Final Fantasy XIII Websites Go Live

By Roy | Published: January 12, 2009

FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS

After about a year of generating hype for the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII series, Square Enix decided to finally launch an official website for the series and each title.  Currently there is not much new information on any of the sites and they are fairly bare.

The site for Final Fantasy XIII has possibly the most information, including short bios for Lightning, Snow, and the recently named twin-tailed girl: Oerba Dia Vanille.  That is one dramatic-ass name.  I sure hope Final Fantasy XIII won’t be the difficult-to-pronounce-name-fest that Final Fantasy XII was.

Vanille

I am not sure why so many people were calling her Sara but I am glad to know her real name.  Goddamn the graphics for that image are incredible.

There are also several screens of both cut-scenes and actual battles, which are just plain brilliant:

Lightning raining death more death

Why is Lightning so awesome?  Her awesomeness weighs down on my soul like a black hole filled with whales.

I believe a great deal of updates concerning all Final Fantasy XIII titles are on the horizon.  In March Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete will be released along with a playable demo of XIII and high quality movies for Agito and Versus.  I am sure that these videos will be appearing on the internet moments after (or before) the film’s release.  I am hoping for some videos of the playable demo too, since it may be a while before we get it in North America (if we do).

I will check the sites as frequently as possible in anticipation of some decent updates.  In the meantime (if you haven’t already) you should definitely check the sites out.

Related Entries:
Final Fantasy XIII: In The Sleep
Exciting Square Enix News From DK?3713

Posted in final fantasy xiii, ps3, psp, square enix | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

OMG Toys: Kingdom Hearts Mobile

By Sarah | Published: January 9, 2009

Sora Static Arts

There is some new merchandise from Square Enix to report.  The item in question is a Sora Avatar Static Arts Vinyl Figure from Kingdom Hearts Mobile.  It’s a lot cuter than the last Square Enix merch I mentioned, but still rather expensive.  The figure is available for pre-order at Kidnemo for $103.99, which is the best price I could find.  The street release date is late June.  I am not sure of the size of the statue, but I am guessing it is pretty big based on the price.

Kingdom Hearts Mobile features adorable art that is ideal for a system with limited graphics capabilities like a cellular phone:

KH Mobile

One bit of criticism I have about the figure is that it seems kinda silly to make a large figure in such a comic style.  I think the art would be more suited to a set of smaller figures – possibly gachapon or key chains or something.  That would certainly make it a bit more affordable to all us impoverished video game fans.

Related Entries:
All OMG Toys posts can be found here.

Posted in figure, merchandise, square enix | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Seventh Dragon: Introduction Movie and Party Maker

By Roy | Published: January 7, 2009

Today I chose to take a snow day and call out of work. That means I was able to go to all the websites which are normally blocked at my job! I haven’t heard much about 7th Dragon so I decided to check out the game’s main site to see if there have been any major updates.

An introduction movie was added which shows a few screenshots as well as some cutscenes.  I was pretty impressed by the later half of the video (0:35-end) which shows a battle between a dragon and a party.  Here all the jobclasses are introduced in quick succession showing the chibi and normal form of each member of the jobclass.

If the video went a little too fast for you, the site now also includes a “Party Maker” page.  Here you can scroll through the various jobs and select your ideal party of 4 before the game comes out. To the left you can view the party of 4 I chose.

As you may be able to tell, I was going for a cat-ear theme.  There were a few characters who almost made the cut, like the depressed looking Princess.  I am happy with my team although I should probably include another melee character, but meh, I am not actually fighting with them.

After selecting your party of four, click the little blue icon below the right-most character to receive the code for your party which can then be pasted into a blog or whatever floats your boat.  If you want you can even paste it into the comments section of the entry and let everyone see your discerning tastes.

Seventh Dragon comes out in Japan this March, and I eagerly await hearing something about its Western release so I can make my team for real!

Related Entries:
Sega Announces Seventh Dragon for Nintendo DS
7th Dragon: That’s a Lot of Dragons
Tokyo Game Show 2008 Highlights

Posted in nintendo ds, sega, videos | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Dungeons & Dam: Beaver Combat

By Roy | Published: January 6, 2009

town

Dungeons & Dam (or DanDam) is Acquire’s newest work-in-progress for the Nintendo DS and is scheduled to be released this Spring in Japan.  The game revolves around a small town barricaded against demons with the help of raging waters controlled by dams.

Each night, demons will attempt to take over the town.  The player creates units and assembles teams with specific tasks to contribute to the protection of the town and its people.  The morning portion of each day is spent organizing and preparing for nightfall.  I am not sure how the passage of time is based, but I am guessing it is not based on actual time.

arranging a team Different groups can be assigned to different tasks in parties of 1-4.  If you would like to see the some recruitable units, you can find them here.  The art reminds me of Etrian Odyssey’s character design. When it comes to assigning tasks, a party can be set as defense while another may enter a dungeon below the town which controls the surrounding dams.  It is possible to release the water to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, but that requires braving the dungeon.

If the player performs well at routinely routing the invading forces, more people will move into the town.  Having more people means more talent.  Shops will begin carrying better weapons, equips, and items.  Likewise, a town which frequently comes close to annihilation will have its residents choose to leave.

nightfall house arrangement
 in the bar
The story is somewhat less appealing to me than the details listed above.  This could have something to do with the unimpressive video I watched on the game’s main site.  The main character is the androgynous individual in green.  His (let’s go with that) name is Shion and he enjoys reading history books (like the one on his back).  Due to the death of his parents, Shion moved into the threatened town. At the bar in town Shion handles recruiting and arranging of the town’s forces. Shion

The system the game uses reminds me a bit of games like Dark Cloud, in which the player has a bit of control when it comes to his or her town.  Seeing the effects of your hard work around you is always a good feeling.  This combined with a ton of different creatable characters has me very intrigued with Dungeons and Dam.

My only concern is that in some ways the game looks a little poorly put together.  The website and the game’s logo in particular fail to impress me, which is surprising to me since most Japanese game sites are nicely designed.  Perhaps the game will look a bit more polished as it’s release draws closer.

Posted in nintendo ds, preview | Tagged , | 5 Comments

OMG Toys: High Rollers

By Roy | Published: January 5, 2009

1/1 helm

Video game news is slow these days.  Japan takes it easy around the new year.  VERY easy.  And they deserve to, I suppose.  Since there isn’t much to talk about, I think I will complain about something.   I choose to complain about Square Enix’s recent release of some ridiculously expensive merchandise.

Fran and Balthier
 I was OK with the release of the Fran and Balthier statue which goes for no less than $250 at a decent site.  I didn’t ask why the fuck they are on a motorcycle, because they are Fran and Balthier and they are the only decent element in Final Fantasy XII.  If they wanna ride a motorcycle, I will let it slide.  I don’t remember any in the game, but hey, whatever – I never beat it.

I started having problems when I saw this (image at top, more here).  If you played Final Fantasy XII you may recognize this mass of metal as Judge Magister Gabranth’s helmet. What you may not realize instantly is that this is a 1/1 scale helmet. That means that its size is equal to its actual size… were it to exist.

The price is even more redonk.  If you were to buy the helm from Amazon Japan, it would run you ?115,496.  That translates to about $1,200 and at Play-Asia the helm is available for pre-order for $1099.99.

This helm begs a question in my mind: can it be worn?  If so, what would one wear with it?  Surely my pink polo shirt with popped collar would not match a helm meant for a suit of armor.  Most people do not own suits of armor, which may adversely affect demand.  Still, if you cannot wear the helm, it seems like an awful lot of money for something purely decorative.

I am not sure what Square Enix is thinking with these increasingly expensive pieces of merchandise.  Do I even wanna know how much the Versus Final Fantasy XII + Roen collaboration clothes are going to cost?  I think someone needs to take some time out of their day and explain what recession means to Square Enix.

Related Entries:
All OMG Toys posts can be found here.

Posted in figure, merchandise, square enix | Tagged , , | 6 Comments