Three more soundtracks to be re-released Three more albums are joining the list of soundtrack to be re-released by SquareEnix. The newest entries include Xenogears Original Soundtrack, Final Fantasy VII: Reunion and Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack. The Chrono Trigger album is the one-disk version released that included not only some original tracks but also some arranged versions. All three albums will be 2000 yen when they are released on February 23rd. RPG Fan
Front Mission Mobile website opens with new details Announced alongside Front Mission 5 at the Tokyo Game Show, Front Mission Mobile is the latest handheld installment in the tactical strategy series, the official website of which has recently opened and stuffed with content. The game's story will return players to the OCU/USN conflict on Huffman island, where they may engage in standard combat or a familiar duel system. Front Mission Mobile will appear for NTT DoCoMos FOMA-900i-Handyseries in Japan. No price or release date has been announced. Offical site
Code Age plans detailed Square Enix has revealed that Code Age, a recently announced Yusuke Naora directed title, will first arrive in manga form. Produced by Square Enix, Code Age will appear on February 12 in Shonen Gangan magazine, following in the footsteps of popular manga turned anim? turned Square Enix Action-RPG Fullmetal Alchemist. "In order to survive, mankind must evolve," claims Code Age, but only time will tell how much survival this endeavor will entail. Gamespot
Another Advent Children site update The official site for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has received yet another update with new character profiles including Marlene Wallace,
Cid Highwind, Yuffie Kisaragi, Reno, Rude, Zack, and.....Denzel. This comes as the latest in a set of updates crawling towards the movie's Spring 2005 Japanese release. Official Site
EA hates you and your family In a brash statement yesterday, Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, announced that it has inked a 15-year exclusive deal with ESPN. This liscense gives EA sole rights to the ESPN brand on all platforms, including console, handheld, PC, and others. However, EA assures gamers that they do not intend to leave behind the highly-popular Madden title. What this does do, unfortunately, is simply dig the hole Sega Sports is in even deeper. While rumor is that EA Sports is going after other exclusive liscenses including the MLB and NBA, nothing has been confirmed yet. Game Spot
Justice in Japan: woman arrested for deleting save data Tokyo -- A Japanese woman has been arrested for logging in and deleting the saved game of her ex-boyfriend's Lineage account. "I did it as revenge for breaking up with me," she told police, except she probably said it in Japanese. Full Story
Radiata Stories is released and awesome Contrary to expectation by many Tri-Ace haters and comfortably inline with true experts like myself and Rachel, Radiata Stories is performing well in Japan since its release yesterday, selling 152k copies on the first day and beating Resident Evil 4. Square Enix does indeed have a stranglehold on that market. The game also garnered impressive scores from Dengeki PS2 last week, with a review spitting out three 95s and a 90. No NA or European dates have been given yet, but it's more than likely that they will be eventually. Meanwhile, feel free to complain about wanting a Valkyrie Profile sequel.
Dear Friends tour coming to San Fransisco Nobuo Uematsu's Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy concert tour will reportedly be arriving in San Francisco on March 7th for the 2005 Game Developers Conference. In addition to the concert taking place in Nob Hill's Masonic Auditorium, where conductor for the North American Dear Friends tour Arnie Roth will conduct the Symphony Silicon Valley, the legend Uematsu himself will be available for a VIP Meet & Greet after the performance. This concert will be the third in the North American series, following the May 10, 2004 Los Angeles performance and the upcoming February 19 Chicago event. GDC Website
More PS One Books goodies Following a similar announcement, Sony Computer Entertainment has released information that both Star Ocean: The Second Story as well Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi will be added to their budget PS One Books Japanese series. The two classics have an expected re-release date of March 3rd, and will be priced at 2,500 yen ($24.41 US) and 3,500 yen ($34.18 US), respectively. There is still no word on any trans-continental release, though little can be expected. Famitsu
Fresh Musashi information The latest issue of Japanese magazine V-Jump unveiled some new details concerning Square Enix's action RPG Musashi Samurai Legend (also known as Musashiden II: Blademaster in Japan). The story will revolve around princess Misela who asks the warrior Musashi to help her save her world from the evil Gundrake Corporation, which has invaded the kingdom of the Mystic race (led by Misela's parents) in order to attain so-called "Magic Stream Stones", tremendous sources of power. Musashi Samurai Legend is set for a March 1, 2005 Japanese release. RPGamer
3rd Quarter Financial Results for the big SE Surpassing last year's results of ?40.71 billion sales with a profit of ?10.99 billion, Square Enix posted their 3rd Quarter results for this fiscal year so far (ending on March 31st). Raking in ?60.93 billion in sales with a net profit of ?13.30 billion, there has obviously been a substantial increase. This can be attributed, in part, to the release of Dragon Quest VIII, which has already broken the 3.5 million units shipped mark, possibly even 4 million. Based on the growth in profits and sales, Square Enix has boosted its projected totals for the full fiscal year to ?26.5 billion (consolidated operating profit). RPGFan
"Pokémon proven to be cancerous," says cancer center The scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have discovered a gene which causes cancer: POK Erythroid Myeloid Ontogenic factor--also dubbed "Pokémon". Further reports suggested that when they, "'knocked out' the Pokemon gene in mice, [a pathway] transformation was blocked and cells [did] not become cancerous." Though not unexpected, this belated evidence finally brings reason to the malignant effect of Pokémon on small children. Sloan-Kettering
The excellent Psychonauts now available for preorder Despite the fact that we're a Square Enix website, Tim Schafer's purportedly excellent and oft-delayed ps2/xbox/gc game Psychonauts is now available for pre-order from EBgames. Just thought you'd like to know. Tim makes a good point: "Because the more pre-orders they get, the more advertising we'll get, and the more advertising we get, the more people will hear of the game and buy it and love it, and easier it will be for EXCELLENT GAMES TO ROLL OVER THE BAD GAMES LIKE A STEAMROLLER THIS YEAR AND EVERY YEAR FROM NOW ON!" If you bought Katamari Damacy, whip out your good will again and apply it to 2005! DoubleFine
Flaws are perfect, according to Sony In a recent interview, SCE President Ken Kutaragi awknowledged to Nikki Business that the square button was less responsive than the others, and that this design element is "something which users and game developers will have to adapt to." Though 4800 units have been returned for this "design choice", Kutaragi asserted that this was not a flaw, it was exactly where they wanted it to be. 1up
Nintendo DS to host Mistwalker RPG In a recent interview with Japanese Famitsu, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Square Enix expatriate and founder of development house Mistwalker, related that a new RPG was in development for Nintendo's newest addition to its hardware lineup, the DS. According to the interview, Hideo Manaba is to serve as art director, while Sakaguchi himself assumes the roles of producer, scenario, and game design. Sakaguchi hinted that the title would be a simulation RPG with a four to fire character party, and noted his desire to (of course) utilize the touch screen somehow. When surveyed about this new RPG stilus innovation, many were heard to reply, "What...a mouse?" RPGamer
Ziyad to one day learn not to use periods in news headlines Also: correct usage of quotation and other punctuation predicted! Grammar not necessarily included in Ziyad's firmware upgrade, but considered a syntactical engine rewrite that will likely be introduced during the kernel upgrade later this year.