Square-Enix posted a message/anagram on their North America website earlier today:

A puzzle for FINAL FANTASY XIII fans!

Solve this anagram to find out what lies ahead: A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto. Check back Monday for the answer!

Well, there’s no need to wait until Monday, as hintonmj and Squirrel Emperor, two finalfantasy-xiii.net forum users, figured it out in just under an hour. The hidden message unscrambles to read “Announcement Nov Thirteenth”.

Could this be the North America release date we’ve all been waiting for? My cardboard Buster Sword sure hopes so. Stay tuned.

The wrap up of a recent Square-Enix Financial meeting featured CEO Yoici Wadam assuring smooth development of the Western release, adding that there was a possibility the game could release globally before the end of the fiscal year.

The Japanese fiscal year runs from April 1st to March 31st, so if development continues as smoothly as Wadda anticipates it will, there’s a good chance we may see Final Fantasy XIII in the United States sometime before the end of March. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks Siliconera

New Final Fantasy XIII screens are in and the game just keeps looking better and better. The latest batch give us a glimpse at how the attack system will work, as it appears that certain in terms of button combinations will unleash different moves.

In addition, we get to see an in-battle summon and a heap of English based character dialog. Check out the screens below. Read more…

I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s so close I can taste it, but with a Spring 2010 release date announced, I can certainly start day dreaming about playing it soon. The new FFXIII screens available after the jump showcase English text and reintroduce Oerba Yun Fang, first seen at Tokyo Game Show. Read more…

In a fit of laughter, Final Fantasy director, Motomu Toriyama, and producer, Yoshinori Kitase, revealed that the latest installment of the series (XIII) would have a main storyline that lasted around 50 hours long. This bit of information was unearthed during a Q&A session by Spanish gaming site Meristation.

As  someone who loves the FF RPG series, this means that I will have more time to play and less time to do other bothersome things like bathe and sleep.

Some PS3 Final Fantasy players (like myself) were shocked the day that the latest title was announced for the 360, in fact I almost ran up to the stage and started screaming at the conference, but once the shock faded, concerns started to come into play.

The biggest concern most PS3 owners had surrounded the potential “middle ground” that may have to be reached in order to have the game port successfully onto the 360 console. Namingly, the lack of disc space when comparing a Blu-ray discs to the traditional format.

Well, in one statement, FFXIII Producer, Yoshinori Kitase, put that fear to bed.  Read more…

Now that Final Fantasy XIV has been announced, let’s go back seven Final Fantasy games and let it be known that Final Fantasy VII is now available for the PS3 through the PlayStation Store for $9.99 in the PS1 classics section. Weighing in at about 1.3 gigs, FFVII is one of my favorite games of all time and the chance to get a fresh digital copy of the game is fabulous news. Go download this game now homies!

Even though Final Fantasy XIII is still not out yet, yesterday at Sony’s press conference Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIV was in the works for the PlayStation 3 and the PC. FFXIV will sort of be a sequel to FFXI in a sense that it’s another MMO and not a standard role-playing game. FFXI has been very popular over the last few years since first being released back in ‘04, so I can only imagine how well FFXIV will be received. Check out the trailer to see for yourself.

Square Enix loves their big honking blades and I love them for loving them. Anywho, press release junkies got wind of Square’s newly announced title Nier earlier today, and now you can get a glimpse at the game’s first trailer via their official website.

The trailer itself features more of that washed out dark ink splattery look that we saw a few months ago in the SF4 trailer. My interest is perked, but then again I am a Square whore so you may want to check the clip out yourself after the jump. Read more…

Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes was a fan-made ROM modification for the widely-acclaimed SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. I say “was” because Square Enix have sent the fans a Cease-and-Desist letter, letting them know that if the project is released, there will be a lawsuit. The mod “featured ~35 hours of game play, 10 multiple endings, and 23 chapters, much like the original Chrono Trigger; it was around 98% complete.” As ZeaLitY says, the game was made only out of the goodness of fan’s hearts and certainly not for profit. The video above is the trailer for the game, made this year.

I must say that I feel this is a bad show on the part of Square Enix. This was a fan-made mod, with no intent for profit, and people had spent countless hours of their lives in the process of making this game. What harm can a mod like this do? Surely it can only provide free advertisement for their game. My consolations to the fans who put all this work into the game only to have it completely trashed.

GameZine reports that the early demo, released with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on Blu-Ray, has a special message at the end: “Coming Winter 2009″. The game will release at some point in 2010 for Western fans, but in the meantime it might comfort some to know that the Japanese version will be ready for release this year, at least on the PS3. Final Fantasy fans who can read Japanese will be interested in this as well, no doubt.

Japanese blog Marshallalloc reports that Square-Enix has let loose a new Final Fantasy XIII trailer during the company’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children premier. Not much else has been confirmed as of yet, though finalfantasy-xiii.net believes it to be along the lines of the Jump Festa trailer shown in December of last year.

Source: marshallalloc via: finalfantasy-xiii.net

Famitsu reports that on April 10th (today) you can enjoy Final Fantasy VII on the PS3 for a small download fee. Read more…

Square Enix has launched the official website for their upcoming Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for the Nintendo Wii. As of now, the website features the trailer released with the Japanese version of Echoes of Time and wallpaper from the game. There are two grayed out unclickables titled “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night” and “Public Spectacle”, with the words “Mor eVisits, More Movies” flashing above them.

So that means you need to visit the site more to unlock those two trailers. Well, get to work.

FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS

Famitsu have got their hands on some brand new screenshots showing us mainly the Active Time Battle system in Final Fantasy XIII. We get a first look at the ‘Battle Results‘ screen as well, which gives you your stats, TP bonus, and rank. The rank is out of five stars.

Right now, the battle system’s looking pretty great. As much as I’m looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII though, I can’t help but wanting to hear more about Versus XIII instead. It just seems so much more Final Fantasy VIIish. Hit the jump to see the screens. Read more…

According to an upcoming issue of Official Playstation Magazine, Square Enix is poised to reveal a brand new action game sometime in April. Provided that this reveal doesn’t come on April 1st, you can probably bet on it being a Final Fantasy game. There’s a screenshot in the magazine as well, but as it hasn’t been released, we don’t actually have it. According to Final Fantasy Union-

The screen shows a man with long white hair dressed in black. He has a blue scarf around his waist and is said to carry a giant sword. Sephiroth perhaps? Probably not, as then it would have been quite obvious what the game was connected to.

They also mention that the system of choice (PS3, PSP, PSN, dare I say- mylo?) is still up in the air, and probably will stay that way until the announcement comes. Stay tuned to Ripten for more information on this game, whenever it’s announced.

Source: Kombo

Square Enix is bringing more Final Fantasy to the Wii, a lot more. Originally announced in Nintendo’s GDC keynote, but just announced via press release, Square Enix will be releasing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and the original Final Fantasy on the Wii through the Wii Store.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years continues the story of the game released in 1991 on Super Famicom, Final Fantasy IV.This was released as a downloadable cell phone title in Japan in late 2008 with over three million downloads. Read more…

Square Enix’s much anticipated game for 2009, Final Fantasy XIII, is finally leaking a bit more information, and I can help pass that info on to you. Read more…

Want a glimpse at two of the sickest Final Fantasy trailers you’ve ever seen? Well, if you love Final Fantasy as much as I do, the answer is most definitively yes. Hit the jump for a look at two FF trailers from the recent Square Enix DKΣ3713 event. Read more…

The Last Remnant, a game previously doomed to the bargain bin before it was even released, has received a near perfect score from prestigious Japanese gaming mag Weekly Famitsu. The game got a 10/10/9/9 and a shiny Platinum Award. One review remarked:

Players might be confused at first because you’re unable to select specific commands in battle, but once you learn how to form a Union and play around with the options of Formations and their arrangements, the game gets really fun.

What the hell? Since when is this game supposed to be near perfect? I’ll admit to judging this game without even playing it – I mean, come on, it sounded kinda interesting but overall it never looked like you know, Platinum Award material. Even Amazon thought so – they were pricing the game at a $20 discount before it even came out. Now just today, it’s back to $56.99. Guess they read Famitsu too.

Source: NeoGAF