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From the link:
Dragon Quest is so popular that when Dragon Quest 3 was release in Japan, many people skipped school to buy it and fights broke out over the carts. Because of this, law now requires them to release Dragon Quest games on weekends.

Look out for La Pucelle to come out in early May. It's by the same developers of Disgaea (Nipon Ichii) and looks pretty damn cool. There hasn't been much information yet, but here are some sites.

And violence makes you mean? Final Fantasy Tactics is a game about a civil war which consists primarily of battling with swords, guns, knives, spears, axes, magic, and mathematics. That's obviously a game centered around violence (especially math; that stuff HURTS). However, the good guys strive for peace; mediating between the two forces and looking out for the little guy. If FFT really makes kids mean then you can colour me confused.

See for yourself...

Maybe I'm overly cynical, but if there's one thing many a game forum has taught me, it's that anyone can say they/their dad/this person they know works for Nintendo/Sony/in the games industry. Sorry...

They should be on the shelves soon.

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2003/120803b.html

Dated 12-8

The four new RPGs of the PlayStation's Greatest Hits line-up, all Square Enix products, have been shipped to North American stores today. The games are Final Fantasy Chronicles, Final Fantasy Anthology, Vagrant Story and Xenogears. Each title is set to retail for $19.99 USD.

If you're looking for a FFT game, don't forget Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I really enjoyed this game at E3. ^^

As for me, I eat up TRPG's, though I'm a bit tired of a grid. Instead of spells making a true circle, you get a + mark. Even the Heroes of M&M series realized a hexagon grid makes more sense for fair movement and targeting. Of course with Arc 4 removing the grid entirely, I hope we're seeing the end of the square grid map altogether.

If you're looking for a FFT game, don't forget Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I really enjoyed this game at E3. ^^

As for me, I eat up TRPG's, though I'm a bit tired of a grid. Instead of spells making a true circle, you get a + mark. Even the Heroes of M&M series realized a hexagon grid makes more sense for fair movement and targeting. Of course with Arc 4 removing the grid entirely, I hope we're seeing the end of the square grid map altogether.

It's called Disgaea: The Hour of Darkness and RPG gamer has a bunch of screens/video on it. I have to remind myself that that site exists. I don't game much anymore, so I am not usually up on the latest and greatest. That said, I still long for a TRPG similar to the depth of play and plot I found in FFT

To stay somewhat on topic, Japan declared a law back in the day to stop Dragon Quest games from being released on any other day than a Sunday or a holiday.

While the Tomb Raider phenomenon is huge, I can't see many skipping work to spend the afternoon with Lara instead this summer.

Wonder what happens when Half-Life 2 comes out, though? Or EverQuest 2?

Jouni

Actually, you're partially correct. There is no ADDED functionality, but there are link cables for Gameboy Advances to allow them interconnectivity with Cellphones in Japan. This was a huge selling point for the GBA when it was first introduced, but as I understand it game developers never really warmed up to it so it's something of a dud.

I would provide links, but searching Japanese sites is kind of hard for me, not being a Japanese speaker. Still, Google search does find several kind of relevent links, and then there was this photo.

Game Arts doesn't really have much to do with the Lunar look and feel as much as Studio Alex does. Studio Alex and Shoten do the plot/artwork and Iwadare does the music. Game Arts only did the coding and they were the Sega freaks, hence the many Sega releases. But Working Designs has said they are shooting for PS2.

Victor Ireland has also stated that they are doing the Lunar 3 translation and Studio Alex, Game Arts, and Iwadare are showing up for another run.

It's probably a good thing to keep the hype tight lipped. Just because they aren't saying anything doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Here ya go:
FF1
FF2

Here ya go:
FF1
FF2

The deal was with Dell Japan, and I would imagine this is only going to happen with Dell's Japanese computers. Here is a relevant link at Dell's page, and another story in English.

Except Sony doesn't own Square. Square is still just a third party developer and distributes their games on their own (at least in North America through Square EA). They develop games for Sony's competitors too, such as for Bandai's Wonderswan (some old Final Fantasy games) and soon again for Nintendo (Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronoicle). They will sell games for whatever platform that will make them the most money.

Where're you getting your information from about .hack? Just judging from what I've seen, Tsukasa and Kite are completely different characters -- Tsukasa's the amnesiac magic user who's the star of the TV series, while Kite is the dagger-using star of the video game (and, presumably, the OAV that goes alongside it, although I've neither seen it nor played the game).

Tsukasa: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/propag anda/s043.jpg
Kite: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck001.jpg
Or you may be thinking of Elk: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck005.jpg
(you may have to copy/paste links, I don't think RPGamer allows direct links)

Similar character designs, yes, but I think that's intended to reinforce the fact that they're template-based characters in an RPG. There are a number of others with similar designs, such as Black Rose / Mimiru and Bear / Orca.And... You'll have to forgive me, I know I've seen concept art of Kite with "kaito" written in katakana on it, but I can't find it at the moment. The one of Elk definitely has "eruku" on it, though.

Where're you getting your information from about .hack? Just judging from what I've seen, Tsukasa and Kite are completely different characters -- Tsukasa's the amnesiac magic user who's the star of the TV series, while Kite is the dagger-using star of the video game (and, presumably, the OAV that goes alongside it, although I've neither seen it nor played the game).

Tsukasa: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/propag anda/s043.jpg
Kite: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck001.jpg
Or you may be thinking of Elk: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck005.jpg
(you may have to copy/paste links, I don't think RPGamer allows direct links)

Similar character designs, yes, but I think that's intended to reinforce the fact that they're template-based characters in an RPG. There are a number of others with similar designs, such as Black Rose / Mimiru and Bear / Orca.And... You'll have to forgive me, I know I've seen concept art of Kite with "kaito" written in katakana on it, but I can't find it at the moment. The one of Elk definitely has "eruku" on it, though.

Where're you getting your information from about .hack? Just judging from what I've seen, Tsukasa and Kite are completely different characters -- Tsukasa's the amnesiac magic user who's the star of the TV series, while Kite is the dagger-using star of the video game (and, presumably, the OAV that goes alongside it, although I've neither seen it nor played the game).

Tsukasa: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/propag anda/s043.jpg
Kite: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck001.jpg
Or you may be thinking of Elk: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/hack/art/ha ck005.jpg
(you may have to copy/paste links, I don't think RPGamer allows direct links)

Similar character designs, yes, but I think that's intended to reinforce the fact that they're template-based characters in an RPG. There are a number of others with similar designs, such as Black Rose / Mimiru and Bear / Orca.And... You'll have to forgive me, I know I've seen concept art of Kite with "kaito" written in katakana on it, but I can't find it at the moment. The one of Elk definitely has "eruku" on it, though.

If you want to dabble with mods, the modplug (modplug.com, I believe)software is the best. If you want samples, RPGamer has a whole bunch of s3m/mod/xms, in addition to the stuff at modplug. Just some handy links.

Well, there were quite a few problems with the initial rollout. Here is an account of some troubles on the first day. Square's old friend/nemesis has had something to say about it too.
More recently, more problems have surfaced, and Square has upgraded the PlayOnline servers and released a patch (creating the need for players to recreate their characters).
With so many problems, I think I will stick to Ragnarok Online for now. If only I could get it to work in WINE...

Sorry, Microsoft is just playing the game in this case:
Nintendo buys Retro Studios
Sony buys (into) Square
Sony buys (into) Rare

Buying a development house to gain exclusives does not seem to be ground-breaking news.

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was bad enough - I don't even want to think of how terrible Final Fantasy: Mickey's Quest is going to be.

The Gaming Intelligence Agency has a short write up on it.

Also, you can see a movie at rpg Gamer.

The CGI looks incredible. It is weird having Final Fantasy characters mixed in with Goofy and Tarzaan, though.

I wonder what inspired this?!? It looks cool (visually), and Square does tend to make great games, but what were they thinking? What is Disney up to? Why not just a Disney character RPG? This is an odd marriage. Then again, Street Fighter v. X-Men worked well. I saw some screen shots. The Alice in Wonderland parts look great.

To clear up a few points-- First, "a Final Fantasy game" has been "explicitly stated" as slated for appearance on a Nintendo console, according to this report. More than that,t he game is said to be "new"-- most probably implying that it is not merely a remake of a previous Square game.

Secondly, and this is probably the most important factor to consider, Squaresoft isn't really returning. Careful examination of the RPGamer story reveals that "Fund Q" is intended for a Square-affiliated company, not an actual chunk of Squaresoft per se. Think of the relationship as being similar to United Game Artists (Rez, Space Channel 5) and Sega. UGA is part of Sega, but retain autonomy to do as they please. In essence, it will be Square-but-not-Square. And while any Square is good Square (generally), let's hope that what the company produces is of higher caliber than Secret of Evermore.

As for speculation towards games... I would definitely not rule out ports of the FF series at some point in the future, if not sooner. There's simply too much money to be made to ignore that. However, Square has afew options for milking a little more money out of the US market. There were plenty of games that never saw the light of day on US shores-- Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, and the first half of the Front Mission series. Square is increasingly of the mind that "if the Japanese play it, then so do the Americans"-- witness Driving Emotion Type S and the somewhat half-assed Bouncer. So there is a very good chance that if it gets produced for a system with a significant US presence-- GBA, PS2, NGC, or XB-- it will get localized. (Alexander O. Smith, by the way, is the man responsible for the excellent translations we're getting accustomed to nowadays. He just gets a little dry, though, after a while-- sheesh, I must be old if I'm reminiscing fondly about Ted Woolsey.)

So then what should be done? Well, first off, support the system of your choosing, and choose the system you want. But do it primarily for the games that are out now. FFX, Metal Gear 2, and Rez are excellent reasons to own a PS2; Smash Bros. and Rogue Squadron are significant draws to the GameCube; there's something literally for everyone on GBA (you officially have no excuses now); and the XBox has... erm... well, I hear Halo's pretty good. Oh, and Jet Set Radio Future. Localization happens based on consumer demand, but primarily due to installed base numbers. So buy what won't make you bored until the next FF comes out.

Oh, and if there's a "Secret of Mana" petition/letter drive/march on Redmond anytime soon, make sure someone lets me know, OK?

Square basically stabbed Nintendo in the back, telling game makers not to develop for the N64.

Nintendo has done more than their share of backstabbing too, and they've caused most of their own problems. First they backstabbed Sony with the N64 CDROM deal. They backstabbed Square by refusing to move from the outmoded cartridge game format, keeping Square from being able to create Final Fantasy VII. (They started in this direction, see the Final Fantasy SGI demo. In the end, Square said they could have done FF7 for the N64, it just would have cost $7k for the cartridge.)

Thus the rise and domination of Sony. It's interesting to note that every platform Square has seriously developed for has been the dominant platform: NES, GameBoy, SNES, PlayStation, PS2.

I have to admit, I'm surprised Yamamuchi is putting money into Square for this project.

Nintendo can say what they want, but after the fiasco that was the N64, and the pressure from Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo needs Square a lot more than they'll let on. Excluding Square is not really an option. They need third-party games; first-party games just aren't enough (as the N64 showed).

That said, I don't mean to imply I'm upset in any manner at this news. This is great! I've wanted to see Square and Nintendo get back together for awhile... I want to see Square stuff on my GBA, and getting a GCN I'd love to get Square games on that.

Plus, as history has shown (see: Dreamcast), Square leads the majority of buyers, and this is probably a nail in the coffin of the XBOX. ;-)

Let us go back to the FF7 advertising campaign...

Propaganda

Any questions?

-NeoTomba

Well, for RPGs there's still www.rpgamer.com.

There is more insightfulness and depth in a single Clamp story than there is in all of Evangelion put together.

The only thing more boring than Evangelion is Dragon Ball Z. At least Evangelion has Asuka.

Let me plagerize, and save y'all $350 worth of videos. The plot follows:

(There used to be a "thumbnail evangelion archive", but I can't find it. Anyone know the link?)

It's not just lately, actually. Parasite Eve (1998) was the same way, as is Vagrant Story (best damn PSX game I've played since Xenogears!). And Parasite Eve 2 comes out today, I think, and that's the same way. Battle systems are a crucial bit of any RPG; it's the battle system that really makes the "feel" of the game.

If you're looking for "old school feel" RPGs, pick up Chrono Cross. Sequel to Chrono Trigger; they did a pretty amazing job of keeping the "feel" of CT, while making it really damn pretty.

--K. (yes, I'm biased in favor of RPGs, I work at RPGamer)

Video game music grew out of a restricted environment--literally where only a few extremely simple instruments had to be chained together to create music compelling enough to encourage continued playing.

This is no small thing--if you've ever seen a scene out of a movie without music, you know how critical music is to setting an environment. And if you've ever heard any of the last boss music that Nobuo Uematsu has hacked together over the last decade, you know: Kick Ass Music Makes A Difference. And in my mind, unique melodies make the song.

Think about what you hum when you remember a tune. You ain't humming the beat, though the lyrics might stick in your head. It's the melody that grabs you. And, to be blunt, early video games didn't have the resources to have anything *but* melody. I think my favorite quote out of Nobuo lately is something along the lines of, "Sure I could spent a bunch of time looking through directories finding the perfect trumpet sample...or I could just create a new melody."

That's not to say, mind you, that orchestration is not a beautiful thing. I'm listening to the Minibosses' doing Castlevania, and I'm enjoying myself greatly. (Incidentally, the fact that they have a FAQ question on Mega Man 2 and no other game is awesome.) Considering Castlevania is probably one of the world's most remixed soundtracks(up there with Final Fantasy and Street Fighter 2), these guys have done a standup job.

Orchestration applied to a song with core melody that rocks rocks. Orchestration for the sake of orchestration alone(unfortunately, many film scores) is empty.

Then there's this ridiculous remix of Fithos Lusec from Final Fantasy 8. This is just in a whole 'nother category.

Yours Truly,

Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com

Yes, fan fiction is definitely subject to Sturgeon's Rule (which states that 90% of everything is crap). I'm sure there's some good fan fics out there, but I can't think of any right now.

Let me tell you, that is the truth. I work as assistant fan fiction editor at RPGamer, and some of the submissions we get are scary. At the same time, though, some of the stuff we get just blows me away. We're proud to host some of these stories; they're easily the quality of professional writing.

I'm also a fanfic author -- mostly for Japanese RPGs such as Final Fantasy 7 and Xenogears (blatant plug: Heaven Can Wait, our Xenogears fan site) and I can tell you that nine times out of ten, the reason I write fan fiction is because I'm dissatisfied with something about the game or about the story. The type of games that I tend to write for occasionally suffer from exceedingly poor translation; sometimes they were rushed at the end, or sometimes there are aspects of the plot that I feel weren't addressed properly. So I write it myself. I think a lot of fanfic authors -- certainly the ones that I know -- do the same.

Another good resource, fanfic-wise, is the FFML, the Anime/Manga Fanfic Mailing List. I don't remember the URL for the information page off the top of my head, but that list is another very valuable resource for authors and readers alike.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that sure, a lot of fanfic out there is crap. But then again, a lot of published stuff is crap. (And most of TV is crap, but that's another story.) It's just that, like nearly anything else, the gems that are buried in the crap are more than worth wading through the crap. ^_^

Hmm, here's the thing, though, Squaresoft makes games for Wintel PCs already. So does Capcom for that matter.

I'm not sure why these companies make games for the PC platform, but Square for example, shuns everyone but Sony and Microsoft (Windows releases are on Microsoft's gaming platform, DirectX).

Microsoft is certainly going to use DirectX on the X-box, and I know Capcom (and I'm pretty sure Square too) use DirectX in their PC releases.

I'm guessing Microsoft plans on leveraging DirectX to prevent game companies from publishing games for PCs that are incompatible with X-box.

Of course, if Sony is smart, they'll come up with a PC platform to compete with DirectX that they control as opposed to Microsoft.

There is also this, SquareSoft tied to Microsoft's X-Box?

As an aside, check out what Square Honolulu is doing with the Final Fantasy movie.
[RPGamer]
Specifically, the job openings ad. Yes, that's CGI:
[Foo]

As an aside, check out what Square Honolulu is doing with the Final Fantasy movie.
[RPGamer]
Specifically, the job openings ad. Yes, that's CGI:
[Foo]

Actually, be afraid. Look at Squaresoft's current work towards the Final Fantasy movie. It's so lifelike it scared me the first time I saw it.
I don't know if there is newer sriff, but check this out.