[13/07] Kingdom Hearts 3D, Final Fantasy XI, Dissidia and More in Famitsu

[Steve-O]

This week's Famitsu has a lengthy feature on Square Enix, containing retrospective interviews, and bits and pieces about about the company's upcoming titles. While waiting for our usual full writeup from Sokuho@Hokanko, here's what has surfaced regarding Kingdom Hearts 3D, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Dissidia series, and Final Fantasy XI (yes, that's XI as in not XIV).

Kingdom Hearts 3D
In case you've forgotten in the six months of silence, the three Ds in the 3DS Kingdom Hearts name stand for Dream Drop Distance. Development is currently 40 to 50% complete, Nomura told Famitsu this week. He also confirmed the inclusion of a secret movie.

Nomura dropped a bunch of vague hints about the game. Here's the vaguest: "XXX and XXX in Traverse Town!" This is apparently supposed to be surprising, so see if you can fill in the XXXs with surprising elements.
The game's story is enigmatic and quite puzzling, said Nomura The story will touch upon the hidden data in Sora.
Just one little gameplay bit: you'll apparently be able to work your way up to the rooftops.

Future of Kingdom Hearts
Regarding the future of the Kingdom Hearts series, Nomura said that those who are anticipating Kingdom Hearts III will find some answers in KH3D.
The Xehanort part of the Kingdom Hearts saga will end with KHIII, he said. He currently has a framework of some form in place for the continuation of the series after that, and Sora will remain as main character.
Regarding possible HD remakes of past titles, Nomura would only say that, separate from whether or not they will release remakes, they're looking into HD techology tests for past titles. (I'm not sure if this question and response is about Kingdom Hearts or just in general.)

The Future of Dissidia Final Fantasy
Back when Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy was about to see release, Nomura told Dengeki that if they made a future Dissidia game it would not be a fighting-based game (see this story). Famitsu asked Nomura this week if he was talking about the 3DS rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. The answer is no -- he was referring to something else.

Final Fantasy XI
As part of the general Square Enix feature, Famitsu interviewed Final Fantasy XI producer (?) Hiromichi Tanaka. Tanaka said that they're investigating a straight port of Final Fantasy XI to the PlayStation Vita, but there's no solid plan for this at present.

Famitsu also asked Tanaka what he'd do if he were Square Enix CEO. He'd revive the company trips, he said, and invest in employee wellbeing.
Who's Your Favorite Square Enix Creator?
Famitsu.com hosted a survey asking readers to name the Square Enix creator they're most looking forward to. The results were posted in this week's issue.
And the top three winners are:
Tetsuya Nomura: 321 votesAkitoshi Kawazu: 235 VotesYuji Horii: 217 VotesHmm... one of the three is different from the other two.

Source: andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/07/13/famitsu_squenix_feature/

 

[Martel]

*skips the Kingdom Hearts parts*

The Future of Dissidia Final Fantasy
Back when Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy was about to see release, Nomura told Dengeki that if they made a future Dissidia game it would not be a fighting-based game (see this story). Famitsu asked Nomura this week if he was talking about the 3DS rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. The answer is no -- he was referring to something else.

THANK GOD FOR THAT.
...seriously, the Dissidia series is mediocre at best (it's murderously addicting, yes, but the story is atrocious and there is this distinct focus on graphics over gameplay, shock horror) but if it was going to start going into even crappier spinoffs like Theatrhythm, I think I might just cry.

Final Fantasy XI
As part of the general Square Enix feature, Famitsu interviewed Final Fantasy XI producer (?) Hiromichi Tanaka. Tanaka said that they're investigating a straight port of Final Fantasy XI to the PlayStation Vita, but there's no solid plan for this at present.

Fantastic. I've actually wanted to give FFXI a try for quite a while now, it intrigues me. A Vita port would be wonderful, since I intend to sell my 360 at some point to fund getting one...

Famitsu also asked Tanaka what he'd do if he were Square Enix CEO. He'd revive the company trips, he said, and invest in employee wellbeing.

In other words, he'd take Motomu Toriyama to the nearest active volcano and throw him in. Two birds with one stone. The people involved have a good time, and the employees are better off because of it. Tanaka for CEO!

Who's Your Favorite Square Enix Creator?
Famitsu.com hosted a survey asking readers to name the Square Enix creator they're most looking forward to. The results were posted in this week's issue.
And the top three winners are:
Tetsuya Nomura: 321 votesAkitoshi Kawazu: 235 VotesYuji Horii: 217 VotesHmm... one of the three is different from the other two.

If I close my eyes and concentrate really hard, I can just about hear Motomu Toriyama crying in a cupboard under the stairs in his house, a Lightning figurine in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other

 

[Rey]

If they want Dissidia to succeed even more they should honestly just bring it to the consoles like Playstation III and Xbox 360. Yeah I remember SE saying the next will not be a fighting game. If Nomura was not referring to the new Theatrythm game then.. that is good. That game looks just terrible. If Dissidia is to have another sequel/prequel... if it will not be a fighter.. it will most likely be some sort of RPG type game. Then again I do not see why they would change the fighting style. I am sure fans are just waiting to have online Dissidia battles over Xbox Live and Psn with their favourite Final Fantasy characters. Kingdom Hearts III... all I am going to say to that is "please finish Versus XIII first."

 

[Noblesse Oblige]

Versus XIII should been priority one since the beginning. If they been working on Versus XIII, it would've been out by now so people would stop complaining about it. I can already see it either being cancelled or being the next Duke Nukem Forever, and even then DN Forever sucked for the ten years of development it was worth.

As for the next Dissidia, it's a shame really, but to be fair though, I agree with Adri, if Dissidia was made for the Consoles where online battles would be readily possible, then perhaps it would sell more, maybe new DLC for new characters and all that jazz. But whatever the case may be.

 

[Hatifnatten]

ugh, stop milking Kingdom Hearts. It was already dry after II. Do something new.

 

[Linnaete]

Kingdom Hearts 3D
In case you've forgotten in the six months of silence, the three Ds in the 3DS Kingdom Hearts name stand for Dream Drop Distance. Development is currently 40 to 50% complete, Nomura told Famitsu this week. He also confirmed the inclusion of a secret movie.

There's something I don't agree with about their strategy when it comes to the Kingdom Hearts games. Surely with all these sidestories and spinoffs, they're not doing the series's main overarching story many favours by adding so many layers of complexities and ambiguities on top of it that it looks like an indecipherable mess. And with all these games spanning multiple platforms, it's not going to be that easy to follow it all, with games on the PS2, GBA, PSP, DS and now 3DS.

Nomura dropped a bunch of vague hints about the game. Here's the vaguest: "XXX and XXX in Traverse Town!" This is apparently supposed to be surprising, so see if you can fill in the XXXs with surprising elements.

That does sound like a surprise.

*resists the urge to make the obvious joke here*

Back when Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy was about to see release, Nomura told Dengeki that if they made a future Dissidia game it would not be a fighting-based game (see this story).

Like a proper RPG where the story doesn't suck? I can only dream I guess.

As part of the general Square Enix feature, Famitsu interviewed Final Fantasy XI producer (?) Hiromichi Tanaka. Tanaka said that they're investigating a straight port of Final Fantasy XI to the PlayStation Vita, but there's no solid plan for this at present.

Actually, let's totally forget about FFXIV and bring new audiences to FFXI instead.

Famitsu also asked Tanaka what he'd do if he were Square Enix CEO. He'd revive the company trips, he said, and invest in employee wellbeing.

Is Famitsu secretly conspiring with Tanaka to overthrow Wada and take the SE throne? Oh I hope so!

EDIT: Just realised he was a producer of FFXIV, so maybe not then.

Famitsu.com hosted a survey asking readers to name the Square Enix creator they're most looking forward to. The results were posted in this week's issue.

Toriyama not on there! My faith in humanity has slightly increased!

 

[JWick]

I'm quite interested in the FFXI Vita port idea. What I would really like to see them do is an offline remake of the game. I've become really disillusioned with MMOs in the last few years, mostly why I haven't bought XIV yet, but XI has so much interesting FF content it could make an excellent RPG even disregarding the MMO aspect. Sega did MMO style RPGs in Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2 that were based on Phantasy Star Universe, so it would be cool to see something similar from SE.

 

[King of Baron]

I'm quite interested in the FFXI Vita port idea. What I would really like to see them do is an offline remake of the game. I've become really disillusioned with MMOs in the last few years, mostly why I haven't bought XIV yet, but XI has so much interesting FF content it could make an excellent RPG even disregarding the MMO aspect. Sega did MMO style RPGs in Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2 that were based on Phantasy Star Universe, so it would be cool to see something similar from SE.

I was thinking about Final Fantasy XI on the Vita and it makes a lot of sense. So far people have been worried about having to use a keyboard or having no keyboard at all, but since the unit will have touchscreen, maybe there'll be an on-screen keyboard. It works on iPhones and iPads really well. Especially the 3G model being able to play anywhere, that'd be pretty great. I'd love to see them go free to play, but that might be a bit too hopeful.