News

The identity of the game in the countdown clock some of you are still hypothesising about has already been announced. Some of you just can't read, so to make it easy, i'll post it in big letters on the main page, to see if that helps.

We don't have much info yet (unless you can read Japanese), but it is not FFI or FFV, so stop with the guessing games.

Source: Kotaku
Source: 5 Days Ago

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/0706/

It's Square-Enix up to their usual shenanigans of giving us a mysterious page with a countdown clock and supposedly relevant info to the new game at hand. Sources suspect a remake of the original Final Fantasy, possibly on the Nintendo DS. This news poster is not so convinced. Unless they're introducing new music, the song that plays over the countdown page is not from any Final Fantasy so far (Unless it's from XI, in which case, nobody cares). The obvious reality? They're preparing to unveil Final Fantasy XV.

...What? You never know. Square-Enix also copyrighted "The Four Warriors of Light" (Well, the Japanese phrase, anyway), so believe what you will. It's fair to say that this is going to be Final Fantasy related, regardless of what it actually is. Only 220 hours to go.

Source: Kotaku
Source: Siliconera

The ESRB appears to be regaling us with further previews of future PSN games, this time Wild ARMs 2. The Wild ARMs series was quite popular for the first couple iterations of Playstation, most recently in 2007 with Wild ARMs 5 for the Playstation 2. The particular iteration described here is nearly a decade old, and was the second and final from the series to debut on the original Playstation.

I myself only ever played the demo of WA2, but I seem to recall it being pretty solid fun, featuring the series' unique hook of being set in a fantasy/western setting. Even beyond that, though, it's really great to see that Sony is looking towards RPGs that, while not really obscure, aren't necessarily part of the Square collection that built their empire in the last fifteen years.

Source: RPGamer

At least three shops are offering unique pre-order bonuses in the States for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which ships on 25 August in North America. Obviously, pre-order bonuses are nothing new, but the fact that there are already three announced, and you can only get them at particular retailers, is a bit more novel (and, dare I say it, moneygrubbing?).

If you're looking to get a pre-order in, here are your options: Best Buy is offering a desk calendar; GameStop has custom cover slipcases that, it appears, slide over the top of the retail case for the game; AmaCoN will ship you a CD with musical selections from the game. And, since we play favorites here, we wholeheartedly support you getting the CD.

Source: Square Enix Members Blog

For those of you wanting to see yet more pretty pictures of the pretty...prettiness of Final Fantasy XIII, you will be please to hear that thirteen new screenshots have recently been released on the net. This fitting number of screens serve to showcase more of the exteriors in which players will presumably fight monsters and the Helghast/Jin-Roh-looking soldiers seen in previous screens and clips.

The new images show off some spell effects as well as a variety of environments. What seems to be an inner city battle at night (it's at least similar to what we have seen before in many early trailers), a snowy mountainside, some barren rocky grasslands, and the obligatory lush forests and dark caves.

With these new screens, Square-Enix's dedication to making it all look very pretty continues, for as is plain to see the world of FF13 certainly looks like a nice place to go sightseeing if you don't mind the occasional angry monster or space nazi jumping out at you.

Source: Final Fantasy Insider

It's far from confirmation of a re-release, but Final Fantasy Tactics has appeared on the ESRB rating list. This isn't, however, the first game to appear on ESRB. Final Fantasy IV: The After, prior to E3, for example. Square-Enix have come through in the past, why not again? If you're curious as to the price tag, Final Fantasy VII was released at $10, so it's probably fair to assume that Tactics will be in the same range.

Although, to be fair, most people who were interested in Final Fantasy Tactics picked it up when it was released on the PSP. Hoorah for yet another re-release. Next up, Final Fantasy IV! Again!

Source: RPGamer