News

The last time I had an update on the A New World concert series was ten whole months ago, but today Square Enix announced five new dates for the new year. Three of the shows are new to the series this year.

• Kansas City, Kansas: March 11
• Seattle, Washington: March 25
• Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois: May 21
• Atlanta, Georgia: May 28
• Portland, Oregon: June 3

The new dates will be in Seattle, Atlanta, and Portland, and the concerts will take place in conjunction with local conventions in Kansas City, Rosemont, and Atlanta. Benyamin Nuss is listed as the featured pianist for all but the KCK show, and Eric Roth (Arnie Roth's son) will conduct all five.

Apologies for being so far behind on news again - I've been swallowed up with other projects for most of January so far. I hear that Square Enix have a big announcement planned for tomorrow, though, so I'll be on the lookout for that!

Source: A New World

Happy new year, CoN readers! I posted a while back on our CoN social media accounts about the Final Fantasy XV soda collaboration with Jones Soda, exclusive in the US to Target stores. I posted, naturally, because I went out and bought a few (and drank some, they're quite good). The soda is bright orange and orange cream flavored, and it's no longer for sale on store shelves. But, as luck would have it, I've got several extras just hanging out in my office as I type.

Sealed bottles of Wiz's Energizing Elixir are selling on eBay right now for anywhere from $10 to $20 a bottle, and CoN is giving you the chance to win one for free. All you have to do is post at the forums between now and 23:59:59 UTC (or 6:59:59pm EST) on January 15. You can post in this thread to say "ooh, free stuff!," or talk about current events in General Topics, ask a question about Final Fantasy IX, you name it. If you make a post between now and then and don't get yourself warned or banned in the meantime, you're in the running.

We'll give away one bottle for every 25 users who post between now and then, up to four. One bottle for up to 25, two bottles for up to 50, and so on. Winners will be selected at random, with no priority given to number of posts, and messaged via the forums to claim their prizes by the end of January. Unclaimed prizes will sit on my shelf until I feel like doing something with them. Current CoN staff are ineligible to win, but our posts count toward the overall user count. Bottles will be shipped for free within the United States - international winners will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Time to get to posting, and to start out the new year with a new prize courtesy CoN!

I must have missed an email earlier today, because I found out via a sponsored post on Facebook that Distant Worlds is coming to my area again, for their first ever show in New Orleans. I've already secured my tickets, so now my daughter will get her first-ever taste of Distant Worlds too!

There are quite a few new shows that have been announced since I last posted about Distant Worlds - here's your list.

• Newark, New Jersey: January 28
• Omaha, Nebraska: February 3
• Montreal, Quebec: February 11
• Seattle, Washington: March 26
• New Orleans, Louisiana: March 31
• Madrid, Spain: April 29
• Barcelona, Spain: April 30
• Amsterdam, Netherlands: May 4
• Dusseldorf, Germany: May 6
• Milan, Italy: May 12
• Zurich, Switzerland: May 13
• Edmonton, Alberta: May 20
• Calgary, Alberta: May 21
• Salt Lake City, Utah: June 3

New Orleans, all of the European dates, both Canadian dates, and Salt Lake City are all new locations never before visited by the Distant Worlds tours. However, Nobuo Uematsu fans will be disappointed by the dates announced so far this year, as he is currently confirmed to attend only Newark.

Is anyone getting a chance to go now thanks to a closer venue? I just commented recently that I was surprised that they'd never come to NOLA before, and I'm glad to have a chance to be there for the local debut!

Source: Distant Worlds

2017 is the 30th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy in Japan (remember, we didn't get it over here for three more years). While the actual release in Japan didn't take place until December of 1987, for obvious reasons Square Enix are looking to make the entire year a celebration.

We've yet to get any new details regarding exactly what that will entail since that prior news post back in September, but the company has announced that there will be a live event in Tokyo on January 31st that will lay out the timeline for the year. There's been no announcment regarding a livestream for fans not lucky enough to win a ticket to the event, but I would be shocked to find that it is not streamed on Twitch, YouTube, NicoNico, or all three.

There have been rumors about remasters or remakes for every game in the series, but as yet those have been unconfirmed by any reliable source. Perhaps that might await us in a month's time.

Source: Siliconera

Here's some non-Square-Enix news for your pre-Christmas week, from Falcom: the eighth entry in the long-running Ys series, released earlier this year for the PlayStation Vita, will be coming out next May for PlayStation 4.

The original release apparently suffers from framerate issues, and naturally, lower-res textures in its original handheld version; the version for the more powerful console will bump up all of the visual issues into a more polished package. There will also be some gameplay additions.

There has been no indication yet regarding a Western localization. However, over time, most Ys games have made it to our side of the world, and the fact that Falcom is investing now in porting the game to a system with a larger worldwide install base bodes well for the future.

Source: Siliconera

It's been out three weeks already! And the standard edition is, today (only?) at the cut-rate cost of $34.99 for both XBox One and PlayStation 4.

http://amzn.to/2gXTPJ6

Yeah, okay, this isn't huge news, perhaps I can get some more of that together today, but it's a pretty sweet sale for a game that is brand new and pretty well-reviewed. I just ordered my copy!