Final Fantasy

How To Make Random Encounters Good

So you’re wandering around the map, minding your own business, just trying to get to the next town. You know, the place with the mystical coconut which you can bring to the king who will build you an airship that you can fly across the Dusty Mountains of Lon’dor-thak in order to rescue the mermaid…

Final Fantasy Games Have Never Been About Choice

Over the last week as I have spent more and more time with Bravely Default: Flying Fairy—a Final Fantasy in all but name—I have found myself thinking about the classic Final Fantasies and how they compare with the most modern non-MMO iteration, Final Fantasy XIII. When I first played FFXIII, many months before it came…

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is a Classic Final Fantasy in All But Name

I vividly remember watching the Nintendo press conference right before the Tokyo Game Show in 2011 where they announced Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. I remember because I could not stop laughing for a good ten minutes after I saw the nonsensical title pop across my screen. I dismissed the game based on its name alone…

A White Mage Pumpkin Casting ‘Blind’

Carved and sent in by Kotaku reader Cletus, who lost power last night and needed something to do with all of his knives. From Cletus: Probably should have done a black mage casting fire, but, i had this white mage casting blind as I carved a pumpkin in the dark (to be fair: by faint…

Amazon Is Running An All-Day Video Game Sale

Just a heads up: Amazon is running Lightning Deals on games all day today. Looks like Sleeping Dogs, Skyrim, and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy are just some of the titles on sale.

Final Fantasy XIV‘s New ‘Grand Finale’ Will End This Sorry Era of Square’s Troubled MMO

Today brings news, in the form of an official Square-Enix press release, that Final Fantasy XIV‘s “grand finale,” which seems like an odd thing for a company to be announcing regarding their embarrassingly flawed, overly complex and just not very well-liked massively multiplayer online game. But when Square refers to a “grand finale”, they really…

Final Fantasy XIV Has Bust Size, But I Don’t See Jock Size

As part of Final Fantasy XIV’s reboot, the game is getting a reworked character creator. It allows you to customize your character’s appearance, such as height, eyebrows, and even jaw and tail length. This recent batch of screenshots (via Siliconera) shows how you can customize your character’s bust size: from Very Small to Very Large.…

Wow, Final Fantasy‘s Combat Really Is Based On Football

I’ve written before about how RPGs parallel football in many ways, and how the ebb and flow of an NFL game mirrors traditional turn-based combat. So it was vindicating to see this great 1UP interview with Hiroyuki Ito, a veteran game designer and one of the engineers behind many of Square’s Final Fantasy games, all…

The Artist Behind Final Fantasy Just Wants To Draw Cute Girls

While speaking with Yoshitaka Amano, the legendary designer who created art for almost every game in the Final Fantasy series, I asked him about his dream project. Would he want to work on a direct sequel to Final Fantasy VI? Maybe a Dragon Quest game? Some sort of crazy Chrono Trigger spinoff? “Something with cute…

Blonde Twins Playing Final Fantasy Music On Harps While Standing Next To A Lighthouse

Brought to you by Camille and Kennerly, the folks who gave us Blonde Twins Playing The Elder Scrolls Theme On Harps While Standing In A Forest and Blonde Twins Playing A Metallica Cover On Harps While Standing In The Desert

Square Enix On Bringing Lightning Returns To Life

Lightning returns. The Final Fantasy XIII heroine wraps up her saga with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. And it looks to be not only a very different Final Fantasy, but also to be one of the most interesting FF titles in recent memory. Prior to the game’s official unveiling, there were huge hints that Square…

First Look at Final Fantasy XIV‘s Shortcut System for the PS3

As mentioned yesterday, Square Enix is outfitting Final Fantasy XIV with a new shortcut system for the PS3 version (as well as the PC for controller use). While keyboard and mouse controls rule for computer MMORPGs, the Tokyo-based game maker is aiming to have this set-up become the home console standard. The screenshots provide an…

Tetsuya Nomura Wants You To Wait a Little Longer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII Info

Didn’t see Final Fantasy Versus XIII at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, did we? Nope! Well, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura is here to say the game is still being worked on. “We’re continuing work on Versus,” Nomura apparently said in an upcoming issue of Famitsu “Because all staff is hard at work on the game,”…

Final Fantasy XIV Wants To Be the Standard for MMORPG Console Gaming

Square Enix is busy readying the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV. The Tokyo-based game company isn’t just working on making sure the PS3 version is up to snuff, but it’s also aiming for it to become the standard for MMORPGs on home consoles. In the upcoming issue of Famitsu, Square Enix seems to have…

Square Enix Defends The Surprisingly High Pricing of Their iOS/Android Games

Over the past few years, Square Enix has become something of a force in mobile gaming. The big Japanese publisher, best known for making console role-playing games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, has also found success making solid games for tablets and phones. Some of them are ports of old classics; others are new,…

Watch All Of Final Fantasy VII In Just Five Minutes

Brought to you by Dan Hobart, the man who cut abridged versions of Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and quite a few other Super Nintendo games, here’s all of Final Fantasy VII in five minutes. In case you feel like getting all nostalgic and wistful but you don’t have time to play Square’s classic RPG…

Here Are The Names Of Some Good Things, Mostly Video Game Sequels, That End In 6 (Or “VI”)

The release of Resident Evil 6 raises the question of whether we can reasonably expect any sequels that include the number six. This is a question I asked the good people on Twitter. The good people replied, sometimes usefully. Sometimes not. And… So, yeah, there have been some good sixes, after all!

Hironobu Sakaguchi made Blade Guardian because he *hearts* tower defense games.

Hey, You’ve Got Nausicaä in My Final Fantasy IX

Since the Final Fantasy games have been so incredibly influential, it’s interesting to see where FF‘s designers have looked for their own inspiration. It’s no secret that Final Fantasy has apparently been influenced by Studio Ghibli. The Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga, for example, most likely inspired Final Fantasy‘s Chocobo—those big yellow…

Final Fantasy XIII‘s Lightning Reborn in a Skyrim Mod

Of course, Skyrim mods are not new—neither is using Skyrim mods to recreate Final Fantasy characters. That doesn’t mean we are totally jaded and impossible to impress. Japanese bulletin board 2ch unearthed a couple screens that apparently show Final Fantasy XIII character Lightning recreated with a “recent” Skyrim mod. Online in Japan, people are saying…