News

I'm happy to announce that we have a new addition to our humble FFIV Fanfiction section. There is a new fanfic by SpacemanSpiff, his first for the CoN, called Beneath the Mask.

It is an in-game fanfiction, and I encourage you all to check it out if you have not done so yet.

Remember, we accept fanfiction submissions for FF4, FF5, FF6 and FFT, so if you have one you'd like to submit, make your way to the Site Submissions forums. If you're not a writer yourself, you can help out the authors by reading and commenting on fanfiction, as well as fanart.

Alexa.com, one of the largest monitors of traffic and relational links online, has a really sorry set of data for CoN. I'd like for you all to help us out a bit by writing some reviews for the site. I know a lot of you like the site a lot, and a short review might help us garner some more new traffic.

If you're interested, it's easy. Just visit the review section for the site and submit! Your submissions will go up in a week or so.

Please post here to let us know you've done it, thanks!

News is flying out of Squenix's doors about Final Fantasy XII today. They revealed more information on both the staff and the storyline behind the game.

As previously known, Yasumi Matsuno is working as Director/Producer while Akihiko Yoshida did the character designs and is the 3D Map Director. Both men were heavily involved in Final Fantasy Tactics. Isamu Kamikokuryuo of Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X is involved with the background art with Hideo Minaba behind the "Art Direction" (Minaba has previously worked on Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX).
Nubuo Uematsu returns for FFXII, but only in a limited role. He will focus on the main theme of the game as Hitoshi Sakimoto will be composing most of the game's soundtrack.

The game is currently about 70 percent done. Interesting to note is that Squenix is lowering the number of polygons of the character models slightly. They are doing this in an attempt to increase both the quality of the backgrounds and lighting affects and to make the in game animation smoother.

As R51 posted earlier, the title is set in Ivalice. Arcadia has just conquered country of Dalmasca. Ashe, the main heroine of the title and princess/heir apparent in Dalmasca, forms a rebel outfit lead by Vann, the main hero, in order to regain their independence.

Source: Games Are Fun

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I have never played FTT or FFTA (a crime I know, yes, but I will eventually), so the setting in Ivalice does not really bother me. It really isn't a surprise though with both Yasumi Matsuno and Akihiko Yoshida having ties to the game(s). The art in FFIX was both good and bad at the same time in my opinion. Hopefully Minaba will present more of the good this time around.

Games Are Fun have released some news that has the potential to annoy, if you are anything like me. Luckily, they wrapped it in some fairly interesting new screenshots and art from Final Fantasy XII. The highlights of the screenshots, to me anyway, are seeing the airship and chocobo shots, all of which are beautifully rendered (even though the chocobo has gotten a bit creepy-looking).

What's the bad news? Well, if you are a diehard Final Fantasy Tactics fan like I am, you may be saddened to learn that FFXII is set in Ivalice. Yes, Ivalice, as referenced in both FFT and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. According to the GAF article, the Ivalice is the one from FFTA, which based on my limited FFTA play seems to be very different than the one in which Ramza lived. However, if this turns out to be incorrect and Squenix plans to use FFT's Ivalice, it could be disasterous to the legend of FF Tactics. In this writer's humble opinion, of course.

Here's hoping for the best.

Capcom has announced that it has posted a profit of 919 million yen ($8.5 million US) for the first six months of its fiscal year.

As we reported last April, Capcom suffered a suffered a loss 19.5 billion yen ($163 million US) total last year. In spite of the profits, sales have continued to fall (in particular Megaman X7 has had sold under their expectations). Their arcade coin-op division made up for this, however.

Capcom expects sales to pick up in the second half of its fiscal year with the upcoming releases of Resident Evil Outbreak and Onimusha 3.

Source: Gamespot

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Maybe the lackluster sales of Megaman X7 will encourage Capcom to branch out a little further, especially if Resident Evil Outbreak falters as well. That or release a Capcom Vs. Fighter with some higher resolution 2D sprites instead of the same old recycled ones from the mid-1990s (Look at the Sammy's Guilty Gear series for some good 2D sprites). I'll be sort of hypocritical now by saying that I am looking forward to the Megaman compilation, however.

Although not the first time something like this has been found, Squenix now has an official radio station where fans can listen to Final Fantasy music continuously online.

It's found on:

"America Online's Radio@ Network. It is available for listening on Radio@AOL, Radio@AOL for Broadband, and Radio@Netscape under the Soundtracks & More category, and features approximately 200 tracks from the 32-bit and onward Final Fantasy games." (Source: RPGamer)

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I can't tell if this is AOL users only or what, but either way, it's nice to have an official Final Fantasy station. I've heard other stations where it's all video game music, or all RPG music, but I don't think I've seen all Final Fantasy before.