Square Enix knows exactly what the players of its flagship MMO, Final Fantasy XI, want: New things to kill, which drop new things to wear. The company will fulfill these primal urges with three Battle Area Add-On Scenarios which will be released throughout the year. The first expansion, Vision of Abyssea, will go live during the summer, with two others, Scars of Abyssea and Heroes of Abyssea following soon after. Each new area can be purchased for $9.99 through the PlayOnline Viewer.
A detailed report of the shocking announcements unveiled at this year's VanaFest in Tokyo, Japan. For Final Fantasy XI, a level cap increase to 99, new job abilities, the merging of servers, three mini expansions and additional weapon customization options. For Final Fantasy XIV, an announced beta start date of March 11 and instant access for those in attendance at VanaFest.
The complete Final Fantasy XI experience is to be made available on one disc over in Japan. The Final Fantasy XI Vana'diel Collection 2 consists of every Final Fantasy XI expansion released in stores to date in addition to the recently released downloadable expansions, on disc for the first time. For your 6090 Yen you'll get Final Fantasy XI, Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promanthia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess. In addition to these original disc-based expansions you'll also get your hands on the three recently released downloadable scenarios, on disc for the first time.
411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Cursed Mountain, and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.
On June 22, a class action lawsuit was filed against Square Enix accusing the publisher of unfair business practices, false advertisements, and undisclosed fees related to its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI. The lead plaintiff, Esther Leong of San Francisco, filed the complaint on behalf of over 100,000 fellow MMORPG subscribers and demanded a payment in excess of $5 million from the game publisher. Now, in an amended complaint filed Monday, the plaintiff revealed the specifics behind the generalized accusations outlined in the June 22 document.
Head over to the PlayOnline store to grab your copy of A Crystalline Prophecy, or read more to see what you get for your money.
Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel was an incredibly unique arrangement album, as the Star Onions applied their own unique style to the music from Final Fantasy XI. Many fans considered it a very love/hate album though, as the diversity was so strong; fortunately, we here at Final Fantasy Union absolutely loved the album!
Gamervision reports: ''A new patch has added some new bosses to Final Fantasy XI, including the somewhat ridiculously resilient Pandemonium Warden. A guild named Beyond the Limitation attempted to take down the Warden, but had to quit after 18 Hours of combat. One of the guild leaders reported, People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's lives. They estimated that it would have taken an additional five or six hours to beat the Pandemonium Warden, and had to question their abilities in the game. The boss changed forms every few hours, and when they finally decided to call it quits, the enemy was in it's 20th form. They are also one of the only guilds to take down the highest-level boss in the game without glitching it, so they weren't screwing up the Warden battle.''
Dissidia Final Fantasy details have once again been spotted and this time, they're coming from Japanese game magazine Famitsu. the game's producer Tetsuya Nomura, director Takeshi Arakawa, and planning director Mitsunori Takahashi all sat down with the publication and answered a few questions. First on the agenda was the question of why the game is taking so long to finish. The devs answered that the team doing it is pretty young and adjusting was one of the most time-consuming parts of development. As for how far along into completion the team has gone, they said they're at about 50 percent and that character models are almost completely sealed. Plenty more at the source!
Kotaku writes: Square Enix honcho Yoichi Wada (above, left) is worried. Western game companies are doing really well! Meaning that competition is getting harder. Yet, Wada hopes to capitalise on the Western market, aiming to increase the ratio of overseas sales from its current 50 percent to 80 percent in the next three years. According to the exec: We face competition not only from Japanese videogame companies but from game companies worldwide. We also see some new players from outside the videogame industry coming in... Economies of scale and breadth of scope is getting important. It may be a business alliance or it may be us taking a stake in others, but we need to go beyond traditional Square Enix. That business alliance sounds nice and all. But, how about stop calling everything Final Fantasy? Or make things other than RPGs? Or if you are going to make RPGs, why not make the games people have been asking for for the past decade?
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