March 28, 2008, Square Haven has ceased updates indefinitely. What you see below is an archived version.
News / 2007 / August /
12 articles
- The Pioneers: Junya Nakano
Junya Nakano started out as a music composer for Konami's arcade titles and began composing for Square during the 16-bit era. Since then, he has contributed to such soundtracks as Final Fantasy X, Musashi Samurai Legend, and Project Sylpheed. Square Haven takes a look back at the music composer's career thus far, including samples from nine of his game soundtracks chosen by Totz of Square Enix Music Online. The Pioneers
- By the numbers: Revenant sells, Itadaki smells
Square Enix recently published some figures revealing sales of Revenant Wings, Itadaki Street DS, and anticipated remake Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, all over the first six-month period of 2007. What are the numbers? Well, Final Fantasy XII sequel Revenant Wings came in first with 520,000 copies, followed by The War of the Lions with 310,000 copies and Itadaki with 280,000. No surprises here: Revenant Wings reviewed solidly and followed up a stellar title, Lion War was purportedly plagued with several loading issues, and as for Itadaki DS...well...Itadaki Street has never been potent enough to receive a localization. Better luck next time. Jeuxfrance
- Spiral out: Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Gallery
Final Fantasy VII's 10th anniversary made for some eye-bulging bonuses, as you may remember from some weeks ago. Evidently, these nifty extras weren't enough presents for ten-year-old Final Fantasy VII - a game that is perhaps Square's most popular entry into their staple series. Thus, in addition to the aforementioned extras, Square Enix has plans to roll out a Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Gallery in Spiral (a cornerstone of Tokyo's Aoyama district). Running from August 31 to September 2, the gallery is slated to boast a range of artwork from each Compilation of Final Fantasy VII denizen. In addition to classic artwork in the vein of Tetsuya Nomura's (in)famous character designs, never-before-seen art will also line the gallery, ensuring a visual feast for fanatics. Have your eyes popped out of their sockets? If so, you'll want to start reserving those flight tickets to Tokyo; this gallery certainly isn't traveling to the West. Kotaku
- Hilariously exaggerated press release accompanies Heroes of Mana
The latest title in the Seiken Densetsu series, Heroes of Mana, was released this week in North America. Square Enix commemorated the occasion with a press release for your pleasure. "Breathing new life into the popular MANA™ franchise..." The opening line in the second paragraph is a comedic gem in itself. Full press release
- Square Haven launches new homepage to surprise and elation
Today is a special day. Do not attempt to adjust your monitors: Square Haven has officially launched its new homepage. Besides being considerably widened to reduce scrolling frustration and accommodate larger resolutions, its launch also features the brand-new "Stream of Consciousness", courtesy of Rahul, who has been busy cranking out its glorious goodness for all to enjoy. Positioned firmly inside the right column, it details up-to-date information regarding user profiles, collections, comments, ratings and, of course, staff updates tabbed and highlighted for your convenience. With this new feature, we here at Square Haven hope to keep everyone better updated about what's going on and get everyone as fanatic as we are communicating just a little bit better. Enjoy!
- Square Haven RSS feed reaches historic 5-person mark
Today, the Venerable Square Enix Resource achieved an important milestone, delivering instantaneous notices via RSS of the latest and most vital gaming information to a record 5 people.This development is a clear indication of what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called the transition of the earth's evolutionary development into the Noosphere phase, brought about by the ever-increasing access of conscious volitional actors within a planet of finite sphericity to ever greater volumes of Square Enix-related news and information. If you do not have an RSS reader already, they are free at bloglines and google reader.
- Zodiac Job System release met with hilarious defeat
As last week's Japanese sales charts would appear to indicate, Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Job System did not release with a tremendous amount of fanfare, ranking in third place with some 45,869 copies. It was beaten out by Mario Party 8 for the Wii, which sold 103,889 copies of its total 504,000 this past week to put it in second place. SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive was the real winner, debuting on the DS at number one with 137,717 copies. To spare your calculators the effort, that means that our super-deformed buddies have almost exactly three times the appeal of Yasumi Matsuno's definitive Ivalice adventure. Which just goes to show you: shit with big heads always wins. Or something.
- Game Trailers now schooling gamers on Final Fantasy history
A little over a month ago, GameTrailers.com began its "Final Fantasy Retrospective", a survey of the Final Fantasy series, beginning with its humble origins some twenty years ago. Aside from being extremely well put-together and informative, it features references to some of our favorite embarrassing Square titles, from Alpha to 3-D Worldrunner. Now in its sixth installment featuring Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy XI, it is a comprehensive look at one of Square Enix's flagship series and a definite must-watch for any fan or historian. Now that G4 has hit rock bottom, GameTrailers.com appears to be a source for thoughtful programming woefully unavailable elsewhere. Watch Now
- Square Enix opens online store; Japanese economy flushes with money
On this very evening two days ago, Square Enix finally took another step towards global nerd domination with the opening of its online store. As the ethereal doors swung open to the glorious sounds of users clogging its servers, so did an age end. No longer will we be forced to scour frightening Japanese markets in search of stuffed Chocobos, or haggle aggressively at conventions for the lowest price on a limited edition Final Fantasy VIII Lionheart necklace because, dammit, the other guy down there had it cheaper before it sold out. Among its other goods, the store features jewelry, plushies, figurines, and various other unnecessary accessories. Link
- Square Enix delays Dragon Quest IX; quality issues cited
Square Enix announced today that the release of the anticipated Dragon Quest IX would be shifted to 2008 in Japan from a previous listing of late 2007. The reason? Apparently, quality improvements are the cause of Level 5's development delay. While this news is no doubt unfortunate for fans of the series, it also means that Square Enix is willing to sacrifice time for a quality product. If such a behavior pays off in sales and eventually becomes policy, it could mean a new vitality amidst some lately-mediocre titles.
- Kingdom Hearts to mightily morph into polymorphism?
The latest issue of EGM magazine apparently introduces the quite unsurprising rumour that Kingdom Hearts is the next victim in line for a total polymorphification procedure: "Quartermann is abuzz about a series of prequels currently in-the-works for a number of consoles and handhelds. Think along the same lines as what's happened with Final Fantasy VII -- let's just hope the games are better this time." Only Dragon Quest appears to be left untouched (though I may have spoken too soon). So expect more card games, sidescrolling Kingdom Hearts platformers starring Mickey, and Power Rangers/DBZ/Sora crossover yaoi as a result of the KH3 preview trailer.
- Final Fantasy potion in collectible tin can form
About a year and a half ago, Square Enix graced us with the Final Fantasy Potion, a mixture of fantastic chemicals all summing to a reportedly horrendous taste. The bottle itself was nothing to gawk at, either. Now Square Enix has different ideas: as part of its Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary celebration, beverage maker Suntory will once again join hands with our favorite Final Fantasy overlords to produce...the same exact thing. Only this time the delicious drink has found its way into collectible tin cans featuring Final Fantasy VII character artwork and others bundled with TRADING ARTS mini figures and minutely different art. Do you want to own a piece of history? Behold
01 Aug 2007 by 
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