Two weeks ago, the Square Enix Party event brought news that the Wii's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers would be more adventurous, with a Skies of Arcadia feel to it. The video they saw over in Japan is finally uploaded on the net for our pleasure, and the setting definitely has much more altitude to it. The trailer opens with music that reminds me of Titanic, and we're shown a large jewel and many ships, followed by someone falling off one of them, so I'm hoping for a much more hilarious Titanic ending, where we actually get to see the Leonardo DiCaprio hero fall off and go kersplat down below.

The video shows us many sky high brief battle scenes, including the use of the magic system, and even a few indoor cities. The graphics look just as good as the GameCube's Crystal Chronicles game, but not any noticeably better. It would be cool if the reason for flying is to avoid the miasma stream that drifts at lower altitudes, instead of constantly warding off the impending doom. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers comes out this Winter in Japan, so we might not get it here in America until next Summer or even late 2008.

So far we've heard more of Final Fantasy Dissidia than we've seen of it, and now we've finally got gameplay details for the PSP game:

• Each character will have a special skill to inflict damage on his opponent
• Each skill will vary from short range to long range and will be executed as such
• Players are encouraged to destroy the level’s environments
• The "Brave" meter is filled by destroying environments or inflicting damage on your enemies  and allows for new attacks when filled
• Special move gauge, when filled, allows the player to unleash a special move that is "typical" of that character’s Final Fantasy special move (i.e. Zidane = Trance)
• EXP and equipment play a role in the game

The people who were lucky enough to attend the Square Enix Party were given a sampler CD with the four music tracks that were played for the anticipated upcoming PSP games. And thankfully, PSPFanboy found someone who was nice enough to upload the tunes online for us, you can download the whole thing as one zip file here, or individually below:

• Dissidia
  
• Overture to Dissidia
• (Secret)
• 
  Crisis Core
  
• Theme of Crisis Core
• Last Order -Crisis Mix-

Thanks to NeoStrikeDamon for sharing. All four tracks are composed by Takeharu Ishimoto, although their sounds are greatly varied. "Overture to Dissidia" sounds like the sort of grand Final Fantasy songs we've come to expect from the series, whereas "Last Order" is more rock sounding. My favorite overall song of the four is probably the calm "Theme of Crisis Core" melody, yet it doesn't sound like a Square song at all. And being the techno/midi music lover that I am, the short but sweet second half to "(Secret)" is by far my favorite individual part of any of the new tunes. Final Fantasy: Dissidia definitely has some very cinematic music prepared for PSP owners.

The Square Enix Party in Japan is over, but the new information keeps coming to the rest of the world. Square Enix just sent out a press release confirming that Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War for PSP will be released in October for both America and Europe simultaneously. We'll get to enjoy these cinemas, and then a month or two later we'll get to enjoy these cinemas, when Square Enix plans to give us Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings on the Nintendo DS later this Winter.

After announcing Final Fantasy Dissidia for PSP, and The Last Remnant for Xbox 360 and PS3, and a remake of Final Fantasy IV, and even a few new Star Ocean games, Square Enix managed to steal most of their own thunder. Square Enix also announced Parasite Eve 3 . . . for mobile phones, ugh. Then they redeemed themselves and gave out hands-on time with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, which has more forgiving judges and law card gameplay. FF Dissidia was up next, and it only showed a quick trailer to get people excited, where several famous Final Fantasy characters were flying around a 3D battleground fighting one another. The graphics were supposed to be great, and with an all star cast of FFIV's Kain and Cecil, FFIX's Zidane and Kuja, and FFVII's Sephiroth and more, this will definitely be a huge seller. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates for the DS ran smoothly with gameplay just like the original, although multiplayer doesn't support Internet connectivity.

Sadly no big updates were given for Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix just showed an old CGI trailer with a few new short scenes spliced in. Quick glimpses of new alien landscapes and a few frames of Ifrit and Shiva summons was all that was new. It was the same with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, too, just a little more CGI footage stapled onto the end of old trailers. Before the party finished, Square Enix announced a new expansion for their five year old Final Fantasy XI MMORPG, and that pretty much it. FFXI's Wings of The Goddess expansion should be available this Winter. Square Enix hasn't mentioned when their next Party event will be, but with so many games in store for the next few years, I wouldn't be surprised if we get another one next year.

This weekend is the Square Enix party we've been waiting months for, and Squeenix is revealing little pieces of their puzzle a few days early. Final Fantasy Dissidia is now officially being planned, which is no surprise to us, but it's now known that it will be for the PSP. As usual, Tetsuya Nomura will be the lead character designer, and the only listed descriptions of what to expect are "Fantasy is endless" and "Fantasy has no limited form" as well as the genre being labeled "Dramatic Progressive Action." "Dissidia" in Latin means "to disagree" so Tetsuya should have lots of freedom in his designs, characters we've always seen in one shape with one set of feelings might be stretched to new extremes.

Ever since Final Fantasy X where the one summon was the enemy's dead mother, I always wanted a Final Fantasy game where you collect summons, and then go around reviving them back to life, so they turn into a dead relative who can join your party and tell you where to find the next family member set of summons. I think a reverse process to that aspect of RPG gameplay would make things more interesting. To tide you over for the next week, keep checking this fancy flash animation teaser site for future updates.

1P Start found this awesome video mashup of World of Warcraft characters playing in a Final Fantasy game set in Azeroth. Instead of just letting the players run around like normal, it takes a picture of the environment to act as the pre-rendered background, sets the camera from a fixed angle, and video edits in a character running around on screen until a random battle occurs. True to the time based style of the Final Fantasy series, it's a turn based battle, but the fighting consists of all W.O.W. attacks, all W.O.W. spells, and even a W.O.W. summon. This isn't the first time Azeroth has been attacked by other stories, and I'm sure it won't be the last, there's also been World of Warcraft Fight Club and World of Warcraft Mario levels.

Square Enix should make a game called Final Fantasy Universe, where it's nothing like FFXI at all. Instead, you can play as characters from any 3D Final Fantasy game. Just as in World of Warcraft, you'd choose to be a good or bad guy, and take a corresponding heroic or villainous route through the game. The end goal could either be for one of the two sides to take over the entire map, or, it could be for one FF game to join together, both good and bad fighting together as one force, to beat all the other FF games within the giant FFMMO. Basically, 50% of the players would be Cloud, and FFVII would probably win in one way or another. Although the FF furries might flock to FFX's Kimahri and be a major threat.

Who would you play as? I'd go as Barret - in a realistic MMO setting I don't see how a dude with a gun fist could lose, I dare Squall to get within ten feet of me and my chocobo mount.

This PSP port of the original PlayStation game has been enhanced to include two new classes, multiplayer gameplay, and new cinematics as you can see above. On May 10th, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War will finally be released in Japan for 4,800 yen, and then we hope that Square Enix decides to bring it over to the states. The video above shows new artsy cinematic sequences and more gameplay and interface screens. If you want to slow it down and see what it all looks like up close, check out this picture gallery from the past.

TheBBPS found this 8-bit chalk mural dedicated to the Final Fantasy RPG series and its creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. It took them two hours to finish, but this video speeds it up into just six minutes. It's somewhat boring until the end since all the geeks are in front of the camera and blocking your view of the wall, sort of like spotting a hot chick from a distance and being too afraid to call her hot until you know it's actually girl for sure. Jump ahead to the four minute mark though and you'll get the 8-bit breasts you desire. From left to right, the featured characters are: Red Mage, Thief, Black Mage, Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, and Sarda. If you're motivated enough to recreated this retro scene, stick around until the end and you'll also see the color grids they used.

It's all fun and games until someone gets their head chopped off. That's not True Swords' slogan, and they probably don't condone killing in the name of video games, but they sure do have a lot of gaming related weapons. Pretty much any famous anime or game character weapon is up for sale, and prices range from twenty bucks to two hundred bucks, although most are around $40 to $50.

If you're the type that blows entire paychecks on swords they'll never use, then you're going to look like an idiot holding it in public no matter what, so you might as well blow the money on a cool game collectible. And if you're a kid with emotional problems, and plan on pulling a Columbine, please don't use these weapons for your killing spree. The underground gamers' network can contaminate crime scenes with Marilyn Manson CDs and point fingers without much effort, but if you cut off some bully's head with a fucking keyblade, well that's going to take some more effort.

You can see a few of the swords below, they all seem to come in steel, so they should be pretty durable. I wouldn't be surprised if they all turn out to be like the Giant's Knife though, I wouldn't suggest swinging them around too much. It's only a matter of time until someone kills their friends with the Advent Children sword due to blades coming unhinged. Which weapon would you want the most? I always thought the gunblade was a cool idea so I'd probably go with that.