The Near Future of SquareEnix

SquareEnix has announced some of its plans for 2006. Gamasutra reports on an upcoming three year anniversary party for FFXI in March of next year. There will be some major announcements at the event, as well as information on the upcoming MMOG expansion. Gamespot also has information from the Jump Fest 2005 event, where SquareEnix displayed announced plans for a Dragon Quest VIII spinoff starring Yangus. Xbox 360 RPG studio Mistwalker was also there, with details on upcoming titles Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

Comments

FF XII?

[Grifty]

Pardon my laziness, but when does FFXII hit the US market?
And is there any word on FFXIII, is it supposed to be released on any of the next-gen platforms? (PS3?), that would certainly influence my buying decision.

Their naming conventions drive me nuts. First it was the discrepancy between the US and Japanese "Version" numbers, and then that whole XII/X:2 thing.

They should've just skipped numbers where the US counterpart didn't exist.

Re:FF XII?

[falcon5768]

I dont see how its confusing.

As of now all but III has made it to the US shores and the numbers being different only matter to begin with when your talking about the carts which only diehards ever do. as it is now III is being released to the DS so all of them will infact be in the US.

And X:2 was done in such a way to let people know it was a sequal to X. Basically if its got a roman numeral, its a game, if its got a arabic number at the end, its a sequal to that series (which only counts for one game to begin with and a crappy one at that)

As for it comming out for next gen. they havent even anounced they are even planning XIII and XII which is comming out by the summer certainly isnt going to be next gen. IX never came out for next gen it's self even though it was released after the PS2 came out so there is no reason to release it for the PS3 expecially when its basically going to be a PS2 game.

Re:FF XII?

[SScorpio]

There isn't a release date for FFXII in either the US or Japan. When it's done is pretty much the only release date atm. There also hasn't been any announcements regarding FFXIII, wait until E3 2006 in May and there may be some information. If not you'll at least get more information on both the Revolution and PS3.

As for the numbering, the only differing was with FFIV=FFII(US) and FFVI=FFIII(US). They renumbered the US games when they were released on the SNES to make US games not go.. what are we missing when there is a jump from FFI->FFIV. Releases in the US have all used the original Japanese numbering system. As for FFX-2 and FFXII, there has previously never been a sequel FF game. FFX-2 is FFX part 2. They might have gotten away with just calling it FFXI; however, that game was already out.

Re:FF XII?

[IntergalacticWalrus]

FF II also wasn't released outside Japan, AFAIK.

Re:FF XII?

[SScorpio]

FFII has been released with FFI on the PSX as Final Fantasy Origins, and the GBA as Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls. The GBA has a simplied (aka Dumbed down) leveling system though.

Re:FF XII?

[Rethcir]

Absolutely nothing personal, but I honestly think at this point it's safe to day that the "3 or 4 obligatory comments explaining the difference in international FF numbering" is right up there with yakov smirnov and welcoming our new overlords in terms of a Slashdot trend.. Does anyone else agree?

Re:FF XII?

[ak3ldama]

yea, i agree. but it's the typically geek thing where:
i know more about x, y and z than you and this, that and those are why. but then again, i should be coding so i guess i suck anyways.

Re:FF XII?

[dancingmad]

You mods need to get a clue!

FFXII has a Japanese release date. March 6th, announced at the Jump Fiesta and I saw a banner for it at the big DVD/game store Tsutaya with the same date.

More information on the FFXII expantion

[falcon5768]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/ahturhgan/index.h tml

At least 2 possibly 3-4 new jobs are being added as well as a whole new continent with a lot of old FF staples like Imps and Lamias. Also the mapmaker for CoP (which IMHO has some of the most beautiful areas, much better than the original or zilart expantions) is the head programer for this one so expect even more areas to be much more expansive than the original maps where, since this guy knows how to push the PS2 platform.

Enough Final Fantasy anthologies!

[Guppy06]

How many times are we expected to buy the old Famicom and Super Famicom Final Fantasy games? I wish they'd stop whoring that series long enough to, I dunno, translate DQIV for the PlayStation. Or milk some other big Enix names, say a SoulBlazer collection for GBA.

Even other lesser-known Squaresoft games would be something. Seiken Densetsu 3? At what point do we admit we have too much Final Fantasy?

My wet dream is S-E making all the old games they never translated available for download in English for the Revolution.

Re:Enough Final Fantasy anthologies!

[buffer-overflowed]

What? Dragon Quest IV was released here, 13 years ago, biggest NES cart to ever be produced, only the series was called Dragon WARRIOR here until the release of 8. I played it, it was good. Think I still have the huge map foldout that came with it.

In fact, the only Dragon Quests we didn't get were the SNES ones(5&6). 1-4 came out on the NES. 7 came out on the PS. 8 just came out.

Every real non-johnny come lately RPG fan knows Seiken Densetsu 3. It's the sequel to one of the great SNES action RPGS, Secret of Mana(which is a sequel to FF Adventure AKA Sword of Mana). Not knowing about it is like not knowing what the Mother series is. We're not into obscure territory here at all.

Re:Enough Final Fantasy anthologies!

[Guppy06]

"Dragon Quest IV was released here, 13 years ago, biggest NES cart to ever be produced, only the series was called Dragon WARRIOR here until the release of 8."

Yes, and, in the same vein as the reprises of I, II and III for the Super Famicom (and then the Game Boy Color), IV was remade, expanded, etc. for the PlayStation. There's a "coming soon!" ad for it on the back of the Dragon Warrior VII manual. It essentially uses the same engine as VII.

"In fact, the only Dragon Quests we didn't get were the SNES ones(5&6)."

There may be hope for the PlayStation 2 version of V coming over to the US depending on the sales of VIII, but the odds of the original version of V coming over is slim to none, unless something hapens with the Revolution.

"Every real non-johnny come lately RPG fan knows Seiken Densetsu 3."

That doesn't mean everybody is near as orgasmic about it as they are when they hear the words "Final Fantasy." How well did Legend of Mana sell again?

All we're getting from Square-Enix nowadays is 31 flavors of Final Fantasy.

"Not knowing about it is like not knowing what the Mother series is."

In other words, very common. Not every game player has been active for the past 10+ years.

"We're not into obscure territory here at all."

As far as the modern gaming scene is concerned, it's all very obscure.

Re:Enough Final Fantasy anthologies!

[PhoenixFlare]

Even other lesser-known Squaresoft games would be something. Seiken Densetsu 3?

While having a version that I could actually play on my TV would be nice....I and probably just about everyone else that really wanted to play it has done so already, thanks to a decent unofficial english translation being released over 6 years ago.

The legality of ROMs aside, it's probably better than what Square would do officially anyway, if the god-awful (Faris's pirate accent...Why?!) translation of FF5 was any indication.

Re:Enough Final Fantasy anthologies!

[Guppy06]

"While having a version that I could actually play on my TV would be nice...."

Heh... I just got a copy of SD3 off of eBay, dumped it, patched it, and play it in English on my SNES through my Super Wild Card. >:)

I'll tell you the future right now

[77Punker]

Here's what they do: release updated versions of a bunch of FF games for GBA and DS, make another Crystal Chronicles, and then surprise everybody with a random Star Ocean game. Same thing next year, too.

The real future of Square Enix?

[GodBlessTexas]

The Amazing GBT looks into his crystal ball... What does he see?

The games you've been patiently waiting on to be released in the US will be delayed by at least 6 months and possibly 18. You'll get Kingdom Hearts II and the next Final Fantasy title about the time the PS3 is released, but probably later. You would think Sony and SE have such a tight relationship, we could see something resembling a FF title at console launch. Or maybe SE would stop telling us we'll get a game and then tacking on extra months before the release date. Could they just automatically add that so that I don't get my hopes up?

Advent Children

[OneWingedgAmer]

So far, nobody has mentioned the SE title that every FF fan has been witing for since 1997: Advent Children. Other than KH2, it's the one thing I've been anticipating the most.

Re:Advent Children

[shoptroll]

Gee cause it's already out in Japan, and anyone who probably wants to see it has probably downloaded at least one fansub of it? I dunno what Sony and SquareEnix were thinking when they pushed this back for the US release. This was supposed to be one of the big UMD titles for the Fall and it's no where to be seen.

I can only hope they're adding more footage for the English release. Otherwise, they're wasting everyone's time.

And quite honestly, I've never understood why everyone gets frothy at the mouth over FFVII. I'll be glad when all this Compilation of FFVII stuff gets over with.

Re:Advent Children

[echocharlie]

I loved FF VII for the Materia Combos. I think that it was the best Battle System that has been seen thus far in the FF series. I'd love to see it adapted into a future series or sequel.

Re:Advent Children

[OneWingedgAmer]

I agree. Half the fun of FFVII was experimenting with different materia combinations to customize your characters. I especially liked how it let me transfer abilities between charactes. I'm sure a lot of fans would love to see the materia system return in a new FF.

Re:More information on the FFXI expantion

[falcon5768]

you know I play both FFXI and WoW and to me the cartoonish stuff of WoW looks worse than FFXI. A lot of the CoP areas are very vivd and beautiful, its just if your lacking in skill (cause honestly it doesnt take a genius to beat Promivions which is all you ever really need to do to get to most of the areas) then yeah you dont see them.

As a expantion CoP was excellent, but you had to be a good player which was the best part. 2 monkeys and a lvl 75 could beat Zilart but CoP required you to actually know how to play to complete the missions making it very challenging. The sad part was 80% of the players ended up being found to be idiots who want everything on a silver platter which is why its looked down on, but in a month with a good crew I managed to go from diablos to sea only occasionally playing so it wasnt that tough. Heck the hardest mission of them all, the battle against Ultima and Omega we beat first run.

I have a feeling your the same AC troll who always trolls these FFXI posts am I right? Well I proved you wrong the first 80 times you commented so why dont you go troll WoW players or something.