Final Fantasy @Tokyo Game Show 2014

 
  Many fans of the Final Fantasy franchise had been anticipating this year's Tokyo Game Show, in speculation of perhaps a glimpse of news from highly anticipated titles of the franchise. And even though the developer Square-Enix had not announced anything beforehand (with the main titles in this year's line-up being "Final Fantasy Explorers" and "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn"), nor had they shown off anything at Sony's pre-show conference or main conference, the fans were not wrong to be anxious.

  
   Starting from a leak on GameInformer and another on the Portuguese counterparts of IGN, the news began to spread. However, they were soon retracted, although not fast enough for the internet to catch wind of what was going on. But this was just the calm before the storm of what Square-Enix had to show.

   The grand announcement was the official release date of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. The highly anticipated PSP-to-next-gen port will be arriving worldwide in late March! Alongside these news came other releases such as the game's opening sequence dubbed in English by IGN and 25 minutes of gameplay. Compared to the limitations of the PSP, the game not only looks better, but offers better quality in sound, battles and an altogether experience. Despite all that, game director Hajime Tabata confirmed that it's at about 70-80% complete, and that the final product will look and play even better than what was shown at TGS.
   Speaking of Tabata, there was even more great information about another game people are expecting. In fact this is THE title people are waiting for! That's right, Square-Enix finally relinquished a ton of news and two more trailers of Final Fantasy XV. But that's not even the best part of it. It was announced that whoever purchases Type-0 HD will get a free voucher to play a demo of Final Fantasy XV (that will release round about the same time) tentatively titled "Episode Duscae"!! After nearly a decade of waiting patiently, players will finally be able to get a feel of this game. Tabata (who is now the game's sole director, as Tetsuya Nomura is no longer needed and has moved on to other projects) revealed that this demo will not contain any spoilers for the game's story and it's just so that the player's can get a 'taste' of the battle system. It will be about 1 hour long, although players will be able to explore a dungeon and the open world if they want, which will maximize the total time to about 3-4 hours. They named the demo "Duscae" after the name of an area in the game and the demo takes place shortly before the main events of the game itself. There will be no boss battles (since apparently they will be "a big deal" in this game) but instead there will be another 'surprise' for fans of the series. Players will be able to traverse by car (manually or automatically, by letting character Ignis take the wheel) or maybe by chocobo, if the development team has time to implement it. 

   The second trailer was titled "The Overture" and was a gameplay demo in the city of Lucis. It showed the day-night cycle and even how rainy weather affects certain areas more than others by accumulating water. Also the battle system was shown off a bit more. Apparently, players can switch to any other party member on the go and they will be able to dodge consecutive enemy attacks by holding down the "Defend" button. They will also be able to chain a link of attacks by holding down the "Auto-Attack" command button and even combine attacks with other party members. Magic was also used here, although not apparent how. Tabata mentioned that they wanted to show more but couldn't due to the short amount of time they were given. He said they would give out more information about XV through the "Square Enix Presents" program and also at other expos, starting with Jump Festa in December.

   Last, but not least, we learned about patch 2.4 of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It is titled "Dreams Of Ice" which will expand the story and include one new class and one new job: the Rogue and the Ninja. There are new Dungeons available in the Coerthas region and in one of them (the Ahk Afah Amphitheatre) the players will do battle with the primal Shiva in Hard Mode and Extreme Mode. Other dungeons include Snowcloak, Sastasha (Hard) and The Sunken Temple Of Qarn (Hard). Also The Final Coil Of Bahamut will end the story of the hardest dungeon in the game. No official release date was given for patch 2.4, but it is expected at the October Fan Fest. More news from the Letter from the Producer Live from TGS right here.

   People say that the TGS is not a place where players can expect a lot of news for games. Well, this year certainly proved them wrong! A bright new future awaits the fans of the Final Fantasy saga! Just think... In a years time we all could be playing the 15th installment of the series! Not long to go!