Via Gamespot.Com

ANGELES--Kicking off a week of potentially explosive gaming announcements is Square Enix's annual pre-E3 press conference, being held this morning at LA's Palladium event venue. With new consoles due out this fall from Sony and Nintendo (and the Xbox 360 already plowing ahead at full steam), excitement here is understandably high about new products the titanic Japanese publisher may announce for next-generation platforms.

A throng of eager journalists assembled outside the Palladium prior to the event. Surprisingly, Metal Gear Solid designer Hideo Kojima made an appearance, eschewing the spotlight and sitting among the regular audience.

The Square Enix press conference.

Following a brief delay, the audience was herded into a fashionably decorated auditorium where the company's most closely held secrets will be revealed. Banners displaying existing properties--from Final Fantasy XII to Dirge of Cerberus--draped the walls, display cases full of statuettes bearing familiar likenesses greeted attendees at the entrance, and a rousing score from many of the company's most popular games.

But even minutes before the show began, no hint of Square Enix's new, next-generation games was yet in evidence.

1:02 pm The conference is starting with a cavalcade of announced products on video--Dawn of Mana, Final Fantasy V and VI for GBA, Rocket Slime (!), some mobile stuff. President Yoichi Wada's now taking the stage, wasting no time talking about the promise of next-gen and telling us they've got some hot secrets for us today. So let's have 'em already!

1:06 COO Daishiro Okada is now on stage discussing the upcoming lineup. Final Fantasy XII will be out October of this year. Finally. Also some mobile stuff. Space Invaders? Elevator Action? Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episodes also on mobile this summer.

1:10 Now we're getting into the meat with a long trailer for Final Fantasy XII, all in English. Sounds like they're sparing no expense on the voice acting for this one--it's all appropriately haughty, in line with the tone of the story.

1:18 More trailers for announced, current-gen stuff like Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and the latest FFXI expansion. Now it's Final Fantasy on mobile--I knew my nerd sense was tingling for a reason.

1:24 Looks like their mobile strategy rages unabated--Dirge is the standout since it's all in 3D. Now we've got Final Fantasy III for DS, billed as "the only Final Fantasy never to reach Western shores." They're urging us to "complete the fantasy" with this 3D remake--fine by me since it looks like the best DS RPG yet.

1:28 Final Fantasies V and VI for GBA--not the biggest news, but near and dear to many hearts for sure. Promised to have new surprises. Now it's Mana time, starting off with the sorta middling Children of. But what's this? Ten years before Children of Mana, a 3D game: Dawn of Mana, of course. More CG than gameplay, but it looks pretty good.

1:32 Once upon a slime! It's Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, which is the most bafflingly adorable name I've ever heard. Apparently, "it's payback slime." So cute, I'm sold. Now Shinji Hashimoto is taking the stage to talk about the utterly unsurprising massive success of the many Final Fantasy VII projects, from Advent Children to Dirge and the mobile games. Hey, and a US date for Dirge: August 22, with new features included.

1:43 Still showing off the Compilation of FFVII stuff, all of which is out here or in Japan. Bring on the next-gen games!

1:49 I spoke too soon: Here's our first real footage of FFVII Crisis Core for the PSP. Stars Zack of Soldier fame, apparently, and there's a ton of Sephiroth in here (down, boys 'n girls). No gameplay footage, only real-time cutscenes, but it looks amazing for a PSP game.

1:51 Here we go--Dragon Quest is coming to the Wii. Some dude is fighting a stone golem in a forest. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Launch title for the Wii! No real footage of the game, but still, big news.

1:54 The hits keep on coming--now we have Akitoshi Kawazu, exec. producer of Crystal Chronicles. Two new games from that series: one DS, one Wii. DS game is Ring of Fates, and will have wi-fi multiplayer (duh). Looks a bit more whimsical than the Cube version, same basic sense of style though. They're showing four players at once, like you'd expect. Yay DS!

1:58 And here comes the Wii title. That Final Fantasy theme still makes me all misty-eyed. Wow, these visuals are nice--random shots of CC-style little dudes fighting bombs and other monsters. If any of that was real-time footage of the game, the Wii graphics ought to do us just fine. Hard to say if it was just CG, though. Code name: Chrystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. No major details on the game available yet though.

2:02 Final announcement! For PS3! E3 is so damn exciting sometimes. What is it?!

FINAL FANTASY XIII. FINAL FANTASY XIII. They pulled a serious bait-and-switch on us. Sword-and-gun-wielding heroine who looks like Yuna, flipping her way around a high-tech, futuristic world. No idea what it was until the end when that NAME popped up. Yoshinori Kitase directing! This is the guy behind all the best ones--VI, VIII, VIII, X. Be still my heart.

2:08 Sorry, I jumped the gun--Mr. Kitase was merely presenting. Motomu Toriyama will direct the game. And apparently FFXIII isn't the only game coming out of this universe--there's a, uh, mobile game too. Oh. It's Final Fantasy Agito XIII.

Now it's Fabula Nova Crystallis--"the new tale of the crystal" in Latin. They're big on the Latin today. Whoa, wait, another new game? Another PS3 game?! Final Fantasy Versus XIII? They're emphasizing that in Latin, versus means "to change direction." This is a Tetsuya Nomura game, and he's taking the stage now.

2:17 Nomura is providing more details. The CG movie we just saw, featuring a spiky-haired character (natch) squaring off against machine gun-wielding soldiers, was created by the Advent Children team, but the game itself will be made by the Kingdom Hearts team, and will feature "extreme action elements." He says "bonding" will be the primary theme of the game.

2:20 The conference draws to a close with a comment from Hashimoto that this should demonstrate Square Enix's commitment to next-generation gaming, but that it's "only the beginning." A final movie showcases the name Final Fantasy XIII, as if each new installment in this mega-enormous series is now a franchise unto itself.

Finally, Mr. Wada has retaken the stage. "How did that grab you?" Laughter and applause. Some more commentary on SE's commitment to supporting the next gen. Speaks more about the "synergy between products" being a proven formula with Compilation of FFVII. Looks like they're taking the same tack with FFXIII.

Some more info on FFXIII (can't type fast enough!): The game was begun by the FFX team for PS2, but the team was then derailed to make last year's FFVII PS3 tech demo. They were so happy with the hardware, they decided to then shift development to the new platform. Apparently the game will run on the "White Engine" and will feature the most technologically advanced civilization ever featured in a Final Fantasy. The storyline will center on "those who resist the world." Yeah, okay.

2:27 The conference is officially over, but E3 (and GameSpot) is just getting started. Stay tuned for screens of all this FFXIII madness, and a lot more. And to think, the actual show is still two days away.

or maybe make it an standard E3 thread?

Go gamespot.com now, can stream Sony pre-e3 conference....suppose to start but got delay awhile, now waiting.

Streaming it now..Wow.... PS3 Awesome!!! Realli waiting for it to release!!!

You're f***ing kidding me, FFXIII so soon? I just dropped my balls

LOL....sony controller stay the same as ps2 controller BUT...it has function that is similiar to Nintendo Wii controller! Motion sensor~

wrong,

Phil Harrison comes out: "It's not what it looks like, it's what it does. Let's switch to the demo, and, clearly a little secret is waiting to be unveiled..." Phil brings out a PSP. It looks like the PS3 controller does some special stuff: demo shows a crate on screen. A little secret is inside the box, banging and asking to be let out

still not final i guess

This post has been edited by Setsunahq: May 9 2006, 10:01 AM

sweet mother of god, USD600 for the 60gb version??!! and no rumbling feature? that is not cool!

This post has been edited by cocklea: May 9 2006, 11:57 AM

FFXIII teaser trailer looks pretty coOL!

tut tut tut target confirm....ps3 and nintendo wii...target lock.....tut tut tut

This post has been edited by intothefantasy: May 9 2006, 10:52 PM

first PS3 female chrac from FFXIII

they are beginning to look very similiar. this girl looks like Yuna with a slightly longer face and messier hair.

You should say this one look quite simmilliar to Cloud from Advent Children
That is if you look upclose to her face.

But i wanna know more bout this one...



This post has been edited by SilverCrimz: May 10 2006, 02:13 AM

LOL that one has "omnislash" written all over it.

and the female character looks like an elf... but damn, those screenies are hawt!

that's it, once FF is released for PS3, that's the time I'm buying it.

... but must... save... up... cash...

is that a girl or a guy? the last shot of the trailer definitely screams girly guy.



This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: May 10 2006, 04:32 PM


Attached thumbnail(s)

It's a girl, prolly tomboyish but i can see Cloud Strife in her
The 2nd shot with a guy doing a move that mimics omnislash is a guy.

Damn, so now its a boyishg girl. I'm quite sick having to figure out who is a girl and who is a guy these days. Whats with the Japs and this trend? Do they think humans are asexual?

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: May 10 2006, 05:22 PM

Naw, pretty boys manly girls haved been the thing in jap for very long time. If you look at all the ff games(starting from 7 that is) all heroes seem to be pretty boys .

3 more looks at the trailer and it seems like a girl to me

Huh? I thought pretty boys only started with FFX? Cloud was a bunch of boxy polygons with big round biceps, Squall wasnt quite pretty and Zidane was old skool. Tidus was where it started.

japanes men ware light makeup and do facial ?