News

New FF5 Fanfiction

We now have our first ff5 fanfic, up in the ff5 section. Or just click that link. It's by a non-forums member (who may join the forums later, if she wishes) and is about Faris. Go check it out! It's quite good, and she's mentioned doing more.

It's abbreviation MADNESS, I tell you. MADNESS.

Nintendo is putting some major backing into the return of Square to their consoles after a nearly ten-year absence. According to the Japanese game magazine V-Jump, by way of Magic Box, Nintendo of Japan intends to release a limited-edition NGC set with a "Crystal White" 'Cube and controller, a GBA Player, memory card, and, of course, FF:CC.

No word yet on whether this will come to US shores - in fact, it's still not official in that country with the red dot flag, but GAF has a picture of the set.

As far as I'm concerned, who really cares about the special color of the console? Unless they're also planning on selling that pack at a significant discount from what you could buy the individual pieces for, then there's no point in doing it. We'll see if it goes forward, though.

Games_Are_Fun has posted some new screenshots of Super Mario Advance 4. SMA4 is a port of the classic Super Mario Bros. 3 to the Gameboy Advance.  

The game will be a port of the version that was on the Super Mario All-Stars game on the Super Nintendo, not the original NES one.  It is scheduled for release in Japan on July 11th.  It will not see North American shores until late September though.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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Another reason to want a Gameboy Advance.  This game is an all-time classic in many gamers' hearts.  I remember when I bought the NES versions of this and Final Fantasy I when I was a wee little lad for five dollars.  Best deal ever then and it still seems pretty good now.  Anyways, I'm done musing for now.  What does everyone else thing of this?  The screenshots look really nice, by the way.

I finally started catching up with CoN email today, and I was able to put up thirteen fanarts by Miss Lindsay Cibos of cutepet.org. A dozen of the new pieces from her are SD FFT characters that are, to borrow a word from Hikaroo, very "kawaii" indeed. The ending art in this baker's dozen is a great piece of Rydia. You can see them all in the "Newest Fanart" section for the next thirty days.

I hope to add more today, if so, I'll post again!

Looks like Squenix released some of the very first character renders for Crystal Chronicles yesterday. The renders, apparently by a Toshiyuki Itahama, all look more than just a little bit creepy. Kinda like some sort of demonic-looking dolls I would have been scared of as a kid, or last week. The center male and female remind me a bit of Zidane and Garnet, too.

The quality of these renders is on par with anything recent the company has done on PS2, but how will the in-game graphics match up on the two competing systems?

The tidbits about this game keep trickling in, but nothing seems to be concrete enough to form a real pre-launch opinion, in my mind. We really need to start seeing some more detail soon, especially with the Japanese launch looming.

Well, I don't know.  Suppose that, for some strange reason, you don't like the way the site looks.  I know, I know, you must be mad.  But!  Help is at hand.

Now you can choose to view the whole site in a different style via the Style Options page.  (Forums excluded; they have a separate mechanism for this.)

So far you can choose from a number of CoN designs from the past, including some that were never used.  We may add more options in the future.

(One quick note: the styles should work in any standards-compliant browser.  Unfortunately, Internet Explorer isn't very compliant, so some things may not look as good as they should, and some things may not work at all with versions prior to 6.  I strongly recommend upgrading if you're still on IE5, or getting hold of a vastly superior browser.)

Maybe abound is an exaggeration, but Square finally has release dates set for the North American versions of Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.  GameCube and PS2 owners should be happy to hear that each gets a game on the same day:  November 8th.

Squenix will be handling the publishing of FFX-2 while Nintendo will be handling Crystal Chronicles.

Source: OPGaming

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November is about five months away.  Hopefully the games will actually be released then.  I might purchase FFX-2 during winter break after the Fall semester.

Squenix has announced that first Final Fantasy game for Nintendo's GameCube has been delayed again.  The game was scheduled to be release in Japan on July 18th.  Now it will not be released there until August 8th.  

There is no word on any North American or European release dates,  but one can only assume that they will be pushed back as well.  For more info on Final Fantasy Chronicles, see R51's news update from yesterday and earlier new updates here at your Caves of Narshe.


Source: Games_Are_Fun

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Not really much of a delay in my eyes. What is it, 3 week?  That's nothing.  Many games go through much longer delays than that and if it does improve the game they could increase the delay and it still be fine by me.

Nintendo has announced that they are ceasing production of parts for the Nintendo and Super Nintendo.  

Parts and repairs for the two will still be offered, but only while supplies last.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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Not the biggest piece of news in the world, let alone the gaming world.  But it is still a little bit symbolic.  

If anyone still uses their NES or SNES (instead of emulating like many do nowadays), it might be wise to get any repairs if you need them (or get the parts so you can make the repairs yourself ) done soon.  I might try to pick up a new 72 pin connector for my Nintendo (Though is it possible to get one of those at any electronics store?) myself.

Sorry we're a bit late on this one - Squenix released about a week ago a trailer for their first outing on the NGC, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

For those who haven't been following this game, FF:CC is another offshoot game that carries the Final Fantasy name, similar to Mystic Quest or Tactics. This one looks to play more like the recent Zelda games, though. The game is classed as an "Action RPG", and, for the first time, true multiplayer will be included.

I believe the video weighs in at about 14.5 MB, and is in Quicktime format. Enjoy!

Watching the video, for me, actually built a little interest in this game that I didn't have before. It's surely a striking game visually, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. If the music in-game is as strong as what Squenix put in the trailer, CC will certainly have a soundtrack worth possessing, too.