Chrono Trigger Revolution-bound? Rumours are circulating that Nintendo Power has confirmed Chrono Trigger as a possible element of the Nintendo Revolution's backwards compatible retro "Virtual Console" feature, which would confirm that Square Enix is involved in the online download plan laid out by Nintendo at E3 earlier this year. This would presumably mean good things, like other old Squaresoft games from back in the day when jaded old fogeys like ourselves still endeavoured to play games without bitter, cynical controversy. Ahh. Gamefront
Kitase: Final Fantasy VII remake will take 5 years Speaking in an interview with American magazine EGM, Final Fantasy director Yoshinori Kitase spoke out about a potential Final Fantasy VII remake, saying that if Square Enix were to seriously pursue such a project, it would require a staff of 300 and take 5 years. Nomura commented as well, stating that even if the team were to come together to produce a new version of the game, the various members are currently too caught up in their own projects to be able to reserve any time for it. EGM speculated that the possibility of a FF7 remake lies out of reach as long as the next PS3 game to be created is Final Fantasy XIII. 1up
Final Fantasy IV heads to GBA "Fans can rejoice", says Square Enix, because a port Final Fantasy IV for GBA will arrive in the US on December 12th. On top of that, "additional game elements have been added", including "new towns, caves and mountains". Even though I can't remember exactly how many the original had, the GBA version will sport 12 playable characters with "new abilities, spells and items" and who "join and leave the party at different parts of the quest to keep the game fresh." No word yet as to whether the graphics have been polished up to match those of FFI-II.
Front Mission 5 and new FFXI expansion announced Remember those two trademarks, Scars of the War and Treasures of Aht Uhrgan? Well, they were pretty easy to guess to begin with, but now they've been confirmed as Front Mission 5: Scars of the War, and a new expansion pack for Final Fantasy XI. But who cares about FFXI and Front Mission in the face of the Revolution and Metal Gear Solid 4, anyway?
Sales of Advent Children reportedly pass 220k in first week Gamefront reports that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which went on sale in Japan last week, sold around 220.000 copies on DVD in the first week. UMD sales haven't been accounted for, and given the popularity of UMD so far, it's safe to say it probably accounts for a fair chunk of the total as well. So I guess we can go ahead and say Advent Children is a success, right? Aside from the 2.5 million people around the world who already downloaded the rip for free and watched it. That means you! *cough* Gamefront
Dragon Quest VIII US to come with Final Fantasy XII demo Final Fantasy XII will see its first glimpse of public North American soil this November when Dragon Quest VIII arrives on its shores, complete with a demo of the game whose presence will probably draw people more than it will those who don't mind sitting through the super saiyan'ed up uberversion of the Japanese megalith. So you can be glad about that. Besides the DBZ unique selling point and the likeliness of Akira Toriyama's name being plastered on the box, DQ8's US appearence will also introduce a fully orchestrated score akin to that of the Dragon Quest V remake's, as well as numerous improvements to the gameplay system and menu interface design. Suffice it to say that Japanese gamers will probably not have to wait long until they, too, can play this superior American version. For 12000 yen.
Square Enix Europe is serving a crafty survey with dodgy questions about Dragon Quest VIII Given the modifications made to the US version of top Square Enix pillar Dragon Quest VIII to cement its probable success on that side of the Atlantic, us Europeans have to wait and see whether the good old European office considers it worth the effort. As such, they've concocted a nefarious online survey about the title, imposing upon your supposed ignorance such vapidity as "have you heard of Dragonball Z" and "do you like the name Dragon Quest", presumably under the precursor of renaming it to something more related to spikey-haired, monkey-tailed flying kids to alleviate the pressures involved with actually marketing the title on its own merits. Funky hey, people! Oh, and if you don't want to fill that thing out, just email them with the subject "SQUARE ENIX SURVEY" to get a chance at "free Square Enix loot" (which I'll avail myself of further speculating on). Squenix Europe survey
Wild ARMs 4 and Shadow Hearts 3 to be published in US by ex-Square CEO Square Enix's CEO prior to Youchi Wada's promotion, Jun Iwasaki, and six of his Square Enix buddies, have founded a new company specifically for the spreading of RPG wonder in the Western lands called XSeed Games. I'll let you speculate about the possible relationship of that title to Final Fantasy VIII yourself, however. XSeed will be bringing Shadow Hearts 3 and Wild ARMs 4 to the States in 2006, with plans for more after the aforementioned two prove successful. Which they will, apparently. Iwasaki can look into the future.
Taito joins Sqorg collective With its 62.8 billion Yen purchase of a stake in Taito Corp, Square Enix now officially owns 93.7% of the company, according to today's press release. So it went through, then, and I suppose we can start expecting a wealth of new cutesey titles published through the Square Enix strongarm publishing branch. And possibly insane crossovers, like Dragon Quest Slime MoriMori BubbleBobble or Super Bust-a-Moogle? Post a comment and join in with the ludicrous suggestions! Bloomberg
First Front Mission 5 details surface The most recent issue of Japanese Shonen Jump has released the first tidbits of information (in the form of these scans) regarding Squeenix's latest foray into Strategy-RPGs: Front Mission 5: The Scars of the War. The title's purportedly more humanistic story will focus around USN soldier Fen Walter and his relationship with Lin Wainright, a fellow female officer, in addition to viewing soldiers' everyday lives and, of course, the war. With luck, Wanzer combat will not be replaced by large sweaty men slapping one another on the ass as they shout sexist obscenities. Oh, the gritty realism! Official site
Square Enix reveals Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 4 So there we go, polymorphism? swerves back into full swing with the arrival of what's presumably the World of Mana brand: a new issue of Weekly Jump reveals that Seiken Densetsu DS is known as "Children of Mana", and that there's also a true sequel on the way to some unannounced main console (presumably this-gen, so PS2 or GC). While Children of Mana is to be a 2d action-RPG in a similar vein to previous entries into the series, the sole screenshot of SD4 depicts a fully 3d world more reminiscent of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, which was pretty Mana-esque to begin with. Children of Mana will hit the DS winter 2006 in Japan (a year to go, yes), and SD4 has no release date. Yet. Gamefront
Advent Children US package details and release date? According to a forum poster with access to the relevant details, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children should be appearing on DVD in the US on November 28th -- with a special 2 disc edition containing a feature disc (feature film, "reminiscence of FFVII") and bonus disc (The Distance: Making Of Featurette, FFVII AC: Venice Film Festival Footage, Sneak Peak of upcoming FFVII games, FFVII:AC trailers). Legitimacy is up in the air but I guess the photo is pretty substantial (?). Gallery