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New screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII have surfaced!! It was previously revealed yonks ago that our agile new heroine would become part of your typical FF style party, and that it was highly likely that the red haired girl and the Seifer look-a-like in the hat would be part of it. And whilst these screenshots don’t really confirm that, they actually kinda do. The shots above show our little party spending quality time together in much more rural settings as opposed to the high tech cities we’ve seen up until now. The shot on the top right is especially striking; showing a colossal figure amidst tidal waves which appear to have frozen.

Square Enix are still keeping tight lipped about anything concerning this games’ plot and its characters, which is just how I like it! There’s nothing worse than knowing everything about a game way before it’s even released.

As we speak, there’s a bunch of Square Enix employees working their fingers to the bone to get this game completed, along with a bunch of other Final Fantasy related games on the side. Oh yeah, and the forthcoming Xbox 360 port of this game as well.

A playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII will be made available with Final Fantasy VII: Advent children complete when it releases in Japan in March 2009. There’s no word on if this demo will be made available for download on the PSN marketplace.

Watch it: Final Fantasy XIII E3 2008 trailer
Read about it: Fabula nova crystallis: Final Fantasy

[Famitsu]

This trailer was first shown at Square-Enix’s secretive DKΣ3713 event. Lots of things surprised me about the gameplay footage here. First, it’s a fully 3D fighting game (no sidestepping like Soul Calibur or Tekken), and second, it features impressive aerial pyrotechnics, looking like a fantasy-themed Vitrual-On.

The two characters shown are Onion Knight and Cloud of Darkness, who are able to cast many spells and even undergo some transformations. Cute old-school menus and lots of tiny numbers liven up the RPG-flavored display. If this game actually plays anything remotely like Virtual-On, I might just have to give in and buy a PSP.

[Siliconera] [Gamekyo]

You’ve no doubt seen the words “Final Fantasy Remix” dozens of times in your search for fresh takes on Nobuo Uematsu’s beloved pieces, but this is new disc is far from OverLooked Remix material. Rather we have a collection of club-style remixes of classic FF pieces done by accomplished DJs Ian Hartley and Matt Baggiani.

Among the pieces here are “Prelude,” “Terra’s Theme,” “Jenova,” “Liberali Fatali,” and “Mambo de Chocobo.” According to Siliconera’s interview with the DJs, several tracks use beloved old-school 8-bit synths. The CD is already out, and I’m looking forward to getting a copy.

[Siliconera]

I gotta say this is one of the more hilarious examples of wishful thinking I’ve ever seen. The folks over at Qj.net thought that Square’s DKΣ371 event may have been named as a twisted sort of 1337 anagram of the words “REMAKE 7.”

However, they note the name stands for the releases covered by the event (the Σ stands for Sigma Harmonics, by the way). So there’s a pretty fat chance that this rumor is true, but I got a good laugh out of it.

[Qj.net]

We’ve learned a lot of new details about the release dates (all JP here) and details of some of the big upcoming Square Enix titles from this event:

• Final Fantasy XIII is coming out sometime in 2009, and a demo of that game will come packaged with Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete (March 2009)
• Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday are coming to PSP as well as mobile phones in 2009
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the NDS will come out this winter, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP will be out in 2009
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy is coming out for the PSP this December and the characters Golbez, Exdeath, Kefka, and Sephiroth are all confirmed

I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy V, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how Exdeath would handle in a fighting game. Also, this makes me think Gilgamesh should be a shoe-in, right?

[Gamekyo]

You heard right. No joke. Seriously, check your calendar, this isn’t April 1st. In any case this juicy and controversial piece of news was just revealed at the Microsoft E3 press conference. I caught it through IGN’s live stream. There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this, but we got to see what looked like a very pretty (but zoomed-out) trailer to accompany the announcement. So we should be expecting to see an HD version on sites like gametrailers.com pretty soon.

UPDATE: We also have learned a few new tidbits about the game from Square-Enix’s press conference.

• FFXIII is not coming to the 360 in Japan
• While the US release will come before the European one, they plan to make sure that gap isn’t too long
• As of now, they aren’t answering questions about the number of discs the 360 version will ship on
• “Still deciding” about Xbox Live integration
• “The entire direction is different; it’s flashier [than XII]“

[Live Wire] [Kotaku]

Bad news for anyone looking forward to the second part of Fabula Nova Crystallis. A recent interview with Final Fantasy overlord Tetsuya Nomura reveals that the FFvs.XIII project has been put on ice to assist in the completion of Final Fantasy XIII. It hasn’t been canceled, merely put on hold, and will appear as a non-playable demo at Square’s private DKΣ3713 party.

[Forever Fantasy]

Oh boy this went completely under my radar. Remember the Mario Theme Night at the Scrollbar, where they made a bunch of cocktails and shots based on the Mario universe? Well at the beginning of may they went back to work on their next game theme event, a Final Fantasy Night! They produced a total of 16 drinks, 5 shots and 11 cocktails. Names range from the Cactuar to the Summoner Yuna and even the Liberi Fatali.

But of all them my favorite has to be the Corrupted Live Stream, seen above. Its recipe? You pour a ‘One-Winged Angel’ shot into a ‘Live Stream’ cocktail, it looks awesome!

[Scrollbar]

After the masterpieces that were Haloid and Dead Fantasy I, kick arse 3D animator Monty Oum is back with Dead Fantasy II. If you thought the first part was good, prepare yourself for the second…

Read more!Dead Fantasy II

Given that Square Enix recently vowed they’d be making an effort to release their games worldwide simultaneously, I think we should take a look at the games we hope we’ll be getting around the same time as Japan. Starting with Fabula nova crystallis.

Read more!Fabula nova crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII

In light of me posting an in depth interview with Nobuo Uematsu, it’s only fair that I honor him for today’s Sound test Saturday.

Final Fantasy VIII was a pretty weak soundtrack in my opinion. There were probably only 3 pieces from it that stood out, one of them being “Liberi Fatali”. I would’ve posted that tonight, only Uematsu wasn’t responsible for it and I wanted to honor him this evening.

I’ve decided to post “The legendary beast”. For years I thought this was from Final Fantasy VII and even posted that it was until Dark Diamond regular Link pointed out to me that this piece was indeed from Final Fantasy VIII. So excuse the mishap and my lack of knowledge regarding shit such as which game this piece was from. Even now I cannot remember what you fight when you hear this piece. I just remembering it moving me and thinking to myself “Shit! I cannot f**k up…” The Final Fantasy fans amongst you with better memories than mine: Please enlighten me as to what you had to fight when this played. I cannot remember for shit.

As hot as this piece sounds as it is, I’d love to hear this orchestrated live. That would most definitely rock…

Listen: The legendary beast

Composed by Nobuo Uemtasu
Final Fantasy VIII OST
© 1999 Square Enix

1up conducted an interview with one of the most famous video game composers of our generation: Nobuo Uematsu. This dude needs no introduction. He is kick arse. I can’t even diss his socks and Crocs combo in the image above, because he’s just that kick arse. The interview is probably one of the most in depth I’ve read. Nobuo seems at complete ease, enjoys answering the questions and recalling his life at Square. He also doesn’t seem to hold anything back and is incredibly candid. Highlights for me are Nobuo speaking on:

• How he feels Square are taking advantage of him by milking his compositions even though he no longer works for the company.
• Square Enix releasing too many Final Fantasy games.
• The reason he left Square.
• That Square shouldn’t have continued to make Final Fantasy games after Sakaguchi left the company.

He is never bitter though and seems fully contented and happy with his earlier days at Square.

The interview is incredibly long, but very insightful and worth checking out from start to finish. If you’re into video game music, an aspiring composer or just a fan of Uematsu’s in general - you’ll thoroughly enjoy this. I have to confess to having caught onto Uemtasu and the Final Fantasy bandwagon late with game VII, but I immediately latched onto the music, loved it to pieces and quickly became a fan of Uematsu’s work from there on out.

Check it out: James Mielke’s interview with Nobuo Uemtasu

Because of gamevideo.com’s terrible movie players, none of the videos can play for more than 10 seconds without freezing and re-buffering. The whole interview has been transcribed so you can read it all if the the videos mess up on you. But if your not a big fan of reading through 8 pages of text and would prefer to see Uematsu-san kicking it in all his awesomeness, the videos are after the jump.

Read more!A day in the life of Nobuo Uematsu

Yeah i know, MTV no longer plays music videos except in the wee hours of the morning, and well, its all rap music anyways.

A popular video on the Japanese MTV is one from Final Fantasy 4’s remake for the DS. Unfortunately its coming out later this month in Japan, but there is no news for a stateside release, lets all cross our fingers!(Editor note: Rosa is hot!)

If I ever needed a reason to buy a DS again, this game would be it. Nostalgia City.

[Joystiq]

Despite showing nothing new on Final Fantasy Crystal chronicles: The crystal bearers, Square Enix have already unveiled yet another Crystal chronicles game. It is titled The little king and the promised country and will be a Wii ware title.

I thought WiiWare titles would be shitty little 2D flash style games, so I was shocked when Square Enix showed this off and announced it’d be a WiiWare title. There’s no word how big the game will be, but graphically it looks snazzy and is in complete 3D - so you can bet it’ll eat up every single megabyte of the Wii’s 512 flash memory. You’ll probably have to delete every Virtual console game, every channel and connect your Wii to your PC via a USB cable and sellotape it to the Wii to make enough space.

The game will cost 1500 Wii points and will be released in Japan in March of 2008. The price should be an indication that this will not be a full blown Final Fantasy game. Square Enix would never give gamers a full on Final Fantasy experience that cheap. It will instead have you playing as the little king fella and his gangsta leaning crown, building towns and shit -  or something like that. I’m not sure as to whether I’ll buy this myself. I haven’t seen enough of it to get excited about it. But I think it’s cool that this early on Wii ware games are looking like this and that Square Enix have jumped on the bandwagon so early. It’ll hopefully pave the way for other third party developers to hop on board and finally push digital distribution further on the Wii.

Some of you may remember a video that became super Internet famous by the name of Haloid. A mash up of Metroid and Halo which featured Samus and a female Spartan soldier beating the shit out of one another, then fighting together, embarking on a lesbian relationship and dancing to some Korean hip hop. Well the creator of said video Monty Oum is back with Dead Fantasy I. This dude has some SKILLS. If you’ve yet to witness this kick arse video, be sure to catch it after the jump.

Read more!Dead Fantasy I