Results tagged “dissidia: final fantasy”

Though I don't own, or plan to own, a PSPgo, I always like to check and see what's updated to the Playstation Store every week. In case you haven't noticed -- and if you haven't, that's perfectly OK -- Sony's been updating the store recently with a plethora of PSP games for either current or potential go owners, or people with PSP's already that want to download their games digitally. The most distressing aspect of the updates themselves thus far is that even though plenty of games have made their way to the store, there are still plenty of games missing.

Well, unless you're Japanese of course, since its store has just about every retail game available on the store already. On the opposite end, you have a store like Europe's that's reeling for more games. Many of us here have already shared some thoughts on why we think the PSPgo is a bad deal, but another one of the problems is the limited lineup you're forced to stick with if you own one. Take Dissidia: Final Fantasy, for instance, a game that released at retail on August 25th. Well, it just released digitally today for $39.99, the same price it's going for at retail. That's the same price most, if not all, new games go for on the store, even though a retailer like Amazon is selling a game like Dissidia for a much cheaper price.

The worst thing here is that's the only Square Enix game previously released at retail available on the store. Games like the Star Ocean titles, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, and even Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII are still MIA, not to mention most of Namco Bandai and Konami's games.

But the most popular game still conspicuous by its absence is still Lumines, one of the best, if not the best puzzle games on PSP. Portable systems always need a good puzzle game that can be played in either short bursts or long sessions, and Lumines would be the definitive choice to fill that role.

Unfortunately, it's not coming anytime soon. While developer Q Entertainment would have no problem uploading the game to the store, there are a few hindrances on the publishing side that will ensure that it won't be uploaded for a few months, if ever. They explained that they have no problem working with Namco Bandai to get the game up, but they've unfortunately lost the rights to two songs used in the first game. The situation pertaining to whether Namco Bandai is interested in reacquiring said songs and having it uploaded is another question.

I don't know about you, but I'd hate to be robbed of playing certain games because of either rights issues or possible corporate laziness. A lot of this has made me rethink my stance on digital distribution, something that I was all for under six months ago. It's a little difficult to gain a little perspective on the situation until you see it happening before you, and realizing how much power publishers have over the consumer is honestly pretty frightening.

Team 17 director Martyn Brown described digital distribution as being a "win-win" situation for both the developer and publisher, but at this point, I'm having trouble agreeing with him. Sure, we do have programs like Steam and GOG.com that constantly offer deals and minimal DRM stipulations, but the console arena will likely never be like that because of it being a more closed source. Unless publishers and console manufacturers are willing to be more open about how games are distributed, the future of digital content on consoles looks pretty distressing.

When you look at the concept of Dissidia: Final Fantasy at a glance, you know it's a game bound to receive some early criticism solely for what it represents. The game itself is borne of the fanboy wars that take place across the internet, and Square Enix realized that, hey, they could literally cash in on it with a game of their own. Upon its unveiling, comparisons to Ehrgeiz and word of Square Enix's less-than-stellar track record with genres not within the RPG genre arose, with the game itself looking like a fighting game. Square Enix referring to it as a "Dynamic Action Game" didn't help matters, which made them seem pompous about its inevitable potential for greatness.

But they weren't, really. Upon seeing and playing the game, there really isn't any better way to precisely describe what it does succinctly. Dissidia is actually a strange-though-logical amalgam of an action game, an RPG, and a fighting game. Classifying it as all three in its description would be ridiculous, but it would help in preparing a player for what they should expect. What seemed like a bunch of genres thrown together haphazardly actually turned out to be a quality and addictive product, with enough fanservice to appeal to people who will eat anything tangentially related to the franchise up, but also with enough substance to appeal to gamers who care about the underlying product.

Dissidia assembles the most recognizable heroes and villains from the Final Fantasy universe, from The Warrior of Light to Tidus on the heroic side, and from Garland to Jecht on the malignant side, numerically. The story has the heroes fighting to help Cosmos and the world she exists in from being taken over by the main villain, Chaos (also the final boss of Final Fantasy I). It seems like it has the grounds for an, at least, entertaining story, but it's actually one of the most insipid thing ever conceived; there is some of the worst dialogue in any medium ever. Really. Fanfiction writers could've done better.

But it's not all bad. The story mode itself has you playing each of the heroes and going through fighting both clones of all characters and the villains. It's here where Dissidia reveals its most appealing and addictive qualities. Not only do characters have HP, but BP as well, which stands for Bravery Points. When BP attacks land, a character's Bravery will decrease as yours increases. The higher a character's bravery, the more HP damage that character's next HP attack will do. Each character has HP and BP attacks mapped to the square and attack buttons, respectively, which change depending on whether you have the analog nub pointed forward or backward. Complicated? Absolutely.

But after fighting through a few of the character's story modes, or fooling around with the Arcade Mode, it begins to become second nature. You really don't need to study each character's attack methods to counter efficiently, as the game is pretty good at easing you into its rhythm. You do want to do that as you venture into the higher difficulties, though, so with a game like this it's best to pick one character and stick with them to level them up and gain EXP and AP. As you level up, you obtain new techniques, and you'll be able to assign which BP and HP attacks you think are best for that particular character. It's micromanagement that encompasses all of the above that makes Dissidia feel so addictive and easy to lose yourself in for hours at a time. And above all, it's fun.

There's also PP to acquire as well, which are "Player Points" that you can acquire through multiple ways. PP can be spent in the PP Catalog, which you'll use to unlock new modes, characters, items, alternate outfits, and features. If you're fastidious enough to acquire everything, well, it's going to take you a while with all of the grinding you'll have to do.

As you'd expect from a Square Enix game on PSP, it's a sight to behold graphically. The character models and environments are just as good as, if not better than, Crisis Core, and many of them rival the company's PS2 titles. But with a top notch presentation comes some bothersome loading times...though that depends on how much space you have on your memory stick. The UMD version game comes with an option to install a portion of it to your memory stick, but it unfortunately doesn't completely eliminate any loading times. Fortunately, they're only before and after the matches, so nothing will break the tempo of an actual match.

Though the game itself is loaded for fanservice, all of it isn't aimed at the fans you'd expect. The characters themselves will constantly reference the stories of their respective games, though there are plenty of times where you won't get everything unless you've played through them in their entirety. Of course some of them are completely silly, but they're entertaining for nostalgia's sake. The best moments, however, are the subtle references to the older games, and how the newer designs from Tetsuya Nomura are faithful to Yoshitaka Amano's originals.

Like that, that's just fantastic. There are plenty of other nods that are worth looking out for too.

Dissidia also has some fantastic music, the majority of which are remixes of specific themes from previous Final Fantasy soundtracks. The original tracks are done by the venerable Nobuo Uematsu, but the best remixes are done by Takeharu Ishimoto of Crisis Core and The World Ends With You. He did a great job keeping the tracks familiar while giving them a different feel. The voice acting is also great, with mostly various actors and actresses returning to provide voices for their characters. Veronica Taylor provides an excellent voice for Cosmos, while the always-excellent Keith David provides a fittingly menacing voice for Chaos.

If you've been a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise for a good deal of time, you're bound to derive some form of enjoyment from Dissidia. Beneath the thick layer of fanservice resides a game whose multitude of features are bound to keep you bush for hours and days on end. It's the kind of game that reels you back in when you think you're finished with it, and before you know it, the timer will reveal the many hours you've been playing it.

Totally forgot to do this one last week. Whoops! And it's the last one, too.

The PSP has received quite a few Final Fantasy releases in its time, but it's predictably lagging behind the DS in its offerings. Still, you know the system is something special when it receives two original Final Fantasy games. That's out of five, sure, but those two games are games that fans undoubtedly wanted, as their sales and popularity prove.

Ah, but you're not here for that, you're here to see some nice covers, right?

I think it's best to start out with the games that weren't original, this one being Final Fantasy I: Anniversary Edition. For the 20th Anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, Square Enix thought it best to rerelease the first two games in the franchise separately for $30 each, despite previously releasing them together twice. Rip-off? Why yes, especially when they both inherited the stupidly easy difficulty of the GBA versions. But hey, the covers are nice, and FFI: AE has a different cover for each territory. I like the American one the best, personally, and I think Japan loses this one. Notice that the European cover adheres to the "simple" tradition that the console iterations usually have.

So thankfully Japan wised up for the second cover, basically having the same as the European cover style. I hear this version of Final Fantasy II is better than the others, which would make this the third attempt at rebalancing this game. In the words of Roy Neary: "This means something."

Final Fantasy Tactics would also receive a PSP port in-fitting with the times in The War of the Lions, as part of the Ivalice Alliance along with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Final Fantasy XII. It was a chance for America to experience the game with a translation that was actually coherent, and it was Europe's chance to experience the game period. Oh, and the covers are nice too. Japan and America's covers are pretty similar to each other, except that America's shows more characters. Meanwhile, Europe has the cover I would expect Japan to have. Again, I think Japan loses out here, but they're all pretty good.

Now we get to the games designed from the ground up for PSP. I was actually pretty surprised with Crisis Core's quality last year, a game I expected would be a soulless run-of-the-mill half-hearted action game. That's not an illogical expectation either, given the dubious quality of all the other products in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. But it actually turned out pretty good! The American/European cover is pretty nice, but I'm not a big fan of the Japanese one. The former has more of a hint of mystery about it, while the latter looks like something someone did in Photoshop in a half-hour.

Last, we have the latest release: Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which is also surprisingly good! I assume a review will be going up soon, but why not satisfy yourself with the cover for now? Japan's adheres to the console tradition, while the American/European cover has all of the heroes lined up in a way similar to FFT's cover above. The neatest aspect of it is that it has the villains of each respective Final Fantasy game on the inside cover, which is very clever.

It's nice to see that Square Enix gave the PSP some respect, especially when so many other companies neglected it so much. Until now, that is, where developers, mainly in Japan, are finally starting to see the potential the system has. And it only took, what, four years? Fantastic. Anyway, this wraps up the Final Fantasy cover series for now, but there will undoubtedly be more games in the franchise; like the three coming out in Japan this fall.

In playing through Dissidia, I can't help but wonder something.  In the game, it's suggested that many warriors were present in the world of Dissidia when the conflict began, but now only ten are left.  So it begs the question: who were these other warriors who have fallen, and why isn't there any real effort being made to avenge these characters?  I have to assume they are characters from other worlds, since the characters that are left aren't talking about their fallen comrades or about taking revenge for the deaths of loved ones.

But suppose these other characters were also taken from Final Fantasy games.  Heroes who fought alongside each other in their original games, now fighting alongside each other in the world of Dissidia.  I find it hard to believe that only ten of them remain.  There are plenty of characters who should still be around to fight the forces of Chaos.

First of all, the Warrior of Light, the Onion Knight, Bartz, and Firion were all from games where each character pretty much shared everything with each other and their skills were interchangeable.  If they're the only ones left from each of their games, then it's probably due to sheer luck.  They'll be the next ones to die, in this case.  A possible exception would be Galuf, since he was the only character to ever survive being reduced to 0 HP in battle without requiring a special status effect to keep him alive.

In Final Fantasy IV, Cecil is not the only character who could deal heavy damage and hold his own in battle.  Kain was a pretty decent fighter in battle... when he was on your side.  I suppose anyone who could easily be controlled by the enemy would be unreliable as an ally.  Quick to die would be the old and feeble FuSoYa and Tellah.  The spoony bard who mourned for his lost love in the twilight, Edward, would also die easily, unless he uses Hide a lot.  Then again, he would still die in areas where there are no hiding places.  On the other hand, Cid would be hard to kill.  Anyone who can survive blowing himself up could easily survive an onslaught of Chaos's minions.

In Final Fantasy VI, there were far too many characters for Square to pick just one, and the only reason Terra was present in Dissidia is because she has the most history with Kefka.  But there are a few characters who would easily hold their own even better than Terra could.  Gau grew up in the wild, and was one of the fiercest characters you could take with you on your journey.  Nature toughened him up during his years on his own.  The thief Locke also comes to mind.  He was so good a thief, he could walk away with the clothes on your back.  Shadow, Sabin, Celes... there were easily quite a few characters who would go the distance in a Dissidia setting.

You could pretty much list most of the cast of Final Fantasy VII on a list such as this.  Aeris would probably be easy to kill (sorry fans, but I'm surprised it took Sephiroth that long to take her out), and maybe Cait Sith as well, although there would be more of him built and ready to go if one of him does die, so considering him a liability would be just as much a mistake as would be considering him a good character.  Vincent and his transformations would be hard to kill, as would Tifa and Barret.  And Nanaki?  He would fight like the beast he is and take down Sephiroth himself before he would ever die.  He might even outlast Cloud.

Final Fantasy VIII had a mixture of good and bad characters.  Seifer was a bully, but he could easily hold his own against the forces of Chaos, as long as he doesn't suddenly join the sorceress.  But at least he had free will.  Rinoa has access to a bunch of sorceress powers... except, she would be a liability as well, given how easily Ultimecia could possess her.  Other than Squall, about the only ones I could see doing any kind of damage against an enemy would be Zell, with his up-close, street brawl style of combat, and Irvine, who could snipe most enemies dead (but would probably die if confronted by a party of enemies at close range).

Similarly, many characters in Final Fantasy IX would be dead before long in a world like Dissidia.  I would probably expect Freya to be the only character who could hold her own from the cast, other than Zidane.  Unfortunately, all three magic users would fall quickly (although Eiko might last a little while longer than the others), and Steiner is too much of a submissive coward to hold his own in a fight.  Freya, meanwhile, can stay in the air and rain spears down on the enemy when she goes into Trance mode, which is a pretty effective attack, probably just as effective as the Onion Knight's oh so cheap Meteor attack.

And from Final Fantasy X, I would expect Auron to survive against Chaos, as well as Kimahri.  Maybe the other characters, if they're lucky, but it depends on how quickly they can level up.  However, if Tidus, a mere dream of the Fayth can survive, then the rest of the cast should have little trouble surviving as well.

A vast number of characters have the potential to aid in the fight against Chaos, but I suppose programming them all into the game would've taken forever, so we're stuck with only one from each game.  Still, these characters showed what they could accomplish when they all teamed up in battle.  Dissidia splits up the original teams and forces each character to join forces with strangers from other lands.  Ah well, at least the battle system's awesome.

Watch for the Dissidia review to be posted soon!

Video of the Week

With all the talk about the track and field athlete from South Africa, Caster Semenya, and questions about whether she is a man or a woman, we here at Damage Control think we have the answer.

Background: apparently, if you run as fast as a Kenyan, you get deported to Kenya.  When you run faster than Kenyans, your own gender tries to disown you.

Our theory is thus: she is the long lost sister of Lady Gaga.  And to explain Lady Gaga's weirdness, look no further than this week's video of the week:

Currently Playing: Picross DS (DS)  Yes, I'm still playing it.

You know a game is good and addictive when you play it often.  I keep unlocking more stuff, so it's hard to say when it'll end.  Plus, you can go back and improve your time on puzzles you've already completed.  Some people have their Final Fantasy games.  Some people have their Soul Calibur games.  I have Picross.

And since I linked to the Wikipedia page for Picross DS last column, I'm linking to a web Picross game this time.  Enjoy!

Looking Forward To: Numb3rs, season 6

The new season starts next week, and as I do every year, I anticipate it eagerly.  Last season's Big Question will be resolved (tune in tomorrow if you live in the US or Canada to see the season finale if you missed it the first time, so you'll know what I'm talking about), thank goodness.  I've been waiting all summer to find out what the answer will be.  It sure beats last year's hastily rushed cliffhanger where Charlie lost his security clearance in a last minute rush to fit all of the relevant plot into the shortened season.  It really helps when writers don't go on strike.

Alternate title: Flipping My Lid

I used to think that the reason Amazon wasn't allowed to send certain games to Canada was because of a lack of French on the covers of the games they had in stock, and a lack of availability of a Canadian edition.  But when I got Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the mail last week, I was surprised (and downright pleased) to see absolutely no French cluttering the packaging, and upon opening the case, I found a reasonably-sized manual inside, rather than a 150 page epic, half of which would've been in a language I cannot read.  It might as well be in Japanese or Egyptian.

Interestingly, when I received the rest of my shipment the following week, most of the rest of the games were also in English only, so I would love to hear Amazon's reasons for denying me access to most of their game library.

So Dissidia (and the pre-order bonus CD) came from Amazon, and I knew I would get hours and hours of enjoyment out of the game, based on the demo I downloaded from the PlayStation Store.  And it turned out that I had a lot of fun micro-managing things between battles.  Every time I mastered a skill, I went back into the menu system, looking things over, seeing what other skills I might want to add.  Every time I finished a story, I was in the PP Catalog, eager to spend my hard-earned points.  As I spent more and more time playing, I quickly realized that only about one tenth of my time was actually spent in battles.  (A lot of it was spent waiting for stuff to load, but still.)

And then, about three hours into the game, my PSP broke.

Naturally, I was angry and frustrated at that point, but I resisted slamming the PSP against the table, which would've made the problem worse and potentially irreversible.  It is, of course, not a Nintendo product, and not indestructible.  But if I ignored it, the problem wouldn't fix itself, and the PSP's function as a game player would be severely hampered.  What happened was, the lid that keeps the UMD in place came off one of its hinges, so the first thing I tried to do was snap it back into place.  I quickly found out that, the way the hinge was designed, it should've been physically impossible to have come loose in the first place, even when the force of my knee was applied to it.  So I wiggled it this way and that, tried brute force a couple more times, and then tried unhinging the other side to see if it would come loose, and if so, try to gain some kind of insight as to how to put it back together.

At this point, I was ready to declare Hammer Time, but I didn't want to bust up my PSP further, so I resisted the urge.  It was bad enough that one entire side of the lid had come off, and the door was swinging loose.  Rather than continue to apply brute force and possibly break the lid further, I decided to look up a tutorial or two on-line and figure out how to take the device apart.  Turned out, most of the tutorials were for the 1000 series, and mine is a 2000 series.  It took some digging to find a tutorial that even mentioned the 2000 series, but I eventually found one that mentioned both the 2000 and 3000 series PSPs, both of which have more screws than the 1000 series.  So I started with step one and took out three of the screws in the back, then stared hard at the sticker that said that if I tampered with it in any way, the warranty would be voided.  I sighed, figured my problem could only be solved in this one way, and peeled enough of the sticker away to reach the fourth screw.  Once it was out, I turned to the screws on the top and bottom of the device.

They wouldn't budge.  I suppose I had the wrong screwdriver.  I mean, I guess it's possible to have one screwdriver for each kind of screw in existence, but only if you're so obsessed with tools that you improve things in your own home all the time and build hot rods and have a low rated home improvement show on cable, but between visits to the emergency room, and all the projects for personal and work-related use you'd be involved with, there wouldn't be time to play video games and write about them.  So I made do with what I had, and the screwdriver would've worked, if the screws hadn't been so tight.  I suppose, from playing the PSP for one and a half years, that all the sweat that had accumulated must've somehow rusted the screws in place without visibly showing any of that rust.

After two hours of struggling with the screws, and with numb thumbs, I gave up.  I tried to press the lid back in place once more and almost growled in frustration.  Getting it back into place was as physically impossible as jarring it loose in the first place, and yet it was loose, so it should've been possible to fix it again without even opening my PSP.  Yet the simple act of taking the screws out had defeated me.  So I sighed again, this time in frustration and anger, and put back in place the four screws I'd successfully removed, put the battery back in (two of the screws, including the one that voids the warranty, are behind the battery), put the battery lid back on, futilely tried to press the UMD lid back in place, and then flopped down in my chair in front of the computer.  As I was reviewing the website I'd found earlier, I absently applied just a little pressure on my PSP as if it would help to snap the lid back in place, when brute force hadn't done it.

That's when I realized that I had just snapped the lid back in place.

Video of the Week

Memo to Square's casting department: you dropped the ball with Kefka's voice.  He just doesn't sound demented enough to be the clown prince of the Gestahl Empire.  If you want to hear the voice of the person you should've hired for Dissidia, here you go:



In your next game that features characters from Final Fantasy VI, I hope you fix this unfortunate oversight.

Currently Playing: Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP; see above)

I just wish the game was more epic, like past Final Fantasy games.  What's really captured my attention though, is:

Currently Playing: Picross DS (DS.  Duh)

At the rate I've been playing this game, I'll end up finished in about a week or two.  Those puzzles are so damn addicting!  And yet Canadians aren't allowed to buy this game from Amazon.com unless they went through a special section of their site.  What, are Canadians going to use a game where you draw pictures with numbers to burn down the White House again?  Hell, we didn't need the help of such a device the first time, why would we need it the second time?

Looking Forward To: Ōkamiden: Chisaki Taiyou (DS)

This is a game I'm taking a lot of interest in.  I don't know if it's going to make it over to North America.  Then again, I didn't think the original game would either, but Capcom surprised me, twice.  Please, Capcom, if you're never going to make another Breath of Fire, at the very least bring Ōkamiden over so we can play it!

I am a little wary, though, since the game is starring a small, cute wolf called "Chibiterasu".  Chibi, for crying out loud.  They'd better not ruin this for me!  Can't deny it, though, she (I'm assuming it's a she?) is cute.

Bottom line: Ōkami sequel + DS = it's about damn time, doubled.  I'm looking forward to a game controlled by the touch screen that doesn't suck, and where the shapes actually mean something.  I'm sorry, Lost Magic, but you did kinda suck.  And the control scheme for the DS seems perfect for Ōkami.  I really, really, really hope this makes the trip over the Pacific.  Maybe I should learn Japanese, just to be on the safe side.

Note: next Adventures In Canadian Gaming, if current scheduling plans work out, will be posted September 17, then return to its regular once-a-week schedule.

I made a post on Sunday night about how the Wii Virtual Console, for the first time ever, didn't receive a single game on it for a week in North America. While I was writing that, I thought it was a futile effort really. Here's a company that supposedly is taking a week off, perhaps giving the service's superlative games some breathing room so people can catch up on what they should get, what they should avoid, and what they should finish. Those certainly aren't bad intentions in the least, if this was their idea.

Keeping that in mind, I was pretty shocked to see that this week, the service was also greeted with absolutely nothing. I don't know what to think of this now. Maybe we all need to band together and remind them that there are still good games not on the service yet, some of which are Nintendo published! When I made that last post, I didn't realize that the original Super Mario Kart wasn't on the service either. I don't get it. Though you're still getting some good Wii Ware games, like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord that released last week. Also, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island hit Wii Ware this week, which, if you're a fan of the Monkey Island franchise, is...no wait, you've probably already played this, or are playing it.

Meanwhile, there is some good news for digital classic games: Turbografx-16 games are coming to North America's Playstation Network sometime in the near future. I was hoping they were coming over, though with a good sense of pessimism given who we're talking about here. It's nice to hear they're coming, though Hudson couldn't give a date as to when. Who knows if they were even supposed to talk about it yet.

Meanwhile, I was thinking a little more about the Dissidia demo, mainly about how feature-packed it is. Honestly, I thought it might be a little too feature packed, and could hurt the potential sales of the game. Really? Five characters available to play, including the likes of Cloud and Sephiroth? That may be all people ask for to play as in this game, making them content with the demo.

Upon doing a little more research, though, the demo really doesn't have too much content. There's a lot more to this game than I thought, and I'm not just talking about the storyline. During the game, you'll have the ability to level up characters as well, enabling them to obtain more attacks. A good example of these are displayed while playing the demo's difficulties, where each character has a slightly different move set depending on whether you're playing on normal or hard. It's a really fun game if the demo is any indication (and I'm sure it is), so be sure to anticipate it for August 25th.

By the way, I'm sure Onion Knight's "Burn it Up!" is an internet meme in the making. Expect plenty of (possibly stupid) Youtube videos on it. 

Almost anyone who is anticipating the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the US received their first ability to test the game yesterday, as a demo hit Playstation Network yesterday. I'll admit that the game initially alerted the cynic in me. A 3D fighting game "dramatic progressive action" game with all of the Final Fantasy heroes and villains? And character designs from Testuya Nomura. The ostensible origins of something horrifying, I think, given Square Enix's track record on games that aren't RPGs.

But I'd heard good things from importers who were reliable, and that made me anxious to actually play the game. Well, from what's presented here, it's quite superlative. Thankfully it contains a fighting system that's more -- but not entirely similar to -- Power Stone, and less Ehrgeiz. Dissidia has your favorite characters fighting within an action/RPG-live environ, realizing every fanboy fantasy conjured by the GameFAQs forums in stylish-yet-deep and satisfying action. This means that you don't have to feel guilty playing this game. That's good!

The demo gives access to more popular characters like the Onion Knight, Cecil, and Terra, while also giving players the chance to try out less popular ones like Cloud and Sephiroth. They all control great too. And while Cloud and Sephiroth will undoubtedly be the all-too-often go to characters ('cause they're, like, so cool), Onion Knight has a good amount of speed to stand a chance, while Terra is a very good long-distance fighter. I had the easiest time going through the demo as Sephiroth, which I'm not sure is a sign that I'm getting better at the game or that he's overpowered (it's probably the latter). As for Cecil, well he's definitely the most intriguing character presented in the demo. He almost has two different move sets, one for his light side and the other for his dark. He also transforms between them constantly like some super hero, which is pretty neat.


Another surprise about this demo is how robust it is. Though you have five selectable characters at your disposal, you don't fight against any of them. You'll go up against Warrior of Light, Firion, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus from the light side, while fighting Garland, Cloud of Darkness, Golbez, Kefka, and Jecht from the dark side. All of the characters are featured with English voices, and they all sound good. I was also thrilled to realize that Johnny Yong Bosch is voicing Firion. Though I don't think anyone who sick of hearing him as a lead character is going to like that, including Angela.


I was pretty surprised with how good games like The World Ends with You and Crisis Core turned out, and it looks like Square Enix has impressed me again. I doubt the final iteration will be a crushing let down compared to the demo, so this is definitely worth looking forward to. The game hits US retailers on August 25th (a month from tomorrow), and releases on September 4th in Europe. If you want to play the demo, you can either access it through Sony's new Media Go program. You can download it through your PSP, though the former option is much less hassle considering how sluggish the system's internet is. It's only 79MB, so it won't take up too much space on your memory stick.

Some very vocal Final Fantasy fans most certainly feel betrayed by Square Enix's decision to bring Final Fantasy XIII to multiple platforms outside of Japan. In fact, many of them rushed off to buy a PlayStation 3 years before the title even had a confirmed release date (it still doesn't as if this writing). But with last week's news of FFXIII most likely being monolingual on the Xbox 360, PS3 owning Final Fantasy are a little happier now. In an interview with IGN UK, Square Enix Producer Yoshinori Kitase brought up the possibility of having multiple languages on the PS3 version of the game. As for the 360, the producer said "...when we talk about XIII it's for PS3 and Xbox - with PS3 being on Blu ray there would be enough memory, but on Xbox probably not." Such a move would definitely give the PS3 version of the game another one-up over the 360 version. It works out fine for the PS3 owners who prefer subtitles over dubs. In other words, the majority fans who'd want a multiple language release of FFXIII probably already own a PS3. Not to say there aren't 360 owners out there who care about multilingual options. Square Enix's reason for a probable monolingual release for the 360 version is baffling at best. All fans deserve a multilingual option if it is technologically and economically feasible.

It is interesting to note that Mistwalker was able release two RPGs on the 360 (Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey) with multiple languages. Sure those games were released over multiple discs, but Final Fantasy XIII is already speculated to be a multiple disc release on the 360-- what's an extra disc or two? Additionally, many game developers and publishers also make language packs available as downloadable content through Xbox Live. It's a bit surprising that a company with so many resources such as Square Enix can't or won't when a smaller studio like Mistwalker can. The company has multiple options when it comes to the 360 console, why not take the time to utilize them? With the North American release more than a year away it's still too early to say what Square will ultimately do, as nothing has been solidly confirmed or denied. But at this point the company once again seems out of touch with North American fans.






Square Enix also didn't help matters last week when it sent a Cease and Desist letter to the team behind Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. Crimson Echoes was a promising five-year fan project that centered around the modification of the Chrono Trigger ROM to create a new derivative game. The fan-made game is roughly 35 hours long, has 23 chapters, and 10 multiple endings. The game was designed to be a sequel and a bridge between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. It would have been distributed to fans via an emulator on May 29th. The game was 98% complete when Square Enix delivered the C&D letter. The letter itself threatens the team with legal action and fines up to $150,000 dollars. Similar legal threats were made against the fan site Chrono Compendium, because it demonstrated how to hack and modify ROMs.

On one hand it is amazing to see the lawyers at Square admit they saw the Crimson Echoes project as a threat, considering how little they've done with the Chrono Trigger franchise. Yes, we've had multiple ports and a messy sequel, but none of it even remotely compares to the company's flagship series, Final Fantasy. Given the fact that small modified ROM projects have been released in the past without objections from Square, and that Crimson Echoes had been worked on for five years already is frustrating. Does the company really see the new game as a major threat to Chrono Trigger DS, or do they have something more planned for the franchise in the future?

On the other hand, despite Square Enix sometimes looking the other way on fan projects, it isn't difficult to see why the company would want to protect its intellectual property. After all, the argument that Chrono Trigger is hard to find, or no longer in print (and therefore has been completely neglected), no longer works as it did five years ago. Even if the Crimson Echoes team had the money to mount a Fair Use defense by arguing the game has transformative value there would be no guarantee they would win such a case. The fact that game itself is a modified ROM is the biggest strike against it, even if it could be likened to an interactive fan story. It is a shame that Square does not seem interested in working out something with the team, because the dedicated CT fans who crave new material for the franchise are the ones who really suffer.

Sword of the Stranger, a samurai anime movie licensed by Bandai Entertainment and animated by Studio Bones, will be playing in over 360 movie theaters around the United States come February 2009. Over 360 theaters is quite a bit for an anime movie with rather niche appeal, so you have a good chance of seeing it if you want to. Apparently, it's pretty good! So it should be a good spend in a time where you're probably holding back on spending money.

Juggernaut video game company Electronic Arts announced more layoffs after letting a number of workers go last month. This time, they've closed Black Box studio, who was known for the Need for Speed and Skate franchises, the latter of which has a sequel coming next month. 10% of their workforce has been laid off as a result of the closing. Also, Haze and Timesplitters developer Free Radical shut down last week, leaving 150-200 workers now unemployed. Lastly, Midway closed the doors to its Austin studio, leaving 25% of their staff out of a job. This is a recession proof industry?

With the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy last week, Square Enix's North American division announced that the game was making its way to our shores sometime in the middle of next year. Hearing that the game is good is not going to assuage the pain of the waiting game, but it's not like we don't have anything else to play, right?

If you've heard of the RIAA, you're probably aware of their massive amount of dubious lawsuits they've filed over the years. Good news: they're apparently planning to ease up a bit. Who knows if they'll hold up their end of the bargain, but hey, at least it sounds good.

In the surprise of the week, it looks like there could be an auto bailout after all. Our fearless leader President Bush proposed a $17.4 million baliout deal for the big three. That's good for them, but the question is whether they'll actually change their business habits and learn from their past mistakes. It's seriously doubtful.

Did you remember that there is a Cowboy Bebop movie in development? Well, Keanu Reeves wants to be part of the cast. Whoa.