This week we’re gonna look at one of the most prolific and underrated RPGs of the 16-era. It was unique for its time because of its hybrid RTS/Turn-based gameplay, massive scope, and a shifting alignment system which was years ahead of its time, even yielding one of 12 different endings based on your actions. Enix released the game on the Super Nintendo with a limited run. A ‘special edition’ was released on Playstation by Atlus, also having a limited run. Sequels to this game have appeared on the Nintendo 64, Playstation, and Game Boy Advance, but there is nothing better than the original.
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It’s a widely known fact that, despite what your personal preferences may be, Final Fantasy 7 was undoubtly the most popular and well known games of the FF series thus far. Since its conception a decade ago, people have been wondering that, since it was so popular, shouldn’t the game be remade on the newest generation of consoles for an even better rendition of the classic tale? Of course this has always been a rumor, but never has there been cold hard facts that it was or wasn’t being considered by the good people at Square-Enix.

Well, looks like we finally got our first batch of “official” news on the topic, and it’s not a good report. Tetsuya Nomura, who was the character designer for the original game, states that overseas rumors are just that.

“My apologies, but we’re absolutely not making [such a game].”

So that’s it? That’s the cold hard truth from the horse’s mouth? Everyone hoping that a 10th Anniversary remake being secretly made are out of luck? Seems kind of hard to believe, given that even Normura himself has proclaimed in contrast, “We of course know ourselves what the fans want so we’d like to continue thinking up a variety of things. As long as there are people who want to make it and people who are waiting for it, we don’t want to proclaim ‘the end.”

It’s not like it’s a crime to report false testaments to media outlets, and considering some supposed PS3 production art for a technical demo that’s been featured on IGN such as [here] and [here], there may still be reason to hold out a bit of hope that the developers at Square-Enix still known what their fans crave.

In 1994, when it was still two separate from Square, Enix released this action RPG for the Super Nintendo. Although This game is the second part of a trilogy that includes Soulblazer and Terranigma (only released in Europe), you don’t have to play Soulblazer at all in order to enjoy this game. (In fact, the only link between the two is the appearance of a Soulblazer boss in a hidden level of the game.) Playing as Will, you and your friends travel the world during the age of exploration. You’ll visit real life locales such as Angkor Wat, The Great Pyramid of Egypt, and The Great Wall of China in your quest to stop a comet from approaching Earth. You’ll gain two allies, both with different abilities, whom you can change into when needed. This game stands along side Zelda and Secret of Mana as one of the best action RPGS available on the Super Nintendo. Hopefully we can expect a virtual console release sometime in the near future.

This weekend’s Square-Enix party in Chiba, Japan revealed some more interesting tidbits and videos about upcoming titles and plans for the future. Did you expect anything less?

Amongst the flurry of closer video presentation and excitable cosplayers, Square-Enix dropped some more information regarding the new Final Fantasy: Dissidia game for the PSP, including playable characters for the title such as Zidane and Kuja from FFIX, Warrior of Light from the original game, and….big surprise….Sephiroth! Or at least, that’s what has lead viewers of the footage believe. Of course, we won’t know until the official confirmation as to whether or not the famous villian would truly be playable.

Some new footage of a new entry to the Kingdom Hearts series was also featured, but was left vague as to whether or not it was related to the KH3 teaser at the end of the second game, or if it is part of a side-story and new game altogether. Word has it confusion probably won’t be cleared up until the Tokyo Game Show in September.

Ah Square-Enix, you are the cock-tease of the gaming world.

Gotta love Square-Enix for their teasers.

Yesterday, a new site was launched representing the newest addition to the legendary Final Fantasy series : Dissidia. Obviously, not much is out right now in terms of information about the game, other than it’s for the PSP, and Nomura is doing the character designs. The unconfirmed info concerning the game is that it very well might not be a traditional RPG, like the rest of the series, and that it may be based off of Final Fantasy XIII. This is also meant to be a part of the “20th Anniversary” stint of special goodies being released by Square-Enix.

More details will supposedly be released at this weekend’s Square-Enix Party. No release date other that “TBA” has been given as of yet.

You can check out the teaser site HERE.

Long before merging with Squaresoft, Enix released this launch window SNES title which bought together Castlevania-caliber action and Sim-City style level building. Playing as “The master” (or God, as he was known in the Japanese release) you awaken from a sleep of hundreds of years to take down “The Evil One” (or Satan, as he was called in Japan). First however, you have to restore your powers by restoring the people’s faith in you by helping re-develop their land in simulation-style segments and by destroying the Evil One’s minions via side scrolling action segments. By preforming certain tasks during the simulation levels, the Master will unlock new powers and magic. For those who didn’t care much for the simulation levels, a hidden professional mode was available which featured a high difficulty and maxed out attributes for the main character. A sequel was released a few years later which left out the simulation levels altogether, although it was still every bit as enjoyable as the first. Actraiser has already been re-released on the Japanese and European Virtual Console, so I have no doubt that it will be arriving here shortly.

A little trivia on this game: Although the game was heavy on Judeo-Christian themes, Nintendo of America policy strictly forbade content which could remotely be deemed offensive (i.e. gore and religious themes). This same policy caused the spells ‘holy’ and ‘death’ from the American SNES versions of Final Fantasy 4 and 6 to be renamed ‘pearl’ and ‘doom’.

In 2001, the last thing anyone would imagine is Final Fantasy characters running around with Disney characters. Then Square’s Kingdom Hearts came, and it’s action RPG gameplay, deep plot, and high production values made it an instant classic amongst gamers. When the game concluded however, there were many questions that had been left unanswered, and even more were left over from the Game Boy Advance spin-off, “Chain of Memories”. Of course like any good series, this merely left players anticipating this eagerly awaited sequel even more.
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Over the weekend the Square/Disney faithful wept openly as this pre-rendered battle sequence found its way to the internet. It takes a while to really get to a point where you can even tell its even supposed to be Kingdom Hearts, but it is. This video was hidden at the end of the recently released Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on PS2 in Japan.

Or maybe not. Eurogamer reports Tetsuya Nomura, the director of the Kingdom Hearts II, says the next title will be a completely new series. Why change it up? Maybe its not an RPG? Maybe it deviates too far from the conventions of KH? Who knows.

Also up in the air is where this series will be released. The pre-rendered video is no clear indication of hardware. It could easily continue on the PS2, jump to PS3, or even go cross platform to Wii or Xbox 360. The only certainty is that when it comes out it will sell a bajillion copies like the last one.