News

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.

Although incomplete, there is a Japanese website for FFVII: Advent Children that features a picture of Cloud and Sephiroth, and no doubt will soon have more information (in Japanese, of course.)

RPGamer confirms that there is still no release date for this title, however.

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It's still hard for me to believe that they're actually doing this. I've heard all sorts of rumours, from the movie being just a re-enactment of the final fight, to it being a continuation with Sephiroth not being the actual Sephiroth that Cloud killed at the end of the game. I'm anxious to see what the movie actually is.

Square Enix has announced that it will re-release a few of its Playstation 1 titles under Sony's Greatest Hits this coming December.

The titles being re-released are all Square titles: Final Fantasy Anthology, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears. Being under the Greatest Hit means that the titles will be reasonable priced, each costing around $20 US. For those who don't know, Final Fantasy Chronicles consists of FFIV and Chrono Trigger while Final Fantasy Anthology packages FFV and FFVI together.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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I might just have to pick up Chronicles and Anthology. I can't see myself buying either at the ridiculous price they go for on EBay and used game stores, but I can see myself plunking down 20 bucks. I think it is a good move by Square Enix. They might as well be making the profits off the games instead of the EBay-ers if there is still a big demand for them.

(Note from Phoenix: This news update is courtesy of SSJ_Cloud; he is currently unable to access the forums, and asked me to post for him.)