Square-Enix Show: Info on FF12+KH2+FF7 Compilation+more

One of the biggest game developers/publishers in the world just started a show in Japan (lasts 2-3 days, IIRC). It is more of a "party" than a press conference or meeting like the PS and Xbox meetings about a week ago, so info may be harder to get ahold of. Still, the event barely started and it seems like we already have one piece of important info: a release date for Final Fantasy XII.



If you can't read that, it says 2006-3-16. That's right, the game will be released in March of next year. Is this for JPN or NA, you may ask? There isn't really any clarification, but given that this is an event taking place in Japan for Japanese gamers, I think you may get the idea. For the American Final Fantasy fans (like me), I sure hope SE is quick with the localization. I'd rather not be playing the game on my 3 month old PS3. I remember the SE president mentioning the importance of BC for the PS3, allowing us to play FFXII, but I didn't think this was what he meant. Here's some screens of what to look for next year:
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/550/550760/final-fantasy-xii-20040923101826155.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/534/534854/final-fantasy-xii-20040730052436107.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/521/521264/final-fantasy-xii-20040604015455998.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/521/521264/final-fantasy-xii-20040604015458623.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/521/521264/final-fantasy-xii-20040604015501201.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/515/515606/final-fantasy-xii-20040514032207638.jpg

If for some reason, you want more proof, I do have a link, although it is in Japanese. Most machine translations should be able to make the main point understandable though:
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2005/07/30/103,1122690335,41910,0,0.html

Final Fantasy XII is their big gun, but SE has some other games to show off. Kingdom Hearts 2 is playable and it looking great, IMO. It was also recently mentioned that Utada Hikaru will be back to sing the theme song of KH2, "Passions." I loved the theme song in KH, so hopefully she can do just as well on this one. Here are some recent screens from the game:
http://watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050729/kh04.jpg
http://watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050729/kh05.jpg
http://watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050729/kh03.jpg
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/2005/07/27/h-104_41764_01.jpg.jpg
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/2005/07/27/h-104_41764_02.jpg.jpg

Another great looking game from SE is Grandia 3. It isn't quite the big name as other SE titles, but the game is one of the best I've seen on the PS2. More pics:
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104139139.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104139873.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104141623.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104143060.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104144357.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104144982.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/627/627295/grandia-iii-20050620104145451.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/626/626218/grandia-iii-20050616024320914.jpg

Also, you can expect a lot of information on the FF7 compilation. This would include FF7:Advent Children (CGI movie), FF7: Dirge of Cerberus (PS2), and FF7:Crisis Core (PSP). Of course, some would like that list to include a FF7 remake for the PS3/Xbox 360 (PS3 more so due to the tech demo). Not sure on the likelihood of that, or any next-gen game announcements, but that may be nice.

Besides that, there isn't much else that I can think of at the moment that will be discussed. There may be a "mystery title" or two that will be mentioned during the show though, so there may be something else to add to this list. I'll try to keep the thread as up-to-date as I can, but again, I'll be going off of reports from regular gamers who attended the show instead of press releases from SE. In fact, it has been maybe 4 hours since the show started, and I haven't seen any reports yet on the show except for the FFXII release date. I might call it a night if they don't start recapping pretty soon.

Feel free to discuss any of the games mentioned (or even not mentioned, but somewhat related at least). I made the thread in the case of SE announcing new information on their projects, but if nothing big comes up, then this thread will be a big waste.

 

I can go more in-depth, but here's a quick summary on the FF7 stuff:

Square-Enix has recently expanded on the FF7 universe with several projects, which make up the FF7 Compilation. There was FF7: Before Crisis, a cell phone game. I haven't really paid much attention on that; it is mostly about the Turks, IIRC. Then there is the CGI movie, Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. It is basically what we all wanted the Final Fantasy movie we wanted from a few years back but never got. It takes place like 2 years after FF7 and it involves Cloud and the whole gang as well as a few new baddies that look like Sephiroth (maybe even Sephiroth himself...who knows ). Then there are two spinoff games, FF7: Dirge of Cerberus, which looks like an Action-RPG involving Vincent a little while after Advent Children, and FF7: Crisis Core for the PSP. AFAIK, not to much is known about that last one, although I think I missed something on it recently.

SE hasn't said anything about remaking FF7 and have only done a tech demo for it on PS3 dev kits, but plenty of people would like to see it done on the PS3, or even the Xbox 360.

If you'd like more info on any of the above, feel free to ask. Most of the projects have tons of screens and clips, which I could probably find.

edit: About FF7:CC, it is the newest one added to the compilation, so I have the least amount of info on that. I'll do a quick search for info on it, but I was expecting more info at this show. I think there was a short anime clip of it at the Playstation meeting recently, but I never watched it. The only thing I know is that it is for the PSP and will come out next year.

edit 2: Here's some info on Crisis Core, as well as some better summaries of everything else:
http://psp.ign.com/articles/614/614900p1.html
http://psp.ign.com/articles/624/624504p1.html

 

Looks like nothing really big went on at the party on the first day except for the FFXII release date. I see little to no media from the event so far; I hope that changes soon. I guess there are two things I can mention from IGN.

First off, SE showed off a CGI trailer of the game World of Mana, a game that SE has been teasing at for a while (probably less info on it than FF7:CC). Sadly, no screens or clips of the trailer yet, but at least it exists. You can read IGN's description of the trailer and more here:
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/637/637953p1.html

IGN also noted that Square Enix showed off the Final Fantasy 7 tech demo again, yet this time they did note that it was just a tech demo and not a game like that had previously done. The demo still has the "Technical Demonstration" label though, but the Japanese probably wouldn't be able to read it. IGN commented that those who saw the clip for the first time would be leaving the show thinking that SE would be remaking the game for the PS3, not just showing off a tech demo. I'd like to believe that, although it probably was just some mistake or maybe SE just assumes that everyone would know that it was just a tech demo.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/637/637948p1.html

I also read the following from a poster on a board, but I don't have a good source at the moment, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt:
On FFXII

Not much but at least some more details on the game.

I could see what you mean in a way. Squaresoft was insane last-gen, with titles like Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and of course the FF series (with FF7). I did like FFX though, and saw some positives to X-2 (although still thought it shouldn't have been made). Never played FFXI though since I don't really like the whole MMORPG thing...yet. I liked Kingdom Hearts a lot though, and I haven't had too much of chance to try the Enix side of things even (DQ8, for example, which seems great). Their games this gen have been pretty solid, IMO. It just isn't quite at the level it was last-gen, which was insane.

It will be interesting to see where FFXII ranks. There are some things I already don't like (design of main character), but I like what I read about the battle system. Hopefully they've been doing something worth the wait these past few years that would help finish off this gen with a bang.

 

I haven't played too much Grandia. I played a little bit of Grandia Xtreme, and I think I may have played Grandia 2, but not too sure. From what I can remember, they were pretty solid. I just love the look of Grandia 3.

Here's a page from IGN for all links related to the show:
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/637/637992p1.html

There have some impressions of the games for anyone curious on the gameplay mechanics of FFXII, KH2, FF7: DC, and Grandia 3.

Here's impressions from Gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/finalfantasy12/preview_6130092.html
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/kingdomhearts2/preview_6130096.html
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/dirgeofcerberusfinalfantasyvii/preview_6130097.html

And here's impressions of FFXII from 1up.com, as well as the news that the original director of the, Yasumi Matsuno, is no longer working on the game (although this article is the first time I've seen this, save for numerous message board rumors).
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3142454&did=1

I was hoping it wasn't true, but that could explain the delays. I was just hoping that SE was putting a ton of things in the game, or even optimizing the game for the PS3. That doesn't seem to be the case though.

1up.com also is reporting the Kingdom Hearts 2 release date. The game will be released this December in Japan. The article mentions that the team is working on a quick localization and may even be able to do a simultaneous release. I hope so because I was hoping to play KH2 and FFXII this year, not next. Link:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3142453