Ziyad

A minute passage of time numbering in the hours has flown by us since the unveiling of the Front Mission 1st DS official website, which comes accompanying various details concerning the upcoming DS port of the SNES classic, Front Mission. Among these include the addition of new events dealing with Front Mission 5 character Glen, a high-speed battle mode, new wanzers, new parts, and for the Front Mission masochist in all of us, unlockable difficulty settings. Oh, and you'll get to use a stylus--you lucky gamer, you.1

Evil overlord and Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi presided over the tenth annual Playstation Awards yesterday, where Final Fantasy XII received the Double Platinum Award for breaking the two million sales mark since its release in March. Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts II was graced with the Platinum Award and Dirge of Cerberus came away with a Gold Award alongside Namco's Tales of the Abyss and Banpresto's wonderfully named Daiji Super Robot Taisen Alpha: Shuuen no Ginga he. It looks like Squeenix is on a roll.1

After a long hiatus, Square Enix and AOL Radio have announced the return of Final Fantasy to the ears of AOL mongers everywhere. Daishiro Okada, Chief Operating Officer of Square Enix, was very excited: "We feel so fortunate to have such a loyal following and want to give a huge 'thank you' for their efforts to bring back FINAL FANTASY radio," he said on Monday. Apparently, someone had to be listening.1

There have been some very interesting reports posted on several popular gaming websites recently that appear to detail what has been called a "Final Fantasy XI successor": a new MMORPG to inspire ridiculous Red Mage cosplay. Japanse Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) credited production to Hiromichi Tanaka, whose was responsible for the original FFXI, and declared it would release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and upcoming Windows Vista platforms. But Nikkei, it seems, is not the ultimate source for all things Final Fantasy. Square Enix issued a press release today stating, "the Company did not make such an announcement and has not made any decisions resembling those detailed in the media report." Instead, it is, "developing an online title for next-generation platforms [...] as a completely new MMORPG". Sorry, kids. Time to put the virtual gil away.

With the approaching release of Valkyrie Profile Silmeria, Square Enix's Tokyo "Valkyrie Festa 2006" was an exciting event for many Valkyrie fans. In addition to taking the title for a spin and mindlessly throwing away their yen on merchandise, attendees also received the opportunity to glance firsthand at the costumes used in Silmeria's commercials and listen to the game's producer and voice cast hint at Lenneth's appearance in this Valkyrie Profile sequel. Finally, Motoi Sakuraba descended from his mountaintop enclave to perform fourteen songs of his very own composition live. Bet you wish you were there. Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria releases June 22 in Japan.

Suffice to say that these Pokémon have been around anyway, but now Nintendo's Pokémon Company has struck an agreement with Square Enix to develop Pokémon, a chat and mail application doused with Pokémon media and soon to be made available on Foma 900i series phones in Japan. A wise decision, especially considering Square Enix's success in mobile exploits such as Before Crisis. Though releasing this summer for a paltry 200 yen ($1.74 USD) per month, Pokémate will likely not see a stateside release, seeing as how the franchise's popularity in the US has taken a swift kick to the groin in recent times.

In a recent press release, Square Enix announced their settlement in a piracy case involving Final Fantasy VII:Advent Children and declared their intentions toward increased anti-piracy efforts. On April 17, the company reached a "confidential settlement" with a copyright infringer who uploaded Advent Children in its entirety to Google Video, only to be swiftly discovered and forced into an admission of guilt by Square Enix's persistent legal department. Though it is arguable this poor soul was only attempting to provide a service to parts of the world plagued by the company's long localization times, Square Enix sees things differently. "In connection with [...] Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children," said Yasuhiko Hasegawa, Square Enix's General Manager of Legal Affairs, "we are actively pursuing those who commit intellectual property infringement against our company." Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children releases legally in Europe and … Read on

In a recent interview, Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka let slip his possibility of his working on a new MMORPG for the approaching Playstation 3 and Windows Vista. Though he offered no more pieces of information, Tanaka did mention that a PS3 version of Final Fantasy XI would take two or three years to construct, thereby making any such endeavor an inefficient use of resources and his team's time better spent developing a new title.