Final Fantasy XI players have a launch date for “A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses” to look forward to. Square Enix has announced this second add-on scenario for FFXI will be available for pre-purchase for $9.99 via the PlayOnline Viewer July 5th. This new content is for any characters that have reached level 10 on their main job.

“It all started with an innocent drop of rainwater and a rickety, ramshackle Mog House desperately in need of repair.

Little did anyone suspect that this would be the beginning of a harrowing nightmare unheard of in the annals of moogle-kind”

The first of Masato Kato’s trio of add-ons, “A Crystalline Prophecy – Ode of Life Bestowing,” is already available. “A Shantotto Ascension – The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born” will round out the series. “A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses” requires the first FFXI expansion, RISE OF THE ZILART.

Confirmed concerts for the U.S. and the rest of the globe have been announced for Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. The first concert of 2009 will take place at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 11 with a special VIP meet and greet featuring Nobuo Uematsu where a limited number will be able to meet Nobuo and Maestro Arnie Roth.

More post concert meet and greet tickets have been made available, but are only available by phone, so call today and do not miss out on a chance to hang out after the concert. Other venues include Seattle with the Seattle Symphony for two shows only on July 10 and 11 at 8:00pm. Tickets will also be on sale soon May 16 with the Baltimore Symphony in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and July 17 and 18 with the Grammy award winning San Francisco Symphony.

To find out more about upcoming dates in the U.S. or your area of the world, visit the official Distant Worlds website.

The 1UP team sat down for a test run of Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess updates, Swarm and Moblin Maze Mongers. While they got in some quality game time they also got to fire off questions at the Square-Enix FFXI development team on the three upcoming mini-expansions: A Crystalline Prophecy, A Moogle Kupo d’Etat, and A Shantotto Ascension.

Here’s the 1UP video podcast:

You can find a full transcript of the 1UP Square-Enix FFXI interview on 1UP.

Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time to North America for the Nintendo DS and Wii. In the game, players can choose to play alone or with friends, whenever and however they like with the introduction of a new concept which will enable users of either Nintendo platform to adventure alongside each other for the first time. Maintaining the control scheme found in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and enhancing the gameplay experience, Echoes of Time has a system that promises to allow players to switch between the single and multiplayer modes in-game.

Using a new technology called the “Pollux Engine”,  this is a true cross-platform game as it will be identical on both NDS and Wii, down to the last detail. Use the stylus to control your character on the NDS while the Wiimote will mimic the same actions when used on the Wii. The game requires only one copy of the game to work on both systems.

The storyline tells the tale of a triumphant return from a monster-infested forest, which takes place during a 16-year-old hero’s coming-of-age ceremony. However, the hero’s joy is short-lived as a young village girl is found to be afflicted by a mysterious illness known as “crystal sickness.” Determined to obtain the cure, the hero steps out of the secluded village for the first time, only to discover a world in which crystals are merely artifacts of the past and no longer exist.

Read the full article »

Square-Enix has given Final Fantasy XI players something to look forward to in 2009. There will be three new expansions coming out as add-ons for digital distribution a few months apart. These are products of Square veteran Masato Kato and are meant to resemble novelettes that deepen the storyline rather than add new areas.

The first to make an appearance Spring 2009 will be A Crystalline Prophecy – Ode of Life Bestowing. This adventure will have players searching for the origins of a mysterious crystal hovering over the world. A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses will follow. According to Square-Enix Blog:

“It all started with an innocent drop of rainwater and a rickety, ramshackle Mog House desperately in need of repairs… Little did anyone suspect that this was only the beginning of a harrowing nightmare unheard of in the annals of moogle-kind.”

The final expansion is entitled A Shantotto Ascension – The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born. In it players will follow the story of a demented professor who declares herself Emperor.

After six years Final Fantasy XI is still going strong on the PC, PS2 and Xbox 360. These add-ons join four previous expansions for the series and will run around $10 each.

1UP is appealing to gamers to take a 5-10 minute break from their games to fill out the 2008 MMO Gaming Study survey. Those who make time for this no fail quiz by December 1st will be entered in a Sweepstakes to win a $300 American Express Cheque.

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In addition, you can earn additional entries into the sweepstakes. The first 500 completed surveys will earn a double entry into the prize drawing.

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2. Fill out the entire survey to be eligible for the drawing. *Please fill out the entire survey by December 1st in order to be eligible.*
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One of Square Enix’s current goals is to broaden its horizons and expand its international portfolio, with one specific mark being to generate 50% of its revenue from outside of Japan (up from the current 10-20%). Senior VP Michihiro Sasaki explained, “We need to seek cooperation with a US publisher — we need local content. Our strength is in role-playing games and fantasy titles, so it is a bit difficult to appeal to the US market.”

Just last week we learned about the bizarre partnership between Square Enix and Gas Powered Games which will have Square Enix publishing Supreme Commander 2 — a game that hardly fits inside the fantasy RPG genre you’d expect from the creator of Final Fantasy.

Today an announcement of another move was made, although this is a far bigger deal than a single publishing deal. Square Enix will be opening a new development studio in Los Angeles, California (El Segundo). The studio will be working on an original action game and is currently seeking to fill various positions, including software engineers with experience developing for the Xbox 360 and Wii.

One of the job postings (via Gamasutra) reads, “How often do you get a chance to make sure that a studio starts off in the right direction? How often do you get to be one of the starting members, but also have medical insurance? This is a rare opportunity to have the creative control of a start-up but the backing and funding of a major publisher.” Listings also mention that Square Enix is seeking “to lay the foundation for a solid development team.”

“We see great opportunities in North American and European markets, both of which are expected to be maintaining sustainable growth over these coming years,” said the company’s President, Yoichi Wada.

If the Supreme Commander 2 announcement didn’t have you convinced (and understandably so), this goes a long way in reaffirming that Square Enix is serious about becoming a more significant player outside of Japan. Anyone want to take a guess at what the game the new studio is developing might be like? My one hope is that it doesn’t star any teenage boys with spiky hair.

All modders and aspiring developers out there should pay close attention to a new article up on Blend Games. The author takes aim at RPGs calling them on their weaknesses and shortcomings while acknowledging the true greats in “Reasons Your Role-Playing Game Is Disappointing.” This of course translates to “Why your RPG sucks”.

Most of the games that come under fire are Western RPGs with only one JRPG in the mix. As you might expect, there are Bioware titles mentioned in abundance such as Neverwinter Nights 2, NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur’s Gate. Arcanum, Final Fantasy VII and Fable get mentioned as well. the only Western RPG that wasn’t touched on was Planescape: Torment.

ERPG Cardinal sins including getting the story started to slowly. FF7 and Mass Effect are held out as sterling examples of what sucks players into a game right off the bat while the intro to Fable is used as an example of what not to do. NwN2 is slammed as well, but NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer is given Kudos for getting the player’s attention immediately. I’ve got to admit that waking up in a crypt hundreds of miles from home is much more interesting than going out for the prize at your local fair.

Also on the hit list is the over use of Fed Ex quests, slow travel between points of interest and unwieldy inventory systems like the one that plagues players in Mass Effect. Fable is once again sent to the corner for repetitive combat. Hopefully we won’t see these shortcomings in Fable 2. Catch the best and the worst of RPGs on Blend Games.

Here are some of the most memorable Oh. My. God!!! gaming moments gathered together by the Edge staff. The selections include the latest games back to videogames from the media’s infancy. Their picks include Final Fantasy VII Aeris’ death, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion The Dark Brotherhood beckons quest line, BioShock “Would you kindly” sequence and from Portal, The “Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.”

I have to fully agree with most their choices; all ten pages of wow gaming moments. My own personal favorite is The Secret of Monkey Island training sequence when Guybrush Threepwood learns the art of Insult Sword Fighting. I have to warn gamers that some of these OMG moments are spoilers and there’s no warning as to which entries qualify.

There have been many game demos before that people spent hours on (God only knows how many times I played that Metal Gear Solid 2 demo packaged with ZOE). But how many demos have taken that long for just one playthrough? Apparently, that’s exactly what Square-Enix has planned for the Final Fantasy XIII demo, which will take PS3-owners through an early portion of the game. According to an upcoming issue of Famitsu, the demo will come packaged with the Blu-Ray release of the feature-length film, Final Fantasy: Advent Children Complete, which will feature new and deleted scenes for a much longer run-time than before. More impressive than that though is that the accompanying demo will apparently run even longer than the film; probably well over two hours.

That’s pretty gutsy of Square-Enix actually. I’ve encountered many demos that took less than five minutes for me to get tired of, so a two hour one would have to be pretty spectacular to hold peoples’ interest. You have to wonder if they’ll actually give you the option to save in the middle though, even if it is a demo. You also have to wonder what the cut-scene to gameplay ratio is for this portion of the game.

Via Playstation Universe