#finalfantasy
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is on sale in Japan. On the Japanese internet, one commenter posted the above photo, noting that he (or she) stocked up on enough food to last a week in order to avoid leaving the house. More »
#finalfantasy
Longtime readers know that hilarity abounds when you ask the sports guy to write about Final Fantasy. I have not once ever so much as pressed a button in this series. So here you go, 18 new shots from Final Fantasy XII-2. More »
The latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailer unleashes the power of Pokemon, showing how players can capture monsters for use in future battles. In thinking about it, we could have given this post the headline "When Chocobos attack!" for massive traffic.
#squareenix
Square Enix stated yesterday that somebody "may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server" and took its members service offline in both Japan and the U.S. Today, the company clarified that 1.8 million customer's accounts had been affected. More »
#hacking
Publisher Square Enix has announced that, following the discovery that somebody "may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server", the company's members service has been brought offline in both Japan and the United States. More »
#finalfantasy
Oh hey, there's a new Chocobo song in Final Fantasy XIII-2! I do so love hearing the new arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's whimsical theme that arrive with each new iteration of the series. Let's give it a listen! Oh. Oh god. More »
#finalfantasy
After spending months handing out information on the follow-up to Final Fantasy XIII one snippet at a time, Square Enix brings the accumulated sum of Final Fantasy XIII-2 knowledge together in one handy-dandy four-minute-and-change primer video. More »
Some guys will hold open a door for a lady, others might offer their jacket on a cold night. For Agent 47, he'll kill every dude in the world to ensure her safety. And they said chivalry is dead!
#fortunestreet
The Wii's new virtual board game Fortune Street threatens to overwhelm you at first, but don't let that stop you from becoming part of the 1 percent in this Monopoly-esque game. More »
Chrono Trigger has arrived on iPhone. It's about time! No, really, that's what the -- OK, we're sorry. The iOS version costs $9.99, which is on the high side for iPhone games, but on the low side for Square Enix games.
The iOS release includes the two bonus areas from the DS port, the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum. Check out a trailer above, featuring what must be an iPhone from the future, because otherwise Square Enix randomly decided to invent a strange iPhone configuration just for the video. Luckily, the game will work on phones of today, including iPhone 3GS and newer.
Google's "Native Client" isn't merely a technology used to play Bastion in a browser window. It will also allow you to try ... Square Enix and IO Interactive's 2009 game, Mini Ninjas. The publisher announced that Mini Ninjas for Chrome is going into open beta sometime this month. It's designed to run in the upcoming version 17 of the browser.
Square Enix plans to make more games from its "group-wide lineup" playable in Chrome in 2012. Perhaps those will include some more memorable fare.
Take a trip back in time on your iPhone today as Sqiare Enix finds a new way to get folks to pay $9.99 for Chrono Trigger. Makes you wish they'd just sell lifetime version subscriptions. [iTunes] More »
#speakuponkotaku
In today's fully Fahey-approved edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Paradox Me makes an argument for the greatness of Final Fantasy IX that's more than just saying the name Vivi over and over again. More »
#finalfantasy
Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy deals in big, stylized worlds. In this "environmental trailer", Final Fantasy XIII-2, the sequel to FFXIII, shows it is no exception. More »
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is launching in Japan next week and the game makers are wrapping up their last round of interviews. Dengeki PlayStation (via Andriasang) encountered producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama, who talked a bit more about the episodic nature of the game and perks for those who have played the previous game.
If you've got a save file from Final Fantasy XIII handy, you'll net some bonuses: special monster decorations and a higher success rate at the game's special gambling area. Each episode will be at most three hours, it was revealed, and an auto-saving system will be added for the sequel, though it won't replace being able to save at anytime. That would just be silly.
And if you make your way through the whole game and want to take another go around, there will be a New Game Plus mode that adds exclusive unlockable items and monster decorations. Monsters really are more festive in Gran Pulse and Cocoon than we remember.
#fortunestreet
Fans have been clamoring for the popular Japanese financial board game series Itadaki Street to make it to North America since the original was released back in 1991. Fortune Street for the Wii scratches that itch bloody. More »
Square Enix has announced a small delay related to Final Fantasy XIV, but we don't think it's one you'll be upset about. Back in October, as part of the ambitious plan to revamp the MMO, Square Enix said it would begin charging a subscription fee in late November or early December. That date has been pushed to January 6, allowing you another whole month of ... playing Final Fantasy XIV in its current form. Hmm.
If you want to set up a subscription for your current account, you'll be able to do so starting December 16. Between January 6 and the release of "version 2.0," subscription fees will be discounted to $6.99 per 30 days (with extra savings for longer periods). The "real" subscription fee when version 2 launches will be $9.99 for 30 days.
#finalfantasy
Beleaguered Final Fantasy XIV is being reborn as Final Fantasy XIV: Version 2.0. Part of that rebirth means that the PC game's free-to-play period is coming to a close. The billing period commences next month. More »
#finalfantasy
A team of budding game designers have grabbed a copy of the Unreal Engine and decided, as a learning experience, to recreate the opening section of Final Fantasy VII with HD graphics. More »
This is a column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that.
Let's be real: Final Fantasy is broken.
Sure, Square Enix's influential JRPG series might still be popular, its most recent single-player entry shipping 6.2 million units worldwide. And it might still be spawning more sequels, spin-offs and remakes than a Hollywood producer.
But it can do so much better. I mean, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 moved 6.5 million copies in twenty-four hours.
How do we get that much milk out of the Final Fantasy cash cow? What's the magical formula for appealing to American tastes? How can we fix a series that some say has been treading water for over a decade now?
As soon as you start up Fortune Street, you need to go into the options and turn both "game speed" and "text speed" up to their fastest settings. Then, when you get ready to choose your board and start the game, you must reduce the amount of money required to win by at least half. Even with these utterly necessary precautions, you should probably block out a big chunk of your day to dedicate to Square Enix's board game.
At its default settings, Fortune Street will wear out both its welcome and its players before the conclusion of a single game. That is, of course, if you can find someone to play with, which seems unlikely, given the presumably small pool of nearby friends who love Mario and Dragon Quest, love the real estate market, and have nothing going on for the whole day.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available now for download on the European PlayStation Network. Interface with the standard version for £39.99 / €49.99, while the "complete edition," which includes all the DLC and "The Missing Link" mission, is £47.99 / €59.99. Neither Sony nor Square have anything to share about the stealth action title hitting the North American PSN.
*Activating personal encryption protocol*
We are now speaking directly, away from prying eyes. We feel obligated to mention that the title is currently £11.99 at Game and £17.51 at Amazon.uk for the PS3. We trust if you're savvy enough to figure out the PSN, you're surely slick enough to recognize the savings.
#squareenix
Square Enix is working on a brand new role-playing game that isn't Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. Pointing that out makes it sure seem like Square Enix only makes FF and DQ. It doesn't. More »
Final Fantasy XIII-2 won't just append an additional number and some monster-collecting mechanics to the (thirteenth) original, you know. Check out the trailer above to see the "Enhanced" combat system in action. (Read: Quick-Time Events!)
#finalfantasy
Oh Chocolina, with your modest demeanor and your adorable Phoenix Down outfit; who cares what the other 27 new screenshots have on them, as long as you're here with me. More »
#finalfantasy
Oh Chocolina, with your modest demeanor and your adorable Phoenix Down outfit; who cares what the other 27 new screenshots have on them, as long as you're here with me. More »
#finalfantasy
Oh Chocolina, with your modest demeanor and your adorable Phoenix Down outfit; who cares what the other 27 new screenshots have on them, as long as you're here with me. More »
Square Enix is hiring for its new Unreal Engine 3-based game, and revealing a bit of information about the project in the process. Most importantly, the hub for the "New Action RPG" jobs features the above artwork, which we don't actually think is Chakan: The Forever Man, even though it totally looks like Chakan: The Forever Man.
The jobs seek people with experience on PS3 and Xbox 360 games, which isn't much of a surprise for a UE3-based project. The action planner position also specifies a focus on "combat actions," suggesting an emphasis on the "action" part of this action RPG.
IO Interactive, the studio that's steered the Hitman franchise since the beginning, will take one hand off the wheel and gulp a new IP Slurpee after Hitman: Absolution ships. Speaking to Gamasutra, studio honcho Niels Jorgensen says that the IO team will split focus, collaborating on a new Hitman with the Square Enix studio in Montreal while working on a new IP.
Jorgensen has very little to share about the new IP, but does say that it'll be somewhat in line with IO's DNA of dark humor and antiheroes. Hopefully, IO can find a happy medium between the stylish seriousness of Hitman and the sub-par vulgarity of Kane and Lynch.
Three of IO's employees will move from Copenhagen to Montreal to direct the team and assist in communications between the two studios, developing a game that's "faithful to the Hitman experience."
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3/360)
Lord Of Apocalypse (Vita/PSP)
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (3DS)
Kingdom Hearts 3D (3DS)
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (3DS)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Adventure 3D (3DS)
Fortune Street: Dragon Quest & Super Mario (Wii)
Dragon Quest Heroes 3 (3DS)
Dragon Quest X (Wii/WiiU)
Chrono Trigger (iPhone/iPod Touch/Android)
Dragon Quest: Most Wanted (Android)
