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Final Fantasy Gets Creator, FFVII, Clock Spinoffs
Thanks to 1UP for noting that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has founded his own independent development company, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu Weekly. The company will be using "a small group of elite creators", planned to include "artists Yoshitaka Amano and Takehiko Inoue" - the article author also mentions: "Sakaguchi was ousted from any position of significant responsibility at Square after the multi-million-dollar boondoggle that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." Elsewhere, RPGFan mentions a third Final Fantasy VII spin-off has been announced, following the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and the mobile phone-based Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, but "no release date or platform information has been given so far" for this new title. Finally, Warcry reveals the Final Fantasy XI clock, due out Fall 2004 in the U.S., and featuring "the time, day of the week, date and year in both [Final Fantasy XI's game world] Vana'diel and also here on Earth."
This is my favorite (only) square related story and no one ever believes me but.. Back in 2000, I was getting out of EQ after having played it since release. I was on the most JPN-heavy server and in the main (NA) uberguild. Anyways I was in the process of selling my account piece by piece on ebay and the winning bid for one of my better items had an interesting @square.com email. After a small amount of checking I discovered it was the head guy himself. I received payment from his assistant and transferred the item to him in game. There was a couple interesting things about him. One was that he was decked in armor he could not possibly have obtained (lustrous russet). The that he was a female woodelf bard. *sigh*
Rumors and heresay. Must be slashdot.
In the linked article, it is stated that Amano and Inoue are likely collaborators: Not that they are or definitely will be linked to the company.
And, strictly speaking, doesn't Kingdom Hearts count as a Final Fantasy property, what with all the characters it uses? I think it most likely that Squarenix plans on making a fourth Kingdom Hearts game.
However, should they decide to do something else based around themes and characters from FFVII, a flat out update of the PS1 game to PS2 (or PS3) graphics and gameplay would be a welcome addition to the lineup. Especially if you could resurrect Aeris. Fanboys have been drooling over that idea for a few years now.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.