Square Enix has reported that their profits have been decreased by 62% to 690 million yen (£5.4 million). Squeenix president Yoichi Wada responds, “In a quarter without major title releases, profit and sales were lower compared to the previous year.” Well, that’s certainly true. With products such as Type-0, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Deus Ex Human Revolution coming out soon, Squeenix will most likely generate some income.
Hello Europeans. I have what could be bad news. Emphasis on the “could.” Have a gander at this:
For Final Fantasy XIII-2, it clearly states a December release for Japan and a January release for America. But why does it say “Early 2012″ for Europe…? Having that there puts me in a state of curious quandary. Does that mean Europe is going to get XIII-2 at a later date?
Another item to note is Type 0. There’s nothing listing any overseas dates. To work so hard on an auspicious FF title and not even consider an overseas release during its development is quite absurd. Hopefully Squeenix is hard at work in localizing Type-0.
Oh and if you’re wondering, the third game on the list is Slime MorMori Dragon Quest 3 for the 3DS.
The world of Final Fantasy Type-0 consists of four countries. The theme of the four countries revolves around the four mythological creatures of the Chinese constellations. Each country houses a crystal which is protected by organizations called Peristeriums. Here’s a look at each of the countries.
Rebrum
This country is where the main heroes reside. They attend the Peristerium Suzaku, a magic school. Magic is what defines this country and the nation is governed by a group of eight who also are the heads of the magic school. All of the playable characters are part of Class 0.
The current leader is school chancellor, Khalia Chival VI. He is renowned as a great sorcerer in his youth.
Milites
Type-0′s initial antagonist. This empire is seen invading Rebrum in the trailer of the game. The Byakko Peristerium research on the energy of their crystal and uses it for military and domestic affairs. Unlike the other countries, the power of Milites’ crystal is harnessed to create Mado Armor which all citizens are able to pilot. In essence, Mado Armor is an allusion to FF VI’s Magitek Armor. With this technology, they have a huge military force.
The emperor of Milites is currently missing. In charge we have Admiral Cid Aulstyne. Under his belligerent leadership, he hopes to lead Milites in obtaining the other three crystals from the other nations.
Lolica
The Lolica Commonwealth eeks out its existence in the mountain region of the world. The Genbu Peristerium sees to it that the people take in the power of the crystal to strengthen their bodies. All of the citizens are much bigger than the people of other countries and serve as knights.
Though no leader is mentioned, Gilgamesh is a central figure in Lolica. He is a l’Cie who has forgotten his focus. He will be one of the bosses of Type 0. Maybe you’ll have to fight him several times like you did back in Final Fantasy V. In any case, l’Cie seem to serve the same purpose here that they did in FF XIII-they’re given a focus (mission) by the crystal and must carry it out. Maybe Cieth creatures will make an appearance as well?
Concordia
The citizens of Concordia utilize the power of the Seiryuu Crystal to communicate with dragons and other monsters. Unlike the people of Lolica, the citizens of Concordia retain a small, child-like appearance for all of their lives.
Concordia is a country ruled by women. Queen Andoria is the physical representation of the Seiryuu crystal and is the only person capable of talking to the Queen Dragon.
And there you have it. It looks like Type 0 will be an epic battle between high school sorcerers, magitek armor soldiers, rock hard giants, and loli’s riding on dragons. Any of you find it ironic that the loli’s reside in Concordia and not in Lolica?
Congratulations PS3 owners. Those of you who want to try out this debacle of an MMO are in luck because the new Final Fantasy XIV director, Naoki Yoshida, has assured fans that they are working hard at making FF XIV into an MMO that gamers could be proud of.
The FF XIV team is currently working on instanced raids, a materia crafting system, and jumping. Yes, you heard that right. Apparently you can’t jump in this MMO so it’s going to be implemented as soon as possible.
So here’s my question to all of you… Do you think that Square Enix is spread thin? They’re currently working on Kingdom Hearts 3D, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Final Fantasy Type-0, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Heroes of Ruin. Also, let’s not forget those random mobile social games that are made only for Japan. Do you think they should concentrate more on big title games? Or do you like what they’re doing right now?
Square Enix has decided to dabble into the rhythm genre with yet another game that a veritable plethora of gamers won’t be able to pronounce: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Would I be correct in assuming that they’re a little late to the party? The whole Guitar Hero/Rock Band rhythm games are in their death throes and Squeenix decides to make a rhythm game. To be fair, this game looks more like it plays like PaRappa the Rapper (I could be totally wrong though) so there’s a chance that this could do well. Also, despite the major criticisms in the current Final Fantasy games, the music has never received huge backlash. Since this game is based off the wonderful music of the FF series, this should at least be somewhat enjoyable.
All the characters in the game will be in chibi form.
In true Squeenix fashion, this rhythm game has RPG qualities to it. First off, you choose a party of four and you can gain levels through fighting monsters. So far, there are three type of icons:
1) Red: Touch the screen briefly.
2) Yellow: Slide in the direction of the line of movement of the icon.
3) Green: Touch and hold down on the screen.
Theatrhythm will feature field, battle, and event stages for each of the numbered Final Fantasy titles. The field songs are relatively easy since they just have one rhythm line to it. The field songs are basically field, town, and dungeon music. The battle stages features four rhythm lines. These stages are harder thant he field stages and will feature various battle music from the Final Fantasy series.
Theatrhythm is loaded with over 50 songs. There will at least be three songs from FFI through FF XIII. Currently, the set release date is winter this year for Japan.
Director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase have looked into the negative comments about Final Fantasy XIII and decided to rectify those complaints with their upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2 title. Toriyama says that there will not be a chapter based system like there was in XIII and that it is the first Final Fantasy to feature multiple endings. I’m assuming that the multiple endings revolve around your choices for the live trigger events; which is just a fancy name for making important story choices.
Kitase admits that they don’t take any inspiration from Western RPG’s. I find this odd because WRPG’s are doing extremely well in the American market. The team that worked on Nier changed the protagonist to a scruffy, buff old man in an attempt to appeal to the western market (don’t think it really worked). Thus, I’m surprised that the Final Fantasy XIII team hardly spent any time trying to figure out why WRPG’s are so popular in the western market.
Since the absence of towns was a huge criticism of Final Fantasy XIII, Toriyama went to great lengths to create lively towns for XIII-2. In his words, the towns are populated by NPC’s who have their own AI. This means that every single person in town goes about their daily lives rather than sit in one place (I’m reminded of Radiata Stories).
According to Kitase, the decision to start work on XIII-2 got the green light once FF XIII was released worldwide. So in a sense, we were getting XIII-2 whether we wanted it or not. My personal suspicion is that the XIII team already knew that they had problems of linearity during the development. Why didn’t they do anything about it? Well, their excuse was that they were already too far in development and it would be too late to implement the feedback from the player test sessions. Therefore, instead of clearing up those issues, they decided to just make a sequel that addresses the issues.
Toriyama also noted that XIII-2 will be sporting the coveted New Game+ mechanic. This will prove useful since the game features multiple endings. Added to this are a wide variety of side quests. Some of these side quest missions can be undertaken anywhere, rather than going to some sort of quest NPC to start it.
