Dissidia Final Fantasy is still a bit far along into completion, but an explanation as to why was given by Square Enix. New details have been dropped on levels and gameplay elements. You can check that out and more in the full article up ahead.

A lot of you out there may be very excited about Square Enix's upcoming event this August 2 and 3 in hopes of seeing more stuff related to Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but don' get your hopes way up high because you might get disappointed. The game's development has been placed on hold to allow team members to concentrate on higher priorities. More details about that and the rest of Square Enix's projects after the jump.

More information has been unveiled regarding Square Enix's progress on Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the Sony PSP. Famitsu's latest scans indicate that the game is already half-done, among other interesting info tidbits. Catch the rest of the news over in the full article.

 Is there any truth that there's a bitter rivalry between Square Enix icons Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura? Is this the reason why they're supposedly working on separate Final Fantasy Versus XIII games? What does he think of former boss Hironobu Sakaguchi's work with the Final Fantasy franchise? All the answers in the full article.

Most of us are heating up with the impending release of Grand Theft Auto 4, but there's no need to lose your cool. Just like last week, a modest batch of titles will hit shelves as prelude to April's main act. Square Enix is ready to make some noise in The World Ends With You, while Nintendo is letting the Pokemon loose with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness and Explorers of Time. The rest are waiting at the full article.

* Article originally posted Apr 21, 2008 at 12:48AM

We know that you want a remake of Final Fantasy VII on your Sony PSP units. Square Enix knows this very well, too. Given that, we really can't blame you if you feel frustrated why the thing hasn't happened yet.

In an interview with publication OPM, game director Hajime Tabata gave an explanation that will help shed light into the matter. You can see his response in the full article via the "read more" link below.

   

Kingdom Hearts fans now have more developer interviews to enjoy. Aside from the recent interview with character designer Tetsuya Nomura about Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Nomura also held another interview with Famitsu, this time about Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP.

Nomura said that each main character in Birth by Sleep will have an important mystery tied to them. This blogger believes that the origins of Terra and Ven's names (earth and wind, respectively) may be a hint. As for other characters, Nomura wasn't able to elaborate more about the old man Xehanort, and whether or not he is related to Kingdom Heart 2's Xehanort from Organization XIII.

There will be new kinds of enemies in Birth by Sleep, which belongs neither to the Heartless nor to the Nobodies, and the battle system will be entirely revamped as well (notice that there's no MP bar in Ven's battle screenshots?), so we can expect a totally new game for the PSP courtesy of the Kingdom Hearts team.

There are a lot of other tidbits mentioned in the interview, and it's best to check out the translated transcript in the Read link below.


Click on the Read link to access the translated Famitsu interview with Tetsuya Nomura!

Feeling excited by the slew of Kingdom Hearts titles for the handhelds? No? Well, we do. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura for Square Enix was interviewed by Japanese game magazine Gemaga, and he revealed some tidbits about Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts: Coded.

Nomura said that the control scheme of the previous two Kingdom Hearts games for the PlayStation 2 will be retained, so we'll be likely to see real-time menu surfing while beating up the baddies. As difficult as it may sound, its actually a breeze to do after some practice.

As for Birth by Sleep, Nomura said that there will be three scenarios, and players can choose which scenario to do first. There's no scenario which is more important that the others, so players can even stop in the middle of the first scenario to do another one, said Nomura.

The main theme of all three scenarios will be to answer the question "Ven, who are you?", referring to the young boy who looks like Roxas.

Kingdom Hearts for the PSP will use an evolved version of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories' card battle system, as well as a mysterious "character growth system" that Nomura didn't discuss in detail at this point.

Moving on to Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (he revealed that it's pronounced as "Three Five Eight Days over Two"), Nomura revealed that due to Roxa's slightly detached attitude, the Disney character treatment will be slightly different in 358/2 Days.

How about the controls? Nomura revealed that they will use the stylus minimally, as they want to retain the control scheme of previous Kingdom Hearts games, with the same interface as the PlayStation 2 Kingdom Hearts titles. Instead, it will be used for an in-game chat system, but he did not clarify if it will be through the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, or through a local-based wireless connection.

Multiplayer in 358/2 Days looks fun, as players will be able to choose from any of the members of Organization XIII (that's 13 playable characters!), and will have plenty of missions like defeating enemies or retrieving items.

As for Kingdom Hearts: Coded for the mobile phones, it is unique in such a way that it takes place after Kingdom Hearts 2, and not a prequel like the other two games. The gameplay has not been touched upon by Nomura, but screenshots revealed that it will have the same interface as the first two Kingdom Hearts games for the PS2. 

Whew! That's definitely so much info. We sure can't wait for Kingdom Hearts, so you can expect us to sniff out more updates for you. Til then, stay tuned!

That scan right there supposedly claims that Square Enix's Final Fantasy: Dissidia won't be coming out this year as expected. Japanese magazine Famitsu has asked Tetsuya Nomura on how the Dissidia project is going along, and while he did state that "the game is in full production mode now" and that the production team is giving it all they've got, it is unfortunate that they won't make it to this year's deadline.

Earlier, Nomura was reported as saying that the game can not be released later than this year as it is a 20th anniversary offering. Releasing it at a later date would prove the celebration futile. However, it appears that a release next year is precisely the scenario we're looking at.

The reasons cited for this delay were high expectations and quality controls. Oh well. For a guy like Nomura, it's not surprising that he'd demand nothing else than perfection. We don't really mind that the Dissidia release has been pushed back to next year, if that really is the case. We're sure there'll still be plenty to celebrate once it's finished.

In the meantime, keep on the lookout for more tidbits on this.

 

For those of us still in the dark about the newly-announced Kingdom Hearts game for the Sony PSP, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, then prepare to get enlightened through the scanned pages of Famitsu. Sit back and relax as we get you up to speed on what's new with the video game series that has two legendary franchises teaming up for an entirely new RPG experience.

So, what's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep really about? The Kingdom Hearts title for the Sony PlayStation Portable will be about the exploits of three new characters - Terra, Ven, and a third that's yet to be named. Each character will have his own scenario that revolves pretty much around them, told in their own perspectives.

What makes this an exciting bit of news is that all three are drastically different from each other, from their appearances and personalities to their abilities - which makes each scenario feeling like an entirely new Kingdom Hearts game altogether. Tai Yasue, co-director of Birth by Sleep, joked that players may think that the game itself was created by three development teams, with the gameplay experience of one scenario totally contrasting from the others.

The other details and scans after the jump!