GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA (25th March, 2009) – Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Square Enix) announced today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the forthcoming releases of new downloadable titles including FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS™ and FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES®: My Life as a Darklord™ for WiiWare™, as well as the FINAL FANTASY® series for the Virtual Console™ for Wii™.
The release of these new downloadable titles represent Square Enix’s recognition of the growing demand for online distribution of content/services, and the commitment they have made to provide content/services that match the needs of their customers.
Square Enix will be offering two new releases for WiiWare: FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS and FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord.
FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS, is an RPG that continues the story that began in the 1991 Super Famicom™ title FINAL FANTASY IV. In Japan, this title was released as a downloadable cellular phone application in February 2008. It has since been lauded for its deep storytelling, and a year after its release, has been downloaded over 3 million times.
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord is the newest instalment in the FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES series, which has shipped over 2 million copies worldwide and is set to grow further in 2009. This title will be a sequel to FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King™, which launched simultaneously with the WiiWare service in May of 2008.
In addition, the Virtual Console allows Wii users to download and play classic titles released on previous game consoles, and now for the first time ever, the FINAL FANTASY series will be made available via home console download. The first instalment of the series will be FINAL FANTASY, originally released for the Famicom™ in Japan in 1987, which will be available for download in May 2009 in Japan. The release date for PAL region will be in 2009.
Please see below for product details:
About FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Ltd.
Platform: Wii
Genre: RPG
Launch Date: 2009
18 years after FINAL FANTASY IV first stole the hearts of Japanese gamers, the adventure continues in FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS.
Released as a mobile phone game in Japan, this wildly popular sequel has topped 3 million paid downloads as of 25th February 2009.
The game focuses primarily on Ceodore, son of FINAL FANTASY IV heroes Cecil and Rosa. He is ably supported by a host of familiar faces from the original cast who star in a series of additional tales.
For more information, please visit the official website at http://www.ff4theafteryears.com.
About FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Ltd.
Platform: Wii
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Launch Date: 2009
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord puts players in the highly fashionable shoes of the Darklord's daughter, a malevolent little Miss, charged with dispatching intruding do-gooders by strategically placing traps and monsters around the tower she calls home.
Players will need to get their hands on ever more diabolical traps and abominable monsters to stop those pesky adventurers from making it to the Dark Crystal at the top of the tower. Be warned, though – with heroes of all the races and job classes from the FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES series storming the Darklord’s lair in real time, traps and minions will count for nothing unless deployed like a true evil genius. Anything less and the Darklord’s beloved home will be reduced to rubble!
For more information, please visit the official website at http://www.MyLifeasaDarklord.com.
Showing posts with label Square-Enix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Square-Enix. Show all posts
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
New Crystal Chronicles trailer released
Nintendo has released a new trailer for Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. Please, God, talk them out of using that music anywhere in the game.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Chrono Trigger: Timeless
After almost 14 years, countless overwhelmingly positive reviews and a status that borders on legendary, I can tell you there’s not much I can say about Chrono Trigger that hasn’t been said already.
The game was an instant smash when it was released in 1995, peaking the twilight years of the SNES. Fans and critics alike loved the concept, which took the masterminds behind Japan’s twin role-playing colossi, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, and fused them together to create a sprawling, time-traveling epic. They loved the execution even more.
Six years went by. Square decided to re-release the game for the ps one, complete with a vastly improved translation and an assortment of flashy new anime cutscenes from the game’s character designer, Dragonball’s Akira Toriyama. Gamers everywhere went ga-ga, myself included.
Now, with the treads of the Square-Enix remake machine running arguably past full power as they have since 2006, Chrono Trigger is back for round three, this time on Square-Enix’s perennial favorite, the DS.
This new, travel-friendly edition has all the bells and whistles included with the ps one release, plus a touch screen mode which unclutters the game’s battle screens, an improved (read: richer and more nuanced) translation and a goofy monster battling mini-game reminiscent Dragon Quest VIII’s monster arena, among a few other surprises.
And while I could spend this review saying what’s already firmly been established—that Chrono Trigger is without a doubt one of the best RPGs ever made, as many so fervently believe—that would be a proverbial waste of breath.
What I can tell you is this: when you have a host of next-gen games at your fingertips and you still find yourself gravitating towards a 14-year-old game that made its debut before today's run-of-the-mill gaming technology had really even been in use, you know it’s something special.
The remake angle is not a new concept for Square, who have been re-releasing past Final Fantasy’s and other titles since well before they gave Chrono Trigger another chance in the limelight.
But unlike even past Final Fantasy reworkings, Chrono Trigger has arguably retained its damn-near immortal status not because just because it’s good, but because it’s a game with personality and character.
Sure, there’s plenty of games that have great characters or an engaging story, but few can pump the kind of blood into a tale like this one does—a tale of friendship, heroism, and good old fashioned good and evil. Like revisiting a classic film, the straightforward charms of both the game’s characters and gameplay will bring a smile to the face of even the most jaded gamer, something few games can pull this off this well, even today.
So, can you really improve on a classic? That seems to be the question that Square-Enix is driving at (or attempting to) with the changes pumping blood through this new iteration.
The new translation is, for the most part, a much deeper and more subtle script that adds to the overall experience, if in a slightly superfluous way.
The ps one’s translation was perfectly fine, and in some cases even better—for example, the decision to eliminate Frog’s quasi-Shakespearean mode of speech, present in the ps one edition a la Vagrant Story or the PSP’s Final Fantasy Tactics redux The War of the Lions, is a definite tragedy.
However, this is a minor complaint amidst a host of new or improved features.
The DS edition’s touch-screen capabilities are a nice touch, as is the handy and ever-present map that occupies the lower screen. The sweeping score remains an aural treat, and the anime cutscenes, ported over from the ps one release, look cleaner and (for the most part) sharper than ever. Even the little pauses that cropped up in the playstation edition after winning a battle have been (seemingly) reduced, and drastically.
And while its important for those of you who haven’t played Chrono Trigger to know that it plays like a game that was made in 1995, that shouldn't be a deterrent. In all likelihood, games wouldn’t be the same today without the important innovations Square first unveiled here.
Aside from the game’s engrossing clockwork narrative, Chrono Trigger set precedents with its multiple endings, unique battle system (goodbye, random battles) and new game plus, a concept that allowed you to take your leveled-up characters and play through the game with them again. All of these concepts have since been used in countless other RPGs.
The best form of praise (or perhaps the most paid attention to) I can give the game, however, is that it’s still a blast to play. Now that Square has seen fit to re-release it for the next generation of gaming tykes, I only hope they too can look past age and experience firsthand all the heart and soul this game has beating inside it.
Chrono Trigger may be well into its own twilight years now, but believe me—it’s still got it.
Chrono Trigger
4.5 out 5 stars
Square-Enix
Nintendo DS
$39.99
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
