E3 07: Square Enix
Square Enix’s showings at E3 didn’t include terribly many new announcements, as their plate is most definitely full during the current development cycle – and, of course, they made most of their big announcements back at the Square Enix Party in May. Their next big announcement (Kingdom Hearts. That’s all we got) will come later this fall at Tokyo Game Show. We, of course, were as disappointed as anyone, but it's understandable given the timing, and there was still plenty to see. We had a brief moment with Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, which is looking better on the DS than I had feared. In this continuation of Final Fantasy XII (rather than a sequel, although I’m not sure the distinction is horribly clear), our hero Vaan lives the life of a sky pirate and battles in real-time with a total of five party members and four summons. The play is similar other RTS offerings on the DS, and the inclusion of click-and-drag to select and direct multiple party members enhances that sensation. Gambits return, although the license board has been replaced with the Ring of Pacts – a system that reminded me of a simplified interpretation of FFX’s sphere grid.
We saw the first North American localization for Front Mission coming to the DS, the 1995 turn-based strategy game that inspired the grid-based “Tactics” games, as well as La Pucelle and the Disgaeas.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker runs a modified version of the DQ8 engine on the lil’ DS, and aims to marry the addictiveness of monster-hunting games with the traditional Dragon Quest flavor and story.
The biggest surprise to us, as you might have gleaned from the picture, was the collectible figurines: not only beautiful new ones, but a beautiful new way to acquire them: the Square Enix Official Online Merchandise Store, which is coming soon to the United States (sign up for the grand opening announcement), one day to Europe, and is already live in Japan. Check out the Japanese site to drool over the beautifully detailed goodness to come.
The “coming soon” North American site will launch with five adorable miniatures from Final Fantasy III, Squall’s and Seifer’s gunblades from FF8, Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Key and Dark Side Kingdom Key, as well as Cerebus from Dirge. Also present at launch will be movable-jointed Vaan, Ashe, Balthier and Judge Magister Gabranth from FFXII, as well as Sora, Roxas, Axel and Kairi from Kingdom Hearts II. Lastly and most awesomely, the pictured pair of Cloud and Sephiroth polystone sculptures, complete with glowing flame effect available only on these online store exclusives. At $200 each, that’s a hefty investment but will probably prove irresistible to collectors, fanboys, and the trust fund set.
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Miscellany, Video Games on 14 July 2007
Other stuff like this: dragon quest, e3, figurines, final fantasy, kingdom hearts, online store, square enix, tactics
