News

We hope you've had a chance to enjoy our Regalia Playlist Championship already -- and if not, get over there and check it out! For those of you (us!) in the greater New York City area who want even more FF music in your life, Distant Worlds has added a special one-night-only performance at Carnegie Hall, with Nobuo Uematsu in attendance. There will in fact be two performances, one at 2pm and another at 8pm, on January 13, 2018. The Distant Worlds site promises the concert will feature the ensembles' new arrangements of Opening ~ Bombing Mission (FFVII), The Oath (FFVIII), and Somnus (FFXV); there's no hinting yet whether the concert will feature any surprises. Tickets go on sale in just over a week, September 12 at 11am; my guess is they'll move fast, so best keep an eye out if you're interested!

Source: Distant Worlds Official Site

Here's one out of left field: Secret of Mana, also known as Seiken Densetsu 2, is suddenly getting a PlayStation 4, Vita, and Steam remake. It's going to redo the original game using rendered 3D objects, add in voiceover in (at least) Japanese and English, a re-arranged new recording of the musical score, and more. The game will be released worldwide this coming February 15.

As usual, Square Enix are doing some unique preorder bonuses; preorders on the PlayStation store will include two sets of skins for Randi, Primm, and Popoi as well as a set of PSN avatars. On Steam, orders made between now and the end of the first week of release will get the costumes and a desktop wallpaper image. In Japan, a collector's edition will be available that will include the game, a pop-up art book, a music CD, and figurines of the main characters; orders from Amazon Japan will include a copy of the original 1993 instruction manual. No word yet on whether either of those two options will be available in the West.

At the time of writing, the English website appears to be down, but you can see more at the Japanese site now.

See below for a minute-long trailer showing some of the 3D modeling and a snippet of the English voice work!

Source: Gematsu

Final Fantasy XV is, predictably, now on the way to Windows PCs worldwide early in 2018. The release was announced today at Gamescom in Germany, and without a specific release date; however, the game is looking to be an upgrade in various visual and aural ways, leveraging NVIDIA GameWorks technology:

• 4K textures, scalable up to 8K in config
• Enhanced fluid, fire, and smoke effects
• Enhanced hair and fur effects
• Dynamic shadows on models
• Better grass and foliage animation
• HDR lighting and improved environmental lighting

The PC version will also have the capability to put Noctis into first-person mode, as well, both in and out of battle.

For some reason, it will have the subtitle "Windows Edition" applied when released on Steam next year. It's going to take a serious, serious rig to max this game out, so start your building plans now.

Source: Siliconera

The worldwide port of the Japanese arcade Dissidia has been officially announced for release in Square Enix' three main territories as of today. Japan, Europe, and North America will all see the game in January of 2018, with the former seeing the game on January 11 and the latter two getting it on January 30. As is typical for major Squenix releases these days, there will be several bundle tiers available for purchase.

While they vary somewhat from region to region, they fall into pretty standard categories. The Ultimate edition will be available only from Square Enix directly, and will include a Steelbook, an art book, a figurine, soundtrack, the Season Pass, et cetera. There will also be versions that have a randomzied Steelbook case, featuring one of three designs each with a different set of Dissidia fighters. The digital copies available will offer up a free alternate skin for Warrior of Light, a mini-soundtrack in digital format, and the Season Pass (in the higher tier of digital purchase). In Europe, the digital packages appear to contain a code to get Cloud's Nail Bat and a PS4 dashboard theme.

I'm still not in the closed beta. Anyone else get word that they got in?

Source: Gematsu

Gematsu reports this morning that a closed beta for Dissidia NT, the home console version of the Japanese arcade entry to the fighting game series, will get a closed beta on PlayStation 4 for both North American and European users later this month. Specifically, noon Eastern on August 26 through noon again on September 4.

Featuring a limited lineup of fourteen characters - the lead characters of each game, generally - the beta will feature three-on-three battles in some selection of the game's battle arenas, and will also contain at least some of the final game's summon lineup.

This is going to be a closed beta, of course. Some folks should be receiving a code to get in already, it appears, though the criteria for getting one of the instant-in codes is naturally not public. There is a lottery to try to get a code, though, if you don't have one - all you need is a Square Enix account. I entered the lottery myself just a few minutes ago, and you can do the same at the links below.

In other news, it was also announced that Jecht, coming soon to the arcade version, will be part of the console release package on day one of next year's release.

Source: Gematsu, NA Beta Signup, EU Beta Signup

That must be a relief, right? You're not getting it this year, but there's only a twelve-month window for them to target in 2018! In seriousness, though, that's the news out of the Disney D23 expo today, and it's not bad news for a game that's been in development for over a decade. The big news, though, was another new trailer, debuting a new Disney world within the Kingdom Hearts Universe. For the first time, it's Pixar entering with the world of Toy Story, and it looks fantastic; the new trailer features Sora, Goofy and Donald finding themselves in new toy garb, transported somehow into Andy's room. After beating up a group of Heartless, the team makes friends with Woody, Buzz, and more to make an adventure in miniature to Galaxy Toys.

The new trailer is very gameplay-heavy, and shows Sora taking control of a toy mech for some FPS action. Check out the five-minute-plus dump of new content below!