Once again, it is time for E3. It's that time of the year where gamers around the world gather around and watch what their favorite companies will be delivering them in the months and years to come. And although last year's E3 was mostly centered around the hardware (XBox One, PS4), this year it's all about the games. But out of all those games that were shown off at E3 2013, there are two that haven't joined this year's festivities...
Square-Enix decided it would be a wise idea to withdraw both Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 from its line-up for the show this year. After the initial disappointment, fans could only hypothesize why the company would make such a move. Maybe the games aren't ready yet. Maybe they have nothing new to show. Maybe they're deciding to cancel or they're afraid of the competition. Or maybe they have other plans and don't want XV to steal the spotlight.
The time came for the yearly show that Square-Enix hosts on their Youtube channel titled "Square-Enix Presents". Their line-up was pretty pitiful when compared to last year's (when the likes of even Tetsuya Nomura, director of FF XV and KH 3 had joined the show). But as the show began the internet practically exploded. A rumor that was going around, had been confirmed in the best way possible. But, before we get to that, let's take a quick walk down memory lane...
2006: Square-Enix announces the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" collection. It is made by three titles: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which was later known as XV) and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, a game for mobile phones only.
2011: Square-Enix announce that Final Fantasy Agito XIII will now be known as Final Fantasy Type-0, still connected to the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" mythos. It is no longer a mobile phone game and has been shifted to Sony's Playstation Portable.
2012: Final Fantasy Type-0 releases to Japanese audiences only and is very well received by critics and audiences alike. No release date has been confirmed for western audiences.
2013: In the Ultimania guide book for the game, the staff team reveals that they are working on a western localization and that "news about it will be available soon."
Nothing new had been heard about that game. A lot of people wanted it and some even went to the trouble of importing it from Japan! Until last December when yet another game for mobile titled Final Fantasy Agito was announced. Agito is a game about the events that occurred before Type-0 and it is announced that it will be coming to the west. That was when the director of the original Final Fantasy Type-0, Hajime Tabata revealed in an interview in early 2014 that they looking into the "best way possible" for the game to be localized to the west. He also revealed that most of the translations had been done but the problem was the investment in such a small market as the PSP. The audience of the PSP did not ensure the game's success if it did actually come to the west.
Then May came around and Agito was released in Japan. This led to a few frustrated fans to tweet to the representatives of Square-Enix in France. To their great surprise, they received a reply, telling them to be patient and "who knows what E3 might bring". And that brings us to last night's opening of "Square-Enix Presents", when they finally announced that not only will they be bringing the game to the west, but on the next-gen consoles (XBox One, PS4) as well!
This announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, although a lot of Vita owners wanted the game for themselves so they were quick to show their discontent. But now the fact is that the franchise is moving forward with already 3 games on the PS4 (XIV, XV and Type-0)!
And although someone might be initially excited with this reveal, considering Square-Enix's previous HD remastering of a Final Fantasy game (X/X-2 HD for the PS3) can bring a lot of nightmares along for the ride! In that case, they announced the game in 2011, then it went missing until March '13 (if I remember correctly), when Shinji Hashimoto showed the world what characters looked like on the Vita.
If that were to be the case with Type-0 HD (weird names these games have), what would that mean for the other game they're working on, XV?? Would it push it back even further? Or would they do what they did this year, when they released one game almost on top of the other with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD?
Yet another troubling matter is that all that was given to the public was the announcement of the HD remastering. No release date, no release window, no screenshots or trailers... If this title had been at the Sony Press Conference, it would've been a crowd-pleaser! But all this points to the fact that they haven't even begun the project, so they have nothing to show for it. Although the material is all there (and according to Tabata-san the translations and voice-overs were done back when the game was going to be originally released in the west on the PSP), so all that needs to be done is the graphical uplifting of the game to next-gen. But as I said before, it took them 3 years to do that with FF X/X-2, and that was a game that went from PS2 to PS3! Which would be a lot easier than what they are attempting to do with Type-0.
Then again, they have been delivering the KH remasterings in a much shorter time so it appears they've learned how to perform graphic upliftings in a much shorter time. KH 2,5 ReMix comes out this December and it was announced just last year.
These are the facts. Our voices have been heard and we finally get to play this epic game, in the most amazing way imaginable. Let's just hope it doesn't take too long and it's not at the expense of another, long-awaited game. The Tokyo Game Show this year should be most entertaining. See you all on next-gen!!
Square-Enix decided it would be a wise idea to withdraw both Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 from its line-up for the show this year. After the initial disappointment, fans could only hypothesize why the company would make such a move. Maybe the games aren't ready yet. Maybe they have nothing new to show. Maybe they're deciding to cancel or they're afraid of the competition. Or maybe they have other plans and don't want XV to steal the spotlight.
The time came for the yearly show that Square-Enix hosts on their Youtube channel titled "Square-Enix Presents". Their line-up was pretty pitiful when compared to last year's (when the likes of even Tetsuya Nomura, director of FF XV and KH 3 had joined the show). But as the show began the internet practically exploded. A rumor that was going around, had been confirmed in the best way possible. But, before we get to that, let's take a quick walk down memory lane...
2006: Square-Enix announces the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" collection. It is made by three titles: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which was later known as XV) and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, a game for mobile phones only.
2011: Square-Enix announce that Final Fantasy Agito XIII will now be known as Final Fantasy Type-0, still connected to the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" mythos. It is no longer a mobile phone game and has been shifted to Sony's Playstation Portable.
2012: Final Fantasy Type-0 releases to Japanese audiences only and is very well received by critics and audiences alike. No release date has been confirmed for western audiences.
2013: In the Ultimania guide book for the game, the staff team reveals that they are working on a western localization and that "news about it will be available soon."
Nothing new had been heard about that game. A lot of people wanted it and some even went to the trouble of importing it from Japan! Until last December when yet another game for mobile titled Final Fantasy Agito was announced. Agito is a game about the events that occurred before Type-0 and it is announced that it will be coming to the west. That was when the director of the original Final Fantasy Type-0, Hajime Tabata revealed in an interview in early 2014 that they looking into the "best way possible" for the game to be localized to the west. He also revealed that most of the translations had been done but the problem was the investment in such a small market as the PSP. The audience of the PSP did not ensure the game's success if it did actually come to the west.
Then May came around and Agito was released in Japan. This led to a few frustrated fans to tweet to the representatives of Square-Enix in France. To their great surprise, they received a reply, telling them to be patient and "who knows what E3 might bring". And that brings us to last night's opening of "Square-Enix Presents", when they finally announced that not only will they be bringing the game to the west, but on the next-gen consoles (XBox One, PS4) as well!
This announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, although a lot of Vita owners wanted the game for themselves so they were quick to show their discontent. But now the fact is that the franchise is moving forward with already 3 games on the PS4 (XIV, XV and Type-0)!
And although someone might be initially excited with this reveal, considering Square-Enix's previous HD remastering of a Final Fantasy game (X/X-2 HD for the PS3) can bring a lot of nightmares along for the ride! In that case, they announced the game in 2011, then it went missing until March '13 (if I remember correctly), when Shinji Hashimoto showed the world what characters looked like on the Vita.
If that were to be the case with Type-0 HD (weird names these games have), what would that mean for the other game they're working on, XV?? Would it push it back even further? Or would they do what they did this year, when they released one game almost on top of the other with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD?
Yet another troubling matter is that all that was given to the public was the announcement of the HD remastering. No release date, no release window, no screenshots or trailers... If this title had been at the Sony Press Conference, it would've been a crowd-pleaser! But all this points to the fact that they haven't even begun the project, so they have nothing to show for it. Although the material is all there (and according to Tabata-san the translations and voice-overs were done back when the game was going to be originally released in the west on the PSP), so all that needs to be done is the graphical uplifting of the game to next-gen. But as I said before, it took them 3 years to do that with FF X/X-2, and that was a game that went from PS2 to PS3! Which would be a lot easier than what they are attempting to do with Type-0.
Then again, they have been delivering the KH remasterings in a much shorter time so it appears they've learned how to perform graphic upliftings in a much shorter time. KH 2,5 ReMix comes out this December and it was announced just last year.
These are the facts. Our voices have been heard and we finally get to play this epic game, in the most amazing way imaginable. Let's just hope it doesn't take too long and it's not at the expense of another, long-awaited game. The Tokyo Game Show this year should be most entertaining. See you all on next-gen!!
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