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Gaming market in Japan shrinks 24%

Even though franchises such as Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest have been seeing some ridiculously high numbers, it doesn’t mean that the Japanese gaming market is recession proof.

Recent reports are saying that sales were 24% lower in the first half of 2009 than they were in 2008. While this somewaht makes sense due to the fact thatlast year had games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Monster Hunter Portable it’s proof that an economical recessions hurts all industries.

Luckily, buzz suggests that games such as Dragon Quest IX, Monster Hunter 3 and Fintal Fantasy XII (all shipping later this year0 will bring the Japanese gaming market back to its glory days.

Read (Joystiq)

Square Enix and Eidos working on something together

This was probably expected but is still news anyways — Back in April Square Enix announced that it had effectively taken over Eidos but ever since we haven’t heard much out of the two companies.

Well, Yoichi Wada, Square Enix’s CEO, was recently quoted to say in an interview with Gamasutra that while it was possible that they would be working on Eidos with an existing IP “but what’s more important is that the two companies, for example, are going to be creating a new IP together.”

So, the guys behind the Final Fantasy series will be collaborating with the guys behind the Tomb Raider series for an all new IP. No way of telling what’s in store for us but let’s hope its good, Mr. Wada.

Final Fantasy XIV to be an MMO, out in 2010

Final Fantasy XII isn’t even out yet and already Square Enix is taking the wraps off of Final Fantasy XIV. Don’t expect to gain much in terms of gameplay from the above trailer as it is entirely CG. Of course, it the CG is done beautifully as in all Final Fantasy games.

Anyways, we know now that Final Fantasy XIV will be an MMORPG much like Final Fantasy XI and will be a PS3 exclusive. However, Joystiq reports that they said PS3 will be the games “only console” which means a PC version might be in the works.

All things aside, FFXIV will be out sometime in 2010 presumably after FFXIII.

Final Fantasy series sells 85 million

With Square Enix officially taking over Eidos yesterday, they released some sales numbers (and lots of other numbers too), boasting its reign in the video game business.

The publisher revealed that the Final Fantasy series has sold over 85 million games in the series’ lifetime, which began with Final Fantasy 1, released on the NES in 1987.

Square Enix also revealed that Dragon Quest lifetime sales have reached 50 million copies, the newly acquired Lara Croft series has sold 30 million in its lifetime, while the Hitman series have sales of 8 million units. Also, quite interestingly, the controversial Kane & Lynch: Dead Men game sold almost two million copies – despite all the negative press surrounding the game.

Court gives Square Enix the go ahead to buy Eidos

Square Enix’s takeover of Eidos Interactive has been an ongoing effort since last year when the deal was originally penned.

Well, Gamasutra is reporting that a court has finally made the take over official giving Square Enix control of valuable Eidos game franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex.

So now that Square Enix’s $117 million buyout has been made official, what’s next? Are we going to see Laura Croft make a cameo in an upcoming Final Fantasy game? Let’s hope not!

Tales of Vesperia Review–It’s All About Style Over Substance

Tales of Vesperia is one of those Xbox 360 games that are really rather difficult to put in a corner.

Part of the rather extensive Tales Of series that includes such pieces as Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Legends, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Eternia, Tales of of Vesperia seems to be a lot like Bandai / Namco’s shot at the Final Fantasy series with a series of generally unrelated stories with only a few connecting threads among them.  In fact, you’ll even be using a battle system developed for Tales of the Abyss that was revamped and refined specifically for Tales of Vesperia.

And this time around, you’re hanging out on planet Terca Lumireis, a planet where a kind of magic seems to have taken the place of technology for the most part, so that you’re looking at a planet with feudal-age technology that still has giant fountains.  Mages replace scientists here, and are counted on to keep the system running.  Made up words abound–the magic technology keeping the planet running is called “blastia”, “blastia” is made up by a kind of subetheric substance called “aer”, and there’s several different kinds of “blastia” keeping the planet running like aque which handles water, and bodhi, which is used by soldiers to enhance their combat skills.  Anyway, the whole game starts when the poor side of the capital city’s aque blastia is stolen, causing its fountain to run amok and start flooding the whole area.  Naturally, no one else seems to care, because it’s not THEM about to die in a flood.  A former Imperial Knight, Yuri, goes off in search of the mage hired to keep the water running in the first place and breaks into his house, winding up in prison.  From there, Yuri discovers that there’s a conspiracy going around in the highest echelons of government focused around a young woman with impressive healing capabilities that can be channeled into summoning a beast with the ultimate power to destroy all life as we know it.  So it’s really only a matter of time before someone tries to either kill the young woman or harness her power, so Yuri’s got to try and keep the girl alive, and save the world.

I know, kind of a convoluted plotline.  But that’s okay, as this is very clearly a Japanese RPG.  You can tell from the aforementioned nonsensical storyline and the opening that’s a very pure anime.  Also you can tell from some of the voice actors–both Wendee Lee and Dee Bradley Baker are involved in this one.  You probably recognize Wendee as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, and there’s a whole laundry list of places to recognize Dee Bradley Baker from.  The Japanese have a downright gift for making the purest nonsense entertaining and even fun, so you won’t CARE that it doesn’t make any sort of sense because you’ll be too busy enjoying it.

But don’t expect to have a lot of fun right away with Tales of Vesperia–it’s another one of those games where you’ll spend a lot more time watching the game than playing it, especially in the first half-hour or so.  Thankfully, the cut scenes and anime bookending is just plain old beautiful to watch, so you may be able to live with the fact that you’re not so much a character as a passenger for a good long while.  Action buffs, however, will be spectacularly irked by the focus of QQ over pew-pew if you get my drift.

This is not to say that Tales of Vesperia is a particularly BAD game, it’s really more of a NICHE game.  If you’re looking for a movie that takes a couple dozen hours to play through and offers some interactivity, you could do a whole lot worse than Tales of Vesperia.

No global Final Fantasy XIII until next year

Most people were expecting Final Fantasy XII to be released this year. It turns out that Japan will indeed be getting their hands on the game this year. However, the rest of the world will have to wait another year for the RPG title.

Yoichi Wada, president of Square-Enix, said that an overseas launch of the game won’t arrive until April 2010. A reason why it will be taking so long might be that development on the 360 version won’t begin until after the PS3 version is complete.

The game will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America, but Japan will only be seeing an exclusive PS3 release.

Read (Guardian)

Scans Of Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles For WiiWare

Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles: Little King and the Promise Country. Wow, what a huge title. The WiiWare game developed by Squaresoft, seems so far to be a kind of town/city management simulator, where you control Little King and construct different buildings with special Architect powers. These powers can be found and added to by sending out explorers to find elemental skills, which are found in dungeons. The way you build the city effects these explorers, certain specific buildings will help your army of mages and warriers in ways such as upgraded weaponry, or increased magical power. It seems to blend RPG elements with RTS in an interesting way.

The game is scheduled for release in Japan in March next year for 1500 Wii Point ($15), but no word on a release for the rest of the world has been uttered.

Thanks to neo2046 of the NeoGAFF forum for the screens.