Square Enix has today uploaded the official box art for Final Fantasy XIII to their e-store which we have pictured for you above. Of course, it’s pretty small and ridiculously un entertaining but it is the official box art and that means something, right?

It’s expected that the North American box art will look the same as the above one is for the Japanese market but we won’t know until FFXIII actually makes its way onto store shelves for the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in 2010.

Square Enix’s President and CEO Yoichi Wada has recently went on record to say that he strongly believes Nintendo is gearing up to launch their next generation Wii sometime next year. He doesn’t go into much detain but does suggest that the console could possibly feature a completely redone controller in addition to high definition graphics, which would make sense.

Furthermore, Mr. Wada has also said that while the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 motion controllers are cool, they probably won’t make much of an impact. He elaborates by pointing to the fact that game consoles now have a wide array of uses from a network terminal to a Blu-ray player and that the list of things you can do with these new motion controllers is quite small.

Read (Financial Times)

As for a North American release date? No word.

via joystiq

A single-player demo for the game has been released recently, titled “Road to Paris”. It’s available on the official website.

I’m looking forward to Order of War; it will be interesting to see how the Japanese RPG giant will handle a World War II game.

What you see above is a screenshot taken of a teaser site Square Enix has recently put up. As you can see, there is Japanese letting that spells out quotes from Napolean, Patton and more in front of a huge 2 that bares an uncanny resemblance to the one found in all of the Modern Warfare 2 promotional material.

Coincidence? I think not.

“We were extra careful about things like making sure to including exciting and heroic highlight scenes at regular intervals in the scenario, and using the visual capabilities of the Wii to its fullest potential,” Itahana said. “Even right now, and for as long as time permits, the development team will continue to pour their efforts into the presentation and sound for a final product that looks and feels great.”

Graphics aren’t always everything, but when it’s a Final Fantasy title, there are certain expectations on the line. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: the Crystal Bearers will be out December 31st.

The keynote’s title will be “New Tactics For 2009″, and will also feature an all-Japanese panel discussion of executives from Capcom, Bandai Namco and Square Enix about global strategy.

This year’s Tokyo Game Show will be held from September 24 to September 27. The last two days will be open to the public, while the rest of the show is industry-only.

Read (Gamasutra)

Considering the hype surrounding the game, this should come as a surprise to no one — Dragon Quest IX has sold 2.3 million copies in its first 2 days on the Japanese market.

That means that in addition to its 2 million pre-orders, Dragon Quest IX was purchased an additional 300,000, for those of you not good with a calculator. Additionally, it was reported that 81.56% of the game’s inventory was sold out nation wide which means it was sure to have sold out at some retailers.

Now all we have to do is play the waiting game until Dragon Quest IX drops in the US. Only then will we know if American gamers have the same interest for the Dragon Quest franchise as the Japanese.

via Joystiq

What you see above is a supposedly leaked concept art image of a new Tomb Raider game that is in the works. Furthermore, the image was accompained by a few details of the game.

Reportedly, the next Tomb Raider game will feature open-world gameplay with a reworked combat system. And, a hint at the game’s plot lets us know that it will be an origin story of Lara Croft showcasing how she came to be.

I don’t know about you guys, but the image art shows a close resemblance to that of what would be featured in a Final Fantasy game. It would make sense considering Tomb Raider’s developer, Eidos, was bought out by Final Fantasy’s Square Enix.

Read (Joystiq)

Japanese gamers really are all about their RPGS — Square Enix has recently announced that Dragon Quest IX, follow up to the popular Playstation 2 title, has been pre-ordered in Japan over 2 million times.

Kotaku reports that the game is sure to be a hit considering the 26 million+ Nintendo DS consoles sold in Japan thus far and the generally well reception of Dragon Quest VIII.

R.I.P. Eidos brand.

But even I can be wrong–savor the flavor, kids, because this doesn’t happen very often.  I tried Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time and got a pretty good surprise out of it.

As for the plot…wow.  On RPG Cliche Day–okay, on a young man’s sixteenth birthday, he oversleeps, gets up late and dashes off to his Coming Of Age Ceremony.  Yes, they even CALL it the Coming Of Age Ceremony.  I’m both amazed and horrified.  Anyway, after completing said ceremony, he returns to the village to discover that his best friend’s little sister has contracted some kind of mysterious illness that resembles nothing so much as radiation sickness.  No, really.  And it gets better.  So now, on his sixteenth birthday, the boy has to violate the laws of his village and actually LEAVE to go find medicine to heal the “crystal sickness”.

Yeah, you heard all of that right.  An opening jam packed with cliches leads to a little girl getting radiation sickness that, if she survives it, will actually mutate her into being a super-strong entity with rapid healing powers, which turns out to be the exact same disease the hero had, and then the hero will actually break the law to go fetch medicine but no one seems to care about the legal issues here at ALL.

This may well be the most predictable and yet the most ridiculous game plotline I’ve ever heard.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many tropes in one place, only to be followed up by a ridiculous series of plot holes sufficiently large to drive a herd of chocobo through.

And yet, the game play isn’t half bad.  You’ll get some mini-games in the middle of this full-blown series of adventures, and there’s plenty of variety to be had here.  Sure, it’s all a bit cookie-cutter and plain vanilla, but there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it.  It’s a fairly fun game, and with a little bit of excitement.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time isn’t exactly the greatest game ever, but it’s a far cry from the worst, too.  There’s reason enough to give it a try that it’ll make at least a decent rental, even if it won’t wind up taking over your life.  If you’ve got a yen for RPGs and a decent tolerance for half-baked plotlines, you’ll probably have a good time with this one.

Square Enix has taken time away from sueing French retailers to announce that an upcoming mini-expansion for their MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, will be made available for pre-purchase on July 5th.

The upcoming expansion is entitled A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses, and reportedly focuses on the Moogles in the game and problems that encompass them.  RandomNPC reports that a job level of at least 10 is required to start this new story line.

Final Fantasy XI’s upcoming expansion, A Moogle d’Etat will be available for $9.99 when it drops.

Square Enix has always been known to holds its own in court, especially on the grounds of software piracy. Unfortunately for a french retailer by the name of la société SAKURA, has come into their targets.

According to Kotaku, the French retailer has a retail store in Paris along with an online presence that sells all sorts of Japanese gaming material. Well, something fishy must have been going on as Square Enix says they “denounces SAKURA for the commercialization of products counterfeiting Square Enix’s FINAL FANTASY and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST trademarks and copyrights to the FINAL FANTASY series”.

Common la société SAKURA, how long did you think it would take Square Enix to catch you?

It seems that a San Francisco resident by the name of Esther Leong has taken Square Enix of America to court for $5 million. The subject of the law suit is regarding MMO Final Fantasy XI and “unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment”.

According to Kotaku, Esther Leong is claiming that Square Enix “lied about or concealed its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions and other things that should have been fully disclosed at points of purchase”.

Below is an excerpt from the court filings:

The deceptive advertising, unfair and undisclosed business practices, and concealment concern, among others:

i. Licensing of the online games software disguised as a sale;
ii. Monthly fees (”fees”) to play the online games;
iii. Penalties for late payment of the fees;
iv. Interest charges for late payment of the fees;
v. Charges while the online game account is suspended;
vi. Termination of the right to use the online games for late payment of the fees;
vii. User restrictions and conditions related to the online games;
viii. Termination of game data for payment of the fees.

Let’s see how this one unfolds.

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.

Yousuke Saito, the executive producer of Nier, said in a group interview at E3 that they don’t know if Nier will be seeing a Japanese release. Due to focus on the American and European releases, the game is supposedly, according to Square Enix, not marketable to Eastern audiences.

Other reasons for the game not hitting the land of the rising sun include the “mature protagonist”, which is in contrast to the stereotypical young Japanese hero that we see in most Japanese titles. The publishers themselves are a Japanese based company, so it is a bit ironic their own country won’t be seeing the game.

Nier is scheduled to release sometime next year for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Read (1Up)

A new listing from the ESRB website reveals the arrival of Final Fantasy VII on both the PSP and PS3 systems. The game hit Japanese and Chinese PS3s earlier this year, and those versions were simply the same game we got for the PSOne back in 1997. So in case you’re hoping for a remake, this might not be your day.

No word on when the game will actually be released.

via GamingTarget