Square Enix Message Board older than one year ago

#rumor It's been six years since Square Enix first showed Final Fantasy Versus XIII's debut trailer. Six long years. When that trailer premiered, George W. Bush was president, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were alive, and the global financial crisis had not yet hit. 2006 was a different world, a long, long time ago. More »

This behind the scenes video for Hitman: Absolution's E3 booth showcases some of the lesser known parts of the convention, such as private interview rooms for press, or the fact that no matter how tightly you frame a shot, it's impossible to not accidentally advertise someone else's game.

Sleeping Dogs has a lot of talent behind its themes of Chinese thug life and a (more western-oriented)Yakuza-inspired storyline. Voice actors for Sleeping Dogs include Lucy Liu, Edison Chen, Chin Han, Lindsay Price and... is that... Emma Stone? Huh.

#blip With DQX right around the corner, here's a friendly reminder that the game requires 16GB or greater of USB memory to play. More »

#randomencounters If you've played Final Fantasy VI, you've probably seen some weird glitches. More »

#dragonquest Here's the first Japanese TV spot for Dragon Quest X, the next game in Square Enix's mammoth series that will be out for Wii on August 2. No word on a U.S. release yet. More »

There are more than a few ways to play through Hitman: Absolution's "Streets of Hope" mission, as two expert drivers showcase in the latest, lengthy playthrough video. Poor Lenny never saw it coming.

There are more than a few ways to play through Hitman: Absolution's "Streets of Hope" mission, as two expert drivers showcase in the latest, lengthy playthrough video. Poor Lenny never saw it coming!

CBS Films has picked up the rights to Square Enix's Deus Ex franchise, and plans on producing a movie based on the latest game in the series, Deux Ex: Human Revolution. Developer Eidos Montreal will have a stake in the film, Variety reports - CBS Films will work "closely" with Eidos Montreal on adapting the game for the big screen.

"No one knows Human Revolution like the team that created it, and we look forward to working with them from day one to make a film adaptation worthy of the 'Deus Ex' name," CBS Films co-president Terry Press said. Adrian Askarieh will act as one of the producers, a name you may recognize if you're still waiting for that sequel to Hitman.

Geoff Keighley's behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series is taking on Tomb Raider, and he's getting video help from Zachary Levi. Square Enix enlisted Keighley for a "Final Hours" Tomb Raider entry - which Keighley says he's "especially excited" about, due to it being "a tale about the act of reinvention, both of a studio and of a franchise." But Square also nabbed Levi for a video documentary supplement, which kicks off today, a full eight months before the game launches. Those are some long final hours, eh?

The completed entry will launch in March 2013 alongside the game, and will once again be available on iPad and PC. Kindle Fire owners can also snag it via Amazon. Check out the first Zachary Levi video entry above.

Geoff Keighley's behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series is taking on Tomb Raider, and he's getting video help from Zachary Levi. Square Enix enlisted Keighley for a "Final Hours" Tomb Raider entry - which Keighley says he's "especially excited" about, due to it being "a tale about the act of reinvention, both of a studio and of a franchise." But Square also nabbed Levi for a video documentary supplement, which kicks off today, a full eight months before the game launches. Those are some long final hours, eh?

The completed entry will launch in March 2013 alongside the game, and will once again be available on iPad and PC. Kindle Fire owners can also snag it via Amazon. Check out the first Zachary Levi video entry above.

Final Fantasy 7's new PC version comes with a "Character Booster" that lets you inflate your characters' HP, MP, and Gil. That seemed like the perfect place for a microtransaction system, but that isn't the case, Square Enix told Kotaku.

"No, the Character Booster will not cost real money to use," a Square Enix representative confirmed to the site. "We'll have final pricing info on the game to share soon, but we can confirm that there will be no microtransactions for the upcoming rerelease of Final Fantasy 7 on PC."

Boosting your characters will still cost you, but only time.

#finalfantasy The upcoming PC re-release of Final Fantasy VII will not use any sort of microtransaction-based system, publisher Square Enix told me today. More »

Nothing quite gets us juiced for mid-90's gaming like cheezy trailers, and today's Final Fantasy VII on PC clip is no slouch in that department. There's something magical about watching a publisher attempt to tease a game with decade-old cinematics. The game looks good, of course, it's just ... ya know ... not recent. But it's certainly not an HD update.

Despite Agent 47 having dispatched with the various gogo nuns from Hitman: Absolution's recent trailer, Vivica A. Fox's "head nun" character may have lived. Or they all did! What a twist! See if you can figure it out from the trailer above.

#finalfantasy Yesterday, Square Enix confirmed that it will re-release Final Fantasy VII on PC at some point in the near future. More »

The cached Final Fantasy 7 website we saw previously is now live for real, officially revealing plans to re-release the PC version of the game with achievements. Final Fantasy 7 is simply listed as "coming soon," and features cloud saves (still funny) and a (potentially microtransaction-based ) "Character booster" to artifically increase HP, MP, and in-game currency.

The website indicates plans to release the game in the US and Europe in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish - all exclusive to the Square Enix Store.

#finalfantasy More »

#theatrhythmfinalfantasy Theatrhythm Final Fantasy launches today, and with it comes the Nintendo 3DS's first-ever batch of downloadable content. More »

A remake of 1990's Final Fantasy 3, based on the DS version, is now available on Google's Android operating system, boasting "3D visuals and story sequences only for Android," as well as improved browsing functionality for the monster bestiary and new designs for the Job Mastery cards, according to the game's listing on Google Play.

The port will set you back $15.99 and requires that your device runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) or newer. Alternatively, you could buy the iPhone version, Famicom version for about the same price, or the DS version for about $40. You could also go back in time and prevent the Wonderswan Color port from getting informally cancelled, but that might require significantly more effort/less eBay.

"In the case of the Luminous Studio, we're probably not going to be bound to any particular platform. PC already, probably PlayStation 3, Mobile, iPad tablets also browser and cloud as well. Not just next-gen - we can scale." - Square-Enix chief technical officer and Luminous demo producer Yoshihisa Hashimoto

Comments like this seem to indicate that Wii U should be in the running for Luminous Engine support. If PS3 can handle it, Wii U should be able to as well.

#japan According to online research site Nensyu Labo, here is a list of the mean yearly income for the game industry with numbers crunched from public reports filed by the companies: More »

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light continues its long and storied tradition of being ported to unexpected platforms this fall, when the Crystal Dynamics XBLA adventure makes its way to Google's Chrome browser.

Previously, LCATGOL has made its way to PSN, Steam, iOS, OnLive and the Blackberry Playbook; a list that makes less sense the longer you read it. The game will be powered by Google's open source Native Client framework and will run in-browser, similar to other XBLA-to-Chrome converts like Bastion and From Dust. No word yet on pricing or availability beyond the fall release window.

#finalfantasy At the GDC in Taipei held at the Taipei International Conference Center in Taiwan, Motomu Toriyama of Square Enix held a presentation on the development between Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. More »

#dragonquest Fit's is a brand of Lotte chewing gum, and this August, there will be "Slime flavored" gum for you to chomp on. But it's not really "Slime flavored". PHEW. More »

Square Enix and art group iam8bit has gone and done a thing. They've paid for a TV show based on first-person puzzler Quantum Conundrum, and it's going to be hosted by Kevin Pereira. More »

Square Enix and Los Angeles art/gaming collective iam8bit are teaming up to create a new web-based game show in association with the dimension-bending Quantum Conundrum, out next month. The show will be hosted by Kevin Pereira (formerly of G4's Attack of the Show), and will feature contestants battling it out in "real-life fluffy, heavy, anti-gravity and slow motion dimensions" somehow.

The show, which is called "The Super Dimensional Quantum Learning's Problems and Solutions Gametime Spectacular!!" (no, really; here's the trailer) will also feature Ike, a character from the game who will appear in live-action puppet form. It certainly looks and sounds wacky, depending on your various definitions of the word "wacky."

The show will be available to watch soon. In the meantime, if you need something Quantum Conundrum related to watch, try our livestream! We'll be playing the game live on the Interwebs at 9:30pm EDT.

Square Enix had 180 artists, 30 programmers and 36 designers working on Final Fantasy 13, and that many people on board made its development complicated, director Motomu Toriyama told Gamasutra.

"With a large-scale development team, we didn't use our time well," Toriyama said. "How do you communicate to everyone in the department what the drive of the game is?"

Toriyama and his team tried to keep the game as secret as possible within the massive workforce, which led to playtesting happening "way too late in the process," he said. Square intended to fix those issues with Final Fantasy 13-2, and implemented production-based milestones as opposed to story-based ones it used at the beginning of FF13's development. Still, more needs to change.

"We are also thinking that we will not do large-scale internal development any longer," Toriyama said. "We have a lot of great creators in Square Enix, but for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."

This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer.
First things first about my history with Final Fantasy 7: I was spoiled on the death of Aeris before it even came out. Before I even really knew what Final Fantasy 7 was, honestly. My friend, who had been obsessively following its development on the fledgling internet, described the scene in all its gory detail for me. I'm still kind of mad at him for that, even if at the time I didn't really care. Of course, as I eventually discovered, I was hardly alone in being spoiled on the event that helped signal the beginning of gaming's modern era.

The death of Aeris is but the greatest example of the lore that has been built up around Final Fantasy VII over the years. There are countless others that have circulated around the proverbial playground over the years: the fact that it's possible to go on a date with Barret, for example. Or all the persistent rumors that Aeris can be resurrected without a hack. This stuff is legend at this point - the result of outsized popularity and a somewhat ambiguous story.

When word hit last week that Square Enix may be reviving the PC version of Final Fantasy VII with a smattering of extras, my first thought was how fertile the ground is for achievements.

#kingdomhearts Meet the Dream Eaters, the monsters you'll be attacking, breeding, and recruiting in upcoming action-RPG Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, which is out July 31 for Nintendo 3DS. Kind of remind you of a certain other Nintendo game, don't they? Still, I'm psyched for this one. It's looking more like Kingdom Hearts II than any of the other myriad spinoffs in the series, which is definitely a good thing. More »