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The first trailer for Final Fantasy IV DS has been released, so finally we've got some more visuals of the remake of Final Fantasy IV, easily one of my favorite games, and I'm fairly certain most other RPG player's as well.

The FMV looks incredibly beautiful, it's seeming that this will become the DEFINITIVE version of FFIV. I love 2D as much as the next old school gamer, but the kind of emotion and nostalgia that this game instills in me, i'm incredibly excited to play through it one more time in the full 3D environment.

Source: Game Trailers

Square-Enix let loose several new news tidbits in their recent end-of-fiscal-year statement that are of interest to fans of their two most popular series.

First of all, Final Fantasy XIII for the Playstation 3 will be released no sooner than the end of the current fiscal year (March 31st, 2008). Thus, the earliest that we'll see FF XIII on Japanese store shelves is Apri of 2008. FF XIII never had a concrete release date to begin with, but now we know at least when not to expect it.

Dragon Quest IX for the DS, however, reportedly is progressing along ahead of schedule. This could mean that the TBA 2007 release date is a guarantee rather than a mere estimation.

And according to the same end-of-fiscal-year reports, sales were around 32% up while profits were around 32% down. The sales jump was in large part due to excellent North American and European releases of Final Fantasy XII; this marked the first fiscal year in Square-Enix history where a majority of its sales came from outside Japan.

Source: RPGFan

In the USA video game sales charts for the month of April, the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii posted strong sales numbers by selling 471,000 and 360,000 units, respectively. The XBox 360 had a disappointing April with 117,000 units sold, but not as disappointing as the Sony Playstation 3's 82,000. In a hilarious turn of events, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance sold 84,000 units in April; that's right, the GBA is selling better than the PS3.

And unsurprisingly, Pokemon dominated the game sales charts by having its two versions combine for a little over 1.7 million sold. Diamond made up for just over one million of those.

But that's not the point. The point is that Sony's sales situation is getting worse, and it will probably need those hyped Fall 2007 releases to stay in the game.

Source: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16199

Among the other delightful tidbits released by Square-Enix during their two-day event is their intention to remake the first two Star Ocean games for the PSP.

Star Ocean, originally for the Super Famicom and released only in Japan, and Star Ocean: The Second Story, for the Playstation, will feature brand-new voice work, a new script, updated graphics and FMVs, and more. The two games will be full remakes, not mere ports with a few tweaks.

Furthermore, Star Ocean 4 was announced to be in the works.

Source: GameSpot

I loved Star Ocean 2, and it's still one of my favorite PS1 games. As long as they leave the item creation and skill systems intact (or improve them!), I'm there.

Some scans have been released for Final Fantasy Dissidia, the Final Fantasy game headed for the PSP. In a bit of a shocking twist, the game appears to be a 3D brawler, now there's not much to go on other than the scan from Jump Magazine, but it does definitely have the looks of a brawler.

The game shot seems to have two pictures of two seperate fights, one involving what appears to be Cecil and Golbez, and the next featuring Zidane and Kuja. On second glance the first two might actually be Garland vs The Emperor from FF1 and FF2 respectively. I can't be certain.

Source: Jump Magazine scan

Any chance we could get one of our resident CoNners that can understand Japanese to translate this?

After a few days of rumors and speculation, confirmation regarding a new remake of Final Fantasy IV has been provided by Shonen Jump. With a page of screen shots and other information, there seems to be little doubt that Square-Enix is indeed working on a new version of their first Super Nintendo Final Fantasy.

The DS remake will reportedly use the same engine as Final Fantasy III DS. There's no word yet of a release outside of Japan, but, hopefully, details will be forthcoming in the next few days.

Source: ds fanboy via Ronin (thanks!)

Yeah, yeah, I know. Another remake! And this game just came out on the GBA less than two years ago! And aaaaaaah! AAAAAH! Square is doing ANOTHER REMAKE!

Capitalist scum aside, I have to admit that I'm excited about this. Final Fantasy IV was one of my favorite games (I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when Final Fantasy Chronicles was announced, back in the day), and reviving it with a fresh new style could be a very good thing. Maybe it's not the Square game that most deserves a remake, and maybe the remake will completely destroy a classic... but I can't help but hope that this will be terrific!

While I wouldn't bet that this spells the end of Square Enix's penchant for churning out remakes of popular games, the company that brings us the Final Fantasy series is set to give PSP owners something worth coveting: a brand-new Final Fantasy game.

Tentatively titled Dissidia, the new game in the franchise may represent a break from the rest of the series. For one thing, it lacks a number, and, for another, the tagline on the site states that "fantasy has no limited form."

Will this be a real Final Fantasy game, or is the name being borrowed to test-drive a new series? Sadly, it seems that only PSP owners will be in a position to find out.

Source: GameSpot