So will Square answer her prayers for a sequel?

 November 12th, 2002

FF7 is getting a sequel?

Big news from Japan. In the upcoming issue of Famitsu, Japans biggest gaming magazine, the producer of the Final Fantasy series, Yoshinori Kitase, said that there is a possibility that FF7 may be getting a sequel.

According to a Japanese website Quiter, Kitase said in an interview for the magazine that he'd like to see a sequel for Squares biggest hit to date; FF7. And he's not the only one. Thousands of fans of the series, as well as Squares workers, including character designer Tetsua Nomura, have expressed their approval for the idea. Tetsua Nomura is known as the character designer of FF7 and FF8, and the more recently for his debut as the director for Kingdom Hearts, the game that Square developed in collaboration with Disney.

Because of the large fanbase, Kitase said that they don't want to make a bad game which would disappoint fans. But no plans or further schedules have been made yet. However if FFX-2 becomes a success, it might raise pressure for Square to make more sequels to their earlier games.

Kitase fears fans may be disappointed

Yoshinori Kitase
Kitase has been in the gaming industry since 1994. He's been involved in developing such games as Kingdom Hearts, FFX, FFVIII, FFVII, Chrono Trigger, FFVI and FFV. He was the director of FFVII, so he would probably have a big role in the development of a sequel. He was a producer for Square's latest instalment, FFX, and is also working on FFX-2.

FF7 sold over a million copies in its first 3 days, and 2,034,879 copies during its first week. To this day FF7 has sold over 6 million copies worldwide, and is one of the most successful PSX games ever made.

Sources: Gamers.com, Insider.ign.com

Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy is returning to Nintendo

The release of FF:CC (Crystal Chronicles) was announced as 2003, although the exact date hasn't been specified yet. It's a new Final Fantasy game for Nintendos GameCube, and is an action RPG. The game features action oriented battles such as those in Seiken Densetsu and Secret of Mana. It's also rumoured that the new game would have some sort of connection with Nintendos mini-console, Game Boy Advance. There has also been talk of a completely new feature in FF games; multiplayer gaming.

Characters from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

The role of Game Boy Advance in playing would be helpful for the gamer, as it has a new control pad and you would see the less important information such as items and character statuses on the Game Boy screen. This would save space on the TV screen. But it's unlikely that owning a Game Boy would be necessary to play the game.

The games head designer is Akitoshi Kawazu, who has previously worked on hits such as Secret of Mana. From the early screenshots released it can be seen that the characters are in FF9 style, a far cry from the realistic looking characters of FFX. The game isn't being developed by the main studios of Square but by Game Designer Studio; the company created by Square that will develop and publish games on Nintendo platforms.

FF returns to Nintendo in style after 8 years

There hasn't been a Final Fantasy game for Nintendo since FF6 was released for Super Nintendo eight years ago. It became an instant hit in Japan, however Square immediately moved on to Sonys new console, which many believed was a smart decision seeing as how Nintendos own 64-bit system didn't compete well with the competition.

Source: Gamesdomain.com

Kingdom Hearts European release details

In an unusual alliance, Square and Disney team up to bring us one of the most memorable RPGs ever created

Kingdom Hearts will be here soon; according to a leading British gaming magazine, it's due out on the 22th September 2002. Details of the release are still unclear; whether the version released in PAL areas will be the same as the one released in the US earlier in September, or if it will be the so-called 'Final Mix' edition that has been already released in Japan. Final Mix is an English version of the game released in Squares home country, with a few updates. Both the voice acting and theme are in English. There are also some new characters, such as Sephiroth from FF7.

Kingdom Hearts is a game made in an alliance between Disney and Square, and it features numerous characters famous from both the Disney universe as well as from Squares own games.