New Titles Announced at Square-Enix Party (Parasite Eve 3!)

RC Cola · May 12, 2007

Most of this was announced in around the last 24 hours or even a couple of days ago actually. Basically, Square-Enix is having their annual party event, and along with it, they've announced some new titles. You can get a rough summary of the events at 1UP:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159485
(or a similar site with a summary page)

They talked a little more about The Last Remnant (360/PS3), which I mentioned in this thread:
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=129272
From 1UP:

The last title which Square Enix revealed today was billed as a 'Square Enix RPG for the world,' which according to Yoichi Wada would "become a cornerstone for their worldwide strategy. Square Enix RPGs are in a league of their own, and in a world of new technology, we need to expand our portfolio and The Last Remnant is a brand new franchise being designed by a new generation of developers, scheduled for a simultaneous US/Japan release." Producer Nobuyuki Ueda then stepped up to describe some of the game's elements. A brief trailer, however, was shown, using the Unreal game engine, with bump-mapped trees, detailed character models, and sharp background animation, all running in real time. The scene begins with a young man wondering aloud "Damn, where is she?," a query which is soon punctuated by the sounds of soldiers shouting, some heavy drums and music, in which the young man runs to the edge of the clearing before stumbling upon an unfolding skirmish.

The sight of the two massive armies approaching each other was reminiscent of both Ninety-Nine Nights' large-scale battles and Star Wars Episode One's Gungan epic showdown with the Trade Federation's droid army. With both human and inhuman soldiers (one race looked like a race of wolf people) charging towards each other, our man on the hill sees the woman he was looking for, racing down to the field shouting "Marina!!!" With that the trailer ended and a real-time demonstration began. Using an overhead map, Ueda cycled through a number of destination points on the map, similar to the way a Kingdoms Under Fire game breaks areas up as map selections. Once he chose one, though, the game quickly loaded up a fully 3D, real-time environment that looked similar to the opening city from Final Fantasy XII. Using a free-look camera, Ueda scanned the area to show off the immense detail of the area. After that he went into a dungeon area, in which a transparent map in the upper right corner was visible, and all battles take place between the character and the easily-seen monsters onscreen. Last Remnant will not suffer from random battles, which should please more than a few gamers.

While the framerate was occasionally choppy in areas, the game is still early in development, and yet, based on what was shown, quite accomplished-looking already, with gorgeous architecture and detail in the environments. Another scene in the aqueducts beneath the city were also slightly reminiscent of the sewer areas from Final Fantasy XII, but there is seemingly no relation between Last Remnant and the Final Fantasy continuity. The aqueduct level featured some nice, bump-mapped water effects, random treasure chests, and impressive detail in the rocky mountainside. Another area shown was an open plain, filled with creepy-looking monsters (large in size), cool lighting effects (sun shining through 3D clouds), and swirling dust effects. Hiroshi Takai, the game's director, then took to the podium, and explained that players would be able to use simple commands to control enormous amounts of characters at one time, introducing large-scale battles to RPGs. A sample battle revealed a lifebar to indicate the relative 'health' of the opposing armies (labeled 'allies' and 'enemies'). The success of character attacks seems to be based on timing, as onscreen button prompts (think quicktime events from Shenmue) compel the gamer to press the appropriate button. Depending on your skill, a different declaration fills the screen, like 'Rear Assault!" or 'Terminated!'

The demo battle then revealed a huge rock-type monster augmenting the enemy forces, which tilted the lifebar heavily in the enemies' favor, since they suddenly had a strong new ally on their side. With that, a new selection of menu choices appeared, revealing that while this is a new initiative that Square Enix is banking on, the game is still rooted in old-school RPG mechanics and values. Last Remnant is unique, in Square Enix's canon, as it is multiplatform for both PS3 and Xbox 360. No release date has been set.

As Last Remnant faded from the screen, the announcer stated that this was the end of the presentation and that everything else would be revealed on the show floor this weekend at the Square Enix Party. We'll have hands-on reports of all of the games this weekend, so make sure to check back for up-to-the-minute updates and interviews here on 1UP.
Click to expand...

One screen from the game:

One more screen and some art at 1UP or some other sites.

Star Ocean 1 and 2 are getting remade for the PSP (well...SO1 will, SO2 will probably just be a port). I loved SO2 and I never got a chance to play SO1, so that should be nice.

It turns out that Star Ocean 4 is also in development, although no platform(s) was announced and not much else was mentioned about it (no screens, no story info, etc.). IGN, 1UP, and a few others sites seem to think a PS3 version was hinted at, with a multiplatform (360?) release also being likely. Makes sense to me. Hopefully it is a little better than SO3 though.

I mentioned this in the The Last Remnant thread, but along with SO1 and SO2, the PSP will also be getting Final Fantasy Dissidia, basically a fighting game with FF characters. A scan from a Japanese magazine:

A trailer was shown at the event, and here are some impressions from 1UP:

Rumors of a "Final Fantasy All-Stars" game for PSP that would unite various FF heroes have been brewing for over a year, but few expected them to materialize as a one-on-one fighting game to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary. But then again, the pugilism genre isn't alien to Square Enix: several successful efforts (Tobal, Bushido Blade, Ehrgeiz) stand proudly in the publisher's history.

A brief Dissidia trailer shown at the Square Enix Party 2007 convention in Japan showed a mix of slick CG cut-scenes and real-time fighting action in the vein of Taito's Psychic Force series. As in those games, Dissidia's core mechanics appear to involve characters flying around 3D battlefields while engaging in over-the-top fisticuffs and dazzling displays of magical prowess. Only a handful of characters appeared in the clip, among them FFIV heroes Kain and Cecil, FFIX's Zidane and Kuja, and uberpopular FFVII bad-boy Sephiroth.

It's tough to say much about the game's visual quality based on this insubstantial teaser. While the clips didn't quite match up to Crisis Core's impressive visual standard, they definitely looked good for PSP, and Tetsuya Nomura's redesigned character models even managed to make FFIX's characters more palatable.
Click to expand...

Another game I mentioned in the other thread was a remake of FFIV for the DS (YEA! ). A scan for that game:

Website:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ff4ds/
If you haven't played this game and you're a FF fan, I definitely recommend checking this out when it is released (assuming it is of similar quality of FF3...only better because it is FFIV and it is awesome). Or even better, check it out as well as the GBA release that came out not too long ago. Do note that I think this was my first FF, so there's a lot of nostalgia here (although I think the game is still one of the better games in the franchise).

They announced a new game for the Wii:

The title in question is Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu (tentative title), a follow-up to the recently released Chocobo Tales game for Nintendo DS. Next, producer Yuki Yokoyama took the podium to show off the title designed to celebrate this anniversary. Ostensibly an expanded version of the groundwork laid in Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu shares some elements from the DS game, such as the starting hometown and a familiar cast of characters, but then quickly establishes that this is a dungeon-based action game (as opposed to a collection of mini-games) in the same vein as previous 'dungeon' games developed by Chun Soft. Yokoyama closed out his presentation by stating "Finally, a word for those who enjoyed Chocobo Tales, we are including something special that should be very familiar to you to discover, and I hope you're looking forward to this title as much as I am."
Click to expand...

A new trailer for FF:The Crystal Bearers for the Wii was also shown:

Once the video for Ring of Fates was finished, Toshiyuki Itahana - in a rare appearance - walked up on stage to reveal The Crystal Bearers for the Nintendo Wii. Featuring a much more adventurous feel than any of the Crystal Chronicles games before it, The Crystal Bearers featured sky ships and other elements that draw instant comparisons to Sega's classic role-playing game Skies of Arcadia. Looking nothing like the teaser trailer shown last year, The Crystal Bearers looks less like the other Crystal Chronicles games, and more like a true adventure game. While the video demonstration was very short (around 30 seconds at most), it was notable in that it featured real game footage of the title in action running on Nintendo Wii.
Click to expand...

There are some impressions for some other SE games (FF7: CC, Its a Wonderful World, DQ: Swords, etc.) that you can find in the links above.

Oh yeah, and Parasite Eve 3 was announced.

For Japanese cellphones.

Sometimes, I really hate Square-Enix. A Parasite Eve 3 announcement was supposed to make me happy, not mad.

Also, a new KH project is in the works and info on that will be unveiled at TGS (or even sooner). I'm guessing this is a handheld title for either the PSP or DS.

They showed some trailers of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but they were old. Good job Square-Enix.

edit: Sorry, I hit submit on accident before I was finished. Check back later when I finish posting some more info via edits.

edit2: OK, I think that is everything I wanted to post. Sorry about that.

Jodegam · May 13, 2007

Thanks for all the info, I really appreciate it!

Gah, I might have to freakin' buy a DS now, that FF4 remake looks awesome.

Outlier · May 13, 2007

Another FFIV Remake?

RC Cola · May 13, 2007

That's the only remake of FFIV to my knowledge. Any other versions have just been ports of the original SNES version, maybe with some extra content thrown in. Please correct me if I'm wrong (because then I need to check those games out if I can).

br0ken_shad0w · May 13, 2007

More FF games?

And I see there are no news about Chrono Break...

RC Cola · May 13, 2007

I believe they'll be ready to formally announce that at TGS this year.

Too bad it will be exclusive to Japanese cell phones as well.

BTW, I'm joking if it isn't obvious.

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