New details of Advent Children and Before Crisis emerge
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A new location has been shown in the latest Advent Children magazine scans from Japan – a strange building located on a steep cliff next to a waterfall, apparently known as ‘Healin Lodge’. The arrows on the sign give hints of whereabouts this place would be located on the map. Though, does it make sense that Midgar and Chocobo Farm would be straight to right, when Kalm would be a bit further down? Could it be located somewhere around here?Healing Lodge is a sanatorium for those infected by Geostigma (previously known as Star Scar Syndrome). If you squint your eyes you can see the words: ‘Geostigma Sanatorium In love of silence’ written on the sign below the name of the location (look at the big scan).
The strange person in a wheelchair seems to be resting in Healing Lodge. Take a look at the windows, compared to the windows of Healing Lodge.
Before Crisis details
Masahiro Hora, the head of the company’s mobile phone department, has revealed the outline for Square Enix’s upcoming Final Fantasy VII spin-off – Before Crisis. The game is a network action RPG being developed for the FOMA series phones. The game is being developed solely for the mobile environment, which means that the game relies heavily on mobile capabilities as it is played. The action scenes won’t require complex finger movements from the player, but they are made simple enough so that the game is easy to play with a mobile.
What is interesting about the game is that the player is able to cooperate with fellow fans via the game’s Materia system.
“If someone requests help, you'll send them Materia and back them up with magic.” –Matsuno Hora
Similarly to the online games played with PCs or consoles, you can have other people in your party, but also develop slower cooperative relationships with fellow players. Because the game is a mobile game, the developers had to take into consideration that the game won’t be played for long periods of time in one sitting, and the player doesn’t know when and where s/he might start playing. The players are able to create Materia by using the camera feature in the FOMA series phones. A photograph of something red turns into a red Materia for the player which s/he can either keep or give it to some of his/her team mates.
Hora mentions during his speech that Before Crisis is now in the actual development stage. Beta testing will start on 31st of August.
Final Fantasy I-II: Dawn of Soul to be released in the US
The old NES Final Fantasy games are going to be re-released in the US, if only a bit later than the European release. Square applied to register the trademark Dawn of Souls in the US in late June, and now the game is scheduled to hit the stores on 29th of November.
PAL-version of Star Ocean: Till the end of Time contains bonus FF12 material?
The British Amazon site lists Square Enix’s upcoming Star Ocean: Till the End of Time on their webpage, with a notion that it is delivered with ‘a bonus DVD with Final Fantasy XII footage’. The game is scheduled to be released on 1st of October in Europe, and 31st of August in the US. However, the bonus material seems to be made only for the PAL-region, as there is no information for the extras to come with the American release. The third instalment of the series already contains two DVDs with extras from the ‘Japanese director’s cut’.
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a sequel taking place 400 years after the events of Star Ocean: The Second Story, which was a sequel to Enix’s Super Famicon game Star Ocean (never released in English).
This isn’t the first time Square gives ‘bonus CDs’ with their releases to promote their other games. Final Fantasy X-2: International was the latest to come with an Advent Children trailer. A demo of Final Fantasy VIII came with Brave Fencer Musashi.
It looks like Europe is finally becoming more important for Square Enix. Final Fantasy Origins was released in the Old Continent before the US, and now Dawn of Soul is to be released over a month in advance. European gamers have usually been the last ones to get their hands on the newest releases, but perhaps there will be some relief.
Written by alhana
Proofread by Berrik
Pictures from AdventChildren.net, Gamespot and Final Fantasy Universe
Sources:
AdventChildren.net
Allrpg.com
Final Fantasy XII.net
Related links:
Final Fantasy Advent Children official website
Final Fantasy Before Crisis official website
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