April Fools Day: Square Enix Teases Final Fantasy XIII Alternative

Despite a successful release of Final Fantasy XIII worldwide on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Square Enix has announced that it will be remaking its latest HD epic into a more bite-sized title.

Tentatively titled Final Fantasy XIII Alternative, the game is being redone using the recent 16-bit engine used in the latest Chrono Trigger DS port to bring FFXIII to handheld systems later this year.

"Final Fantasy XIII is a hallmark of this generation," said the game's producer, Yoshinori Kitase, "but unfortunately, HD gaming has limited appeal."

Kitase explains that though the graphical prowess of the PS3 and 360 a nice for kids and single men, most people - especially in Japan, he says - are too busy to sit in front of a TV for over 60 hours to play a game like Final Fantasy XIII.

Porting the title to more portable devices seems like a smart business move in Japan where the games market is currently dominated by the DS and PSP, and even Square Enix's latest in the Dragon Quest franchise made its debut on DS.

"The DS is the obvious first step for Final Fantasy XIII," Kitase said, "but I think the 16-bit graphics engine we have chosen will work on PSP as well as various cellphones."

The game is still apparently very early in its development, but will likely be available early this fall, probably before Nintendo's new 3DS hits the market.

Its important to remember that the screens released here are still from a pre-alpha build, and will probably be cleaned up before launch.

Final Fantasy XIII was not everything I hoped for, but it was decent enough. I'm quite frankly not surprised to see this move from Square Enix, but that doesn't mean I'll be buying it again.

How about you?

UPDATE: Just kidding. ;)

Old News: Ubisoft Announces Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes in HD

I know this announcement is now a week old (equal to about 2 years in internet time), but I thought I'd mention it officially here too.

Following on the heels of its highly charming (and even more addictive) puzzle-RPG hybrid for the Nintendo DS, Ubisoft and Capybara have announced that they will be remaking Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes using HD hand-drawn sprites for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Additionally, it appears that the gameplay is being tweaked for the new release, and online play has also been confirmed. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that there will be a co-op mode, allowing players to have battlefields beside one another, as well as a new game plus for those who want to go back and play completionist.

While the game is confirmed for XBLA and PSN, Ubisoft apparently hasn't ruled out a WiiWare or PC release.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes will be available for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network sometime this Summer.

[Kotaku]

Square Enix Formally Announces Estopolis

Teased last week, Square Enix, via the recent issue of Weekly Famitsu, has broken word on the revival of the Estopolis/Lufia series. Currently titled The Land Cursed by the Gods: Estopolis, the game is being handled by developer Neverland, who are most recently notable for their Rune Factory titles for Marvelous.

As previously feared, the game is indeed a DS remake utilizing God-awful DS 3D, though it is a remake of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, rather than the original Lufia. Despite being a remake, however, Estopolis is receiving a fairly extreme make-over, making the jump from traditional turn-based battles to action-based role-playing. Additionally, the character designs have all been revamped. For instance, the slicked-back hair and traditional armour of the game's lead, Maxim, has been ditched for a modern spikey mop and a leather jacket. Changes in the other characters are similarly notable.

Besides the character and battle system changes, it seems that the gameplay will also be changing to involve more action-oriented puzzles and interactive dungeons.

The basic plot appears to remain the same at this point, with Maxim and his friends eventually standing up to face the threat of the Sinistrals. However, how close Neverland will stick to the original's script is difficult to determine at the moment.

Finally, Estopolis will also feature some 3D cell-shaded FMVs, which look extremely nice, and make the terrible DS graphics all the more noticeable. It's too bad the developers chose not to use a console and make all the graphics look like that.




While I suppose its nice to see the Lufia series return after all this time, I am never pleased about handheld titles taking preference over consoles.

What about you? Are you excited to see Lufia II remade as a modern action-RPG on the DS? Were you expecting/hoping for something else?

Estopolis will be available for Nintendo DS on February 25, 2010 in Japan.

Okami Wiimake Finally Gets a Japanese Release

This news kind of really surprised me, but apparently the Wii remake of Capcom and Clover's highly-stylized adventure-RPG, Okami, was only released in the West. Capcom has apparently decided to right its wrongs, and will release the game on Japanese Wiis later this year.

Following the story of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu (albeit in wolf form), Okami is a game that is extreeeeeemely Japanese in everything from its folklore references and decidedly Japanesesque humour, to its music and art direction. Quite why the game was released over here at the expense of a Japanese release is rather mind-boggling to me, but to be honest, I never heard any Japanese gamers complain. So whatever, I guess.

In order to smooth things out with Japan, Capcom is offering a limited 42-song soundtrack with the first printing of the game. Not a bad deal.

Okami is a terrific and highly underappreciated game. While I doubt this re-release will do any wonders in the Land of the Rising Sun, I'm glad to hear that it will see the light of day in its own country.

Okami will be available for Nintendo Wii on October 15, 2009 in Japan. It is already available in North America.

[Dengeki]

GungHo Works Announces Lunar: Harmony of Silver Star

PSP remakes of PS1 games seems like a popular thing to do these days, and publisher GungHo Works is not about to let a good thing pass by, announcing a remake of a remake: Lunar: Harmony of Silver Star.

Based on Lunar: Silver Star Story for the PlayStation, which is a port of the Sega Saturn title, which is itself, a remake of Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD, never let it be said that Square Enix is the only publisher that knows how to milk the ports/remakes.

For those of you who inexplicably missed this title, Lunar follows a young man named Alex Noa who leaves his small village in hopes of becoming a hero and adventuring like his hero, the Dragon Master. During his travels, however, Alex and his companions become aware of something much more sinister behind the scenes that somehow involves his childhood friend/adopted sister/love interest, Luna Noa.

This new PSP remake features an updated graphical style with isometric maps, remade sprites, and redone gameplay.

Lunar: Harmony of Silver Star will be available for PSP sometime this Fall in Japan.

Ah, I loved this game on PS1.

Square Enix Announces SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu

The SaGa series is not exactly Square Enix's most critically acclaimed series. You'll occasionally run into people who have heard of the games, or even rarely hear about someone who liked SaGa Frontier, but I think just about everyone hated Ulimited SaGa and Romancing SaGa on PS2...

Well, before all that, the first three SaGa games were on the original GameBoy. (Yeah, the green and yellow-screened brick version). Retitled to Final Fantasy Legend in North America, these first SaGa games were actually rather enjoyable (well, at least 2 and 3 were).

Understanding this, Square Enix has just announced via the newest edition of Weekly Jump, that they will be remaking SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (lit. Treasure Legend) for the Nintendo DS.

For those of you who never had the chance to play the original SaGa 2 (Final Fantasy Legend II), the game follows the main character (who can be male or female, and human, esper, robot, or monster) as s/he looks for his/her enigmatic hat-wearing father.

The game takes place in a universe with multiple worlds, all joined together by beanstalks and a mystical between-world. Various peoples and races co-exist in these various worlds, some of them friendly, many of them not.

Personally, SaGa 2 is easily my favorite SaGa game of the series, so to see it getting an upgrade is a little bit exciting. Hopefully they'll let you keep the story characters permanently in this remake.

Jump claims that there are new additions to this remake that they will reveal in coming issues. We'll keep you posted.

SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (working title) will be available for Nintendo DS sometime this year in Japan.

Brandish Remake Headed to PSP

The hardest of the hardcore among you may remember a SNES RPG called Brandish released in North America back in 1995 courtesy of Koei. To be honest, even though I knew my fair share of obscure RPGs even back then (7th Saga, Paladin's Quest, or Lagoon ring bells to anyone?), this is one that I had never heard of until today.

Originally developed for the PC-9801 waaay back in the day by Falcom, the SNES remake is apparently the most well-known, seeing release outside of Japan in North America, and receiving 3 more sequels in Japan.

Well, you know Falcom. They just can't let anything die, and Brandish is no exception, as Falcom has announced via Dengeki that the game is going to be completely remade using 3D on the PSP, and will see Japanese release early next year (run-on sentence alert!).

Brandish will be available on PSP in Japan on March 19, 2009. No word on a North American release at the moment.

Here are some screens:



All this PSP talk sort of makes you wish publishers gave a damn about it over in North America, huh? Actually, no, I take that back. I don't want to have to buy any more handhelds. Ever.