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‘Final Fantasy X’ Remaster Is Not A Remake

Curt Hutson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:30:43 +0000

Fans holding out for a remake of ‘Final Fantasy X’ are crying into their Yuna plushies today after Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, answering Final Fantasy fan questions at the Taipei Game Show, confirmed that the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Vita rerelease is just a ”remaster”.

He tried to lighten the sobering news with a bit about the game stating, ”the screen is much prettier than the original,” something that kind of goes without saying. Before this, details have been nil since it was curtly mentioned at Tokyo Game Show 2011 and then left alone.

While the idea of a remaster isn’t a terrible thing (just look at the Shadow of the Colossus/Ico collection) fans are probably looking forward to more, such as bonus content and the like. Square Enix may be set on not doing a remake, but there are several improvements they could implement that wouldn’t necessarily require one, including better facial animations, a remastered soundtrack and perhaps minor script tweaks to reduce Tidus’ whininess — also, recasting his voice in the American version would be fantastic.

In a perfect world, Square Enix would put less work into sequels and a little more into remakes of their most popular titles, something fans are always requesting (no, the innumerable versions of Final Fantasy I-III don’t count.).

So, readers, is a remaster ok with you or were you really hoping for a remake; or do you care either way?

Follow me on Twitter @8BitBomb

Via: [Joystiq]

TGS 2011: Final Fantasy X HD Announced for Vita, PS3

Garrett Hartman — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:30:23 +0000

At Sony’s 2011 Tokyo Game Show press Conference, Square Enix Executive Shinji Hashimoto announced that Final Fantasy X HD will be released on both the PS Vita and PlayStation 3 game consoles.

The HD upgrade has been described as a “special 10th anniversary production” to honor the original. Considering the original debuted in 2001 you would expect a 2011 release. Unfortunately, neither a date or footage has been released.

It has been said that the Vita and PS3 versions should look comparable. Hopefully, this will lead to more Final Fantasy re-releases. *cough* VII *cough*

LittleBigPlanet Level Goes “To Zanarkand”

Roly Reyes — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:27:56 +0000

I’m not the creative type. LittleBigPlanet should have no appeal to me, but for some reason I’m consistently drawn to it.

After dwelling on this notion for hours (literally) I decided it’s the game’s combination of approachability (in both visuals and gameplay), and the platform it creates.

Media Molecule presents users with a tool set expansive enough to recreate Shadow of the Colossus in a condensed form, and in this specific case, revive the emotion previously evoked by the original.

The following LBP level, designed by PSN user Kirathian, recreates the theme song from Final Fantasy X, “To Zanarkand.” Yes, you heard me correctly — he recreates the song using the LBP level editor.

Hit the jump for the utterly awesome video filled with awesome.

Keep in mind that what you just saw was created with a beta version of the game, which is said to contain roughly half of the items that will be available in the full retail release of LittleBigPlanet just two weeks away.

Source: 1UP

GDC 08: FFXIII Art Behind Closed Doors: Bungie Interviews Square Enix

Emily Balistrieri — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:01:19 +0000

Yesterday Steve Theodore of Bungie Studios sat down with Isamu Kamikokuryo to discuss how he got into the videogame art business and where his inspirations lie. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the new FFXIII trailer and concept art he had to show us, but we can point out some of the highlights.

Kamikokuryo actually started as an oil painter and illustrator and hadn’t considered working in videogames until after he saw FFVII. Inspired by the artistic potential, he presented a portfolio and eventually ended up directing background art in FFX, moving onto directing the art of FFXII.

His influences range from painter Andrew Wyeth to designer Luigi Colani, and even include comics he read in middle school by artists like Alex Ross and Frank Frazetta. Kamikokuryo is also a world traveler, always taking pictures of scenery and architecture for inspiration. He showed us a few of over 40,000 photos he took on a trip through the US last year.

On working in a large team at Square Enix, he said the key was to have a good vision for everyone to work towards. He did note that even though the scope of games had already broadened a lot by the time he joined the business, he still felt some nostalgia for the days of smaller groups.

What hasn’t changed is their aim for Final Fantasy to be a stylized reality, which is even more important now with the increased possibilities afforded by the hardware. The whole art staff at Square Enix instinctively agree, without needing a memo, that a stylized reality is better than getting too close to the Uncanny Valley -”…we can’t go there.” And with one of the scenes showing a girl on a green flying motorbike, prompting Theodore to quip, “Chocobo of the future?”, a stylized “reality” is what they’ve created.

The new trailer featured tons of CG, but also some in-game battle. Huge airships, something like dragons, and of course, Lightening herself, flew through the air. We saw her fighting a huge purplish ogre monster, and later against a swat team-like force in yellow uniforms and white masks. A blond fellow pulls up on a motorcycle but we don’t get to find out more about him before it faded to black.

We also got a peek at some really fancy concept art. The world of Cocoon hangs in the sky over the monster-infested outer world, Pulse, like a moon with a what seemed to be a huge crater. Cities have very intricate designs and at least one seemed almost nautical in style, another featured terraced halls enclosed by glass lit up in the night.

Obviously FFXII is one of those games that gets prettier every time you see it, so we’ll be looking forward to the next eyeful.