News

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. And the very next day, you listened to a Christmas CoNcast in which Tiddles and I talked about holiday memories and played mairocrat wii.

With our podcast pace remaining slow, and the holiday season already in full swing (and with Tiddles now in possession of a streaming device hooked up to his Wii U), we decided to give it another try this year, this time running mairocrat 8 and streaming it to Twitch. (What, you didn't know CoN had a sometimes-used Twitch channel?)

Anyway, see below for this cast. It's full of us yelling at our Wiis and sharing the best parts of gaming at the holidays, like unwrapping games on Christmas morning or buying games we'll never play on Steamsale. It's also a nice, compact, exactly-forty-minutes that you can devour on the train or plane as you travel for the holidays. Share your holiday gaming memories with us, too!

Source: This Episode, The CoNcast Subscription Feed, The CoNcast on iTunes

Square Enix has just provided the first taste of what Final Fantasy XV's voice acting will sound like in English. You can view the clip here, at Square Enix's official UK YouTube channel.

The trailer, originally shown in Japanese at Tokyo Game Show 2014, occasions dialogue from several protagonists ranging from trivial to epic to a hearty helping of battle-grunting.

Two new SaGa games were announced at Square Enix's SaGa 25th Anniversary show earlier today, both slated for 2015 release. The first, for browsers, will be titled Imperial SaGa; the second, exclusively for the PSP, has only been given the working title SaGa 2015. A few screenshots of the former and a few sketches relating to the later are just about all we have to go by so far. Series composer Kenji Ito has been confirmed as returning for the PSP title, if not for Imperial SaGa.

Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu had said earlier this year that a new title was in development, but the announcement had been delayed more than once. With none of the preceding SaGa titles available in digital formats in western markets, fans of the series are sure to be excited. Right? If any of you are still around, out of the woodworks with ye!

Source: Siliconera, Gematsu

Yesterday the long-awaited Patch 2.45 launched for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The biggest addition is the new Eternal Bonding ceremony, or, um, marriage. As announced at E3 this past summer, gay Eternal Bonding will indeed be an available option. Most of the rest of the content is minor, so if you're interested check out the source link below. This will likely be the last significant update prior to the massive Heavensward expansion due out next spring.

In addition to the ongoing PC free trial offer, a Playstation free trial is set to become available at the end of the month.

Source: Official FFXIV Site, Siliconera

For a brief period yesterday / this morning (depending on where you're reading this from), Square Enix's official French store website prematurely listed a version of the HD remastered Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 combo for PS4. This hasn't been officially announced yet - hence the "likely" in this story's title - but the fact that it showed up on an official company webpage makes it seem a pretty safe bet. That and, of course, the fact that it isn't a particularly surprising move.

In the meantime, I'll just go back to pining for a FFX-3 (cue my topic on the audio drama "Will" included with the HD re-release.)

Source: IGN

Warning: these snippets are very snippety. Also, they do not include a FFVII remake.

In a recent interview, Kingdom Hearts 3 co-director Tai Yasue said that Marvel and Star Wars are available for use in the game. Everything in the Disney stable is on the table, Yasue says, and that the team is having a hard time deciding what to and what not to include. It's really busting my brain to imagine Darth Vader in KH, but we've already seen Disney's liberal employment of their franchises in the pursuit of cash-money, so perhaps it isn't so crazy as it sounds.

This next news is already a week old, but worth throwing in: a new trailer has been released for Final Fantasy Type-0, which will be released in March of 2015. It's safe to say that Square Enix is entering the pre-release build-up phase with this one. Hajime Tabata, the game's director and recently-appointed director has expressed the desire to make them into a series in their own right ('Type-1,' 'Type-2,' and 'Type-3' have all been trademarked for several years now), so there's a fair bit hinging on the upcoming title - aside from the oft-alluded-to financial pressure on Square Enix. Perhaps to encourage early purchases, this trailer says for the first time that the afore-promised FFXV demos will be included with Type-0 "while supplies last."

Finally, Square Enix has done a soft-release of a new, free-to-play, mobile PvP strategy RPG, Heavenstrike Rivals. As part of its soft-release, the title isn't available at all in the US; it is available on iOS in Canada, however, and I *think* on Android in the UK. At any rate: not available in US, currently exists in English, and will eventually be available for both mobile platforms. The art style is quite pleasant (check the third link below) and it boasts "over 230 units." Early reviews seem mixed, many agreeing that the game doesn't seem finished yet - no surprises there! - but seem to be positive enough that it's worth keeping an eye on. For our members in territories / with the appropriate platforms, see if you can check it out and let us hear your thoughts!

Source: Kotaku, Siliconera, Google Store