Want Final Fantasy HD Collections? Well…

During this years E3, Yoshinori Kitase was in attendance. Among many questions he was asked included a question from PS3Trophies.org regarding FF HD Collections… The answer isn’t really a surprise, but yet it is since you’d think the fans would have shown their support by now.

“We haven’t made up our mind about that yet,” said Kitase, “but if there was a strong voice coming through from the users asking for such porting, then obviously we would seriously consider it, but no actual plans yet.”

This would pretty much indicate that the best way to let Square-Enix know that the fans want HD collections is by the power of Social Media. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Tidus and Yuna’s infamous laughing scene in HD?! Or say, Yuna dancing in Real Emotion in HD… Okay, okay.

Ways to let Square-Enix know that the fan demand IS there for these collections:

• Square Enix’s North American Facebook Page
• Square-Enix Members North American Twitter

Source:

• Final Fantasy Network

Final Fantasy III (VI) Hits Wii’s Virtual Console!

In the last update to Wii’s Virutal Console, a Square-Enix (Squaresoft) classic joins the ranks of many other great games. These include Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II (IV), numerous Mario and Zelda games, and many more! That’s right, Final Fantasy III (VI) has finally made it to Virtual Console for the expected price of 800 Wii Points.

You can pick up the classic now!

Final Fantasy XIII-2’s Composers Revealed

The Japan Expo in Paris has begun, and Square-Enix has already announced the composers for their upcoming game Final Fantasy XIII-2. Along with the composer announcement, Square-Enix also showed the public both demo’s that were available at E3 (Noel and Serah versus Atlas along with Lightning vs Bahamut). The composers for the game are as follows:

• Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII)
• Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XI, Parasite Eve II)
• Mitsuto Suzuki (The 3rd Birthday)

The Japan Expo will run until July 3rd, so stay tuned for hopefully more news from the event!

Source:

• The 15th Crystal

New Batch of Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screenshots Released

Well, they aren’t all completely new, but the ones that aren’t new are higher quality from what we’ve seen before. They are screenshots of what has been recently featured in some Japanese magazines, though now in English! Enjoy the screenshots below.

Source:

• Gematsu

New Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screenshots Released

Square-Enix updated the official website of their upcoming game Final Fantasy XIII-2 today to include some screenshots that had only been available in GameInformer previously. They are of the Japanese Playstation 3 version, along with the inclusion of the main art piece for the game featuring Serah and Lightning. On major change to note in these screenshots is that the Japanese version has adapted the English name for Paradigm Shift, previously known to them as Optima Change.

 

Source:

• Nova Crystallis

Kitase Comments on Western Type-0

Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy Type-0, spoke with GamingUnion at E3. He showed concern for the current Western PSP market (unsurprising, it’s not going very well here in the west) and GamingUnion asked him about Type-0 seeing a North America and Europe release.

“As you may know very well, with the PSP market, the situation is very different in Japan than outside of Japan. We are having to be very very careful in how we decide what would be the best way to deliver the game to all the gamers. At the moment I can’t give you any confirmed decision, so please be patient for a little bit longer.”

Sadly this could mean the very likely scenario: Type-0 (Formerly Agito) may not make it to the west, and if it does, it may be delayed. This also means that it is likely the localization has not yet started (see prior sentence), or that it may come to a completely different console (Vita?). Square-Enix had previously shown interest in Sony’s PSP Remaster series, and it may be that Type-0 will get this treatment.

Only time will tell was happens with Type-0, and all we can do is hope that is does make its way west.

Source:

• The 15th Crystal

Square-Enix shows interest in PSP Remasters

During a Final Fantasy XIII-2 interview, Toriyama brought up about Sony’s recently announced PSP Remaster series. While there are no concrete details yet, this could certainly lift fan’s spirits.

What this basically entails is PSP games being “remastered” for play on the PS3, but you can still transfer your saves over to your PSP to play there as well (If I remember the initial press release on the announcement correctly). For Square-Enix this would mean bringing games such as Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Duodecim) to the PS3 (Other games could include Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep).

Again, there are no concrete details at this time, and Toriyama stated that Square-Enix’s main focus is currently on Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 at this time. If they do end up bringing some of their PSP games to the PSP Remaster series, you can be sure fans will be excited!

Source:

• Final Fantasy Together
• Andriasang

Final Fantasy XIII-2 E3 News Wrap-up

Well, E3 is over and boy there’s been a big (yet not too big) week for Final Fantasy XIII-2. How to cover this best? Well, that’s to be seen… But let us try and get this figured out!

• Timeline: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is set five years after the events that occurred in Final Fantasy XIII.
• New Character: Noel. Noel is meant to represent the same role as those starting with XIII-2 (Without having played XIII prior). He has little knowledge of Cocoon, having been on Gran Pulse his whole life. While on Gran Pulse, he spent his time hunting monsters.
• New Character: Alyssa. Although not playable (as far as we can see), she seems to play a major role at least in the demo (and likely a good portion of the game). She is researching in Cocoon in the E3 Demo, and was also seen in the trailer speaking about her friend who died running from the Purge.
• “Lead” Character: Noel’s image is set to be the same as Lightning’s in the first game. She was the lead character (And 2nd lead female character in Final Fantasy history) of XIII, and Noel will be the main character of the sequel. Lightning’s sister, Serah, will play the “supporting” role to Noel.
• Lightning WILL be present, and is most definitely shown in the demo and trailer. The scene shown with her in the trailer (and press demo) was of her fighting Chaos Bahamut while riding Odin. While everyone “should” have lost their l’Cie powers at the end of FFXIII, something has happened with Lightning and she is able to use Odin still. (I’m not really sure on all the details here.)
• Music: Hamauzu has been confirmed to return with composing the sequel, however interviews have hinted at there being more composers working on the title. This may explain the rap music heard during the demo…
• Monster Catching/Raising: The E3 demo, and subsequent interviews, confirmed the presence of being able to have a monster in your party. This will, for the most part, take the place of the third party member. At the end of battle you can obtain “crystals” which will place that enemy in your party. Each enemy has a specific role, and so far only a few have been shown. Stonefist (an armored lizard type enemy) is a Sentinel, Flanbanero is a Ravager, and Warhorn (Behemoth) will be Commando. The trailer also showed Pulseworker (COM) and Kaiser behemoth (COM). Overall, Square-Enix has said that there will likely be over 200 monsters you can “catch”. They will also have a growth element.
• Feral Link (Monsters): Along with being able to have a monster within your party, this monster will be able to perform what is known as a “Feral Link”. This will allow the monster to perform a special skill when you hit Square (Shown in the demo was Flanbanero’s “Hundred Fists”. Others may or may not have been named, though I haven’t seen them).
• Party Size: At most your party is still limited to 3 members. The monster capturing/crystals detailed above will for the most part take the third slot, though at times you may gain a guest member.
• Towns: There will be towns. This is 200% confirmed. People will be mingling around town and you will be able to talk with them. When it is raining, they will apparently head for shelter.
• Serah’s Weapon: This is definitely something unique (if anything, to the Final Fantasy series). When outside of battle, a cute, loveable, and talking moogle name Mog will be with the team. When inside battle, the moogle will become Serah’s weapon. Depending on how far Serah is from the enemy will determine the weapon’s form: When close to the enemy, it will become a sword. When far from the enemy, it becomes a bow.
• Mog: Besides being Serah’s weapon, Mog will also help the group find hidden treasures on the field.
• Weather: As mentioned before, NPC’s in town will take shelter when it is raining. Outside of just that, weather will have some sort of effect on battle. So far all we’ve seen is rain, but presumably there will be more types.
• Saving: While there are no major details concerning XIII-2’s save system, it does seem there will be some sort of auto-save feature (And this might be the ‘main’ save feature of the game).
• Combat: Combat has, for the most part, seemed to stay the same. You still have Auto-Battle and Paradigms. The major additions/changes seem to be the monster capturing, and the addition of “Quick-Time Events” (or otherwise known as Cinematic Actions). These actions will have you hit a series of buttons repeatedly or at a certain time. If performed correctly they will buff you and increase the damage. Noel and Serah were seen gaining Bravery and Faith (he was on COM and she was on RAV at the time) after correctly performing one.
• Mog Clock: Another major change from FFXIII is the addition of the Mog Clock. This seems to replace the first games ‘Shrouds’ in some sort. When you ‘find’ an enemy (this games return of a sort of random encounter), a clock will appear. If you hit it while it is the “Green” area you gain a random buff (IE: Haste, Brave, Faith) and the enemy will be near Stagger (Green may also better be referred to as simply a pre-emptive strike). Yellow is a normal battle, no buffs or debuffs. Hitting it in the red (or getting “Time’s up!”) will result in penalties (players were seen in the demo hitting ‘Time’s up! Starting ATB 100%!’ and then entering the next battle with slow and the enemy having haste. This was however a boss, so if they are related I cannot 100% say, but I would guess they are.
• Atlas: One of the other major focuses of the E3 Demo was the creature Atlas. Near the beginning of the demo he attacks the pair with just an arm. As the demo progresses, you make the (player driven) decision to find a device to weaken him. After doing so, when you return to fight his full form, he is at half HP with a greatly lowered max stagger bar.
• Live Triggers: As I briefly mentioned before, you will be able to make player based decisions that drive the story and ultimately decide what happens with the game. This system has been used in games such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect (among many many more) before. How much it ultimately drives the story is still to be seen.
• Live Events: In the sense of FFIX’s “Active-Time Events”, XIII-2 will feature “Live Events” – scenes that will add to the story. Though not much information is available on the full system yet, more will surely come soon.
• Multiple Endings, and “New Game+”: Square-Enix in interviews has confirmed the presence of multiple endings within the game. This ties into the point mentioned above with the players driving the story with their decisions. They have also stated while there may not be a direct New Game+, there may be some “form” of it.
• X-2 vs XIII-2: While X-2 was a great leap from Final Fantasy X, with X-2 being a much more light-hearted game (for the the most part), XIII-2 will have a much darker feel than X-2. XIII also had a “dark” feel about it (with the whole l’Cie on the run, ticking time-bombs, etc), but apparently the sequel will be even more so.
• Returning Friends: In the trailer members of NORA were seen returning. More characters from FFXIII are set to return in some way or another, so hopefully this means we find out just WHERE Mr. Snow Villiers is! This also hopefully means we get to see an adult Hope (He will be 19 in XIII-2), Dajh, and baby (grown up) Chocobo.

I hope I missed nothing in that huge mess of information, but that’s all I can recall at this time. Sorry it’s slightly disorganized, but thank you for reading anyways! More information will hopefully be coming in between now and the Japan release this December.

Below are the pieces of the demo from Gamespot, enjoy!

Stay tuned for more hopefully soon!

E3 2011: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Images

Note: Expect updates to this post (Or new posts) throughout the day. Posts may be merged in the future as well.

Images from the latest trailer from E3 for Final Fantasy XIII-2! You can find the trailer in a previous news post.

Stay tuned for more as E3 continues today! I will likely do a wrap up post of all information and images at the end of the event.

E3 2011: FFXIII-2 Website Updates!

With E3 going into full swing, the Final Fantasy XIII-2 European, North American and Japan websites have received updates. This includes new information and images, as seen below!

• New Character: Noel Kreiss
• A young man wielding two unique blades who appears before Serah.

Melee is this fighter’s combat style of choice. His dual-wielding method demonstrates an expert technique, which includes combining his swords into one new weapon.

Although straightforward and cheerful, no one knows much about his past, or how he stumbled across Serah in her time of distress.

• New Location: New Bodhum
• A town constructed on a shore of Gran Pulse by NORA members and former residents of Bodhum. Surrounded by nature, it seems an idyllic place to live-the occasional monster encounter excepted.
• New Screenshots:
• New Bodhum
• 
• Noel CG Render
• 

The Japanese website contains some new music and Wallpapers. The site also holds a tentative release date for that version: December 2011. With the English trailer stating Early 2012, this kills any ideas of a worldwide release.

Credit goes out to Final Fantasy XIII.net for the links and info!