Square And Nintendo, E3 Lineup

With E3 coming up on us fairly fast now, we're going to start seeing some of the larger company's expected lineups for the event. eToyChest has the titles Square/Enix will be showing off at the event. Gamastura reports on one additional title that didn't make the list; A collaboration between Square/Enix and Nintendo. From that article: "The application in question combines an email application with virtual pet-like interaction abilities, and features various Pokemon characters heavily. Although Nintendo has been relatively reticent to enter the burgeoning mobile content market, which is particularly active in Japan, it has recently started to enter the segment, with the recent licensing of ring tones and animated images for a 'Nintendo Mobile' service on Japanese cellphone providers, and now this announcement of a Square collaboration."

Comments

What about FF:CC?

[dorbabil]

I wonder if these games listed are only the ones that Square themselves are publishing, and not necessarily all of the games Square has in development. FF:CC is supposedly a Revolution launch title, and I believe Nintendo published the first one for the GCN (although I thought that that was because of the Fund Q, which centered around games that involved GBA/GCN connectivity).

Re:What about FF:CC?

[mikeisme77]

All titles were for current gen systems, so it may just be that all next-gen titles are to be kept secret until the actual event. Also worth noting is that Square appears to be fully supporting the DS (with 3 titles announced) and only throwing the PSP some crumbs (in terms of 1 game). This is a reverse of the consoles, where Square developed soly for PS2, but through Nintendo some crumbs (FF:CC) on the GameCube (because I believe Nintendo told Square they had to develop at least one GC title if they wanted to develop titles for the GBA). This, to me, reinforces the fact that the PSP is slowly bleeding to death (at least outside of the States).

Re:What about FF:CC?

[dorbabil]

Even more telling is the fact that the PSP game is a port of a 6 year old PSX title. It's one of the better RPGs on the PSX, of course... but still, it's an aged port.

Re:What about FF:CC?

[SuperMog2002]

What makes this even better is that Sony owns a double digit percent of Square Enix's stock!

FF6

[th1ckasabr1ck]

Finally, there's the FFVI everyone has been bitching about endlessly every time Square-Enix announces anything.

Re:FF6

[Physician]

Yes because we would be totally screwed without this remake of this game that was first on the SNES and then on the PSX and also via emulation for those into that sort of thing.

Re:FF6

[Assassin17]

Slow and sloppy emulators? Please. Unless you haven't upgraded your computer or your copy of SNES9x/ZSNES in six years, you're completely full of it. While these emulators aren't perfect, they're pretty damn accurate, and can *easily* run SNES games at full speed.

From what I've heard, SNES9x/ZSNES on a remotely modern machine yield a smoother running FF4 than FF4Advance.

Sony

[interiot]

Has anybody heard much about Sony/PS3 offerings at E3? So far, I've heard a lot more about Nintendo's upcoming stuff than I have about Sony's.

Re:Sony

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Has anybody heard much about Sony/PS3 offerings at E3? So far, I've heard a lot more about Nintendo's upcoming stuff than I have about Sony's."

Sony's been quiet. I imagine they're going to try to wallop Nintendo at E3 with a bunch of info. My guess is we'll hear about the price, launch date, see a few games, and Sony will unveil a new PS3 controller that innovatively senses its orientation. (or a built in Eye Toy...)

Re:Sony

[BecomingLumberg]

That would be good, although I rue the day that the 'annoying kid who leans the way he is steering in the racing game' becomes any better due to this.

Firm release dates would be nice

[antifoidulus]

I'm looking forward to the 3 ff remakes, but I would like to know when they are coming out!
I'm planning a trip to Japan in May, hopefully I could score something good there, but I guess we will see

Valkyrie Profile

[Dark Paladin]

And I just bought a cheap copy (disks only) for the PSX from a friend of mine - I guess I have just enough time to get it onto eBay before it's common knowledge it's coming out for the PSP.

The list

[Rob T Firefly]

Whittled from the first FA:

Dawn of Mana (PS2)
Dirge of Cereberus-Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (PS2)
Final Fantasy V and VI Advance (GBA)
Children of Mana (DS)
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS)
Final Fantasy III (DS)
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP)

Re:The list

[zerocool^]

1.) After owning Dragon Quest 8 for months, I finally played the FF XII demo. Holy carp. Usually I'm not one to gawk, and I like gameplay and plot over graphics... but. Holy Carp. FF XII looks so amazing even I did a doubletake, and the battle system seems like it's an amazing combination of all the battle systems from square / squeenix games. Whatever you say about X-2, plot and vapidity aside, the battle system was good. It takes elements from that, from traditional FF (read FF3US), and from ChronoTrigger and ChronoCross. It's just... wow. That game is going to crush expectations.

2.) Is that a remake of FF3 US/FF6 Jap or FF3 Jap? And is it a "remake" like the playstation one was a "remake", or is it actually redone?

~Will

Re:The list

[SuperMog2002]

Depends which remake you're asking about, as they're actually remaking both. The FF6 remake (and the FF5 one too) are for the GBA, and are more like glorified ports. Square Enix actually announced that they were remaking all three SNES Final Fantasies for GBA a while ago, and FF4 Advance came out last November. I imagine FF5 Advance and FF6 Advance will be quite similar. For FF4, they added a decent amount of new content, which was nicely done, but the port itself was rather shoddy. The GBA's sound processor is far superior to the SNES's, yet the music of FF4 Advance is simply inferior: it sounds like someone took every song from the original FF4 soundtrack and copied it by hand into a cheap MIDI synthesizer. Add a nice dose of very inconsistent frame rates and buggy time bars (the original version of FF4 used ATB, but didn't use time bars, nor do they really work since in FF4 you don't wait a fixed amount of time between turns like you do in later FFs), and you've got a decent but not really good port of an otherwise great game. It's better than Final Fantasy Anthology/Chronicles at least, though. I'm hoping they do a better job with FF5 and 6, but their port history says they won't.

FF3, on the other hand, is for the DS, and is a remake from the ground up. The original FF3 was a 2d game for NES, while FF3 DS is going to be a fully 3d game. That clearly indicates they're completely redoing all of the graphics, and while SNES sound may be passable, NES sound certainly isn't, so I assume they're redoing that from scratch too. They haven't announced anything about the gameplay yet that I'm aware of, but it seems clear to me that Square Enix is putting a lot of effort in to this remake, so I'm betting it'll be pretty good. Last time I saw them try this hard on a remake, the result was Final Fantasy Origins, which was a pretty darn awesome game.

Re:The list

[otie]

I misread the second title as Dirge of Cerebeus and thought, finally a game for us aardvark-loving misogynists... oh well.

Re:The list

[KDR_11k]

FF3DS is a complete remake of the game (with 3d graphics and stuff), Valkyrie Profile for the PSP is the first VP game.

Re:Sweet mercy...

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Aren't we done with pokemon yet??"

I think I read somewhere that you don't actually have to buy Pokemon games.

I'm a fanboy!! 8)

[Brothernone]

I'm such a fanboy, i've already started budgeting for the FF and Mana games 8(

Re:I'm a fanboy!! 8)

[0racle]

A real fanboy would already have them.

Yes, but...

[Stormwatch]

The application in question combines an email application with virtual pet-like interaction abilities...

Yes, but will it let me email Duke Nukem?

Re:Yes, but...

[b1t r0t]

Yes, but will it let me email Duke Nukem?

Mail to the king, baby!

Re:Yes, but...

[powerlord]

Yes, but will it let me email Duke Nukem?

Yes ... but he'll reply only when he's good and ready.

Re:Yes, but...

[carninja]

you just made me bust out laughing in my cisco class thats awesome

Re:Yes, but...

[b1t r0t]

you just made me bust out laughing in my cisco class thats awesome

And why do you think IOS has a reload command? Because that's what you gotta do when you run out of ammo.

Re:Sweet mercy...

[Doppleganger]

I think I read somewhere that you don't actually have to buy Pokemon games.

But, but... you've gotta catch 'em all, don't you?!?

Oh... fuck.

[TheNoxx]

For a second I thought they were going to remake FFVI, for the PS3 or Revolution or something... then realized it was just a GBA release.

I cannot begin to describe my feeling of hope being shattered into millions of tiny, forlorn peices... almost like an esper shard.... sniff.

Re:Sweet mercy...

[GrumblyStuff]

NO. Pokemon Snap sequel STAT!~

Re:Why Is Square Ignoring The 360?

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems like Square is intenionally sabotaging the Xbox 360. All of their good stuff is going on Sony and Nintendo and just old stuff for Microsoft.

Why??

I can explain it to you in 1 word "Japan"

About half of all Square-Soft game sales happen in Japan, why would they support a platform with new content which has no chance of being successful in Japan. The reason the XBox 360 has Final Fantasy XI is because Microsoft paid them a lot of money to port it to their system; and Square gave them an exact duplicate of the PC version of the game.

The simple fact is that when XBox fans say "Who needs Japan" what they're really saying is "Who needs Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or any game made by Capcom, Sega, Namco, Konami, Square-Enix, or Techmo." I'm not saying that it is going to happen, but if Microsoft continues to perform so poorly in Japan many japaneese developers will stop producing any games for the XBox.

Re:Why Is Square Ignoring The 360?

[Jearil]

Oh I don't know.. it has more subscribers than EverQuest or EverQuest II. In fact, the only MMORPG's that have more subscribers than FFXI are World of Warcraft, Lineage, and Lineage II. Source.

Also note that besides FFXI along with World of Warcraft and Runescape are the only games still without a downward trend. There numbers have only been going up since release. Not bad considering EverQuest II flopped shortly after release, D&D Online is doing the same, and most all other MMO's are going downhill.

I just logged on with my 360 copy for the first time in a year.. and man, there are just as many people if not more speaking english than Japanese (we coexist on the same servers). I have friends who have been playing for 3 years, and they certainly don't live in Japan. I think you underestimate the game's popularity. But that's alright, I'm sure you'll become more aware of things when you get older.

Re:Why Is Square Ignoring The 360?

[festers]

Also note that besides FFXI along with World of Warcraft and Runescape are the only games still without a downward trend.

You're forgetting a small, but very well made game called EVE Online. Its numbers have been growning steadily as well.