Welcome to Final Fantasy World...

I made an error in the previous post stating that Gilgamesh is going to be a summon in Type-0. He is, in fact, going to be a boss character. He is a l’Cie who has received the power of the Genbu crystal but has forgotten its mission. Also, he’s three times the size of the game’s main characters.

Genbu is the name of the game’s four Peristyliums, which are the organizations that handle each of the crystals in the game. Suzaku is the name of Rebrum’s Peristylium and it’s the magic school where most of the story takes place. The Genbu people reside in the mountains and augment their bodies with the power of their crystal; making themselves more resistant to magic and weapons.

Here are some introductions to some of the characters you’ll find in the game:

Sice: Wields a scythe and has the ability to use a Black Hole move.
King: Wields dual guns and uses the Power Bullet ability to deal damage to multiple targets.
Eight: Uses hand-to-hand combat. He’s a male with short, red hair and abjures the use of weapons. He has a special ability that involves using the d-pad to unleash a variety of actions.

The game features an Active World Map. Enemy forces will constantly be waging war on the map and you will be called upon to defend key locations. Cities can be taken by enemy units. You can take back the city by destroying the commanders that have garrisoned there. Once you have recaptured the city, you can use it to shop for items. It’s rumored that specific items reside in specific cities. So…Uh… Guess you gotta catch ‘em all, right?

This game is set to be released at the end of summer for Japan. No word for an American release date yet.

Are you hungry for some Final Fantasy Type-0 news? Well, wait no further. Squeenix has decided to sate your hunger with a twenty minute gameplay demo.

Hajima Tabata, the director of the game, shows off the basics of the game, the battle system, and an airship. Tabata explains that the school is your home base of operations and that the playable characters are the elite students of the school. There is a time counter at the bottom right of the screen. This indicates the story mission; once this timer runs out, the mission that’s part of the main narrative will begin. If you miss world maps, then you’ll be glad to see that it is back in action once again.

During battle, you’ll notice that the characters absorb energy from their deceased enemies. The energy is known as Phantoma. Basically, it gives you MP which is useful for a game that revolves around magic usage.

Tabata has name for the battle system; it’s called “Instantaneous Death Battle.” You’ll notice that red markers appear on some of the enemies. If you hit the enemy during this small time frame, you immediately dispatch them.

The summon Golem is showcased in this video as well. Keep note that you have to sacrifice one of your characters to call forth these prodigious beasts. As of now, here are the summons that have been announced: Ifrit, Odin, and Gilgamesh.

The last feature which I find very piquant is the fact that the airship can shoot! That’s pretty neat. I wonder what type of gameplay aspects will be in the game with an airship that can shoot.

In addition to Squeenix’s (My nickname for Square Enix) six major IP’s, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Hitman; Squeenix is aiming to create five original IP’s in a effort to make up for their $149 million loss in the last year.

Squeenix also plans on becoming more “network centric.” This means they still haven’t given up on the debacle that is Final Fantasy XIV. They plan on adding more DLC for their console games as well. Let’s hope games such as Deus Ex, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Type-0 garner some good sales for the RPG Emperor.

Square Enix has unleashed its line up for the March 2012 fiscal year.

What’s curiously odd about this lineup is that it’s missing FF Versus XIII, the PS3 version of FF XIV, and a US release date for FF Type-0. Does this mean that we’re going to see a delay in FF Versus XIII? Fans have been waiting for FF Versus XIII for five years now. This sort of delay could have dire consequences for loyal fans of the series. First off, I’m sure fans would want to play this game as soon as possible. Second, the delay would give FF Versus XIII more time to get hyped and if the game fails to meet expectations, fans will scoff at the amount of time it took to create the game in the first place. Square Enix has already suffered $149 million in losses so let’s hope their future titles garner some profit.