Squenix is so crazy. I mean, even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford all these Final Fantasy titles. What's their business plan here?

it seems to me that square is just remaking and slapping the Final Fantasy name on just about everything these days. I know that generally FF games are of high caliber but doing this trivialized the franchise.

Well, as long as it's fun to play, it's welcome to PSP realm.

thank GOD it's not another remake.

Interesting that they're making so many games for the PSP - granted, it has more power and can make graphics look lickable, but you'd think they'd go DS and go where the money is.

Ha, can't wait to read all the silly Square/Nomura hater comments this produces. For me this is great news, I really enjoy Nomura's character design and I was planning on buying the PSP anyway. Now I just hope the FF Tactics remake makes it to Europe, as the original was never relesead here.

@johnhummel: Squ'eenix is one of my favorite developers... They give all the systems love. DS, PSP, PS2, Gamecube, 360, PS3... They don't hate, and they do exclusives for all of them (exclusives are the only kind of love you can give to a system)

Same with Tecmo... They do almost nothing but exclusives... I like that better than half-assed ports.

@bobtheduck: By tecmo, I mean Team Ninja anyhow...

sure likes trying to be the salvation of sony... too bad they side with a dying breed... i'm not going to buy into their plan to force me to pay 200 dollars just to play their game... they need to develop for the most popular console or go multi-platform... not everyone has cash to throw away on overpriced gaming systems...

Just as long as it's not another 7 title, I don't care that much. Plus Reverant Wings is quite fun, so this might be as well.

PLEASE GOD MAKE IT STOP

Ya think this'll be their next online game? Sounds about right.

Looking forward news from the party.
Would be nice to have it on the psp. too many re-makes

@popdem:
Too bad for them then?

Personally, I think I'm getting burned out over the Final Fantasy games. 12 is great, but I never got around to getting anywhere near finishing it. I ended up playing Rogue Galaxy (which is a stellar game). And then about two-thirds of the way through Rogue Galaxy, I stopped playing that and have been playing nothing but Tales of the Abyss (which is super amazing).

If you compare those games, the battle system becomes less menu driven and more hacking and slashing away.

It's either that or I have a problem called rpgadd (role-playing game attention deficit disorder) :p.

I love Square-Enix. I love Final Fantasy. I never thought I'd say this: They need to stop with the Final Fantasy. No, really. I know they just put the name on new game ideas so that it will sell and they can at least recoup the large costs for making games these days, but they really need to take a step back and look at what they are doing to themselves. It is hard to take them seriously with the series being milked as much as it is.

I just don't care anymore.

Also: I thought Nomura was done with Final Fantasy?

What's in a name? Seriously? I don't see people complaining about the latest Dragon Quest game, which is now it's 9th installment with the series enjoying just as much franchising, merchandising and spin-offs as the Final Fantasy series. What about the infinite reiterations of the Madden, Fifa and other similar sports games.

Final Fantasy may be a long running franchise, but each game attempts to do new and different things at least. Besides, asking them to change the name for games would be like asking Coca-Cola to have different names for the different flavours of Coke.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and pre-emptively declare 2007 the year Final Fantasy finally jumped the shark.

@hikaizer: Agreed.

I can't keep track anymore. I have a DS and a 360... how many FF games am I getting? Like 4? 70? 0? They could build a whole web 2.0 portal around tracking this series.

Can't get enough, keep them coming. My PSP is waiting for some Final Fantasy love.

Pretty much every FF game was different save for the series' signature monsters, mascots and such... well, except for the spin-offs & remakes. I'll agree that those should be stopped (and maybe Nomura's character designs too, hah). Other than that, I don't really see the big complaints people have about them continuing their franchise.

The thing is, why is Squenix so keen on slapping the Final Fantasy on this title? While that is certain a famous and powerful brand, they'll do the cow some good in value if they let it rest a little.

Let's see what this means...

dissidium, dissidi(i) N (2nd) N [EXXCE] Later
separation, divorce, discord; disagreement, quarrel; tearing apart;

That's quite a negative implication there. Perhaps Nomura will pump out something interesting this time, he has pretty much exhausted his list of coloured hairstyles and face shapes. Good to see Amano drawn title backgrounds again.

@Brill: To print money.

@Sandcastle: Indeed, giving it a rest would be helpful which is why I agree with @MrFap-Fap. I liked Final Fantasy more when they were released less often, since it made every one feel more special and unique. But with the market flooded with Final Fantasy remakes and spinoffs, the new and unique ones might get overshadowed. I know I won't be able to afford all the new Final Fantasys they're releasing, time-wise or money-wise. Judging by this trend, it seems to me that they'll be jumping the shark this year.

That's all from me for now, I need to go work on finishing FFXII...

@Sandcastle: Square lost a lot of money when the Spirits Within flopped at the box office. Since then they've become a lot more agressive strategy to ensure they're never in the same position again. Merging with Enix was one of the ways to ensure that and making more direct spin offs is another.

It's nothing really that new anyway. There were lots of Chocobo games during the PS era and the non-FF SNES RPGs were notorious for featuring FF cameos. They've just made the spin-offs more directly related to the games already out there so they appeal to more fans.

As long as they keep the current quality of the games up I don't see how any of this is a problem. They still change the gameplay and battle systems between each game so each iteration is as fresh as the last. As a big fan of the series it's nice, after previously having to wait for years for any FF related product, to actually be able to pick and choose what FF games I want to play.

Is this reallly Nomura's work? I didn't see the usual amount of belt and zipper fetish participants.

@hikaizer:
Yes, I agree. I don't see why everyone moans about there being so many Final Fantasy games as each one introduces new characters, a new world and a new story. It's not like the same thing over and over i.e Zelda or Metroid. Sure you play as girly men with white hair who usually have to do something like save the world, but other than that they pretty much change everything around... so what's the problem?

They need to take a step back and look at what they're doing to themselves? They're making a stupid amount of money. And milking the franchise? They just use some of the same elements... what good would it do to keep changing the name of each game?

If you took the chocobos, bombs, changed the names of magic spells Final Fantasy XII could have easily been a spin off from Vagrant Story. How is that milking the series?

Character design by Tetsuya Nomura usually equals bullshit emo, asshole characters.

Seriously, I like my Final Fantasies without the Myspace drama, please.

@MrFap-Fap: Sadly, I think you may be correct, or at least diluting the creativity pool to the extent that the special-ness of the series, the relative rarity of games in the 90s compared to the past few years, is lost. It's like they're going into overdrive because it took so long for FFXII to be published.

@Kurnel: I certainly won't complain about it as long as they keep the quality at the expected level, which is extemely high. Even if Zelda and Metroid are always "the same thing" (they aren't), they are produced at a rate similar to the early FF series.

There can definitely be too much of a good thing. Personally, if its better than my FF low-point benchmark of FFVIII, I will enjoy it.

@MasaMuneCyrus: He's a character designer, not a personality designer. Personally, I've been a huge fan of his designs since Parasite Eve.

Based solely on the tag, sounds like a roguelike FF a-la Fushigi no Chocobo (without the chocobo's, presumably).

Not that I care. I gave up on the PSP a year or so ago.

@johnhummel:
with the price drop of the psp i think they are going where the money is. If they produce more hit games im sure psp and game sales will increase exponentially

That clip showed FMV footage from FFXIII (PS3), FFXII: Revenant Wings (DS), and FFT: The Lions War (PSP). It also showed some random in-game cut-scene from Dragon Quest IX (DS) and the logo for FF 20th Anniversary (PSP). There was nothing Dissidia FF in it sadly.

I look forward to all of those games hehe... Just release Crisis Core already ggrrrr!

Character design by Tetsuya Nomura? I predict nubile young boys clad in body hugging leather.

And belts. Can't have enough belts.

Too much Final Fantasy. Too much Mario. Too much Madden. Too much World War II.

Open advice to game studios:

NEW IDEA

Personally, although I do think they are using the franchise name to extreme, I really don't care at the same time long as the games are good.

"Fantasy is endless. Fantasy has no limited form."
Especially when it's final.

Kuraudo: Nomura has been much more involved with production/direction/etc. roles recently, so yes, he DOES make decissions outside character design...

Notice he didn't ruin FFXII?

@StrikerGold:
Every game follows a similar design with similar elements I suppose. What I'm saying is that people are generally very accepting of the Metroid and Zelda series despite it being way too samey in my opinion.
Metroid: Lose abilities, maybe escape from self destructing base, find abilities, fight Ridley, fight other boss, end.
Zelda: Mute character called Link meets Princess Zelda, goes to dungeon to find 3 crystals to light 3 torches which lead to 3 more dungeons to reveal the path to finding 3 triangle shaped fragments to lead you to the Master Sword which helps you beat Ganon.

Considering that Nintendo don't put nearly as much effort into the characters as Square does and how there's still usually a love interest to the hero who is trying to stop a villain threatening the world, they do make things a bit less unpredictable. I can guess what's going to happen in a Zelda game before playing it.
That may be down to the different audiences the games are aimed towards (Final Fantasy doesn't appeal to nearly as many people as Zelda).

But I still can't see how people can say Final Fantasy is being milked or it's the same thing over and over when most of the time it's really different, interesting and a high quality game.
If that defines "milking", then I'm all for it.

I used to like FF at one point, but two things happened to the franchise that made me lose interest.

1) Tetsuya "every character must have at least four to six belts (or other strappy things)" Nomura was given a major role in the development of the series.

2) Squaresoft combined with Enix, and created the monster studio Square-Enix.

Square used to only publish a few games a year. I liked some (FFIV-VI, Seiken Densetsu 3, Chrono Trigger), hated others (the insufferable Xenogears, FFVII), and was conflicted about some others (FFXI, Chrono Cross). But they were all extremely polished, ambitious, and always technically impressive games, regardless of whether they fit my particular tastes or not.

Now look at Square-Enix. FFX-2. FFVII Dirge of Cerberus. 13,000 different versions of FFI. Drakengard. Even the Enix branch has been slipping as of late, with things like Star Ocean 3. Consider that there is a FFT remake, this new FF PSP, three versions of FFXIII in development, this new "Last Remnant" thing, and FF bastard child Kingdom Hearts III in development all at the same time (and I'm leaving some things out too). Sure they're a bigger company now, but I have a hard time believing that they can produce products with the same degree of quality when there are so many products in development.

FFXII is proof that they can still do it if they really try, but why should they? If they half-hearted crank out titles, they still sell a billion copies and the press lauds them for being the coolest thing since someone decided to try cutting bread into slices.

final fantasy is becoming a brand far more than a franchise
but revenant wings is good!
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-5vmf-71-9g-49-en-84-j-...

I love the convenience-store-remix of the FF Opening playing in the background.

i'm glad this FF is coming for the psp. ff3 for ds was ok but not fun and the graphics were ok.

@popdem: Yeah, more PSP hating. Too bad the 'dying breed' system sales are stronger than ever worldwide, and there's no sign of them flagging - even touching the Top 5 in Japan, still.

The anti-Sony haters are the only ones saying the PSP is dying or dead. Those of us who have both have been enjoying new excellent games right up until now - and will continue to do so.

Plat-biased fanboys suck.

I love Final Fantasy, but this is getting to be too much.

It's no good when all your disparate titles are competing against one another.