Teaser sites? Yeah, Atlus likes them as much as any company. They just recently threw a brand new teaser site up for their next game. There's not much there besides the bottom of a planet (presumably Earth?) covered in disappearing squares. Occasionally clues or quotes from the game will flash across the screen in Japanese, like "We are 'Hope'!" (私たちは「希望」だぞ！)
The opening line talking about an unavoidable fate, and the hint about the South Pole (which has a giant hole in it in the picture) are probably the most telling sections of the teaser, and certainly point to a post-apocolyptic title (a favorite subject of Atlus' flagship Shin Megami Tensei series).
Reportedly, some internet matlocks have discovered from the site's source code that the game will be titled Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Also discovered were some numbers that may suggest a release date: 10.08. These could point to August 8 (a Saturday, so not too likely), October 10 (another Saturday), or August 2010 (pretty far off to be getting a reveal now).
I haven't substantiated any of this myself, so I'm going to leave it all as a RUMOR until the game's official announcement on July 24 (next Friday). Or until Famitsu spoils the fun early, as usual. ;)
Currently no title, platform, genre, or anything else has been officially confirmed. Is there anything you're dying to see from Atlus?
This is the first of the seemingly-legit April Fools Day announcements, as tri-Ace took an ad out in the recent issue of Weekly Famitsu to let the world know that they are working on a new RPG title, and put up a teaser site complete with a flash counter counting down to April 10th (next Friday).
The teaser is fairly standard as far as teasers go, with no real information, and only a single peice of concept art to go off of.
What makes this teaser so interesting, is the appearance of both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 official logos gracing the bottom of the page, and the lack of a publisher's name anywhere. Could this be the very first self-published tri-Ace RPG?
Square Enix has recently opened a teaser place-holder site for their upcoming PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 RPG, Final Fantasy XIII. There is nothing much in the way of content on the site at the moment, but there is a flash timer counting down to... something.
The timer seems to be counting down to sometime mid next week, which I would assume is simply the opening of the official English site.
According to finalfantasy-xiii.net, however, there are allotments in the flash code for two video files, which are speculated to be an SD and an HD version of a new trailer.
I don't know how "new" we can expect it to be, but hey, take it for whatever its worth.
Final Fantasy XIII is still yet to receive an official release date.
As you are already aware, Square Enix is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their SaGa series this year, and has announced a DS remake of the original GameBoy title, SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (known as Final Fantasy Legend II in North America). However, beyond one piece of art and a few tiny screens, we haven't really known much about the title. How close will it be to the original? What new features will be added? Etc., etc.
And while I don't have definitive answers to all your questions, the latest issue of V Jump has given us a bit more to chew on.
First, it should be noted that the main premise of the game does not appear to have been drastically altered, as the article mentions that you will be still chasing after your father who has left to protect the 77 treasures (known as the 77 mana in the English version).
The battle system seems to have changed slightly, though it appears to remain turn-based. Apparently it will be possible to chain attacks together with your allies, and launch some sort of special attacks with them, though they don't go into much detail. Enemies will also appear on the map, eliminating random battles.
As with the original game, monsters will occasionally drop meat. If you choose to eat it, it could potentially enhance one of your abilities, depending on your race.
Again, as with the original, you will choose what race and sex your main character is, as well as those of your first 3 allies. The races are outlined below:
Human (Male/Female) Humans are typically well-rounded characters that focus on building themselves through different weapons. Depending on what weapons you focus on will change how your character advances. If the game remains the same as the original, the male human has slightly higher HP and strength, while the female human is slightly faster and magically adept.
Esper (Male/Female) Espers resemble humans, and can equip and grow with various weapons, but are more naturally gifted with magic. I believe the same differences in human genders affect espers as well.
Robot Robots' abilities are based completely on their equipment. Eqipping more powerful weapons and armor enhances your robot.
Monster Monsters are kind of the wild card in the mix. You can start off using either a mini-dragon or a demon familiar, but your monsters become more powerful as they eat the meat of other monsters and transform into completely new creatures with new abilities. If the remake is faithful to the original, they cannot use normal equipment.
Along with this new info, Square Enix has also opened the game's official site, though there isn't much there at the moment. They have also opened a special site for the SaGa 20th anniversary, where you can watch a video on the history of the games. Or, you can just watch the embedded version below. Whatever you like.
SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (working title) is set to be released sometime this year on Nintendo DS in Japan.
If you can remember all the way back to last July, you'll remember that Square Enix opened a Final Fantasy XIII teaser site around the time that they announced the game's debut on the Xbox 360. There wasn't much there, so that's kind of where that ended.
Well, just this morning, Square Enix went ahead and officially opened the site up with screenshots and short character descriptions of the first three playable characters. I figure you can look at the screenshots yourself, but I have taken the liberty of translating the character descriptions for those readers who can't read moonspeak. Check them out below.
Lightning
She doesn't say much, and it's not certain if that's even her real name. She just goes by 'Lightning.'
Snow Villiers
A hot-blooded man who plunges forward using his strong body as a weapon, Snow is forward in his speech and honest with his feelings. There are many who adore him for his cheerful and optimistic atitude.
Oerba Dia Vanille
A cute girl who is hard-working and cheerful, Vanille hides a strong commitment to something, but keeps it well hidden for some reason.
Final Fantasy XIII will be available on PlayStation 3 sometime this year in Japan, and eventually on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America and Europe. No release dates have been confirmed for Versus or Agito yet.
Mysteriously, Square Enix Japan has recently put up a teaser site called bahamut.jp, featuring nothing more than a large painting of a blue dragon and a walking city colossus, and timer counting down to early next week.
The site icon is, interestly enough, a 16-bit sprite very reminiscent of the main character of the SNES Japan-only RPG Bahamut Lagoon.
Could this be the recently trademarked Blood of Bahamut? From that icon, it sure seems like it's going to be another SNES RPG ported to the DS, doesn't it?
Square Enix Japan has recently put up a teaser site for their upcoming multiplatform RPG Final Fantasy XIII.
Currently, the site features only a picture of the game's heroine, Lightning, and the words "Once they have touched the truth of the dual world, people confront their destiny." (My translation may be different from the final official translation).
The site also features the trailer that was shown at the recent E3 Microsoft press conference.
Teaser sites? Yeah, Atlus likes them as much as any company. They just recently threw a brand new teaser site up for their next game. There's not much there besides the bottom of a planet (presumably Earth?) covered in disappearing squares. Occasionally clues or quotes from the game will flash across the screen in Japanese, like "We are 'Hope'!" (私たちは「希望」だぞ！)
