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Grandia III, the long-awaited and quick-to-become-a-hit RPG following its launch in Japan this past August, only recently received a massive hint through the ESRB in late October at a North American release, helping end months of dispute over whether or not the game would ever get here - although most figured it would. Yesterday evening, in response, Square-Enix USA finally put the finishing touches on the game's official domestic website, opening it to the hoards of eager fans inhabiting the partial western world. If anything, it serves as undeniable proof that Grandia III is currently in the localization process.

In actuality, the Flash based site doesn't display too much in the way of features at the moment, consisting of little more than the Grandia III tagline ("Claim the power of the gods... before your enemies do") along with the promise of a brand new trailer on December 22nd. In the meantime, the latest gameplay trailer - now in English - has been let loose, yet appears to be somewhat sparing in terms of new material.

Grandia III is expected to cross North American shores around the first part of March, 2006. It's unknown if the reported timeframe is set in stone, therefore delays remain likely. Thus far no word on a potential European release has been made, but considering past installments it's probably only a matter of time.

Sources:
IGN
RPGamer

BioWare, the folks behind several hit online roleplaying games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the upcoming XBox 360 title, Mass Effect, is holding a contest that could land you a job as a professional writer for the popular game company. How so? As part of their search for fresh and creative ideas to help inspire their future releases, BioWare is asking anyone interested in having their work noticed on a far grander scale to come up with unique concepts for a new Neverwinter Nights module using the Aurora NWN Toolset and Dialogue Editor. If your written work is chosen, you could soon find yourself as a part of the biz!

According to the contest parameters, the module description must contain a maximum of 3500 words or less, including all settings and dialogue in the story; the time period itself must be set within a medieval era, yet possess a fantasyesque atmosphere. Also, no more than four characters are allowed to be present in the module, with only one of which being playable. Additional requirements, guidelines and links to the downloadable tools needed to create a module are listed on the official site's contest page.

A panel of judges on behalf of BioWare will select three of the best submissions as winners, and five more winners will be selected by the Neverwinter Nights community at NWVault. These final eight entries will then be reviewed by Kevin Barrett and James Ohlen - both of the development company's senior staff - with the ultimate prizes in mind: Rewarding the very best writers with an assortment of BioWare merchandise as well as the possibility of hiring the most talented participants as official writers for the company. "BioWare needs good writers to make the best games we can and we are asking all of you to tell us a story."

The contest's submission deadline is January 30th, 2006.

A long time overdue addition, we now have a few more game reviews on the site.

You can check our new additions in our Final Fantasy Review section.

Dark Paladin was kind enough to provide reviews for both Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 4, while Djibriel did the same for Final Fantasy 6.

If you feel like adding your own opinion on the subject, feel free to post your own review for any game we cover in the Site Submission Forum. If you do, please remember to follow our guidelines on the subject, so that they'll be entered properly. Thank you all in advance.

I hate to burden all of you with two news updates in a single morning, but this news tidbit was too juicy to ignore. 1up.com has released a final preview of Final Fantasy IV Advance, detailing the new dungeons and returning characters. I'll cover their preview to the best of my ability, saving you all the trouble of reading the 1up article yourselves.

To refresh your memory, FF IV Advance provides improved graphical textures, new menu portraits, and a refined translation compared to any previous version of the game, plus adds two new optional dungeons and a means for replacing characters in and out of your party. The game's difficulty is the same as it was in the original Japanese "Hardtype." For better or for worse, several spell names have changed, using the ara and aga suffixes rather than the oldschool numerals and changing Meteo to Meteor (I personally find that last edit disgraceful).

After defeating the Giant of Babil, you can replace Kain, Rosa, Rydia, or Edge with Palom, Porom, Cid, Edward, or Yang, each of whom was in your party sometime earlier in the story. Each of the five returning characters have had adjusted stats to make them useful in the new lategame. Cid "is a total hoss", featuring superior HP and Defense compared to other characters and Edward, while as frail as ever, is adept at inflicting status effects with his harps (far more so now than on the SNES). After re-recruiting these five characters, your party can return to Mount Ordeals for a short but intense 8-floor dungeon whose end features five new powerful weapons, one for each of your returning characters. Yang's weapon is the holy-elemental Hand of the Gods, Cid's is the randomly-Thundaga-casting Thor's Hammer, Edward's is called Apollo's Harp, Palom's the Triton's Dagger, and Porom's the Seraphim Mace.

If that wasn't enough for you, there is still another optional endgame dungeon, The Lunar Ruins found on the Moon. Once you've beaten the game, this new dungeon is unlocked, featuring nine special sealed gates, one corresponding to each character, with Palom and Porom sharing the same gate. In each gate, you'll first need to endure a brutal dungeon that makes the Path to the Core "look like a cakewalk." The early levels of the Lunar Ruins feature monsters that we're already familliar with, like Behemoths, Minds, and Wicked Faces from the final dungeon, but the lower levels include new monsters that are more difficult than any random encounter in the game. At the end of each of the sealed gate dungeons, you'll need to take the associated character along for a special trial - these trials range from Yang taking on dozens of powerful Monks to an airship-flying minigame for Cid. At the end of each set of trials we fight a beefed-up Lunar version of one of Rydia's summons, with HP ranging from 90,000 to more than 120,000. Beating each Lunar Summon will net you a new powerful piece of equipment and a special item called a Grimoire. Getting all nine Grimoires will unlock the game's ultimate challenge - "an unbelievably difficult fight that should make aficionados of FFIV trivia particularly happy."

So that's the game. This seems to be very similar and at the same time very different from the Dawn of Souls remake - there are a great deal of new features but instead of dumbing down the gameplay experience, it's more hardcore than ever. All of the information I've provided is derived from Gamespot's screenshots archive and 1up's detailed preview linked in the first paragraph. Final Fantasy IV Advance is released December 12th, 2005 in the US.

Last May, Nintendo revealed a few minor features relating to the company's newest console, code-named Revolution, at its pre-E3 press conference. One of the most fascinating moments was when Nintendo announced the console would be able to play past games, via download, from systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, and the GameCube. Many fans, however, were disappointed overall to learn they were denied a full viewing and demonstration of the very promising machine and hoped more information would surface within the coming months.

And it did, beginning with the prototype controller that both intrigued many gamers and made others shun away from a system they had yet to see. The slender design combined with the semblance of a television remote indicated many possibilities but also lead to skepticism over whether or not it would function properly and comfortably. Information was coming in slow, and gamers began to conjecture that Nintendo might not unveil the Revolution for another few years.

But now, stated inside an email sent out by the Mario Factory, Nintendo has finally set a specified date for a public showing. With only "a mere 165 days to go (give or take)" the former game king will show off "all the incredible details about Nintendo's upcoming games and hardware, including our next home console, code-named Revolution."

If you did the math, you'll discover that lands around the second week of May. Sure enough, the associated press conference is scheduled for May 9th, 2006 during Nintendo's pre-E3 event. The venue will be Hollywood's Kodak Theatre - which is also the home of the Academy Awards - in California. Nintendo has ensured before that the Revolution will redefine the routine of playing video games, and come next spring thousands of fans will lay witness to just how.

Source: GameSpot

According to rpgfan.com, Famitsu magazine stated earlier this week that Final Fantasy XII will implement a clan system, not unlike the clan system from FF Tactics Advance. The clan system will allow the player to partake in specific quests provided by the clan and shop in clan-exclusive shops, plus possibly more unrevealed featues.

It seems unlikely to me that the clan system will feature prominently in the game's plot, as it would be make plot advancement seem somewhat awkward. I'm inclined to think that the clan system will allow the player to join one of multiple clans and have the clan serve as the means for taking part in sidequests, rather than drive the action as the clan/mission system did in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Still, love or hate this new clan system, a great deal of FF XII is a mystery as of now, so all we can do is speculate and hope that this next big title in our favorite RPG series lives up to its predecessors.

Final Fantasy XII, masterminded by Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno, will be released in Japan on March 16th, 2006 and in the US on August 1st, 2006, barring future delays.