The UK isn’t going to stand for Final Fantasy XIII—by this I meant a “misleading” televised ad. In a recent commercial aired in the UK, Square-Enix seemingly went all disingenuous on their viewership when they showcased PS3 footage in a strictly 360 ad. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority reported “there was a discernible difference in the picture quality of the two; the PS3 image in video sequences appeared sharper and colors were more vivid than those of the Xbox 360.”

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For the often scantly detailed Final Fantasy Versus XIII, some scans from the latest Famitsu have hit the web with a few new shots of the likely even better than Final Fantasy XIII sibling title. Also, in an interview with Tetsuya Nomura recently surfacing, it has been revealed that Versus XIII will have an open world that you can explore using a car at any time you like. Monsters will be visible on-screen where you are exploring and more will pop up if you sit around for too long.

Also detailed in the interview is a snippet about loading times being as infrequent as possible, with hopes to keep load times only when changing areas. Battles are to be “seamless.” All I know is — it’s been damn long since we’ve seen an inkling of shine from Final Fantasy Versus XIII, so enjoy the scans below (even if it’s only a couple)! Hopefully this marks a hint that more news will come out soon on this highly-anticipated title.

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Yesterday, Square-Enix announced their batch of exclusive titles that will be coming to the Nintendo 3DS. There are only four working titles for the 3DS as of right now, which includes Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest. In regards to the new Kingdom Hearts title, there has been a lot of confusion as to whether the game will be a port of the original PS2 title or a completely new game.

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Square-Enix has dropped the curtain on their full line up during E3. A few portables, a few downloadables, and a few more console titles fill their 2010 line up. Earlier though, they had teased of a new Kingdom Hearts promised for this E3, and as my big innocent twinkly anime eyes lit up, I heard the title of the game just today… and my ears suddenly lower, like I got hit on the head with a newspaper by my master. “Bad Tigresa! No, you will never see a real Kingdom Hearts sequel! You greedy, greedy girl!” Here’s how Square-Enix lays out the story of the latest in the Kingdom Hearts franchise (post-Birth By Sleep).
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As if there were any doubt, given the rabid Final Fantasy fever that we in the Western countries possess for the franchise.  Nevertheless, it’s always nice to get a solid release date, and now we have it for this original Final Fantasy game incoming to the Nintendo DS.  We get it October 5th, and it’s going to cost roughly 35 bucks. 

Followers may recall this game formerly titled “Final Fantasy Gaiden” (a better title if you ask me), and as mentioned above is the first original Final Fantasy game developed for the handheld system.  It’s being developed by the same team that worked on the Final Fantasy III and VI remakes, which were both very well received by most fans and critics.  The game changes things up a bit by doing away with magic points and initiating some type of job-change system involving hats, but regardless should be a welcome addition to our RPG and Final Fantasy library.  There also seems to be 4-player co-op, though no word yet on if that’s story-based co-op or merely a token multiplayer component thrown in. 

Chances are good we’ll have more coverage on this little title come E3, where it’s sure to see some showfloor exposure.  Stay tuned until then!  (you better stay tuned…)

The word “final” implies a number of things. The foremost of these meanings would be that the final something would be the last of those things, the end of the line. Final also implies ultimacy, the end-all in terms of significance. While both of these definitions were true at one point in time for games in the Final Fantasy series, neither of which hold up for the latest iteration. Surely not the last of its kind, and most definitely not the best of its kin, Final Fantasy XIII is a beautiful example of how JRPGs, while still full of polish, have mostly lost sight of what once gave them their core appeal.

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Old-school RPG fans can now rejoice, for Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II are for the first time now available on mobile phones in North America. These iPhone releases mark the seventeenth (at least) re-release of the original Final Fantasy. Of course, these updated versions show all of the polish that comes with remastering a game once every year or so.

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During the 16 and 32-bit eras, role-playing games reigned supreme. Also during those times, Squaresoft saw a phenomenal boost in the sales and popularity of their games. With Squaresoft’s rise to power came a conflict within Quest (developers of the Ogre Battle series of games,) and many of the former employees of Quest signed on with Square. The result of this marriage was one of the finest strategy-based role playing games of all time, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Final Fantasy Tactics incorporated all of the best elements of both franchises. The intricate battle and leveling mechanics from the Ogre series were a perfect match for the previously-established line of Final Fantasy jobs as well as the generally-grand plots and character developments from the more recent games in the series.

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There’s really only two senses that video games have yet to tap into.  We see and hear games, we control them via our touching paws, but we can neither smell nor taste them yet (though some games attempt to bridge that gap by offering up cooking advice).  Apparently Square-Enix wishes to to provide the former because they’re releasing a Final Fantasy XIII perfume.

No, this isn’t a joke post.  It’s November still and April is many months away.  Square has actually commissioned their very own perfume.  You, too, can smell like Final Fantasy XIII’s upcoming lady protagonist, Lightning.  Personally, I think she’d smell like sweat and leather (which I’m totally okay with because I love an active woman), but those nutters in Japan seem to think she’ll have a “sweet peach smell followed by rose and then a feminine musk.”  I don’t even entirely know what that means or how to combine such aromas.  What I do know is that I’ll be importing myself a bottle to spray on my controller as I play my way through what will be the biggest RPG of 2010 so that I can tell people I played the game with all of my senses.  I will not say how I plan in incorporate the sense of taste into my experience.  I fear that will only alienate many of our readers.

Anyway!  The bottle costs 7,140 yen ($83) and chances of it hitting American shelves are pretty slim.

[Source: Siliconera]

Though I’ve been a fan of fighters for years, I’ve been on Team Final Fantasy for much longer. I’ve saved the world from imminent destruction simply via living vicariously through the tales woven by the multiple Final Fantasy adventures available to embark on and ultimately had a richer experience than I would have had I spent that time shattering bones and pulling off massive combos. In the past I had a staccato love affair with Square’s first attempt at a full-fledged fighting game that attempted to combine both genres, Ehrgeiz, but to be fair it was far from perfect. Upon Dissidia’s announcement, I knew I must obtain it both to feed my Final Fantasy fix and mingle with characters of my RPG history once again. Like a moth to a flame I was sucked into the world of Cosmos and Chaos.

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Final Fantasy as a franchise is forever branching out and taking entirely different paths. From the adorable minigame collections (Chocobo Tales) to the fighters (Dissidia), Square Enix is never afraid to create games other than RPGs utilizing characters or concepts within the universe. Upon playing My Life as a Dark Lord, a tower defense title obtainable as a WiiWare title, I am convinced that they can make any genre work, so long as they approach it with the right attitude and color palette. Having never previously played My Life as a King, I can’t quite compare it to anything I’ve played before, but rest assured, even through its sometimes intractable difficulty, it’s a whole lot of fun.

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Square-Enix remembers their fans outside of Japan less often then we’d like. I just got word that they remembered that we are just as obsessive a bunch as their motherland’s fans. They have announced a set of full-color, intricately detailed PVC figures making their way to Square-Enix’s USA store. Normally I would just glaze over this as a collection of incoming overpriced paperweights to pretty up my desk space, but they are overwhelmingly gorgeous figures of some of their headline characters from Final Fantasy’s Sephiroth, Kingdom Hearts‘ Sora (in his Halloweentown getup!) and even Edward and Alphonse from the hit anime and manga series Fullmetal Alchemist. Hit the jump for screenshots of some of the announced figures to hit the e-shelves of Square-Enix this week! Word on the streets says they might even be affordable, too. So how much do you think these figures are worth?

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