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Posted by Joystiq Nov 30 2011 20:00 GMT
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According to Andriasang, Square's Ultimania guide for Final Fantasy Type-0 includes an interview with director Hajima Tabata, who reportedly reveals that his team is currently working on the international version of the PSP title. This would be the first official confirmation of the game's upcoming arrival in Europe and North America -- though the interview doesn't bring up any details about the timetable for said localizations.

Andriasang also reports that the interview contains Tabata's plans for the franchise's future. He reportedly wants to make a direct sequel to the game, titled (what else?) Type-1, and would like to see the next installment on a home console. We've contacted Square for a comment on ... well, everything you just read.

Posted by Kotaku Nov 30 2011 18:40 GMT
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#top We've previously talked about how Square Enix's first Vita game will give you an army of goblins that you control as a demon king. The Final Fantasy publisher's outed some new screens for the original strategy/action game that puts some of the special moves you'll be able to do. You'll need them to face off against Beelzeboon, who Square Enix says is a boss character in the game. And the screen with the king character you'll control highlights some of the looks that you'll be able to customize the avatar with. More »

Posted by Joystiq Nov 29 2011 23:33 GMT
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It's still going to be a little while before "real" news shakes out, but some details were recently revealed in Famitsu (via Andriasang) about one of Square Enix's upcoming Unreal Engine games. The project will be an original (meaning not Final Fantasy nor Dragon Quest) action RPG under the direction of Ryutaro Ichimura (Dragon Quest 8 and 9).

Ichimura told Famitsu that the game's staff traveled for two years and conducted user surveys to research art and gameplay direction. With the basic concept complete, the team is now looking to grow beyond the staff of 35 and begin production.

(Pictured: Square's UE3-powered The Last Remnant)

Posted by Kotaku Nov 29 2011 12:50 GMT
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#assassinscreed Time traveller Noel Kreiss, Final Fantasy XIII-2, can dress up as Assassin's Creed's Ezio Auditore da Firenze, star of the latest AC game, Revelations. More »

Posted by Kotaku Nov 29 2011 12:30 GMT
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#dragonquest A meat bun shaped like a Dragon Quest Slime went on sale today in Japan. It's probably the grossest thing Square Enix has ever done. Truly, truly horrifying. And yet, people cannot look away—and can't stop playing with the damn things. More »

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Posted by Kotaku Nov 29 2011 06:30 GMT
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#dragonquest Square Enix, the studio behind role-playing games Dragon Enix and Final Fantasy, is allowing one of its most iconic characters, a Dragon Quest Slime, to be sold as a meat bun. More »

Posted by GoNintendo Nov 28 2011 20:17 GMT
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"But if we were to take one of the past Final Fantasy titles and make a sequel to it, I think that would be a lot more challenging because when they were on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 their actual game volume was a lot bigger, kind of," he said. "Graphically they weren't as advanced as they are now, but there were lots of towns and worlds and cities and whatever. So if we were to recreate the same kind of game - sequel or not - with the same volume, but give it a much higher level of graphical quality, it would us take three times, four times, even ten times longer to make such a game. So making a sequel for an old game would be a lot more challenging." - producer Yoshinori Kitase

This flies in the face of the recent rumor pertaining to a Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy VII remake rumors. I wonder if Square-Enix is just playing dumb!

Posted by Joystiq Nov 24 2011 12:00 GMT
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If some guy started lifting chunks of the ground and showering us with shooting stars, our available actions would be limited to RUN and HIDE. But Lightning just hops on those flying rocks to reach her opponent. That's a true tactical mind.

Posted by Kotaku Nov 23 2011 21:40 GMT
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#finalfantasy There was a collective sigh from the JRPG faithful when Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII-2 earlier this year. Some wanted more FFVII or more Kingdom Hearts. Instead, a return to Gran Pulse was in the offing. But, based on my recent hands-on with FFXIII-2, the sequel holds some intriguing changes to the formula set in place by the game that preceded it. More »

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Posted by Kotaku Nov 23 2011 20:40 GMT
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#finalfantasy While the Final Fantasy name may have lost a bit of its drool-inducing powers over the past two entries in the series, the Final Fantasy XIII-2 cinematic team keep the excitement alive in this latest trailer, "Battle of Valhalla". More »

Posted by Kotaku Nov 22 2011 00:30 GMT
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#chronotrigger The "at long last" in the title there is maybe a liiitle bit joking—after all, we've had several versions of Chrono Trigger available for some time now, from the original versions to the Wii virtual console and the Nintendo DS, through the many versions that are playable through emulation. I've played through the game a couple of times now, but haven't touched it in a while, partly because I have been waiting for it to come to iOS. More »

Posted by Joystiq Nov 21 2011 22:30 GMT
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Having decided that there still aren't enough platforms upon which to play Final Fantasy, Square Enix recently launched its own marketplace on the Japanese Android app store. The splintered-off storefront allows users to purchase downloadable Square Enix titles like Chaos Ring, Crystal Defenders and the iOS remake of Final Fantasy. The store will be updated with each new mobile release from the publisher, like the upcoming Chrono Trigger re-release.

The store will go live in Japan for KDDI users on December 1, while subscribers of DoCoMo and other cell networks will have to wait an unspecified amount of time. Considering how ubiquitous these games already are, we can't imagine they'll be forced to wait too long.

Posted by Joystiq Nov 21 2011 17:40 GMT
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Square Enix continues its campaign to put Chrono Trigger on every single device you own, with the announcement of a version for Leapster iPhone.

The Square Enix Members blog reveals that an iOS release of the classic RPG will be available "before the end of December." No price was announced, but Square Enix tends to be bold with iPhone RPG pricing: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions debuted at $16, and even the port of Final Fantasy is $9.

The iOS game uses a virtual joystick for locomotion, and a touchscreen menu for battle, neither of which should cause trouble in an RPG. You can see the new battle interface above; check out our gallery for more.

Posted by Joystiq Nov 18 2011 03:15 GMT
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Admit it: There's a hole in your heart that's just waiting to be filled with obscenely pretty environments, effeminate hairstyles and inscrutable RPG progression systems. We got you -- or rather, the Final Fantasy XIII-2 screens located in the gallery below got you.

Posted by Kotaku Nov 16 2011 12:30 GMT
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#cosplay You are looking at a cosplay that was 8 months in the making. Eight months that were totally worth it. You are looking at cosplayer NealBomBad's Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV. You are looking at greatness. More »

Posted by Kotaku Nov 16 2011 12:00 GMT
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#finalfantasy No, according to Final Fantasy XIII-2 producer Yoshinori Kitase, it could be an action-RPG. More »

Posted by Kotaku Nov 11 2011 11:30 GMT
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#finalfantasy You just need to be famous. Really famous. Like this lady, Yuko Oshima. More »

Posted by Joystiq Nov 10 2011 16:42 GMT
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While we don't get the lovely Final Fantasy XIII-2 PlayStation 3 system in North America, we will get a different, but also lovely, box in which to store the game. The publisher unveiled the $79.99 Collector's Edition today, featuring exclusive cover art by longtime series artist Yoshitaka Amano.

Within the box is the game on Xbox 360 or PS3, a four-disc soundtrack, and a book of exclusive concept art. It'll be available in "limited quantities" at GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon on January 31.

Posted by Kotaku Nov 08 2011 10:00 GMT
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#finalfantasy Honestly, I'm not quite sure if this is the first g-string in the series or not. Final Fantasy VII's Fran gets dangerously close, but that's ultimately outerwear. This, unfortunately, is underwear. More »

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Posted by Kotaku Nov 07 2011 13:00 GMT
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#finalfantasy Internet person Michelle Phan is a make-up wizard—a magician! In this video, she shows the power of make-up as she gives a walkthrough on how to transform yourself into FFVIII's Riona Heartilly. More »

Posted by Joystiq Nov 06 2011 15:30 GMT
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For those of you out there who appreciate the special, unique combination of baldness, stealth and fine mensware, take note: Square Enix and Eidos have released a seventeen minute long Hitman: Absolution walkthrough, narrated by Game Director Tore Blystad and Gameplay Director Christian Elverdam.

Posted by Joystiq Nov 05 2011 18:30 GMT
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Square Enix's revolution was successful, so grab your metal limbs and augmented-reality eye implants -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution sold 2.18 million copies across all platforms, Square's bi-annual fiscal report says. Just 800,000 of that total was sold in the U.S., while Human Revolution sold 1.38 million copies across Europe. Which means only one thing: Europe is prepared for the future, while the U.S. remains blissfully unaware of the impending transhumanist movement. Which side of the electrified fence do you want to be on?

Dungeon Siege 3 sold better in Europe as well, racking 480,000 sales, while the U.S. bought 320,000 and Japan a mere 20,000. When the transdragonists begin to rain neon hellfire from above, we'll know where to go.

Posted by Joystiq Nov 04 2011 13:40 GMT
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Even though the recent release of "The Missing Link" DLC featured a more appropriate boss encounter, the majority of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights force players to forgo whichever strategy they employed throughout the game and, you know, just shoot 'em in the face. Unless that is your strategy, in which case all we have to say is: you monster.

Producer David Anfossi told Edge that farming out the boss fights to Grip Entertainment was a mistake -- not because Grip failed, but because the implementation and design of boss encounters was poor. "We knew that it would be a weakness for the game, that we had to make a compromise to deliver it [on] two levels. First, the boss fights were forced, which is not the Deus Ex experience. Second, there is no mix [of] solutions to tackle the boss fights, which is not Deus Ex either. We knew that before the release of the game, but there had to be some compromise. It [was] our decision."

That's not to say Anfossi isn't proud of Deus Ex -- he's quite content with the hacking, stealth, social and combat aspects of the game -- but if he had a chance to do it all again, he'd handle the boss fights differently rather than taking them out entirely. "There are two options: no boss fights, or do boss fights correctly. I'm pretty sure that now we have the knowledge to do it correctly."

Posted by Joystiq Nov 02 2011 15:39 GMT
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Square Enix issued a change to its most recent six-month forecast of earnings, now that it's had the benefit of actually experiencing those six months (April-September 2011). That has a tendency to make predictions a bit more accurate.

The revision is a slight increase in net sales, from ¥56 billion ($718 million) to ¥57 billion ($730 million), and a whopping 146.7% increase in net income. These increases come thanks to the success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and "increased billing revenue" from web, social, and mobile games.

Thanks to the unusually strong yen, Square Enix had the misfortune of marking an additional "foreign exchange loss" of ¥2.1 billion ($27 million). That's a lot of money to just have disappear.

Posted by Joystiq Nov 03 2011 22:00 GMT
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If you, like us, have felt jilted as other territories received a glut of Square Enix RPGs while the U.S. got table scraps, it's time to relieve yourself of your worries. PlayStation Blog has just announced the "Winter of RPGs" campaign, which will see the release of three much-desired PSOne Classics on the PSN: Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 6.

You'll be able to grab the character-rich Chrono Cross next Tuesday, November 8, the career-oriented Final Fantasy 5 on November 22, and the positively operatic Final Fantasy 6 on December 6. It's nice that they'll finally be on there -- though forcing them to compete for our free time with Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations seems, well, kind of mean.

Posted by Kotaku Nov 02 2011 11:40 GMT
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#metalgearsolid Spotted at this year's Tokyo Game Show, there are Solid Snake and Cyborg Ninja figures incoming from Square Enix's Play Arts Kai line. Pre-orders are now underway! More »

Posted by Joystiq Oct 31 2011 02:30 GMT
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The Tomb Raider franchise celebrated its 15th anniversary (which is crystal, by the way -- get your mom, girlfriend, wife, sister or sister-wives something from Swarovski, cheapskate) with an artistic tribute to Lara Croft, featuring digital renditions from eight legacy artists and newcomers. Artists include the current senior art director for Tomb Raider, Brian Horton; Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, art director for Deus Ex: Human Revolution; and the final artist, Toby Card, who designed the original Lara Croft back in 1995.

Check out the gallery here, but don't check it out too hard -- Lara is only 15, after all.

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Posted by Kotaku Oct 28 2011 21:20 GMT
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#heroesofruin There's not much incoming to the Nintendo 3DS that I'm truly excited about, but after watching more than six minutes of this developer walkthrough of Square Enix's Heroes of Ruin, the list might just get one title bigger. More »

Posted by Kotaku Oct 24 2011 11:30 GMT
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#finalfantasy Back in 2009, Square Enix showed a Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer. In it, FF Versus XIII hero Noctis Lucis Caelum sported a silly name and some magnificent hair. His name is still silly and his hair is still amazing, but dude's changed. More »

Posted by Joystiq Oct 23 2011 03:30 GMT
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Final Fantasy XIV wasn't ever going to win Game of the Year, but that isn't stopping producer and director Naoki Yohsida from supporting the revamped version. Square Enix is considering Vita and smartphone support for Final Fantasy XIV, with access to inventory and in-game item purchases, Yoshida said.

"Not just the Vita, but also smartphones, so that kind of access will be allowed," Yoshida said. "That will open the door to things like applications that people can used to check their inventory, or check the market and purchase things from the auctions."

Yoshida said Square is also still speaking with Microsoft about an Xbox 360 version, but its focus now is mostly on releasing it on PS3.

"The one thing to regain that damaged player trust is to keep those promises, and one of the promises was to release a PlayStation 3 version," Yoshida said. "We made that promise long, long ago, and we still haven't kept it."