Square Enix Message Board older than one year ago

This trailer, using real-time footage for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, weaves through the game's many battle-ridden environments. Players can sign up for the game's beta program for PC and PS3 on Square Enix's official site.

#tombraider Rejoice, computer gaming Tomb Raider fans — when Lara returns to her home turf this May she'll be bringing along a treasure trove of PC-centric bells and whistles that'll make the console versions look downright sad in comparison. Let's see if your system has the juice to run them. More »

The third Tomb Raider Guide to Survival webisode focuses on something that's always been a pitfall for Ms Croft: combat. Clearly Crystal Dynamics hopes to address that with this reboot, and thankfully we've not seen any evidence of shark-punching (yet).

Square Enix also sends us the game's newly revealed PC specs, which we've published over the break. PC stalwarts will be pleased to see Tomb Raider bucks the growing trend of dropping XP support.

That game of verbal Twister gone horribly, horribly wrong up there? I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of an attempt at combining the words “Rambo” and “bow [and arrow]” – not, say, “Rambo” and “rainbow,” which I immediately suspected upon reading it. But then, I also wrote it, so I’m pretty sure I understand the author’s intent more than most. At any rate, that brain-and-bone-spattering word pileup occurred because of Tomb Raider‘s combat, which is basically Rambo, but even bow-er. Which is kind of wild, because Rambo already had a bow to begin with. But yes, Lara sneaks and turns baddies into pincushions and slays infinity men on her “first step to becoming a seasoned adventurer.” They really make you earn that title, huh?

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This is Naoki Yoshida, the producer and director of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. First of all, I would like to thank the PlayStation.Blog team for the opportunity to share with you the latest developments in our game.

We were recently in San Francisco as part of a tour to show A Realm Reborn to members of the gaming media. Our guests had a chance to take the game for a spin, after which I sat down with them for an interview. I expect that reports will be hitting various online media outlets starting today, so please keep an eye out!

We consider it one of our missions to reacquaint gamers all over the world with the wonders of FINAL FANTASY. To this end, we’ll be incorporating the most memorable elements of the series into A Realm Reborn. Mind you, this won’t be limited only to the game’s launch; in subsequent patches, we plan to keep adding more great stuff from FINAL FANTASY’s 25-year history. For starters, adventurers will be able to take on the Crystal Tower (FFIII) raid dungeon, do battle with classic summons (such as Ifrit, Titan, and Leviathan), and ride magitek armor (FFVI). It goes without saying that there’ll be moogles and chocobos as well. Your trusty steed will fight beside you in battle, and can also be dressed up in neat costumes. Future patches will introduce series mainstay Gilgamesh, and also the fun and excitement of the Gold Saucer (FFVII). The list goes on and on!

We’ve also released new screens to show our progress on the PS3 version. Though performance is still being optimized, I’m sure you’ll agree that the visual quality is almost on par with the Windows PC version.

My team and I are very much looking forward to the beta test, which is about to commence. PS3 players will be able to jump in to start testing when the third phase of the Beta launches. If you haven’t already signed up to become a tester, you can do so at the Beta Tester Application Site. We want as many people as possible to join in. I hope to see you there!

We’ll continue to release new info on A Realm Reborn, so be sure to keep an eye on PlayStation.Blog. Alternately, you can visit our official site along with the Developers’ Blog. The blog regularly hosts the latest behind-the-scenes info straight from the development floor, and you’re bound to get a kick out of the info.

Thank you for reading! We hope we can rely on your support for FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn as well as the FINAL FANTASY series at large!

During today's Sony PlayStation event in NYC, Square Enix's Shinji Hashimoto revealed that Square Enix is currently developing a new Final Fantasy game for PS4. We'll get our first look at E3 this year.

#finalfantasy No real news yet, but Square Enix's Shinji Hashamoto took the stage at today's PS4 event to say they're working on a Final Fantasy game, and that we should "please be excited for E3 this year." That's it. More »

#murderedsoulsuspect More »

Square Enix confirmed Murdered: Soul Suspect will sleuth onto Xbox 360, PS3, and PC early next year. The announcement follows its teaser trailer being uncovered yesterday, and the ARG curiosities planted across the web earlier this month.

Much like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, the aim in Murdered: Soul Suspect is to solve your own murder, an option we can't believe real-life authorities haven't as yet considered.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Square’s just-announced tease for a game called Murdered: Soul Suspect, is that they managed to secure murdered.com for it. I say that because we know literally nothing else about the game at this point, beyond a gloopy CGI teaser, and the news that it’s coming to PC, 360 and PS3 in early 2014. Oh, and the notion that you’re solving your own murder. I wasn’t even feeling ill.

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Square Enix confirmed Murdered: Soul Suspect sleuths onto Xbox 360, PS3, and PC early next year. The announcement follows its teaser trailer being uncovered yesterday, and the ARG curiosities planted across the web earlier this month.

Much like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, the aim in Murdered: Soul Suspect is to solve your own murder, an option we can't believe real-life authorities haven't as yet considered.

#cosplay Earlier this week, Square Enix showed off character models from the upcoming HD version of Final Fantasy X. The images, unfortunately, were not actually in high definition. These people are. More »

#finalfantasy One day, the years-in-development Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be out. For the time being, keep your hope alive with perfume. Perfume? Yes. Perfume. More »

Ah, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, what manner of thing will you be? Many people, naturally, would prefer that you turn out, well, good, but you kind of had a hard time with that during your first go-’round. I did like your job system, story missions, and world, though. So I have some hope. Kinda. Maybe? Videos of quests that look musty and maggot-riddled out of the box have me second-guessing my vague optimism, but I’ll reserve judgment until I can feel the winds of adventure and taste the scent of Chocobo stable manure for myself. Which are things I will apparently be able to do very soon – at least, in beta form. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn is set to take its first steps later this month. Details after the break.

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Putting that final rubber stamp on a game and sending it off to be shipped and sold is not a mere formality, as this first part of the closing episode of Tomb Raider's "The Final Hours" webseries shows.

Back in the day, used to be that when a game wasn't released in a certain area, that area never got to experience that game. After a year and a half of being on Japanese store shelves, Final Fantasy Type-O doesn't look like it's getting localized in the US. Luckily, a few fans are up to the immense task of translating the PSP RPG.

GBA Temp forum poster SkyBladeCloud has laid bare all his programming work on the Final Fantasy Type-O ROM on the forums, producing the above shaky-cam video of his work so far. He's not necessarily soliciting translators for assistance, but has made it much easier for fan translation to succeed by reverse-engineering a majority of the game engine. Now Japanese-fluent gamers can help make a translation a reality.

Final Fantasy Type-O launched on the PSP in Japan in October of 2011, at the tail-end of the PSP's life cycle. Type-O uses a hybrid battle system not unlike Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and The 3rd Birthday - a mixture of turn-based and real-time action combat.

Hey, do you want to see over eleven (count ‘em!) minutes of the new and handsome Tomb Raider game? C’mon now, it’s got drama, hiding, arrowing, shouting, and nearly some drowning. It’s all-action in Miss Croft’s part of the world. And what part of the world is that? Well, it’s not the dismal sub-rural periphery of Bristol, I can tell you that.

The game arrives on the 5th of March. Our reviewing temple’s candles are being lit, and the altar furnished.(more…)

#toyfair2013 Toy Fair descends onto Manhattan's Jacob Javitz Convention this week, bringing with it loads of plastic you don't care about. But Toy Fair also shines a spotlight on the weirdest, coolest collectibles and playthings that you'll be lusting over for the next twelve months. In these images, you'll see statues for Superman: The Man of Steel, along with comic book and video game character figures from Square Enix's Play Arts. There are also highlights from Dark Horse's comics and Game of Thrones merch and McFarlane Toys' Rabbids and Assassin's Creed licenses from Ubisoft. You can see selections from Mezco's showing, too, which include Breaking Bad toys and figures from Axe Cop, the comic that's becoming an Adult Swim cartoon show later this year. Got something you want me to track down at Toy Fair? Ask away in the comments. More »

#finalfantasy It's been a year and a half since Square Enix released the PSP role-playing game Final Fantasy Type-0 in Japan, and the publisher has not yet said a word about a possible U.S. release. More »

Fancy yourself some cheap, old Eidos games? GOG.com has its entire Square Enix catalog on sale for half price this weekend, which translates to Eidos classics like the Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Hitman, Thief, Deus Ex and more - all for five bucks or less.

Oh, did we say the entire Square Enix catalog? We meant everything except Daikatana, John Romero's infamous flop, which was just released on the service. If you've got a mean masochistic streak, you can fork over $6 to try it out.

This morning, Square Enix initiated a guerilla marketing campaign for something apparently new and murder oriented, slated for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, with potential ties to Eidos Interactive and confirmed connections to us being super creeped out by the whole thing.

It started with the Twitter account @Murdered tweeting the message "What is ..." followed by a link to the above picture, which appeared to be a section of a photograph of a tree with something carved into its bark. Attempting to navigate to one of the picture's "files" parent folder results in being automatically redirected to an eidosinteractive.com subdomain. Ah ha!

Minutes later, we received an email from a Square Enix e-mail address (masquerading as an "@murdered.com" address) with the subject header "What is the hardest case to solve?" Contained inside was a second image, which combined perfectly with the image that had been tweeted earlier.

Naturally we decided to check out murdered.com, and were met by an image of the symbol scrawled on asphalt in chalk, accompanied by a link to the official twitter account and icons revealing the project's related platforms. A whois search revealed that the domain is registered to Naoto Sugiyama, a senior manager at Square Enix., and a glance at the site's source code revealed certain assets as being hosted on Eidos webspace.

Furthermore, Square Enix registered a Japanese trademark for "Murdered: Soul Suspect" back in December of last year, Siliconera reports. We've contacted both Square Enix and the murdered.com address and will update with any new discoveries we're able to make.

#murdered I have no idea what Square Enix is teasing, but it's certainly piqued my interest. More »

Lara Croft is Batman! Maybe. At the very least, she seems to have been watching the caped crusader carefully, although her study of his Arkham adventures doesn’t extend to mimicking Wayne’s restraint. When she’s firing ziplines across chasms or attaching rope arrows to destructible scenery to create new routes, she’d look right at home in Rocksteady’s Gotham, but then she shoots a deer in the face at point blank range, or sneaks up on a villain and perforates him unto dying. Batman would just break every limb in sight and then move on. The latest Tomb Raider ‘Survival Guide’ builds up to the reveal of an ‘exploration system’ that you may recognise from elsewhere. It’s called ‘fast travel’.

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The second episode of the Tomb Raider webseries Guide to Survival acts a bit like it's just invented the concept of 'Fast Travel.' As with many things in the reboot, it is something fresh for the series, as is backtracking to unlock locations with new gear.

#tombraider The latest Tomb Raider game will be out in Japan this spring. The game is getting a Japanese language version, with voice actress Yuhko Kaida bringing Lara Croft to life. In case you were wondering, Lara speaks excellent Japanese. More »

The DLC train for Sleeping Dogs chugs on with Year of the Snake, a story expansion due sometime in February or March. Publisher Square Enix outlined the DLC, which had a trailer leaked earlier this week, and as suggested it sees Wei Shen hook up with the Hong Kong police to take down the Cult of the Snake. The DLC features new abilities, outfits, and weapons, including tear-gas guns and electroshock pistols.

Square Enix also confirmed two more upcoming DLC packs for its Far Eastern felony-fest, also due in Q1. The Law Enforcer pack features crime-fighting outfits, weaponry, and vehicles, while the Wheels of Fury pack features the "weaponized supercar" DZS-90. Meanwhile, this week saw the releases of the Monkey King and Movie Masters packs. If you can only say one thing for Sleeping Dogs, it's that Square Enix has absolutely kept to its promise of six months of DLC.

#metalgearrising Besides making video games, Square Enix also has a line of collectible "Play Arts" figurines. Upcoming Metal Gear Rising is getting a Play Arts version of protagonist Raiden in his black armour. More »

What looks like a teaser trailer for 'Year of the Snake' DLC for Sleeping Dogs emerged online, along with a list of trophies. The trailer, which its poster says was plucked from the game's directory, doesn't show much that couldn't be ascertained from the name, but the trophy list does offer a bit more info.

The Chinese crime cabaret involves a bomb squad you'll presumably join, and a bunch of cultists you'll definitely take down. There are also Evidence Collectibles to collect and give pride of place to in your Evidence Collection.

When approached about the DLC, a Square Enix representative told us, "No comment."

#peckingorder For the past two months, we've been running a feature called Pecking Order, in which we rank every game in a series, from best to worst. First up was Halo, then Grand Theft Auto. More »

Jesse McCartney is a voice actor for the Kingdom Hearts series; he's played Roxas for a few different games now. Earlier today, McCartney tweeted that he was "recording the next chapter" of the series, along with a picture of Roxas on a monitor, which you can see above. Unfortunately, the tweet and picture featuring the game have been removed; however, an earlier update confirmed McCartney is currently "behind the mic" working on something.

The question remains: what game in the Kingdom Hearts series is McCartney working on? The likely answer is it's the North American release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix, which features Final Mix, Chain of Memories, and 358/2 Days. Time will tell.