summary, then, the Celebration events are worth attending if you can. Shameless profiteering aside, they provide a memorable experience for any devout Final Fantasy fan. It is admittedly questionable how much more the Celebration event provides when compared on paper to a 'standard' Distant Worlds concert; but the overall effect of the components results in a very enjoyable experience.

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

Last week, we reported that Square Enix had confirmed Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. We didn't know much more than that at the time, but here we are now, a week later, sporting the proper logo for the newspost image and a whole boatload of facts for your cranium (courtesy of a famitsu interview).

First off, the game is already 30% done; this isn't just concept stuff being thrown around (no offense to concept stuff). It will be the final entry in the Lightning-FFXIII saga, and it will have only one, happy, not-ambiguous ending. So that's refreshing. Lightning's character will continue her evolution into an increasingly refined individual. They just grow up so fast *sniffle*.

The developers of Lightning Returns have a very clear idea of where the game sits in relation to its two predecessors. FFXIII was, as its detractors have frequently brought to attention, story driven; FFXIII-2 was player driven (the path of the story was directed by the player). Lightning Returns, however, will be 'world driven', or driven based on the character's interactions in time with the changing world.

Time is the key concept in Lightning Returns. Everything revolves around it: gameplay time has a roughly direct relation to in-game time (two hours equals one day), people have stopped aging, and clocks will be found frequently throughout the world as an environmental symbol of the constant progress of time. There are only thirteen days' worth of life remaining in the world (or should I say, XIII days' worth) - reminiscent of Majora's Mask though without repeating the sequence, or the use of thirteen as the number of days over which the events concerning FFXIII took place - but players can lengthen or shorten this window of time by defeating enemies, clearing quests, helping people or even not helping people.

In FFXIII, players were restricted by time: the plot had its characters working against the clock, and as a result players were unable to 'stop and smell the roses' in the ways that they are usually able to do in . In FFXIII-2, players had (relative) freedom over time, traveling forwards and backwards across it. In another example of the theoretical continuity linking the three games, Lightning Returns once again puts the player at the mercy of time.

The battle system will feature only Lightning, going from three characters in FFXIII to two characters in FFXIII-2 to this, a final and full focus on the central figure of the trilogy (yet another way in which the game's developers see the progression of the Lightning-FFXIII saga). As mentioned in our previous post, the player will have free control over Lightning's movement in battle; what we've learned since then is that, while the game will still feature some form of ATB gauge, Lightning's actions in-battle will not be selected via menu commands but rather assigned to controller buttons, moving this latest title even closer towards live active battle.

It certainly seems from the information above that Lightning Returns will not only be distinguishing itself from its two predecessors but from the previous entries in the Final Fantasy series as a whole.

That's all we have on Lightning for now - be sure to scroll down a bit for the Final Fantasy anniversary news Josh posted earlier this morning.

Source: Andriasang

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