Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary

[Odin'sLaw]

7 was 97, 8 was 99.

its not hard to remember 8's NA launch date. 9/9/99

I'm from England so it wouldn't be as cool (doubt we had a release date the same time normally was a few weeks to months later)

[6souls]

Square Enix today announced the official North American 25-year celebration of Final Fantasy, one of the most groundbreaking video game franchises in history. A new website dedicated to this occasion allows fans to share their memorable experiences and stay up-to-date on the various events planned throughout the rest of the year.

Since its first release in 1987, Final Fantasy has won hundreds of awards and has received tremendous praise from fans around the world. The franchise titles are currently displayed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “The Art of Video Games” exhibit that showcases the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium. With fourteen installments of the main game and multiple sequels and spin-offs, the brand has expanded into other areas including motion pictures, anime, merchandise and publications.

In conjunction with the official Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary event in Tokyo, Square Enix will kick-off the North American festivities at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Prime 2012 with the franchise’s first “Experience Final Fantasy” event on Friday, August 31 from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the ACT Theatre in Seattle. The general public is invited to re-experience their most cherished Final Fantasy games through dozens of playable units that span multiple generations and participate in a series of commemorative activities and games for fans of the renowned franchise. Prizes include fan favorite character plushies and a custom Final Fantasy XIII-2 branded PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Attendees will also be able to receive a special 25th anniversary poster featuring Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork.

Near the end of the event at 7:30 p.m., fans will also have the opportunity to learn about the new details about the direction of Lightning’s story through a special video message from the esteemed creators Yoshinori Kitase (producer), Motomu Toriyama (director) and Isamu Kamikokuryo (art director).

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[RPGTyrant]

Wasn't sure if this should go here or in it's own FFXIII thread, but it looks like they're hyping some stuff for the anniversary relating to FFXIII-3 mebe.

http://finalfantasy13game.com/astormgathers/

[Nevex]

Third time's the charm, I guess.
Months of hyping -> FFXIII-3 is released -> it ends up being a pretty damn good game and even surpassing the older FF's from several points of view -> vocal minority bitching all over the internet that this isn't FFVII so it sucks and blah blah blah.
It's actually pretty entertaining when you think about it.

Seriously though, this is easily my most anticipated game right now. Can't wait for more news.

[vadre]

Could be good, XIII-2 was nice but they really need to get the story straightened out on papar before they start putting it into the game. XIII-3 has an awful lot of loose ends to tie up, but the way they're saying the XIII-2 addon finished XIII-2's story has me a little concerned that they're going to start some new 'Lightning saga' from the end-time point she's at now and ignore all the stuff that's gone on already. I absolutely would not be surprised if this happened given how much of a crazy ass tangent XIII-2 went off on from XIII-1.

[Spira]

can't begin to anticipate until i see it happen, even tho i know it will.

cos my anticiplate is pretty full with FFXI:SoA and FFXIV:ARR as it is

looking forward to it tho.. hope it brings something fresh to the XIII universe but doesn't make the mistake that XIII-2 does by shitting all over the "effort" put into the original story

[Nevex]

XIII-2 didn't do anything to XIII's story... we already knew that there was Etro's intervention at the end of the first game and we already knew about the existance of a gate to the unseen realm; XIII-2 simply built its story from those points while not touching any of the events of the first game other than mentioning the ending.

This is exactly what happened in X-2: we knew that Tidus wasn't gone from FFX's post-credits scene and X-2 didn't really go back to the events of the first game other than mentioning the outcome.

In an interesting twist, everyone expected Caius and Yeul being behind the events of FFXIII (a cliche that has been redone to death by many sequels), instead they were those who got negatively affected by them. That's another reason I'm looking forward to see how their story ends.

[Spira]

this isn't about retconning. it did a lot more than that really.

XIII-2 effectively downplayed the significance of the contributions that the characters made and the events that took place in XIII. Sure it precipitated the Fall, which in turn triggered Etro's intervention which screws up the timeline, but the scale of the story is totally different, and it is this difference that is so jarring.

In XIII all you had to do was deal with the servant(s) of a god. you were never dealing with anything that powerful.
and in XIII-2, you're traveling across time, effectively fighting with a demi-god, given the circumstances that Caius was in, and killing a goddess. nevermind the fact that suddenly we have mythology that was backstory in the first game being forced down our throats in the second.

really, the scale was a on a totally different level.. and thats jarring to me considering Serah wasn't even made a fal'cie, she just became what she was. For something that shapes itself out to be episodic and not progressive (since Serah isn't a direct continuation of Lightning), it doesn't bother to keep the setting on par.
Next thing you know in XIII-3 they're destroying planets and traveling around the universe to hunt down sleeping gods. Sounds ridiculous right? Thats exactly what XIII-2's setting and scale is like in comparison with the first.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game.. more than the first, in fact. I just don't think the continuity was handled well enough.
Interestingly, if they revealed later on that Barthandelus/Orphan was actually an embodiment of Lindzei and that they effectively killed a god in XIII, that would arguably preserve a sense of balance. That way you could probably call XIII a story about Lindzei, and XIII-2 about Etro, and XIII-3, based on the key words in the trailer, likely about Bhunivelze.

This is something that X and X-2 handled rather well. Concept-wise, not everyone might have been able to take the dresssphere changing and light-hearted tone in X-2, but the overall plot focus was a very clear in contrast with X. X was a story revolving around Zanarkand's super weapon (Sin) in the Machina War. X-2 was focused on Bevelle's super weapon (Vegnagun) which never got used.

[Tyrath]

Shit, I need to finish FFXIII-2 lol

[6souls]

Square Enix asked Final Fantasy fans a silly question – which job in the Final Fantasy series would get the most attention from the opposite sex. Knight, according to attendees, topped the list with 20% of the votes. White Mage was #2 locking in 15% of the votes with Thief following in third place. Here’s a breakdown of the chart in English.

• Knight – 20%
• White Mage – 15%
• Thief – 7.5%
• Dragoon – 7.5%
• Bard – 7.5%
• Ninja – 7.5%
• Summoner – 5%
• Paladin – 5%
• Dark Knight – 5%
• Dancer – 5%
• Onion Knight – 5%
• Airship Engineer – 5%
• Freelancer – 5%

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/02...summoner-is-6/

Have you ever dreamt about a Final Fantasy meets Hakuoki mashup? Square Enix spent part of their Future of Final Fantasy presentation showcasing a fake video game. Tokimeki Final Fantasy: Suzaku Magic Institution Peristylium ~ Oh no! I’m in Love With the Crystal’s Divine Guardian ~ isn’t real, but Final Fantasy Type-0 director Hajime Tabata spent quite a bit of time imagining it.

The story centers on Khalia Chival XVI who just joined the magic academy. "Players" will have school schedules to follow and you can learn new abilities using the faux Active Lesson System. The goal of the game is to fall in love with various male characters from Final Fantasy Type-0.

Tabata further teased fans saying this is a smartphone game developed with the new Luminous Engine. Even though Square Enix is starting to develop otome games Tokimeki Final Fantasy isn’t going to come out – it’s just a joke.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/02...-a-dating-sim/

[Gokulo]

To be honest I'd play the shit out of that, although I'd be cooler if it was a cameo mash-up instead of Agito world (well, since we didn't get it yet :<)

[Kurokikaze]

The massive amounts of nostalgia invoked by this video is unheard of...

[SephYuyX]

The massive amounts of nostalgia invoked by this video is unheard of...

Wow, I hope they release that trailer as an actual video.
I have big hopes for the 25th stuff.

[Omniyoji]

Final Fantasy, defining graphics since '97

[Trocian]

Remember the days when numbered FF-entires were only a year apart?

Good times.

[Elcura]

Remember the days when numbered FF-entires were only a year apart?

Good times.

Considering the types of games that get yearly releases these days I'm not sure that's always a good thing.

[Ratatapa]

How long are the Festivities, last?

In case some other good stuff happening

[Kurokikaze]

It's over.

[6souls]

As part of its ongoing Final Fantasy 25th anniversary celebration, Square Enix will release a novelization of the first three Final Fantasy games. The novelization is tentatively titled Novel Final Fantasy I, II, III Memory of Heroes and will be released this Fall.

http://andriasang.com/con2k2/ff_novel/

[Gokulo]

Ok, that's bad.