E3 - Square Enix Shows Fantasies, Kingdoms, Samurai

Thanks to GamingHorizon for its summary of the pre-E3 Square Enix press conference at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, during which the company mentioned they "are determined to expand their reach across all forms of media, not just limiting themselves to the gaming market", before holding the Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy concert in the same venue. However, specific game-related material includes details (though not downloads) of a new Final Fantasy XII trailer, alongside new direct-feed screenshots of the title, as well as snapshots of Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII, a mobile phone-only spin-off. Also revealed is information on the previously unannounced Musashi Samurai Legend, a sequel to "the original Brave Fencer Musashi on the PlayStation" featuring "Tetsuya Nomura handling the character design... [and] Studio Gainax creating the animated cutscenes", as well as new details on Disney-licensed sequel Kingdom Hearts 2 and its handheld partner, Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories.

Comments

Re:Final Fantasy for mobiles

[neglige]

There might not even be a need for it, J2ME is pretty well established on a number of mobile phones. Using it (as most downloadable games do) lets you reach a lot of customers. Or maybe BREW, but I'm not sure if its catching on.

It becomes interesting when, say, Nokia tries to establish a proprietary platform which is incompatible to other mobile phones. Personally, I wouldn't expect a move like this to be successful. But you never know :)

Re:Final Fantasy for mobiles

[neglige]

I'm not sure how comparable the current situation is with the former ringtone/picture-SMS protocol from Nokia. Several years ago, Nokia stepped forward and extended the SMS protocol to allow the easy installation of ringtones and pictures on their phones.

Then, EMS and MMS appeared (as a standardized format supported by the majority of phone producers) and rendered the proprietary format obsolete. Phones are now able to display JPEG, GIF and play MIDI/MP3 ringtones. While the formats are standardized and customers have the ability to install their own ringtones/pictures for free (simple upload to the phone), content creation is not as easy.

The same COULD happen with games. Depending on the market volume, Nokia might take the lead again, and the other producers might follow, creating another standard in the process.

But I totally agree: let's hope it won't happen. :)

Bloody hell. What about the "Enix" half?

[Audigy]

Final Fantasy this and that... Kingdom Hearts blah blah blah... where's the mention of Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, or Dragon Warrior VIII (or V, we can wish) ... ...If Square-Enix ends up eating the Enix portion of their merger, I'm going to cry. ;_;

GAINAX and Square-Enix working together?!

[May Kasahara]

Dude, I am sooo in Geek Heaven ^_^

I know next to nothing about the original Brave Fencer Musashi, but now I have an incentive for checking out the sequel...

Re:GAINAX and Square-Enix working together?!

[shadowcabbit]

I know next to nothing about the original Brave Fencer Musashi, but now I have an incentive for checking out the sequel...

Ah, you missed out on one of the funnier pseudo-RPGs of the Playstation's halcyon days. It was a fairly well-done Zelda-type game (far better than Alundra), but there were lots of sidequests and additional activities to take part in. It had a great story and decent voice-acting, too. I'd highly recommend hunting BFM down as soon as possible.

Oh, and as for the Gainax thing? Yeah, this is going to be tops on my list to get. I just hope they do better than they did with Xenogears' cutscenes (though to be fair most of what made those bad was extremely poor dubbing; but they were still awfully grainy and had lots of minor errors).

Re:GAINAX and Square-Enix working together?!

[shadowcabbit]

Credited to Production I.G., actually, but close enough.

Wow, I find it kind of hard to believe you haven't played either of them. ^_^ Get BFM first-- if the copy you have was sold off by someone nice, you should have a demo disc for XG on it. (I'd send you mine, but unfortunately I don't have it anymore.)

Riding the Cash Cow

[Mr.Dippy]

Seriously, I think it's time to retire the Final Fantasy Series. Talk about sequels plaguing the gameing market. Enix is in the double digits now.

Re:Riding the Cash Cow

[Kalak]

Aside from X-2 (which felt more like the pre-VII days than anything), none of the FFs have really been a sequel. They have similar production teams, but the only thing that has been connected between them have been things like Cid. The stories are new and unrelated, though they follow a format that many RPGs follow. I still find a new plot line twist there to keep it from being "just another FF". I've yet to find one that wasn't new enough to make it worth playing as an individual game.

The "FF" moniker really tells you who is working on the game, not that it's a sequel. If "FF" was spun off as it's own company, say a "wholely owned subsidary of SquareEnix" then they could probably name the titles something different and just call the company Final Fantasy Productions. The most wouldn't claim it's a collection of sequels.

Too... Many... Belts!

[shadowcabbit]

Did anyone else look at this screenshot and immediately think "Yeah, that's a Nomura character all right."? Nothing against the guy's work, it's just... well... he's got more belts than real clothes.