Square Enix's Fantasy Earth MMO headed to US

In 2004, Square Enix announced the development of a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion. The game made its Japanese debut two years later, but Square Enix passed on bringing it to North American gamers.

MMO gaming fans in the West will finally get their chance to try the game out, as the domestic arm of free-to-play gaming publisher Gamepot--not to be confused with GameSpot--has announced plans to release it in the US this year under the revised moniker Fantasy Earth Zero.

Although the game has its share of threats already in store for gamers, Fantasy Earth Zero's focus will be realm-versus-realm battles between player characters. After choosing from three classes, players can side with one of five different countries in the game and fight to take down one another's fortresses in battle. Up to 100 players can participate in a battle, divided into 50 players on each side.

Beyond the combat, Fantasy Earth Zero will feature a soundtrack from Final Fantasy Tactics composer Hitoshi Skimoto, as well as monthly in-game and live events.