Square Enix press conference

Square Enix held a press conference focusing on its online and mobile phone strategy today. The developer discussed the progress of its online strategy and announced a variety of new games for the PlayStation 2, PC, and mobile phones. During the presentation, the company revealed that it would open beta tests for two new PlayStation 2 games next year.

The first of the new games is Ambrosia Odyssey, an action RPG that features both offline and online play. A brief movie played following the game's announcement and showed off the art style and gameplay. From what we gathered, the core gameplay seems similar to Final Fantasy XI, the company's first massively multiplayer game, but it of course has its own variations on the theme. The game is currently scheduled to begin beta in spring 2004, with a final release sometime after that.

The second game, tentatively titled Front Mission Online, will be a PlayStation 2 and PC game that will support players on both platforms and allow them to interact with each other, similar to the way Final Fantasy XI is set up. Details were scarce, but a demo movie showed that like other games in Square's Front Mission series, the new game will focus on mech combat. Like Ambrosia Odyssey, the Front Mission Online game is currently slated to begin its beta phase in spring 2004 with a release sometime after that.

Finally, on the cell phone front, the original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy will soon be available for use on I-mode phones in Japan.

See more of GameSpot's coverage of the 2003 Tokyo Game Show.