Square Enix Message Board older than one year ago

In Japan, Square Enix just announced Dragon Quest Monsters 2, a numeric sequel in its popular Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series. The game's "general director" is Yuji Horii, and it will feature monster designs by Akira Toriyama. It's also being developed in-house by Square Enix. Read more...

A few new details about Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII were recently revealed at a Japanese press event, reports Gematsu. The game's fourth continent, the Wildlands, was uncovered. This will be a large, open-world area - large enough for players to ride around on the series' beloved Chocobo, apparently.

Also revealed is the return of Final Fantasy XIII's ginger-haired ball of sunshine, Vanille. In Lightning Returns, Vanille is under the care of a religious group called the "Salvation Council" in the game's main city, Luxerion. Vanille joins other Final Fantasy XIII vets Snow, Hope and Fang.

One of the best things about Final Fantasy heroines is that, generally speaking, they've tended to be strong females and haven't really relied on fan service. Until now, that is.Read more...

While an Unreal Engine 3-powered vampire hunting period piece set in an alternate 19th century Paris may sound pretty compelling, the coolest thing about Square Enix's Bloodmasque is facial mapping technology console developers gave up on years ago. Read more...

Vampire-hunting app Bloodmasque from Square Enix is available to make the night safe once again on the Apple App Store. The Unreal Engine-powered game featuring a "photo-based character customization experience" can be staked for $6.99. Mmmmm, steak.

Square Enix notes "full completion" of the game takes about 20 hours, with more combat trials after completing the game. However, if you're spending that much time on the toilet playing iPhone games, please seek medical attention. We assure you something is wrong.

I still remember booting up Chaos Rings back when it first came out. This ass-kicker from composer Noriyasu Agematsu came on, and I thought, "Okay, I'm going to play the heck out of this game."Read more...

Every Tuesday, there are new games, apps and updates added to PlayStation Mobile. Square Enix’s Chaos Rings and Chillingo’s Roll in the Hole released, along with Attack of the Mutants and fishFishFISH. There is also an update to Duelist Calculator and a price change to Tileogo.

New Releases

Chaos Rings by Square Enix Co., Ltd. ($7.99)

Using a classic game system that any RPG fan will enjoy, Chaos Rings presents an epic tale consisting of four different scenarios, all brought to you with gorgeous sound and unbelievably smooth 3D graphics.
The story revolves around a tournament where combatants fight for their lives: the Ark Arena. Upon choosing a pair of characters, one male and one female, you will then have to fight against the other pairs. Each pair has their own story, and the truth behind the Ark Arena will not be revealed until each story is completed.

Roll in the Hole by Chillingo (EA Inc.) ($1.49)

Meet PoPo, the chubby panda who just can’t get enough ice cream. Imagine his surprise when he wakes after a summer snooze to find the cheeky gorilla Uggi has stolen his icy treats! Roll the rotund little bear around each level and chase Uggi to the hole. You’ll have to choose the best route if you want to collect all your missing ice creams though.

Attack of the Mutants by Tim Collins ($0.49)

Stop the evil pizza mutants from destroying the universe. A classic arcade style shooter: survive, destroy the big boss mutant, and rack up those points!

fishFishFISH by chiya ($0.99)

Help the cat-eared lady collect as many yummy fish as possible. There are 60 stages at your disposal in this adventure.

Updates

• Duelist Calculator by Akio Ogata ($0.49)

Price Changes

• Tileogo by Billsmugs (Old Price $1.99 , New Price $1.29)

PS Vita owners can download these games from the PlayStation Mobile section of PlayStation Store; Owners of PlayStation-certified devices such as the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, Wikipad or Sony Xperia Z tablet, can obtain them through the PlayStation Mobile Store for the same price.

Click here for a full list of the certified devices or here for installation instructions.

While a sequel to this year’s Tomb Raider hasn’t officially been announced, it’s obviously inevitable despite rumours of mediocre sales. And it seems the gap between the two games will be bridged by a comickybook.

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More hints of troubled times at Square have appeared, via the resignation of Eidos Montreal’s founder and general manager, Stephane, D’Astous. Describing “irreconcilable differences” to Develop, he let loose with a tirade about a “lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication”. And he was just getting started.

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Ex-Eidos Montreal boss Stephane D'Astous, who left the studio last Friday, has come out firing shots at his former parent company.Read more...

This "13 Days" trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 shows Lightning in action with varying outfits. The game's battle system includes a means to counter physical attacks, which uses up a portion of the ATB gauge, and battles where Lightning destroys sections of enemies for item rewards.

The next Star Ocean game, Star Ocean: Material Trader, will incorporate the series' universe of characters and items into a social-oriented, role-playing card game, according to Siliconera's translation of Gamer's report. Series Producer Yoshinori Yamagishi is working with Circle of Mana developer Hippos Lab, Square-Enix's smartphone division, to lead Material Trader's development. The game will reach iOS and Android devices this year.

Players help the game's protagonist Tina by collecting "star shards," tackling quests, gathering experience and hoarding money. Hunting for materials and characters while exploring seems to be essential to boosting odds of success in the game. The series' trademark Item Creation mechanic also returns, allowing players to create and equip powerful accessories to their favorite cards.

Those who register before it releases will get a special card of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time's Peppita Rossetti.

Deus Ex: The Fall is now playable, in full, on any iOS device, regardless of its jailbroken status. When The Fall launched earlier this month, it included a surprise feature that blocked all guns from firing on jailbroken devices. Square Enix never announced this feature beforehand, so some players were miffed (and out $7).

Jailbreaking opens a phone up for customization not intended by the provider and it voids a device's warranty, but it's not illegal.

Today's patch removes this feature and allows guns to fire on all devices, including jailbroken ones, as Square Enix promised. The patch also tweaks other parts of the game for everyone: It improves enemy AI, increases XP rewards and the amount of credits earned throughout the game, improves damage and accuracy of the Combat Rifle, increases Shotgun damage, and reduces some weapon costs, including the high-end Plasma Rifles and Rocket Launchers.

Deus Ex: The Fall runs on iPad 3 or better, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S and above, and iPod Touch 5 and above. It's available in the App Store - before buying, give our review a look. We found The Fall to be enjoyable, yet hollow.

Just as it took me over a decade to get pun in “Diagon Alley” (Don’t judge me: I got it after walking through it on the Harry Potter Tour. Hmm, I sense further judging after that revelation…), I only just noticed that Murdered: Soul Suspect was a pun. They slipped it in like a clove in tasty rice. In this case, the “soul” part refers to the fact that the detective investigating a murder is a ghost and is looking into his own death, but also to the idea that he’s hunting down a single suspect. Anyway, I have no sympathy for the profane main character. He has a silly hat and he is a smoker.(more…)

Eric Stutter, Senior Design Director at Airtight Games, provides a thorough walkthrough of the E3 demo for Murdered: Soul Suspect above. The adventure game revolves around a detective who must solve his own murder - as a ghost.

The E3 walkthrough of Murdered: Soul Suspect is lengthy, spanning almost 26 minutes. Highlights include: cops slapping other cops; wearing a dead man's hat; possessing the living to eavesdrop on their conversations; and learning how christening a home can keep ghosts off the premises.

This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. Deus Ex: The Fall had a difficult coming out party. After predicting a follow-up to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, fans recoiled in frustration when Square Enix revealed The Fall as a mobile-exclusive game.

Molding the movement and style of Eidos Montreal's reimagined world to a touch interface must not have been an easy task, but developer n-Fusion has pulled it off. Deus Ex: The Fall features a number of control options, including precision movements with virtual sticks and/or screen taps. Customizable icons allow for easy access to weapons, executions, abilities, items and more.

Deus Ex: The Fall can be enjoyable, but the overall experience is hollow. With a sparsely populated world, unenthusiastic story, and drastic dips in quality, Deus Ex: The Fall lacks the same passion that made Human Evolution one of 2011's best video games.

As of right now, Deus Ex: The Fall won't let you fire any guns when played on jailbroken iOS devices. Square Enix has confirmed to Joystiq today an upcoming update will allow all devices, jailbroken or not, full access to the game. The Square Enix statement sent to Joystiq reads: "We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future. We feel it's the right thing to do in this situation and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we'll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not. As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels"
Deus Ex: The Fall is available on the App store for $6.99 and is compatible with iPhone 4S and above, fifth generation iPod Touches, iPad Mini and third generation and above iPads.

After yesterday's uproar over new mobile game Deus Ex: The Fall disabling guns on jailbroken iOS devices, Eidos parent Square Enix has announced plans to remove the function via an upcoming game update, apologizing for not being clear about the restriction up front. The feature, likely put in place to deter piracy, affected a number of legitimate purchasers who had legally jailbroken their iPads and iPhones. The upcoming patch will restore their ability to fire weapons in the game, which might come in handy. Here's Square Enix's official statement: “We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future. We feel it’s the right thing to do in this situation and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we’ll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not. As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels” Note the statement is not apologizing for the feature, but rather the lack of clear communication surrounding it. The intention was to block jailbroken devices, but not without warning away customers before they spent $6.99 on a very nice app they couldn't play correctly.

Released yesterday for iOS Deus Ex: The Fall is all about giving the player options, unless that player is attempting to run the game on a jailbroken iPhone or iPad, in which case it removes one of the most important abilities in the game — pulling the trigger. Encountered by Redditor KipEnyan and verified by several user reviews in the app store, jailbroken players starting up the first mobile installment of the Deus Ex series are treated to a few cutscenes and a movement tutorial before running into the message above. It comes up during the game's shooting tutorial, and while one would assume players could still stealth through the game, I'm not sure they can progress beyond that point without tranquilizing those guards. Mind you, this isn't pirates running into this issue. While I am sure there are some shady players attempting to get The Fall to run on their jailbroken iPads and iPhones, there are plenty of honest folks who dropped $6.99 on the game, only to have it treat them like pirates. "$7 for a game that doesn't work on jail broken devices. No warning in App Store description," reads on user review for the app. Another says "I understand protecting the app against cracking/pirating, but preventing paying customers from playing on a device they own and legally modified is ridiculous." Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad is a completely legal (though warranty breaking) means of bypassing Apple's restrictions, allowing the running of homebrew apps, games and utilities. There is a rich community of developers testing the limits and enhancing the functionality of Apple's products via unapproved apps, supported by users hungry for the sort of innovation that community fosters. The tactic Eidos Montreal has employed here is not widely utilized, for the very reason the handful of folks in the iTunes reviews for The Fall are so upset. It alienates honest users who still purchase their games and apps via the App Store, while presenting an obstacle that's easily bypassed by pirates. All one needs to do is figure out how to trick the game into thinking it's running on a non-jailbroken device. It's the sort of thing you could come up with via a simple Google search. We've reached out to Eidos parent Square Enix for comment on Deus Ex: The Fall's anti-jailbreaking countermeasures, and will update this post once we get a response.

Man, this new Kingdom Hearts 1.5 trailer brings back memories. I can't believe it's already been 11 years since Square's action-RPG first came out. This trailer, of course, is for the HD remake of Kingdom Hearts that will be out for PS3 on September 10. Really, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 is kind of a dumb name, since this is a remake of Kingdom Hearts 1, not some sort of bridge between 1 and 2. But hey, this is the series responsible for gems like Dream Drop Distance and 358/2 Days, so in that light, I guess 1.5 ain't so bad.

There's a catch. There's always a catch. Now that the online role-playing game Dragon Quest X—first released for Wii and Wii U—is getting a PC release in Japan, Famitsu asked producers Yosuke Saito and Yu Miyake if they plan to bring the game overseas. Their answer: sure, they're considering it... but it could be a different game than the Dragon Quest X that Japanese gamers have been playing for a year now. Here's the full transcript, translated by Kotaku's Toshi Nakamura: Famitsu: In terms of the PC version, are you looking at [releasing] overseas? Miyake: Of course we are. However, with the overseas market, in regards to a "Dragon Quest-ish" management, standards and methods of play vary from country to country, so I don't think we'll be able to use the single game worldwide method like with Final Fantasy XI. Saitou: This is just my take on it, but it appears that different countries play games at different speeds, and the community management is also diverse. It's more than just if players would be able to enjoy universal seasonal events, so I believe we should manage countries and areas separately. That's why I think we should have separate servers for each country. What does all that mean, exactly? Could Square be considering some alternative subscription method for a worldwide release of Dragon Quest X? Maybe free-to-play? Some sort of single-player mode? Who knows. (Worth noting: the interview uses the word "kaigai" (海外) or "overseas" and does not specifically mention the U.S. or any other foreign country.) Some fans have been worried that the tenth Dragon Quest would never actually make it to North America or Europe for a number of reasons: MMORPGs are expensive to maintain; Dragon Quest has never been as explosively popular in the West as it is in Japan; and the Wii is no longer relevant while the Wii U is struggling. A few weeks ago, after news that Dragon Quest X would get a PC release too, I reached out to Square Enix for comment and a rep said: "Regarding the recent announcement we have no current plans to introduce the title in Western markets."

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the much-improved reincarnation of Square Enix's online role-playing game, will be out on August 27 for PC and PS3, then later in the future for PS4. No Xbox 360. No Xbox One. Allow Naoki Yoshida to explain why. Speaking with RPGSite, the new director of FFXIV pointed a finger at Xbox Live's cross-platform policies—games on Microsoft's online platform generally can't share servers with games on other platforms. In other words, if you played the online game on Xbox 360, you wouldn't be able to play in the same world as people on PlayStation 3. Yoshida isn't okay with that. "The policy has not changed on Microsoft's side," Yoshida told RPGSite. "The main reason from our side is that I don't want the community to be divided; to be split into two or more. For example, one player might be on the PC version, another might be on the PS4 version, and I'm playing the Xbox version - but we're not able to join the same game servers. That is just... I just don't like the idea. I disagree with it. "To be frankly honest with you, there are now so many mobile devices, smart phones, everything — why would you ever just stick to one platform from the hardware aspect? Just — make it open to everyone? That's my opinion."Boom. Funny enough, Square's last online game, Final Fantasy XI, was actually cross-console on PS2, PC, and 360. But for whatever reason they can't make it happen this time around. At least not yet.

It's like seeing the Final Fantasy X opening through that lens they use on Barbara Walters and RuPaul. Here's Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster compared to the original standard definition PS2 version. In technical terms, the HD version smoothes out the jaggies and makes the textures splendiferous. In practical terms, everything is more purty and a lot less orange. Seeing Yuna's face in half-SD, half-HD is a little creepy, but certainly does a fine job of showing off the graphical overhaul.

Along with the news that every preorder of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster will be upgraded to the Limited Edition with a 24-page art book for a case, Square Enix also released a comparison video that demonstrates how much we probably could have done without this remaster. Smoothing out the jaggies is lovely and all, and I really love the widescreen presentation, but these are not things I strictly need to enjoy Final Fantasy X. All I need for that is the original disc and around 40 hours of spare time. If they really wanted to add value, they could have, I dunno — made the story better. *ducks* That's not to say I won't buy the collection, but I'm really just in it for the X-2.

In honor of Final Fantasy VII's recent Steam re-release, here's a video by YouTuber NEroNeRoNerON exploring some trivia from Square's classic RPG. Some of these factoids are a little silly—yes, if you park the airship on an island, fly a gold chocobo across the water, and then release the chocobo, you'll lose access to your airship. Many of them seem to be based on hacks or glitches, too. But others are fascinating: that Sephiroth glove thing is going to bother me any time I replay the game now. And who knew you could skip all of the return to Midgar?

Deus Ex: The Fall, the first mobile installment of Eidos-Montréal's cyberpunk-themed action RPG series, will be available on iOS devices this Thursday for $6.99.

Deus Ex: The Fall, the all-new mobile game based in the cyberpunk renaissance universe, will hack its way to the App Store this Thursday, July 11.

Most folks were unsure about the game when it was first announced, but we're here to assure you that it works, "for the most part."

The Fall will require credits in the sums of $6.99/£4.99/5.99€ and is compaible with iPad 2 and above, iPhone 4S and above, and iPod Touch 5 and above. Please note: No actual hacking skills will be obtained by playing this game.

Some new DLC has po-po-po-popped up for Groove Coaster Zero, with pop being the operative word. The in-app purchase pack offers four levels for Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, and LMFAO songs, laying down some western beats onto Taito's free-to-play tapper.

The four songs are "Poker Face" and "Bad Romance" courtesy of Gaga, Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For," and the fun-time vibes of LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem." If you want the love, love, love of the so-dubbed 'Global Hits Pack,' admission is $4.99.

Much like 13-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 looks like it revisits most of the first game's heroic ensemble. In addition to Snow and Hope, the Aussie-accented Fang is now in the mix too. As for how they all come together in a way that makes sense, your guess is as good as ours.

The fourteenth Final Fantasy game is very pretty. It’s a very pretty MMO, too, which hardly makes it unique, but it does make it very likely contain more swords than the Samurai Blade Library of Scabbard Isle. Some of those swords will be as big as three men. Since this is actually Square’s second attempt at making a fourteenth Final Fantasy game, I wonder if it should be called XIVb? That’ll never catch on.

But here’s something that will always be popular: videos of distinctly over-attractive fantasy words. Below!(more…)