Square Enix Message Board older than one year ago

Sure, turbochargers are readily available for all variety of car, but what about super legs that let you bound 20 feet in the air? Or that new set of eyes with a camera built right in? Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Sarif Industries wants to bring us these medical marvels, as highlighted in a new (fake) advertisement.

If that weren't enough, prospective buyers can even get a glimpse at themselves with new biotic enhancements via Sarif Industries' new website. Head past the break to get a glimpse at both the new commercial and an image of this bedraggled writer with a super arm (which isn't that different from his totally awesome normal arm).

#speakuponkotaku In today's Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Konaa finishes Final Fantasy XIII "mostly" enjoys it, except for that damn Leona Lewis song. More »

Steam is offering the first two Dungeon Siege titles gratis should you choose to purchase the third entry in the series through Valve's digital distribution platform. Locking in your purchase now will grant you access to the first two games immediately, prior to the newly announced June 21 launch date for Dungeon Siege 3.

On top of that, Valve and Square Enix revealed that Dungeon Siege 3 will employ the Steamworks suite, adding "auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud support, downloadable content and more" to Obsidian's upcoming action-RPG. For the full skinny, cast your cloak of click-through to check out the press release past the jump.

Dungeon Siege III might be delayed, but that just gives Steam users more time to play through Dungeon Siege and Dungeon Siege II. They'll get both games free as soon as their preorder goes through. That's a lot of dungeons. More »

#unclearremarks Last night at around 11:30, an aftershock with a magnitude of over 7 hit northeast Japan. The area, Tohoku, was ravaged last month by another quake and ensuing tsunami that left thousands dead and many more homeless. As the quake shook the country, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, like many others, took to Twitter. More »

#itsadate Formerly one of the many great-looking games due for spring 2011, Obsidian Entertainment's Dungeon Siege III is now a summer game. Square Enix "updates" us on the release of Dungeon Siege III today, warning the game has slipped from May 31 to June 21. More »

When Square Enix originally said Dungeon Siege 3 was coming in May, it must have meant may, the lower case verb and not the calendrical noun. The publisher announced today that Dungeon Siege 3 is, in fact, coming June 17 and 21 to Europe and North America, respectively.

"Although the final polish phase has demanded a bit more time than originally planned," said Mike Fischer, president and CEO of Square Enix, Inc., "we want to assure fans and followers that the additional effort will allow us to deliver an action-RPG worthy of its rich heritage."

There's been no platform-specific delays, so it'll be available at the appointed time on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Plus, June doesn't have a verb, so there's no slick way out of delay notification next time.

Series creator Yuji Horii announced Dragon Quest X, in development for Wii, at a press conference in December 2008. And that was the last anyone heard about it until the April 2011 issue of Nintendo Power. The subject came up in an interview feature about "Dragon Quest through the Ages," when Horii stated that it's nearing completion.

"All we can say is that development is going well and we're on the last parts of the game," Horii said. "We can't really share much else at this point, but by the end of this year we should be able to announce something regarding it."

Horii explained that the move to Wii was motivated by his feeling that "some users will want to play Dragon Quest on the big screen," noting that the choice of platform, including the decision to put a particular game on a handheld system, is "really a case-by-case basis." He also said that the team hears "that players want a new Dragon Quest that follows the same system of Dragon Quest VIII, so that's something else we're taking into consideration while in development of a Dragon Quest for Wii."

#blip Nintendo DS title Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional is an upcoming expanded version of role-playing game Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2. Wonder how they're different? The "pro" version has a "Diamond Slime", which is a harder version of the iconic DQ character. [via オレ的ゲーム情報] More »

PSN will see a re-release of a re-release of Final Fantasy V in Japan this week. Square Enix's Shinji Hashimoto announced the PSOne Classics release -- compatible with PS3 and PSP -- of the PlayStation port of the Super Famicom RPG a couple of months ago, and revealed the April 6 release date today on Twitter.

Square Enix Members then confirmed that the downloadable RPG will be released in Europe as well, though the release date for Europe's battle against Exdeath is much less definite. "We'll be announcing the release date closer to the time, but we thought you might like to know that the game is currently being arranged for a release."

#blip Square Enix announced today that Final Fantasy V, the Super Famicom game that didn't make it to the states until 1999's Final Fantasy Anthology for the PlayStation, is in development for the PlayStation Network, enhanced by exclusive CGI cut scenes. More »

When Square Enix restarted the Final Fantasy XI and XIV servers after the Tohoku earthquake, it offered free play through the month of April. However, Square Enix has actually been offering Final Fantasy XIV play for free since launch -- its free trial period kept being extended and has never stopped. It was extended indefinitely when Square Enix restructured the team and announced plans to overhaul the game.

New producer Naoki Yoshida told Gamasutra that the end of the free trial is "still out in the open," and that the team will only begin accepting payments once a solid plan for improving the game is in place. "Without that, me, personally, as a player wouldn't feel good about asking the player to pay money," he said. The prolonged free trial is "one of the ways that we can show players that we are serious and we are taking it seriously."

It's a bit of a Catch-22 -- as soon as the game stops being free, it'll start being worth the time.

#silverscreen Comedy manga Arakawa Under the Bridge, which already has an anime adaption, is coming to Japanese television in live action form. And then the silver screen! More »

#tooquiet Back in 2008, Square Enix said it was working on Dragon Quest X for the Nintendo Wii. Then...silence. More »

Feeling just a little bit jealous of your 3DS-owning friends and their fancy new AR games? Well, if you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can enter the augmented reality of Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy with a (pricey) $5 app that lets you put its character models in real-world settings.

[Thanks, Ben]Square gets in on AR with Dissidia [duodecim] iOS app

#goodpersonality When Square Enix is making heroines, it might start with the character's back story or her role in the story. For example, in Final Fantasy XIII, the initial concept for protagonist Lightning was a "strong woman". More »

#iphone While AR Games might be the 3DS's holy shit moment, there are plenty of holy shit moments to go around. Final Fantasy has its own on the iPhone. More »

That is, according to a pair of LinkedIn profiles. The crazy shooter, which Square Enix suddenly killed this month, seems to have been in development since 2007 and not by Square Enix. But now, it's dead. [via Siliconera] More »

#gamingappoftheday Square Enix has finally made the third game in the Final Fantasy series available on the iPhone, and it's pretty damn good. Is it $15.99 worth of good? More »

#handson What can the unique hardware of the Nintendo 3DS do to invigorate the 16-year-old Bust-A-Move (aka Puzzle Bobble) puzzle game series? Based on Bust-A-Move Universe, not much. This is a game that strives to be old-school on Nintendo's modern-day platform. More »

#blip Moon Diver, the four-player co-op hack -and-slash platformer from Strider creator Kouichi Yotsui hits the PlayStation Network on March 29. In the meantime, feel free to drool over the launch trailer. More »

#video Joining the quest to rebuild the Legion and retake the Kingdom of Ehb in Obsidian's Dungeon Siege III, Katarina combines her father's mastery of firearms with her mother's witchcraft to devastating effect. More »

Nintendo's Virtual Console release schedule for April includes just three games -- quite a contrast from the service's high points in 2007 and 2008, when the monthly additions would routinely top a dozen. However, even with just three releases, Nintendo of Japan manages to make us totally jealous, because one of those releases is Chrono Trigger.

Nintendo (or Square Enix) has decided to charge a premium 900 Wii Points for the Super Nintendo RPG, a 100-point markup that is usually reserved for games "imported" from other regions, but used here basically because they can. That's still cheaper than the current (discounted) price for the DS version in the US.

In case we hadn't achieved sufficient jealousy levels, the other planned SNES release for next month is Mega Man X, which will sell for the standard 800-point price in Japan. Also on the schedule: King of the Monsters 2 for Neo Geo.

If you missed Square Enix's 3D remake of Final Fantasy 3 when it made its way to DS back in 2006, you can now catch it on an even tinier device. The RPG is now available on the iOS App Store for the somewhat prodigious price of $15.99 -- fairly high for an iPhone game, sure, but fairly low for a DS game. (That's how we're choosing to look at it, glass-half-full thinkers as we are.)

If your sorrowfully slim bank account is preventing you from grabbing Square's latest, you might be pleased to learn that most of its catalog of iOS titles (and art gallery apps?) has been discounted until March 31. Check out the list of price cuts after the jump, right below the trailer for the new Final Fantasy 3 port! Man, it's getting crowded down there.

#video Still hungry for more Deus Ex: Human Revolution gameplay? You just got, like, eight minutes worth of Eidos Montreal's take on Deus Ex, but here's a little more, illustrating the myriad ways augmented operative Adam Jensen can deal with his enemies. More »

#video A game that has been remade and ported to the Nintendo DS is...once again being remade and ported. This time, Final Fantasy III is headed to the iPhone, and this is what it looks like. More »

Square Enix is hungry, hungry for that smartphone app revenue and has created the Hippos Lab division, which is devoted entirely to the mobile sector.

The publisher recently announced the wholly-owned subsidiary, kicking off operations on March 7. There's no word yet on its grand plans or specific products for the group.

Last week, Square Enix revealed that it was looking to set up (another) large studio in Canada by 2012.

Square Enix has revealed that it has created a new wholly-owned subsidiary called "Hippos Lab", that is dedicated to creating high quality original content for smartphones. [via GameBiz] More »

Due to the power concerns that arose after March 11's earthquake, the servers for Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI were taken offline. The servers for both games will be back online on March 25. To make up for the outage, FFXI players won't be charged for the April billing cycle. Final Fantasy XIV will continue to be free to play. [via PlayOnline] More »

Though the real Japan's recovery efforts are ongoing following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the virtual worlds of Vana'diel and Eorzea will be back in pristine, explorable condition on Friday, March 25.

After taking the servers down for both Final Fantasy XI and XIV as a power conservation measure on March 13, Square Enix announced today that it'll reopen the MMO worlds this Friday. To keep power use down even with the servers running (the servers account for about 11 percent of the power use in the company's Tokyo office), Square Enix has "shut down our air conditioning system (8.8%) and enacted other power conservation measures, such as reducing lighting in our offices, to achieve over 10% in energy usage reductions."

You can think of those poor staffers stuck in an air-conditioning-less office with giant, heat-spewing computers while you play the games for free. Yes, Square still plans not to collect any monthly fees for April.