E3 Compilation from the Sidelines of the Web

[riari]

New post, total E3 goodness. E3 finished yesterday with a bang of games and fun. Here's my post of E3 fun, with all of the games I'm interested in and what not.

Final Fantasy and the Playstation:

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Images. If only I can borrow a PSP when this one comes out. (Or maybe the price might have dropped by then...?) Not much has been released about Crisis Core, only that it will follow Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth in the incident leading up to the burning of Nibleheim.

Continuing on, Final Fantasy XIII was announced at Square Enix's press conference with some impressive footage being shown. Reminds me too much of a Squall/Yuna mix with a gunblade. Yeah, a gunblade. FFXIII looks to be more Sci-fi than the rest of the series and is the first Final Fantasy game for the PS3. And the game is going to have three releases. Two on the PS3 and one mobile game will be released as part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII.FFXIII Staff which includes some of the Kingdom Hearts crew for the Versus game including KH composer Yoko Shimomura. More FFXIII info here.

Regarding Final Fantasy XII: "Reportedly, Vagrant Story translator Alexander O. Smith is at the helm of FFXII's localization..." From 1up.com's article. If you ever have played Vagrant Story, the localization is top notch and even fitted to the era that the game portrays. So having Alexander Smith at the helm for FFXII is just awesome. This game is really shaping up to be a game that I'm going to enjoy. A lot of the Vagrant Story team worked on this and I loved Vagrant Story. FFXII looks to be a fresh game in the franchise with a different combat system and non-random battles! Final Fantasy XII is due to be released November 15, 2006.

Console Wars?:

Nintendo and their new console Wii, formerly named Revolution, looks to the cheapest next gen console out there. The PS3 is going to be breaking banks with their $599 price tag (which you know some people will pay for) and slightly cheaper $499 base system.

Nintendo Wii:

With such a cute name, the Nintendo Wii looks to the next system I might purchase, although that won't be for quite a while. Super Mario Galaxy and a new Smash Brothers game along with other games coming out. Smash Brothers Brawl is going to be awesome. Announced were a few new characters: Wario, Pit from Kid Icarus, Metaknight from Kirby, Zero Suit Samus from Metroid: Zero Mission, and the most famous of them all - Solid Snake from MGS. See the trailer for it here.

Zelda: Twilight Princess is being released on both GameCube and Wii in November. I can't wait. (I'm getting the Cube version of course. ^_^)

The Assassin's Creed:

Assassin's Creed is going to be a hot game. Being released by Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed deals with the historical group of assassins around the time of the crusades. I love the historical aspect of the game and the fact that its not just run and kill. You have to sneak, blend in with crowds, decide to help or ignore other people who could in turn help you blend in before a kill or cause you harm when you try to escape after a kill. Anything can be climbed in this game if it's sticking more than two inches out. And there is some influence from Prince of Persia with the skills of wallclimbing and attacking. It just looks like an awesome game and one I would like to play. You know, when the PS3 drops in price. ^_^ Assassin's Creed is due to be released for the PS3 in 2007.

Otacon! Where are the keys?

And the big one: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. From the 1up.com article: "And as Kojima himself assured us, 'By the time you finish Metal Gear Solid 4, you will love Raiden.' And it looks to be true. Raiden is back, and he's badass." There's a short trailer and a 15 min trailer available from E3 (although I haven't found a download for the 15 min one yet). Either one looks completely awesome and is full of Kojima theatrics. Snake looks old but it was said in earlier games that clones experience rapid aging. Due for release on the PS3 sometime in 2007.

RPGs for All!

Disgaea 2 E3 update: A little bit more info for the upcoming Disgaea 2 release.

Dawn of Mana: The prequel/sequel to Secret of Mana that is following the history of the Sword of Mana and the Mana Tree. I'm looking forward to this one.

.hack//GU Part 01: The first installment of the new .hack game still has the world within world aspect of it with a newly loaded version of The World. Player Killers are on the rampage and after the main character is killed and saved, he makes it his mission to kill the PKers, especially the PKer that looks remarkedly like Kite.

Ending ramble

E3 looked like a lot of fun. While there were not too many games that caught my attention, the old interests of Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid were still there and kicking. Assassin's Creed with its historical aspect was an unexpected interest but one that I look forward to playing. The Prince of Persia influence definitely helped in catching my attention. So little info on the new Crisis Core game for the PSP is frustrating but usual fare for Square Enix really. At least they admit that it truly exists. That's another game for me to watch out for. I'm really looking out for FF12's release in November.

And here's a report on Square Enix's Japanese site with pictures from their press conference...and some girls dressed up from Final Fantasy XI. Square Enix's E3 Japanaese website. Big thing that Square Enix is into lately: mobile games. There's going to be a Dirge of Cerberus mobile, they already have Before Crisis of the FF7 compilation, an upcoming FF13 mobile, a Final Fantasy I mobile game and more. They seem very committed to this format. Article: IGN: Square Enix Seriously Mobile.

All in all, lots of fun as usual. I'm looking forward to all these new games! (Quick! Must finish all of the other ones first!)

News sites used for this post: IGN.com and 1up.com.