Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier Event

Last night, Square Enix held an event in Tokyo, Japan. Game reveals, name changes and exclusive new footage abound!



They started off by showing some Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix footage, which is something like a "Greatest Hits" version of that PSP game, with extra content, including a new alternative ending that hints at the future development of the storyline. The game will be released in Japan tomorrow. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for the Nintendo 3DS was shown off in trailer form, and director Tetsuya Nomura mentioned that this game would be the prologue to the final battle. I assume that means Kingdom Hearts 3 will wrap off this "trilogy"? No release date for KH:3D, and no information on, or even confirmation of, KH3.

Square Enix then proceeded to show a trailer for Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy (or Dissidia 012), their new PSP Final Fantasy fighting game. Apart from the weird name, this is just the sequel to the previous Dissidia Final Fantasy PSP game. Also, they decided to go the Gran Turismo route and charge people for what is essentially a short demo of the game. 300 yen gets you this demo, and unlocks Aerith for the actual full game, should you decide to buy it. This is just selling you DLC even before the actual product launch...

Just last week, some people dug up a bunch of web addresses that Square Enix bought. They include stuff like "www.finalfantasy13-2game.com". Also, in Europe, there were trademark fillings for "Final Fantasy Type-0", Type-1, Type-2, etc... These titles were all revealed last night.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII has been renamed Final Fantasy Type-0. It seems that there were 2 reasons for this:

1. They felt this game was good enough to be its own franchise. (hence the trademark fillings for Type-1, Type-2, and Type-3)

2. This game does not have a lot to do with Final Fantasy XIII anymore. However, this game remains under the Fabula Crystallis Nova umbrella which currently encompasses FFXIII, FFXIII-2, FFvXIII, and FF Type-0.

The game will be released sometime this Summer in Japan (Jun - Aug 2011).

Speaking of which, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was also announced last night with sparse details. All we know is that the story seems to take place after the events of FFXIII, and, for some unfathomable reason, Lightning turns in Saber Lily Lightning. Seriously, they look the same. At least she doesn't turn into a J-POP singer. The game was announced to be available in Japan on PS3 and Xbox360 by the end of this year (probably Dec 2011), with a Winter release for the US (Jan - Mar 2012).

And finally to wrap things up, Square Enix screened a new trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. With no release date. *Sigh* Let's talk about what it did show. Firstly, the FMV looks fantastic. The world around Prince Noctis seems to be fairly close to modern Japan, with a few technological advancements. Later on in the trailer however, we see tanks, mechs, and even wild open plains filled with monsters. Seems like a FFXIII game to me! Another new bit of info was the combat system. Seems like it will be even more action-oriented than Kingdom Hearts. Noctis is shown jumping, dodging and slashing enemies while the battle menu on the side (Magic, Item, Summon, EX-ARTS) was shown but not used. It's quite a worrying thing to see... either this is becoming a full-fledge action game like Ninja Gaiden or God of War, or the actual battle menu system has not been properly implemented. Either way, it seems like battle will become even more hectic as you gain full movement control, 3rd person view shooting, and even the control of tanks and mechs to fight with the various enemies. From the looks of it (and the variety of locales), this is turning out to be a long epic game. Just when we will see this game on store shelves remains a mystery. With FFXIII-2 coming out late this year, and the incomplete voice acting and battle system shown in this trailer, all signs point to a late 2012 Japan release, at the earliest. Which means the rest of us non-Japanese-speaking audience would have to wait till 2013 to play this game. I would have earned a degree in Computer Science by then.

Sources:
KH info
Dissidia info
FF Type-0/Agito info
FFXIII-2 info
FFvXIII info
Official images from the event
Youtube Trailers (all 5 videos on Youtube user nyaon60's channel)