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This week, Dengeki PlayStation had an interview with two great figures of Square Enix: Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura, regarding Final Fantasy XIII and VersusXIII.
"We have to thank Sony for the Blu-Ray storage space and the inclusion of a hard disk which enables us to deal with with loading times suitably. Concerning the development of the game, things require thorough working as we're in a new generation which complicates things. With Final Fantasy VII, we suceeded on evolving and moving the series forward, but to carry this out on the Playstation 3 remains difficult. For Final Fantasy XIII, we look at which sections we should concentrate on in order to improve the." is what Yoshinori Kitase had to say.
"In comparison to the Playstation 2, the changes on the Playstation 3 are more difficult. Planning and organisation haven't changed, but overall, the quantity of work required has increased considerably. There are situations where you need to show tiny details if it is necessary
for you to create illustrations featuring said tiny details." declared Tetsuya Nomura.
Afterwards, Nomura stated that the completion of Final Fantasy VersusXIII might take a little while longer than he had planned.
2 days ago, Bandai Namco opened a teaser site for their upcoming Wii RPG entitled Fragile. It was speculated that more information on the game would come in this weeks Weekly Famitsu, and those speculations were correct.
Fragile is currently in development at Tri-Crescendo (developers of Eternal Sonata), while the game design and art direction are being taken care of by Namco's team who worked on Venus and Braves and Seven: Molmorth no Kihetai.
The game is set in the near future, where players take control of a boy called Seto. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where players will search to find survivors. The enemies in the game are onl described as "ghosts" right now, and defeating them will earn you gadgets such as torches and metal detectors. Details on how the Wiimote will function with the game haven't been fully announced yet, however, we know that you can use the Wiimote like a torch, pointing it at the screen to light up dark places and to find wall markings and the like.
Fragile is currently 30% completed, and is slated for a 2008 release in Japan.
Earlier this morning, Bandai Namco opened a teaser site for Fragile, a Wii-based "ruin exploration" RPG. This is all the information we have on it at the moment, but this week's edition of Weekly Famitsu should have new details. Also, said teaser site will be replaced with an actual website later on in the week.
Level 5 president, Akihiro Hino, has sat down with Famitsu to talk about their upcoming Playstation 3 game, White Knight Story. Similar to Final Fantasy X, the game will be focused on the relationship between the main character and the princess. Near the beginning of the game, the main character rescues the princess, and from there on, a close relationship between them is developed. Apparently, there will be a scene that shows both of them dancing in a forest, drawing the similarities to Final Fantasy X even closer. However, the story will also focus on the "huge knights", and will explain why they exist and what influence they have on the world.
Hino stated that gameplay wise, they wanted White Knight Story to be as accessible as possible. Apparently, the game's control scheme during battles will only make use of the circle button.
Lastly, much to the delight of people who will be able to attend this year's Tokyo Game Show in September, Hino confirmed that the segment we saw in the recently released second promotional trailer will be playable.
White Knight Story still has no official release date in Japan.
Atlus USA have updated the shipping date of Persona 3, and have released the following statement:
"The new scheduled ship date for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is August 14th, 2007.
This is the very soonest that manufacturing of the Persona 3 art book can be completed, and also takes into account the time required for assembly of the final package.
The manufacturing issue with the art book was brought to our attention mere days prior to the initial ship date, and was a scenario both unforeseen and beyond our control. Our disappointment and frustration is tempered by the knowledge that the final product will live up to our standard of quality and also the expectations of our fans.
While many are willing to sacrifice the art book in favor of the game alone, the package we have spent the last few months designing, one intended to honor the series and reward fans for an eight year wait, would be irreparably compromised if we were to revise or abandon the deluxe package. Without the art book, the outer box would lack the structural integrity to endure shipping; all extras would need to be discarded. Again, this deluxe set was created for the fans of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, and we are determined to see the special release through to the end.
We apologize for the delay, and we ask for your understanding."
Man, it ships on my birthday as well. Too bad I'm a UKer and have to wait untill '08.
Square Enix has announced new details regarding their prequel to Final Fantasy VII. Crisis Core will feature two clas.sic characters from the original Final Fantasy VII, Aeris and Hojo. Aeris apparently gets to meet Zack (her lover at the time) in the same church where she meets Cloud during the beginning of Final Fantasy VII. Hojo is still the crazy mad scientist, conducting experiments without care for casualties. In one of the screenshots shown below, he telling Zack that SOLDIER's role was to protect him without thinking.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will be available in Japan on September 13th for 5,800 yen ($47.84 US).
Atlus USA has announced that due to problems with the completion of the art books that come with Persona 3, there will be a slight shipping delay, and the title will be delayed for an indefinite amount of time. Atlus USA released the following statement, and will announce when the game will be shipping:
"Presented with the choice of compromising on the quality of the art book, or shipping the game without said extra, we decided to have the art book redone with a higher quality binding, which will cause a very short delay in the ship date of the title.
While all other materials and packaging related to the game are complete, we were unwilling to sacrifice the art book, and as such will expedite the manufacturing process to the best of our ability in order to release the title as soon as is possible."
Today, Namco Bandai announces four new games to add to their Tales of series. All of these games, with the exception of Tales of Innocence, will be receiving a 2008 release, while Tales of Innocence will receive a 2007 release. Furthermore, Namco Bandai has announced that the Nintendo DS will be the lead platform for the Tales of series. Moving on, here are the names of the games, details on them, and images.
Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut: Is to be released on the PlayStation 2. No details on what this title will feature, however.
Tales of Innocence: Revealed for the Nintendo DS. Two characters are known, Ruca Milda, whose voice actor will be Akiko Kumura, and Iria, whose voice actor will be Sasamoto Youko. The game has a fully 3D world, and will feature a Dimension Stride LMB battle system. Character artwork will be supplied by Inomata Mutsumi. The opening movie will be done by Production I.G, and the theme song will be performed by KOKIA
Tales of Rebirth: A port of the original PS2 title. Has been announced for Sony's PSP.
Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk: A sequel to the original Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, announced for the Nintendo Wii. This sequel will take place two years after the events of the original, and will include the original's cast, although it is unknown as to whether they can be added to the playable party. There will be two new main characters, and at some point in their journey, they will meet the original cast.
Expect more information and images in the near future.
Yesterday at the PlayStation Premiere event, Nippon Ichi Software announced Disgaea 3 for the PS3. As seen in the two graphics below, the game will retain the same 2-D-like sprite visuals featured in the 2 pervious games.
Disgaea 3 will be available in Japan sometime this winter for 6,800 yen ($55.80 US).
Square-Enix announced a limited edition PSP bundle which features the upcoming addition to the Compilation of Final Fantays VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The PSP included will be the new version announced at last week's E3, and will include a Final Fantasy VII Tenth Anniversary logo, along with some artwork from Nomura. It also features a cellphone strap in the shape of the Buster Sword. There will be 77,777 available units in Japan.
The Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Limited Edition bundle will be available in Japan on September 13th for 25,890 yen ($212.45 US).
Yesterday, at the PlayStation Premiere event, Level 5 showed off their upcoming Playstation 3 RPG White Knight Story for the first time since last year's Tokyo Game Show. Akihiro Hino, president of Level 5, showed off a new trailer for the game, and surprised everyone there by playing the game himself, showing off a new feature. The game will allow players to create a virtual alter ego of themselves, which can be added to your party. This character creation system, if you will, will offer a great amount of customization, and has in fact been used to create the main character, along with 1000 NPC's.
There is still no official release date for White Knight Story.
Today, Square Enix announced new details regarding their upcoming addition to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
As stated before, the game will start off with Zack and co. being dispatched to Wutai to investigate the mysterious dissapearance of SOLDIER 1st Genesis. Today's announcement reveals that Yuffie, the self proclaimed materia hunter, will appear in Crisis Core, and as usual, will stir up some trouble. Meanwhile, protagonist Zack's senior, SOLDIER 1st Angeal Hewley apparently has to cut ties with Shinra Company for a certain reason. His former employer also seems to be going after him. To make matters worse, Zack has to fight against multiple Genesis clones. These clones of the MIA Soldier possess incredible fighting power, making them tough foes. Last but not least, today's announcement revealed a new character by the name of Sh!tsune. Zack meets this Turk member in the city after the Genesis Clones attack. She is the youngest person to ever join the Turks.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will be available in Japan on September 13th for 5,800 yen ($46.80 US).
SEGA and BioWare Corp. are teaming up to create a Sonic RPG that will be released on the Nintendo DS. There is no official site for it yet, but it has a scheduled release of 2008.
Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc stated that "Everyone at SEGA has huge confidence that Sonic is in the safest of hands, and that BioWare can create the ultimate handheld RPG experience for gamers of all ages." BioWare has developed many popular games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Neverwinter Nights. They are currently finishing off Mass Effect for the Xbox 360.
Ray Muzkya of BioWare said, "As huge fans of Sonic ourselves, we're committed to delivering a truly amazing story-driven experience within the Sonic universe, focusing on capturing the character's broad appeal and placing him in a completely original adventure."
Let's see if BioWare can pull it off.
In the latest issue of Shonen Jump, it was revealed that Final Fantasy XII International: Zodiac Job System will have a pair of new playable characters: Larsa and Vossler. In the original game, even though they joined the party, they were only 'guests', sort of like what happened in the original Final Fantasy III, and as such, couldn't participate in battles. In Zodiac Job System, players can set their gambits, and they both have their own unique weapons.
Atlus Europe announced the opening of The Witcher's new website. The website is divided into 2 main areas: one focusing on information about the game, which includes a general overview, character and story details, and screenshots. The second area is like a community area. It features a forum, as well as news and media, fanart and fanfiction, and links to fansites.
The main section is available in eight languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Czech), and the community section is available in English and Polish. They selected Polish because The Witcher is based off of a series of stories by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish fantasy author. Players will take control of Sapkowski's main character, Geralt of Rivia, a mutant assassin. The game, like the books, is set in a morally ambiguous world and players will have to make many decisions that will impact on the course of the game.
A few days ago, RPGamer had an interview with NIS America, in which they asked a question one of their readers presented: "Any chance of Disgaea on the Nintendo DS?". The response that followed was a great one: "Nao: Let me just say this... you can look forward to it!". So, we should expect an announcement regarding Disgaea DS soon.
Oh yeah, late update again, this time I take all the blame because I was being really lazy.
Namco Bandai Games announced Dragon Tamer: Sound Spirit, an RPG for the Nintendo DS, where you use the built-in microphone to record diverse sounds to create over 100 types of dragons which are related to the six elements (fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness). Battles will be entirely in 3D, while dungeons and fields will be in 2D.
Dragon Tamer: Sound Spirit has a scheduled release date of Fall 2007 in Japan. There has been no word on a North American localisation.
Yeah, I'm late for the next few updates, don't blame me though, my Wii arrived after 3 delays. Twilight Princess is addicting.
Anyways, Banpresto have announced the latest addition to their Summon Night series: Summon Night: Twin Age, which will be making it's appearance on the Nintendo DS. There isn't much info yet, but we know that it will be an action RPG which is centered around two young heroes named Aldo and Leeha, who are on a quest to become true sorcerers. Most of the gameplay will occur on the touchscreen, which is also used to access spells and abilities.
Summon Night: Twin Age is due out in Japan this August. There is no word yet on if this game will reach North American shores.
In a recent interview, information regarding Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was revealed by both the game's director, Hajime Tabata, and it's character designer, Tetsuya Nomura. The game is 90% complete, and all that is left is to compress the data so that it can fit on a UMD.
When asked about the game's length, Tabata stated that the main storyline of Crisis Core would take approximately 30 hours to complete, but to fully complete the game would require a playtime of 100 hours or so. Tabata also indicated that Crisis Core may not be the end of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII; the decision is in the hands of Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura.
Nomura also mentioned the fact that there would be a special edition of this game.
Gust and Banpresto have revealed new details regarding their upcoming sequel to Ar Tonelico: Melodies of Elemia. As mentioned before, Ar Tonelico II's battle system will be an enhanced version of the first game's system. The protagonist will act as the first line of defense one again, protecting the heroines from incoming damage, while they cast their magic. Depending on the protagonist's affinity with a heroine, the charge for the latter's magic will either increase or decrease. You can increase your affinity with a heroine by protecting her from incoming enemy attacks, which is done by mashing the X button at the right time. On the battle screen's bottom right hand corner, an Emotion Meter that displays the heroine's "desire" can be seen. If these desires a fulfilled, access to powerful deathblows will be granted. When certain conditions are met, the heroines will learn more powerfull song magic spells. Furthermore, this time around, two heroines can team up to perform powerful combination magic spells.
Ar Tonelico 2 will be available on the Playstation 2 in Japan sometime in the later part of this year.
