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Final Fantasy XII Delayed

Posted by Zonk on from the bunny-girl-fix-will-have-to-wait dept.

Final Fantasy XII will be delayed in appearing on the PS2, and will miss the intially expected release date of Spring 2005. Gamespot has the story and the news that, on the upside, starting in April Square/Enix will be releasing a new game every month for several months. From the article: "Square Enix also plans to boost its worldwide sales. Currently, about 30 percent of Square Enix's game sales take place outside of Japan. Wada told Bloomberg that he hopes to increase that number to more than 50 percent."

39 comments

  1. Re:Final Fantasy, by Square Anus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The founders of the company were real big fans of the television show "Square Pegs" back in the 80s.

  2. SLASHDOTTERS RELATE MORE READILY TO TORN ANUS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:SLASHDOTTERS RELATE MORE READILY TO TORN ANUS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, no link to goat.cx? What kind of troll is this? Jesus, either do it right or don't do it at all.

  3. Meh by Ayaress · · Score: 2, Funny

    So they want to raise their sales outside of the US. Let me know when they're ready to honor or refund my pre-order of Valkyrie Profile from four years ago.

  4. Correction by Ayaress · · Score: 1

    They want to raise their sales IN the US, OUTSIDE of Japan. Sorry, I type fast when it's about a company that's made me angry. Whenever they actually come out with something that isn't another FF game, they either don't ship enough copies outside of Japan or they don't ship ANY copies outside of Japan.

  5. Fine With Me by blueZhift · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Heck, that's fine with me since I still haven't finished FF X and X-II anyway. Yeah, I play slowly, but it saves me money, $19.95 USD for each! So I can wait!

    --
    To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
    1. Re:Fine With Me by Riddlefox · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I hear that. I'm still working on FF VII :(

    2. Re:Fine With Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep it up as long as possible. Once you finish FFVII, it's all downhill from there.

      Seriously, FFVII was the last good Square game I played. All of the stuff since then has ranged from average to awful. They even managed to goof up the rereleases of FFI and FFII on the GBA.

      I no longer care about FFXII. I might play it if it gets spectacular reviews, but after being burned badly on their stupid MMORPG, I don't think I'm ever going to play another Square game again.

      I think the crap they forced players through with their MMORPG is what earned them their F rating with the BBB, although the report really doesn't elaborate. Suffice to say they deserve it. (Duh, you can't connect due to your graphics card. Um, no.)

    3. Re:Fine With Me by May+Kasahara · · Score: 1
      *nods* I'm still on FFX-2 myself (doing some last-minute side missions at the moment), and after that, the next FF in the series I want to play is FFVI (I've played all the games in the series from FFV on, save for FFXI and FFTA).

      I'm usually playing an earlier FF when the new one comes out, so I usually get said new ones fairly cheap later on as well ;)

  6. Game releases by Bloomy · · Score: 4, Interesting
    However, Wada said that starting April 1, Square Enix will release a new game every month.

    I wonder what that exactly means. Will Japan get a new Square Enix title every month, will each market (Japan, North America, Europe) get one, or will a new game be released in some location in the world each month, giving them the chance to count localizations of the same title more than once?

  7. I can beat you both :-) by Jerf · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, you wanna play that game? Thanks to Dawn of Souls on the Gameboy, I'm still working my way through Final Fantasy. You see the lack of a Roman Numeral? That's because it's the first one.

    You can't beat that without leaving the series :-)

    (OK, it's a remake, but still...)

    1. Re:I can beat you both :-) by Riddlefox · · Score: 1
      You mean you haven't heard of the Almost Final Fantasy games, or the Really Close to Final Fantasy games? Of course, there's always the Original Fantasy game, but that may not be work safe.

      ;)

    2. Re:I can beat you both :-) by thegrue76 · · Score: 1

      Newbies.

      The "Still Reality" series? Now THAT'S oldschool.

    3. Re:I can beat you both :-) by Jerf · · Score: 1

      The "Still Reality" series? Now THAT'S oldschool.

      Sure, but I've been playing that since I was conceived. It's kinda played out and definately lacking in some simple features that make Final Fantasy fun. On the other hand, the ability to travel a mile without a significant chance of being attacked is probably a good thing, given the stakes of "Still Reality".

      (And this general joke has been done to death, so I'll just refer people to the other fine treatments of "Reality" as a role-playing game. Regrettably, I can't seem to pull up any on Google, but poke around for RPG humor and even if you don't find it, you'll be geekily(/guiltily?) amused for quite a while.)

  8. Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's about time the Japanese quit hogging all the good games.

    1. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hogging?

      Here's a hint, localboy: If a Japanese game doesn't make it out of Japan, it's because no non-Japanese publisher thinks they can make money by bringing it out of Japan. Right or wrong, blame your country's publishers, not the Japanese.

      It's not as if Japanese companies DON'T want your money. In other words, you're an idiot.

    2. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even funnier than a joke is a joke followed by the crazy ranting of someone who didn't get the joke.

    3. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even funnier than that is someone who makes a bad joke, defending its humor when nobody laughs.

  9. OB by HeliumHigh · · Score: 1

    So? I can just go back and play my fifteen hundred other final fantasy games!

    (PS. I'm still wondering when the last one comes out. Then that one REALLY will be _final_ fantasy.)

    1. Re:OB by CoderBob · · Score: 1
      The first one was supposed to be the last one. The company wasn't doing well, it was a "let's go out with a bang!" kind of decision, and they didn't even research the market. Suprise, suprise, when you let people who are creative and like gaming make the game, it turns into something other gamers like. Who'da thunk it?

      Granted, none of them have come close to the awe of the original (graphics aside), and perhaps it's time for a new franchise. Then again, why bother? The name is a freaking icon in EB, GameStop, and other gaming stores. It stands out among the sea of horrendous RPGs. Square (and now, Square/Enix) has always produced solid FF titles (with the exception of Mystic Quest, and perhaps the GB ones- but a little research explains those anomalies) and as long as they don't start producing utter crap, and calling it FF, I hope they hit FF XLV. It'll probably be more innovative than Madden 2k78. I'm not trying to flame or anything here, I just get a little irritated everytime I see a reference to "why are their sequals to Final Fantasy"-esque comments.

    2. Re:OB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are aware that the story you gave is complete and utter bullshit, right?

      Final Fantasy is called Final Fantasy in Japan. Actually, it comes out something like Final Fantajii. But anyway - it's an English name for Japanese players. That's why the name makes no sense to English speakers, it's meant to sound neat to Japanese speakers.

      That being said, it's still a good question as to why there are sequels to Final Fantasy games, since they generically are linear level-fests with boring stories, and why the eleventh in the series randomly happens to be an MMORPG and the twelth randomly occurs in the land Final Fantasy Tatics Advance takes place in.

    3. Re:OB by HeliumHigh · · Score: 1

      Sadly enough, I already knew that. I was joking. Personally, I agree, in the part that nothing really compares to FF (the first one). But hey, as long as there is more Rikku in store, I'm happy!

      (JOKE. IT WAS A JOKE.)

    4. Re:OB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      FF for the GBA (dawn of souls) is a remake of the first - it is much improved, the older FF games are actually painful to play at this point (plus they make thieves about a million times better).

      FFTA was actually a fun game - even with a very limited AI (very, very easy to trick) and silly story.

      Not sure about any other FF for the GB/GBA, maybe there were some others that sucked - but the two I mention are fit to stand with the rest of the series, not quite up to FF3/FF7/FFX - but still solid games.

    5. Re:OB by CoderBob · · Score: 1
      Rikku?? As long as I can repeatedly kill her off within 10 seconds of any voice acting...what possessed them to use Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls as a voice (at least for the American market)?

      Gimmie more Celes and Terra all the way! Maybe a little Evil Princess Sara? /me removes tongue from cheek

  10. A Game Every Month? by DLWormwood · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't know if that is really a good thing. I got burned on Unlimited Saga, which felt like they only spent a month to develop it. I've also seen other Squeenix titles "bargain bin" quickly, like Drakengard. (Though I admit to not playing that one...)

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  11. And here's why... by OmgTEHMATRICKS · · Score: 1

    They had to spend another few months figuring out ways to make the main character look even more like a woman while keeping him a man to attract the schoolgirls - and at this point that's a challenge that would make even a Klingon plastic surgeon gasp in horror.

    1. Re:And here's why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Oh come on, you know you loved it when that bishonen villain from FFX said: "Have you come to... punish me, Yuna?".

      Seriously, that is one of the great moments of gaming humor. The image of this evil feme dude acting out his sadomasochistic fantasies with the prim and proper tragic heroine of the story gets a grin out of people who don't know anything about the game other than that scene.

  12. I'm not surprised by Dekethedog · · Score: 1

    Honestly, this doesn't surprise me considering every game these days gets their release date pushed back.

  13. Re:Who cares? by incom · · Score: 1

    Exactly, the north americans who buy ps2's are less likely to care about square-enix games than the north americans who have gamecubes. They really need to pay attention to whats going on outside of japan.

    --
    True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
  14. Re:Who cares? by Traegorn · · Score: 0

    I don't know -- I chose to go with the PS2 initially to get my Final Fantasy games, since they had yet to make amends with Nintendo when the current generation came out.

    --
    TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
  15. Riiiiight... by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "on the upside, starting in April Square/Enix will be releasing a new game every month for several months."

    And how many of those will be *ahem* real games instead of something they threw together over a weekend for the cell phone market?

  16. I must be confused... by Thedalek · · Score: 1

    Am I missing something? Valkyrie Profile was definitely released in the US. I had a copy at one point. Played the heck out of it.

    --
    Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
    1. Re:I must be confused... by Ayaress · · Score: 1

      They released it, but they did not cover all the pre-orders. They barely shipped as many copies as there were pre-orders, if that, and some copies ended up in retail.

  17. Re:Who cares? by Babbster · · Score: 1

    That kind of makes no sense since the North Americans who care about Square Enix already know that the main Final Fantasy line is a PS2-only deal, ergo they would have a PS2.

  18. Working the numbers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Square Enix also plans to boost its worldwide sales. Currently, about 30 percent of Square Enix's game sales take place outside of Japan. Wada told Bloomberg that he hopes to increase that number to more than 50 percent."

    The easy way to do this would be to -lower- sales in Japan.

    1. Re:Working the numbers? by wheany · · Score: 1

      And the second most easy way would be to actually release some games in Europe. Of sure, we get the Final Fantasies, but that's about it. And even Final Fantasies are relased a year after their release in Japan.

    2. Re:Working the numbers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it would be nice if they released them a year after their release in Japan. Actually, Europe gets them a year after the US release which gets them a year after the Japan release.

      In the case of FFXI, as a final insult, they didn't even translate the game from English, it's just the US version repackaged and purposely made incompatible (so EU expansions don't work with the US version, despite being exactly the same, except for the CD key).