More Crystal Bearers gameplay videos

Some new gameplay videos from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers were put up on the official Japanese website where you can also find a few new wallpapers. They feature a look at some minigames, as well as some different uses for Lyle's crystal power. Take a look:

◆ Sheep rescue mini-game.
◆ Many uses for balloons.

SOURCES: Mahypsy (NeoGAF), 23Makoto23 (YouTube)

HI-quality Serah scans, FFXIII novella in the works

So, a bit more news in the FFXIII department today. We have some higher quality scans from V-Jump of Serah, and we also learned that a web novella entitled "Final Fantasy XIII: Episode Zero" is in production for Final Fantasy XIII. It will be penned by Jun Eishima, and be up on the website sometime later on this month.

◆ Scan #1
◆ Scan #2

SOURCES: V-Jump

Four Warriors of Light site updates

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/hikarino4sensi/

As soon you bring up the main page, you'll notice that a banner linking to Square's TGS page has been added.

The World page now has a map featuring some of the game's locations, as well as new entries for three guest characters such as the previously mentioned mouse mage. Whether or not this will be it for the guest characters in 4WoL is unknown.

System has been updated with eight job profiles: (from left to right) Beast Tamer, Druid, Monk, Knight, Black Mage, White Mage, Alchemist, and Recorder.

SOURCES: Athel at KHInsider for the tip, duckroll at NeoGAF for the job titles.

Four Warriors of Light boxart

Truly, truly amazing! I really hope this comes with an artbook.



SOURCES: GoNintendo

Crystal Bearers to hit US shelves the day after Xmas

Courtesy of Klee Kuo's Twitter page, he reveals that the North American version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers will be released on December 26th, 2009.

SOURCES: Klee Kuo (Twitter)

Distant Worlds headed to Canada, new songs

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy is an orchestra tour headed by Arnie Roth that has made its rounds around the United States this year peforming classic themes for Final Fantasy fans. I was actually able to attend the Minneapolis performance earlier this year and I was nothing less than amazed. If you have the chance to attend, do it. You will not regret it.

This week, Square-Enix sent a newsletter involving new developments with the tour:

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY will be in Chicago on December 12, 2009 at 8:00 PM! We hope you can make it out to our exciting show, featuring the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, Elmhurst College Concert Choir, and Susan Calloway, conducted by maestro Arnie Roth. Best of all, Nobuo Uematsu will play the B3 organ with the Chicago Mages! There will be North American Premieres, World Premieres, and works never heard outside of Japan! New arrangements of Dancing Mad and J-E-N-O-V-A will be debuted at this show.

(What's fun about this is that at the Minneapolis show (in which Uematsu was in attendance) we got to pick these two new songs for the December Chicago performance. The other choices I believe where Battle with the Four Fiends, Clash on the Big Bridge, and Fight with Seymour all I would have loved.)

Also, the newsletter announces that they will have a Vancouver show on October 8th that will feature the first North American performance of Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII. (They played Ronafure from FFXI at our Minneapolis show as an exclusive.) Also, they will have a concert in South Korea.

For more information on performances and tickets, click here.

Serah Farron revealed

V-Jump has released a new scan featuring newly revealed character Serah Farron. In this scan, we see Serah being carried by Snow, and that she bears the mark of a L'Cie on her arm. We also see that at one point it looks as though she becomes completely frozen, but it's hard to discern from the quality of the scan. Serah will be voiced by Minako Kotobuki.

duckroll:
"She is Lightning's younger sister. A headstrong girl who believes in solving her own problems and not getting other people involved. She is always very concerned for her elder sister. She wears a necklace on her chest, a present from Snow. Lightning does not approve of her engagement with Snow. Like her sister, she is a L'Cie and is marked with a tattoo of two red spheres on her left arm."

◆ V-Jump scan.

SOURCES: FF7AC Reunion, duckroll (NeoGAF)

FFXIV's Tanaka and Komoto chat with Dengeki

Recently after the hub-bub Final Fantasy XIV had at GamesCom with the alpha build already playable and a wellspring of new information about the MMORPG available to the public, FFXIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Komoto were interviewed by Dengeki about the status of their upcoming project.

They mention a wide gambit of updates and changes to what gamers can expect from a Square-Enix MMORPG. With a good technological generation down the line from FFXI, they elaborate that they were able to produce a better detailed player character and environment. While they didn't specifically say that the world of Eorzea would be seamless, they note that there has been an improvement compared to FFXI.

Dengeki also asks about Guildleves, something I have found interesting since the unveiling of the project. Guildleves are essentially the game's questing system. Now, FFXI's questing was rather sparse in comparison to WoW, and required the player to eke out a challenging(?) grind. Now, since the days of FFXI, FFXIV has implemented something that could make questing more of a dynamic and fun process. In essence, the guildleves that you collect have a wide variety of tasks that you must complete; this in turn can be rewarded with better skills and other rewards. The guildleves that you choose are designed around how much time you want to play. Only have an hour? Pick up the according Guildleve and you're off.

ZAM was awesome enough to translate the full interview; I'd highly recommend checking it out.

One more FFXIII party character to reveal?

You can find relevant information in the unlikeliest of places. So, recently, if you've been following the news out of the Final Fantasy XIII Premiere Party, you may have caught the announcement of "Elixir", a Final Fantasy XIII take on the Final Fantasy Potion from the Final Fantasy XII release. (See: crazy Japan.) Suntory, the manufacturer of both Potion and the new Elixir, has been updating their online listings for the beverage. Now, in one of these pics that Suntory provided we see five characters that have been revealed thus far: Lightning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, and Hope. However a sixth slot has a question mark. Will this be the sixth and final party member to be playable as a part of the main team?

SOURCES: FF7AC Reunion, country food

Famitsu Dissidia Universal Tuning scan

From Famitsu, we have a new scan of Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning. This, as Square-Enix explains, is the Japanese version of the North American version of the game. Confusing? Well, it's just a re-release in Japan with all they changes they gave us in the North American version. However, we have reason to suspect that more will be added given Square-Enix's track record, and some suggestive boxes on the game's official page. Take a look:

◆ Famitsu scan.

SOURCES: FF7AC Reunion, ENDLESS.

Another FFXIII Premiere Party video and Famitsu scans

Another video detailing a battle against a dragon boss in the demo of Final Fantasy XIII has surfaced. This boss is actually Premiere Party exclusive, as Square-Enix has said that this boss was cut from the final version. Of note, is a screen that looks like the "Scan/Libra" screen to view enemy vitals.

◆ YouTube video.

In the new Famitsu China scans, in one scene we see Lightning and Hope are surrounded by Sanctum's PSICOM force. I have reason to believe we'll be seeing a little bit more of this scene in the Tokyo Game Show trailer later this month.

◆ #1: First page, new FMV pose for Vanille plus JPN release date.
◆ #2: Lightning and Hope surrounded by PSICOM.
◆ #3: Snow with a firearm and standing in front of a monolith.
◆ #4: Dodge/Dahj (Sazh Jr.) makes an appearance.
◆ #5: Adorable.
◆ #6: Optima Change in combat.
◆ #7: Vanille uses Optima Change.
◆ #8: Battling a Cie Corpse.
◆ #9: Optima Change roles explained.
◆ #10: Snow and Sazh display different roles in combat.
◆ #11: Production overview.

SOURCES: FF7AC Reunion, ENDLESS

Western dev'd Final Fantasy project scrapped

As of late, artwork and other materials have been floating onto the internet from now defunct GRIN studio. This artwork reveals that Square-Enix had contacted them to make a game, and they started to develop what was going to become a purely western Final Fantasy action game. However, since GRIN has now gone bankrupt, the project has been unfortunately scrapped. And since the project has no longer been in development, the artists involved have been posting their work on their Linkedin portfolios.

You can view most of the artwork in this thread at Kingdom Hearts Insider here. There are quite a few pieces to post at once, so browse at your leisure.

I think a western take on Final Fantasy would be an excellent venture and I am also very excited that Square-Enix is allowing western developers to take a crack at one of their babies. I think it's a good sign of what's to come, AND, I hope that another western developer can pick up Fortress. I would play the shit out of that game.