News

On the 1st of May, RPGOne translations released the first version of their translation patch for the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI.

If you ever saw Sky Render's project named "End of Fantasy", this is where it ended up. It's a complete retranslation from scratch, foresaking Ted Woolsey's FF3US efforts. The readme claims that the translation is primarily focused on accuracy, with readability second, and that it tries to keep some name consistency with the more recent official Final Fantasy translations where they are sufficiently close to the original Japanese.

Bear in mind that translation is a somewhat subjective issue, and that there's no 100% right or wrong way to translate something between languages. Any comments on this forum from players of this version insisting that they have played a "DIRECT translation" so that their interpretation of an event is bound to be absolutely correct will be met with severe beatings about the face. That said, I'd recommend trying it out to anyone who can do so, as it probably is indeed more faithful to the original game than the official translations (which had to pass through Nintendo's still overzealous censors at the time).

Note that you need a Japanese Final Fantasy VI ROM to apply the patch, and that it can't be combined with modifications for FF3us, such as i90east's expert versions. The download does include an optional patch to prevent Vanish/Doom from working, for anyone who wants a little extra challenge.

Interested? Head over to RPGOne's Final Fantasy VI download page and grab a copy. I encourage you to check out the readme first of all, if only for known issues and patching instructions (though the procedure should be familiar if you've used IPS patches in the past). Finally, please read lead programmer ChrisRPG's message and donate to him if you appreciate his work and have some cash to spare.

On the heels of Elena99's recent news update concerning new FFXII screenshots, Square Enix has released another trailer for the title. This one is a bit longer than the previous one, lasting a lengthy 7-plus minutes.

The good folks at Games_Are_Fun are hosting the video. Pay their site a visit and check out the video.

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I didn't watch the entire video (short attention span++), but the parts that I did see looked great. There seemed to be FMV footage. I'm starting to look forward to the title. The video is quite grainy if the size is increased as the video only weighs in around 15 MBs.

As the release date approaches, we're getting more and more news on the next non-online FF game; FFXII. Courtesy of RPGamer , here are Eight New Screenshots of various scenes, mostly two of the characters, and One New Artwork of the character Pannero.

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I like how the game is looking so far. Although one of those characters still looks like Tidus, the others look interesting. The style of graphics doesn't seem to be too much of a leap from FFX and FFX-2, and it looks like the technology is about the same.

According to IMDb.com , there is now a hint of a plot available for Advent Children, the DVD only sequel to FF7. From the site itself:

"Plot Outline: Two years after Cloud & Co. saved the world from Sephiroth, the citizens of the planet begin suffering from a strange sickness called Seikon-Shoukougun. Meanwhile, Cloud has secluded himself, and is being haunted by demons in his past." (IMDb.com)

There are more plot details on the site itself, as well as Japanese voice actors.

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An expansion pack for FFXI is coming out this fall, called Chains of Promathia. According to the press release found at playonline.com , it will change FFXI in "ways not before imagined".

Source: World Wide Gaming Alliance

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It's nice to see that the online world of FFXI is still healthy and growing.

According to RPGamer, Nintendo has reportedly asked Square Enix to produce a new version of Final Fantasy III for the Game Boy Advance. As the story suggests, Final Fantasy III hasn't seen the light of day since the original Famicom release - the Wonderswan Color version was badly hampered by the premature demise of the system.

Final Fantasy III has never been released in the United States. However, if there's a GBA version done in Japan, there's very little stopping it from coming here. The GBA, unlike the WSC, has brand identity and a stranglehold on the portable gaming market. Given the massive brand appeal of the Final Fantasy franchise and the novelty of the particular title, it seems reasonable that we could finally have a full official translation of this poor forgotten game sooner than we thought.