Square Enix 2008 Private Party News Thread

[Scarlet]

At Square Enix's DKS3713 — which sounds like a California license plate or the name of a clone from Star Wars — the trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII made dead damn solid certain to specify it was "Playstation 3 Only Worldwide." Hope we can all get back to the pre-betrayal state of things now.

Internet access was nonexistent, perhaps deliberately, for this event so a number of those who attended couldn't get up liveblogs. Also images of the screens were prohibited but you know someone's bootlegged at least one trailer, so if any tumble out we'll try to get them up (send a tip if you see one anywhere.)


We already got up the event's major announcements regarding Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Parasite Eve on the PSP, and the March 2009 due date for the Final Fantasy XIII demo. But there are a couple after action reports if you want descriptions of trailers seen and speculation on gameplay features arising from that. NeoGAF's is a pretty deep aggregation of Japanese blogs covering the show, I'd start there. Some things that caught my (untrained) eye:


• The Kingdom Hearts PSP version will add Snow White to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in Disney's crossover cohort.
• Final Fantasy XIII trailer showed gameplay but no actual battles, drawing out the tease.
• Versus XIII will cross-promote the ROEN fashion brand. All characters in the game will be wearing ROEN designs. Pure speculation, but I don't think it will affect gameplay, I think it's to make you want to buy those clothes.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5032319/just-to-be-clear-ff-versus-xiii-ps3-only-worldwide

- The 3rd Birthday will be on the PSP as well. Nomura's team will be working on it.
- The Dissidia special download contents at the event is a Dissidia PSP Custom Theme.
- KINGDOM HEARTS coded (mobile) has a release window of Winter 2008.
- The FFXIII demo will be included in FFVIIACC, as will trailers for VersusXIII and AgitoXIII: http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/121...4.html?ref=rss
- There will also be a FFVIIACC PS3 bundle. The release will be in March 2009.
- FF AgitoXIII will also be released on the PSP, no release window. The 3rd Birthday PSP will be out in 2009.
- FF VersusXIII's trailer says "Playstation3 only Worldwide".
- Dissidia PSP bundle confirmed. Release date will be in Dec 2008.
- KH DS is "this winter" without the 2008, so maybe early 2009.
- KH PSP is 2009.

Coverage from various JP blogs on the various games at the show:

Dissidia: Onion Knight is voiced by Jun Fukuyama, Cloud of Darkness is Masako Ikeda and Kefka is Shigeru Chiba. There appears to be a chessboard looking system, in the new trailer but it is unclear if this is an intermission mechanic between stages or if it is something similar to the Sphere and Licence grid systems. Might be more of the latter. Sephiroth is also seen in the realtime ingame engine for the first time. Golbez and Exdeath show up at the end and don't have any game or story scenes in the trailer. The demo on the show floor has Warrior of Light, Garland, Onion Knight, Tidus, Squall and Zidane as playable characters. When playing as Tidus, the Otherworld BGM is used. When you win a battle in Dissidia, you appear to gain equipment items, so although there is no equipment menu in the demo it's probably a part of the game.


The 3rd Birthday: The trailer starts with footage from both PE and PE2. There isn't much information on the actual trailer, so it's probably just CG footage from the wedding scene along with catch phrases and voice overs. It's the first trailer on the trailer reel, so maybe people just weren't paying much attention at first lol. It's definitely a continuation of PE and PE2 though, since the first two games are actually acknowledged in the trailer now.


Sigma Harmonics: Nothing new in the trailer, game's coming out this month anyway. The soundtrack (including Hirano Aya's theme song) will be out on 24th Sept for 2500yen.


FFVIIACC: 30 mins of new footage and other reedit/cleanups. I hate AC, so I'm not going to read what scenes are new or whatever. Don't really care, sorry. The only important thing is that it's going to come with the fucking FFXIII demo wooo yeaaaah lolz. The PS3 bundle should sell really well in Japan too.


KH Coded: This is a cellphone game which isn't being moved to DS or PSP at this time so I doubt anyone cares. Coming out in Winter 2008 for those in Japan.

KH DS: The biggest new part of the trailer is actual footage of the new 14th member of the OrgXIII. It's a girl named Shion, and she looks and sounds a lot like Kairi. The BGM used is The Other Promise. Coming this Winter.


KH PSP: Aqua's voice actress should please fans of Crisis Core, since Toyoguchi voiced Cissine too! The trailer seems to confirm that Snow White will also be in the game in addition to Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The trailer ends with Aqua facing off with Maleficent in Dragon form. The BGM in the trailer is Fate of the Unknown. The demo had two chapters modes, the Terra one is set in Enchanted Kingdom (Sleeping Beauty?) while the Ventus chapter is Castle of Dreams (Cinderella?). The new enemies in BbS are called Unbirths. The Terra boss is Wheel Master, and the Ventus boss is Lucifer. Controls like KH on PS2 except with a power bar you can build up for specials.


FFXIII: There was actual gameplay footage being shown outside of the trailer, and it's basically Lightning running around in a field. The design is said to be very much like FFXII but enhanced, which probably means it's wide open spaces and the camera is more of a third person camera rather than the fixed position overhead camera from FFX. There are NO battles in the footage, so this does not mean anything as far as encounters and battles go, just field stuff. The game also uses the 3D world a lot more naturally, like Lightning and her companions being able to jump twice their height, and there also appear to be a rolling move.


FFVersusXIII: The realtime footage shown is also test field movement footage. There's a scene outside the church, Olympus Collossium and a mountain path. Aside from the normal action movements, Versus also seems to have the Zero Shift ability from ZoE2, where you can jump and teleport forward quickly.


FFAgitoXIII: Another ambitious cellphone project that has been moved to the PSP. No cellphone or mobile info in sight, but it's for PSP now. The new trailer has more realtime footage and it looks much better than from last year apparently. The game is still the same as before, it's a school setting with themes of war and fantasy at the same time. Odin is shown in the trailer, and the game also seems to be going for a more action RPG system now instead of previously planned command based system. There've been speculation that this could very well be what S-E will use as their Monster Hunter Portable killer under the FFXIII branding now.

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329668

Offical Website: http://www.square-enix.com/jp/event/dks3713/

 

[Rockman X]

Nice to see them moving Agito to PSP. Maybe they finally figured out they'd make a bigger profit if they did that, since Americans have shitty phones. And I was wondering when they'd put Snow White in a KH game, maybe I'll get to smack around a few dwarves.

• Versus XIII will cross-promote the ROEN fashion brand. All characters in the game will be wearing ROEN designs. Pure speculation, but I don't think it will affect gameplay, I think it's to make you want to buy those clothes.

Wow, if there ever was a sure sign of SE being complete sellouts, that is. TWEWY was already fashion oriented, but promoting a real line of clothes? And I thought the PS3 having ads in Home was bad.

The game also uses the 3D world a lot more naturally, like Lightning and her companions being able to jump twice their height, and there also appear to be a rolling move.

Well it's about fucking time they let you jump. I wanna know why they couldn't have done that in XII. Ugh.

 

[Rezonate]

Actually the XIVth Org members name is Xion not Shion.

 

[Contra Fates]

The main things I'm excited about are:
-Parasite Eve on the PSP
-Kefka confirmed for Dissidia.

Although everyone knew Kefka would be in Dissidia, it's nice to finally have it confirmed. I still wonder why they haven't announced who the hero of FF7 will be in Dissidia. My bet is on Zack or Vincent, if it was Cloud, I'm sure they would have announced it by now.

 

[Davey Gaga]

I'm very excited about the new updates on future Kingdom Hearts titles. I've managed to deduce that the boss "Wheel Master" will probably be in Sleeping Beauty's world [Enchanted Castle] because of the Spinning Wheel connotations - you'll probably have to destroy it before it pricks Aurora. This Ventus is most likely for Cinderella, then, because the boss Lucifer is coincidentally the same name as the cat from that story. I can see this world being another one where you're small and the same size as the mice.

 

[SaShman]

I'm so glad to see that Agito is coming to the PSP! Also it's good to see that Kefka has been confirmed for Dissidia, as well as Golbez.

I still wonder why they haven't announced who the hero of FF7 will be in Dissidia. My bet is on Zack or Vincent, if it was Cloud, I'm sure they would have announced it by now.

They probably want people to think that, but I reckon it will be Cloud

 

[Legolas]

I'm hoping Final Fantasy XIII is worth the wait ya?

 

[V_Translanka]

I hope that the announcements of Agito & 3rd Birthday eventually lead to at least ports of their other formerly cell phone games like FFVII: Before Crisis & FFIV The After: Return to the Moon...

I think it'll probably be Cloud that represents the VII heroes...and that Zack will probably be unlockable...though I'd love to see Vincent because his Amano design was SICK~!! I hope if nothing else, he's unlockable or something...I doubt he'd be the representative of VII though since his ties with Sephiroth aren't near as strong as either Cloud or Zack.

 

[Casanova]

Versus XIII will cross-promote the ROEN fashion brand. All characters in the game will be wearing ROEN designs. Pure speculation, but I don't think it will affect gameplay, I think it's to make you want to buy those clothes.

Oh dear, I can see all the SE loyalists being very angry about this.

I personally couldn't care, if it benefits the look of the characters then I'm all cool with it. If SE make more money doing it then good for them. Such is the nature of business.

FFVersusXIII: The realtime footage shown is also test field movement footage. There's a scene outside the church, Olympus Collossium and a mountain path. Aside from the normal action movements, Versus also seems to have the Zero Shift ability from ZoE2, where you can jump and teleport forward quickly.

Olympus Collosium? I though that was a KH world? o.o

And it's about time we could jump. Sure you could do it in FFX-2, but only at specific points in the game.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I personally couldn't care, if it benefits the look of the characters then I'm all cool with it. If SE make more money doing it then good for them. Such is the nature of business.

Same here, I hadn't even heard of ROEN until you were able to buy the FFvXIII suit.
But SE will have gained loads of money from advertising their brand, it happens in a lot of games such MGS4 where Apple products are shown several times.

But come on, the main character looks ace in a suit.

 

[V_Translanka]

Yeah, why not use fashion designers to create your characters' costumes? Maybe Nomura finally ran out of ideas for where to place zippers, belt buckles, & leather.

 

[VirginBlack]

Yeah, why not use fashion designers to create your characters' costumes? Maybe Nomura finally ran out of ideas for where to place zippers, belt buckles, & leather.

Considering that the end result may be something like this:

I rather Nomura keeps doing the clothes.

 

[Setsuken]

^ LOL!!!

I'm really excited about the announcement for Parasite Eve. Square-Enix said that the first project after their merger would be a new PE game. It's VERY late, but hey... it's here!

The other games that are exciting are of course, FF Dissdia and the KH game with Roxas as the main character (Roxas ftw!).

Is it just me... or does the 3rd Birthday really remind one of Kill Bill? I got that impression from the screenshots XD

 

[VirginBlack]

I think I will have to get a PSP eventually, lots of games for it. I own the first two PEs and I liked them both, so I am looking forward to part 3. There is also Dissidia and Agito, both of which are looking good and of games that are out now there is Crisis Core and the first the FFs.

Yo quiero PSP.

 

[Mitsuki]

This is great news! I only have three games for my PSP and to hear that Parasite Eve and Agito will be on PSP too really excites me like no other! =] I love Parasite Eve 1 and 2, so I'm sure I'll love the upcoming one as well.

Hmm, 3rd Birthday...that's such an odd game title, but still cool. I kinda don't like the fact that they didn't include the "Parasite Eve" title but I suppose it's understandable since it's a spin-off and all.

The 3rd Birthday is a Spin-off of the Parasite Eve series, which is why "Parasite Eve" has been excluded from its title. The title references the third appearance of Aya Brea and the significant changes for the design of the game compared to its predecessors. However, as it is the third game in the "Parasite Eve" series, fans have been erroneously referring to the game as "Parasite Eve 3".[1]

Knowing that it IS a Parasite Eve game is definitely good enough for me.

 

[Setsuken]

This is great news! I only have three games for my PSP and to hear that Parasite Eve and Agito will be on PSP too really excites me like no other! =] I love Parasite Eve 1 and 2, so I'm sure I'll love the upcoming one as well.

Hmm, 3rd Birthday...that's such an odd game title, but still cool. I kinda don't like the fact that they didn't include the "Parasite Eve" title but I suppose it's understandable since it's a spin-off and all.





Knowing that it IS a Parasite Eve game is definitely good enough for me.

Really? That's friggin AWESOME. All I did was see the screenshots, but if It's a Spinoff sequel to Parasite Eve with Aya Brea... Well then it's settled, this is a must have game for me XD

 

[GFX Guilder]

I am looking forward to Dissidia and KH 358/2 Days, they look so cool

 

[V_Translanka]

Considering that the end result may be something like this:

I rather Nomura keeps doing the clothes.

What's wrong w/the outfit on the right? It looks fine to me...Paint the middle one black and it looks like something Nomura WOULD design...And anyways, you can't base all fashion designers on a few random ****ty haute couture anyways...

And, yeah, let's leave it to the guy who thought zipper+belt buckle+hat=good idea

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I personally think that compared to most (if not all) previous FF games that Versus has a superior costume design mainly because it's realistic, it's not several guys walking round with huge 6ft swords

See, they're good designs.

 

[~Genesis~]

Here's some new VJump Scans. Looks impressive to me. If you notice that two screens contain Japanese dialog. With that said the in-game movies should be complete which means that Square is further along than we might expect. It's also the first screens with dialog.