A lot of people were holding out for some exciting news during Final Fantasy’s 25 Anniversary event in Japan yesterday; perhaps some information on Final Fantasy Versus XIII or a Final Fantasy VII remake.

What they got instead was an elaborate 12-minute demonstration of Tokimeki Final Fantasy: Suzaku Magic Institution Peristylium ~ Oh no! I’m in Love With the Crystal’s Divine Guardian ~, an otome dating game set in the world of Final Fantasy Type-0.

Final Fantasy Type-0 director Hajime Tabata began by explaining to the eager crowd that they weren’t getting what they came for: “I knew that since our fans would be here, I had to prepare something special just for this event. But, for a variety of reasons, we’re unable to announce a new title. So instead, please allow me to show you this fake project I’ve been working on. I hope we can have some fun with it.“

The game has players take control of Khalia Chival XXVI (descendant of Khalia Chival VI), a ditsy young Agito candidate and the first ever female student at a magic academy filled with hot guys.

In planning his fake Final Fantasy dating sim, Hajime wanted to utilize the series’ trademark Active Time Battle (ATB) system and apply it to the otome (dating simu marketed towards female audience) genre. This is done by adding a variety of new “AT” systems, such as “Active Time Talk,” “Active Time Lesson,” and, most important of all, “Active Time Kiss.”

Like many otome games, players follow a daily schedule in which they attend lecture, speak with fellow students and make date plans for the weekend. The goal is to fall in love with one of the characters from Final Fantasy Type-0…and maybe, you know, save the world and stuff too.

The best part is the game is being developed for the smartphone (The World Ends with You, anyone?) using Luminous Studio, Square Enix’s impressive new game engine capable of far more than static 2D graphics.

Throughout the presentation, Hajime and other staff make it a point to reiterate that the game is indeed fake, though the crowd seemed to take to the idea pretty well. They even got some of the Type-0 voice actors on board to do some impromptu dialogue recitals.

We’re glad Hajime and the others at Square Enix are able to have a bit of fun in between creating all those Final Fantasy XIII sequels, but given the effort they put into this prank, we think we’d rather have them go all the way.

Source: YouTube, My Game News Flash

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Origin: Square Enix Reveals Final Fantasy Dating Game, is Elaborate Prank
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“Hideo-kun! What do you want in your lunchbox for school tomorrow? Ham and cheese? Peanut butter and jelly? Or how about Solid Snaaaaaaaake!”

The image you see before you, ladies and gentlemen, is genuine, 100% completely edible food. We’ve seen colourful character bentō lunchboxes before, but this is something else.

As part of its 25 years of Metal Gear and Final Fantasy celebrations, Japanese game developer Konami has had a set of truly amazing lunchboxes made for a photo event. Featuring characters from both of the long-running series, the lunchboxes are so detailed that they almost look like waxworks. No matter how many times we look at these things, we can’t quite get over the fact that it’s actually food.

This game-cum-bento celebration project has reportedly been underway since October this year, with a tremendous amount of thought going into not just the designs and which characters to feature, but also their ingredients. Taking their work very seriously, the staff at Konami worked with food experts from around the country to select the best blends of rice and vegetables, and also used specially selected eggs that retail for around 500 yen (US$6) a piece. Make no mistake; no expense was spared in these lunchboxes’ creation.

The bentō were put together by members of the Shoku no Sutajio (The Food Studio) who worked secretly for months getting the designs just right. After putting together over 200 prototype lunchboxes, they finally settled upon the perfect four.

At the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear anniversary party, producers and industry legends Hideo Kojima, Yoshinori Kitase and Yoji Shinkawa were presented with the “ultimate bentō” in recognition for their work to date. Here they are posing for our photographers like the proudest schoolkids ever.

Lunchboxes from left to right: Metal Gear’s cardboard boxes, Solid Snake and Raiden, Final Fantasy, and Chokobo and Moguri bentō

We have no idea whether the bento were eventually eaten by the lucky game developers, but it if were us we don’t think we could quite bring ourselves to destroy such incredible pieces of art. Let’s take a look at the lunchboxes in detail and see how they were constructed.

▼Snake’s head and moustache hair was made from oil-coated oven-baked white onion

▼All three faces were made from mashed potato. Your mother was wrong what she said not to play with your food!

▼Snake’s headband was made from nori seaweed wrapped around dry-cured ham

▼Raiden’s locks were made from the same onion

▼Old Snake’s eyes? Quail eggs.

▼The floppy-haired Final Fantasy crew arrive in edible form

▼The detailing in their hairstyles was done with slivers of nori seaweed

▼See those eyes? Sliced cheese with blue food dye and white fish paste backgrounds.

▼Metal Gear’s famous cardboard boxes on rice and finely chopped katsuobushi fish-flake “soil”

▼ The boxes are made from inarizushi, sushi rice wrapped in fried tofu

▼And back to cute with a Chokobo and Moguri bentō

▼This Moguri was made from white rice and tiny slices of ham for its pink ears

▼Sorry, I couldn’t resist adding a few Metal Gear exclamation marks…

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Origin: Food Becomes Art: These Metal Gear and Final Fantasy Bentō Lunchboxes Will Blow Your Mind
Copyright© RocketNews24 / Socio Corporation. All rights reserved.

If you can look past the devastating damage it causes to your respiratory system, air pollution in Beijing has become so dense that it actually makes the Chinese capitol look like something from a fantasy or science fiction world.

The following photos were taken in eastern Beijing on the morning of January 22, a time when the smog was particularly thick and nasty.

The photos were shared on Japanese internet message board 2channel, where users quickly drew parallels to  the mist-covered worlds seen in some of the Final Fantasy series.

However, far from imbuing residents with magical powers, this ‘mist’ has people across Beijing shut up indoors, clinging to their air purifiers until the winds blow the poisonous soup out of China and into whatever unlucky country that lies across the ocean…

Source: Hamsoku

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Origin: Beijing Smog Makes the City Look Like Another World — You Know, the Uninhabitable Kind
Copyright© RocketNews24 / Socio Corporation. All rights reserved.

In January this year, we brought you news of an upcoming video game that quite literally evolves as you play, starting off as a monochrome mass of pixels before slowly introducing virtually every gaming mechanic and action RPG element that we’ve come to know and love, culminating with full-on 3-D visuals, giant demons and a suitably epic plot. That game is Evoland, and after long last it’s available to buy from today.

RocketNews24 was fortunate enough to receive a review copy of the game late last week. Having poured over the original promotional video for so long, it was with high expectations that we sat down with the full game for an extended session of hacking, slashing and critical dissecting. The finished article, we’re happy to say, is absolutely spellbinding.

Created by Shiro Games, Evoland is based on the Ludum Dare winner of the same name. For the uninitiated, Ludum Dare (from the Latin “to give a game”) is a video game creation competition which sees indie developers put together a full, playable game in less than 48 hours’ time, which — as we learned from watching the huddles of programmers beavering away at computers during our visit to Tokyo’s wonderful PicoPico Cafe – is no mean feat. Receiving enormous praise and having been played more than 300,000 times to date, Shiro Games knew that they were on to a winner with their game, setting to work on a fully realised version of their homage to all things RPG.

Harkening back to earlier versions of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda and Square Enix (then simply Square)’s Final Fantasy series, Evoland quests players with not just the staple save-the-world-from-dark-forces action adventure plot, but also with actively transforming their game into something worthy of today’s home consoles and gaming PCs. By opening chests in the game world, players unlock both in-game abilities and technological advances, changing the game in the blink of an eye.

Take a look at these screen shots; it’s hard to believe that they’re all from the one same game.

The game is packed full of homages and cheeky winks to action RPG classics, slowly introducing the ability to “invade people’s privacy” by entering houses, talk to villagers and, eventually, wield numerous weapons while equipping a multitude of performance-altering charms and trinkets. As a long-time gamer, seeing the game world change in real-time is a genuinely mesmerizing experience that I can only liken to sitting in a room surrounded consoles from the original NES to PlayStation 2, frantically changing game cartridges and swapping discs, wondering how we ever survived without X’s game play mechanic or Y’s visual effects.

It’s the game’s humour and attention to detail, however, that really blew me away. From the outset it’s clear that Evoland is a game that has been crafted with a tremendous amount of love, care and genuine attachment to the genre; something that is seldom possible in today’s multi-million-dollar titles put together by hundreds of artists, designers and programmers. To give an example (I could go on for hours, but then I’d hate to spoil your fun!), after working my way through Mode 7-style world maps and turn-based battles and marveling at how much difference a little ambient lighting and extra layers of texture make to a game, I started to feel like I had Evoland pegged. There was much more to come, certainly (I was still working on a paltry three hearts of life energy and my inventory looked suspiciously empty), but I felt like I’d been surprised for the last time. Upon entering my first pre-rendered PlayStation One-era village, however, something happened that brought a huge smile to my face. Guiding my character (whom I’d named Rocket, naturally…) towards the edge of the static scene to follow the path, my screen suddenly went black and a message – at once familiar and yet somehow alien – appeared before my eyes.

When a studio intentionally adds semi-invasive loading screens to its game, you know its heart is in the right place. With this single “loading” screen, I was instantly back in the mid-90s, marveling at Final Fantasy VII while my friend’s chunky grey PlayStation clicked and whirred beside the enormous living room TV. Rather than holding a photo album of past gaming greats in front of players’ faces, Shiro Games is essentially thrusting an old, uncomfortable controller into their hands and asking them to take a good, long sniff of that overheating plastic box that’s struggling to read the game disc and make 32-bit visuals happen on the screen. And it works brilliantly.

▼ Even Super Mario‘s Bowser makes a minor cameo.

Evolving technology and transforming visuals aside, Evoland even manages to hold its own as a game in its own right. Controls — once you unlock free directional movement and a few abilities that is — are responsive, physical strikes and magic spells feel just as full and satisfying as in the games it mimics, and even in our pre-release version of the game we didn’t encounter a single bug. Even while making notes and taking far too many screen caps of clever devices or cheeky comments that the game throws players’ way, I found myself lost in the experience on numerous occasions, hammering away at my keyboard as the game momentarily morphed into a dungeon crawler and wave after wave of creatures charged me down, or flicking through abilities during turn-based battles and wondering whether I ought to slip in another attack or heal my struggling party. Far from a one-trick pony, Evoland employs a number of genuinely engaging mechanics and has both sword-swinging, spell-casting, potion-using action as well as dungeons and environmental puzzles to be solved; there’s plenty of challenge and entertainment to be had here.

Wonderfully aware of itself, Evoland treats long-time gamers to a trip down memory lane while affording those too young to remember RPGs as they were before the days of CD-based consoles and FMV sequences a chance to see where the games they enjoy today came from. Whether you’re a role-playing game fanatic or a video game virgin, this is a gaming experience that we recommend with a full row of hearts.

You can pick up Evoland now for PC or Mac direct from Shiro Games’ official website, or via Steam and GoG from tomorrow.

Images: Shiro Games / RocketNews24

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Origin: Evoland Celebrates the Growth of the Action RPG Genre in Style, Available to Buy Now 【Review】
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Should you happen to be in Tokyo this Golden Week, you have until Tuesday (May 7) to check out a free (!!!) art gallery displaying some beautiful works by Amano Yoshitaka. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, some of the projects he’s worked on surely will: Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and the incomparable Sandman: the Dream Hunters.

And if you happen to have a few extra yen laying about, you can also pick up some original pieces! The least expensive one we found was only about 40,000 yen (US$402), and the most expensive we spied was about 3.8 million yen (US$38,381). Even if you can’t pick up the original art, you can still get postcards, posters, notebooks, and calendars with Amano’s brilliant art. And! You’ll get a poster just for coming by!

Photo and event information below! (Some of the photos are not safe for work!!!)

Event name: Amano Yoshitaka Exhibit: 20,000 Years of Illusion
Location: Shinjuku Island Tower, South Tower, B1F, Aqua Plaza
Dates: May 2 to May 7
Time: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Final day until 6 p.m.)

Source: ARTVIVANT.net
Even Poster: ARTVIVANT.net
Photos: RocketNews24 (event photos/postcards), Wikipedia

▼   Some standups at the door. (Life-sized!)

▼   A statue eerily reminiscent of the classic 1927 film Metropolis

▼   No idea what this is…but we sure would love to hang it on our living room walls!

▼   Here’s the free poster! This alone is worth the price of admission!

▼   A close up of the central characters

▼   And here are the postcards. There are two sets, both going for 500 yen (US$5.05).

▼   And one unrelated Amano piece, just because we can’t stop staring.

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Origin: Fantasy Art: Amano Yoshitaka Art Gallery
Copyright© RocketNews24 / Socio Corporation. All rights reserved.

While in recent years opinions have become increasingly divided on the gameplay in long-running video game series Final Fantasy, there’s not much room to criticize the franchise’s artistry. New installments of Final Fantasy are consistently among the most visually and aurally pleasing games at their time of release. Each title has a huge team of designers and software engineers who spend untold hours making sure the cut scenes are gorgeous, the interface slick, and the soundtrack stirring and crystal clear. And also, apparently, that the heroine doesn’t inadvertently flash her panties.

This month video game publisher Square Enix is set to release Lightning Returns – Final Fantasy XIII, the newest chapter in its hit role-playing saga. Lightning Returns is actually the second sequel to Final Fantasy XIII (not to be confused with the still-in-development Final Fantasy XV, which is a different game entirely). True to its name, Lightning Returns once again features the pink-tressed swordswoman named Lightning, who also appeared in Final Fantasy XIII, as its protagonist.

One of the selling points for Lightning Returns is the over 80 costumes players can acquire for Lightning. Some of these are standard knightly garb, while others are based on the armor of historical samurai such as Oda Nobunaga, or previous Final Fantasy characters such as spikey-haired loner Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. There’s even a cat girl outfit, because…

▼ Because this.

Another new feature is the ability to manipulate the camera during cut scenes, those times when the player isn’t directly controlling the characters on screen. It’s likely this was added as a concession to gamers who for years have been grumbling about not having anything to do during these frequent scenes in which Final Fantasy’s characters chat, debate, and otherwise advance the plot.

Finally, there’s one more change in Lightning Returns that’s got people talking. A few months ago, Square Enix started a bit of a firestorm when it let slip that it was bumping Lightning’s bust up one cup size for her latest adventure. Several gamers criticized the software house for what they called blatant and offensive pandering, while contending that this physical enhancement ran counter to Lightning’s tough, no-nonsense personality.

But while the development team is indeed giving gamers a Lightning with a more bountiful bosom, that doesn’t mean it’s willing to let them peek at her undies.

Fans may be excited about changing Lightning’s costume and playing with the camera angle during cut scenes, but the combined effect of these two capabilities created a new headache for the developers, particularly Cut Scene Animation Director Yusuke Tanaka and Cut Scene Layout Director Hidekazu Miyake.

For the cut scenes of both Final Fantasy XIII and its first direct sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2, it was Tanaka and Miyake’s job to look for any clipping errors or other visual glitches wherein the character’s clothing and body collided improperly. And of course, to check for possible panty shots.

Since the first two of the three Final Fantasy XIII games featured cut scenes with entirely preset costumes and camera angles, there were a finite number of places where things could go wrong. Tanaka feels that they were able to find all of them, and were thus able to prevent Lightning from putting on an involuntary peep show.

With Lightning Returns, however, the huge number of available costumes made things much harder. Tanaka says that it took the most time to correct panty flashes on the cat girl costume, for which Lightning needs to slip into a miniskirt because…

▼ Didn’t we cover this already?

Tanaka explains that the problem of the female characters’ underwear being visible has popped up throughout the Final Fantasy franchise, but Miyake claims that it was more pronounced than ever in Lightning Returns. “This time, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you can catch a little peek.’ You could see everything,” he explains.

Part of the problem stemmed from the fact that Lightning’s standard costume in the new game has chap-like cloths that cover her legs and prevent the player from getting an eyeful of her undergarments. As such, Tanaka and Miyake didn’t initially give much thought to how some of the cool poses they’d though up for Lighnting to strike would look after the player switched to a shorter hemline and a lower camera angle.

▼ Lightning’s default costume

As a result, Tanaka and Miyake had to go back and adjust the way Lightning moves and even the physics calculations in some scenes. Despite their efforts, though, Miyake admits that with the player getting control of the camera, they can’t guarantee they caught everything.

“There may be a few oportunities that slipped by,” Tanaka agrees. But with Lightning Returns about to hit store shelves, there’s nothing more he can do. “If that’s the case, well, then I guess that’s just going to have to be something for the player to uncover and enjoy.”

▼ After all, the excitement of exploration and discovery is what keeps role-playing game fans coming back for more.

Sources: Hachima Kikou, Dengeki Online
Top image: Namakemono’s Blog
Insert images: 4 Gamer, Square Enix, 4 Gamer, Square Enix

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Origin: Finding the heroine’s panties: The most difficult side quest in newest Final Fantasy role-playing game
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A waterfall dramatically plunging from the wide chasm in the Jurassic limestone cavern roof, down to the moss green rocks and valley below: a scene so breathtakingly fantastic and beautiful you’d expect to ride a Chocobo there. A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.

But this is not CG or a fantasy, this is a real place. This is the Baatara gorge waterfall in the Tannourine, Lebanon. Dropping 255 metres into the Baatara pothole or “Cave of the Three Bridges”, this seasonal waterfall is famed as one of the most beautiful in the world. Recently this natural wonder sparked interest in Japan as a waterfall “from the world of Final Fantasy”, the wildly popular video game franchise.

Some compared its beauty to Pinnacle Rocks of Final Fantasy IX, mentioning that it should be a great place to bump into an Eidolon.

▼See the tiny person standing on the rock bridge? Probably waiting for a Moogle.

Image by media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com

About 75 km north of capital city Beirut, the dizzying Baatara sinkhole can be found by the village of Balaa. The 90m waterfall is created in spring by the snow melt.

“Discovered” in 1952 by French bio-speleologist Henri Coiffait and fully mapped by the Spéléo club du Liban in the 1980s, in drier seasons without the spectacular waterfall and abundant greenery it appears a lot less romantic and more like… a huge hole in the ground ready to swallow us up.

▼I feel a base jump coming on…

Image: 2.bp.blogspot.com

▼The view from above…

Image: travelhack.jp

▼Uh-oh, it seems to have sprung a leak. Don’t worry, it happens every spring!

Image: articleimage.nicoblomaga.jp

Inspired to visit Lebanon? Sadly, this is a region which has been wracked with turmoil. If you’re in the area, make sure you avoid the border with Syria, the southern suburbs of Beirut and Tripoli. Travel safe… as beautiful as this area is, don’t make it your final “Final Fantasy”!

Source: Naver Matome
Featured image: arduino-japan.com

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Origin: Step into the world of Final Fantasy in real life Lebanon
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When Final Fantasy VII hit PlayStations around the globe in 1997, featuring some of the most gorgeous graphics and CG cut-scenes gamers had ever seen, it single-handedly opened up the Western market to Japanese console RPGs. In years since, though, there’s been some contention over just how deserving developer Square’s biggest hit ever is of its exalted place in video game lore. Does it have a gripping story, or does the narrative become a confused mess after its midgame plot twist? Do the title’s numerous mini games flesh out its world, or is spending hours breeding giant flightless birds to race for sport both silly and boring?

But no matter which side of the debate you fall on, there’s one thing gamers everywhere can agree on: Final Fantasy VII’s antagonist, Sephiroth, is a stone-cold badass. Now, Hollywood blacksmith Tony Swatton has brought the villain’s iconic weapon, the gigantic blade named Masamune, to life.

Just how cool is Sephiroth? When the Final Fantasy team decided to make a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, 2007’s Crisis Core, the game was packed full of scenes showing Sephiroth effortlessly fighting off highly trained swordsmen. Final Fantasy VII’s protagonist, Cloud, on the other hand, was shown vomiting and getting stabbed.

Aside from his impressive combat exploits, Sephiroth has an instantly recognizable design, and we see him here with his signature long hair, long coat, and very long sword.

His weapon is the sort of thing that could only appear in Japanese fiction. No one would actually go to the trouble of forging a blade that massive in real life.

Except for Tony Swatton.

▼ Seen here accessorizing well enough to appear in a Final Fantasy game himself

Swatton, who was born in London’s Hammersmith district, apparently looked at his birth certificate and decided that it was his destiny to become a blacksmith. Of course, most cities in our modern society have only a limited need for horseshoes and broadswords, so Swatton moved to Los Angeles and established himself as a master prop producer for Hollywood films. His creations have been featured in over 200 movies, including Pirates of the Carribean, X-Men, and The Last Samurai.

When he’s not producing weapons for Hollywood A-listers and/or their stuntmen, Swatton also hosts the web series Man at Arms, where he chronicles the process of reproducing the blades of animation and video game characters. Having already made a replica of Cloud’s Buster Sword, Swatton was next inundated with requests from his fans to forge Sephiroth’s Masamune. It was a challenge the craftsman was more than up for.

Swatton’s dedication is such that nothing less than a perfect 1:1 scale reproduction would do. Meaning that he first needed more than seven feet of steel.

Creating the blade required no less than four different striking tools: an automated power hammer, regular hammer, special flattener, and a uniquely shaped item traditionally used in forging Japanese katanas.

The sword’s handguard is fashioned out of bronze, with brass fittings. The handle itself is a mix of both the exotic and mundane. Its wooden core is a repurposed chair leg, which is then wrapped in stingray skin. This is once again wrapped in nylon to improve the grip.

To connect the blade to the unit, Swatton went with the traditional choice of bamboo pins. Lacking a bamboo grove from which to harvest the material, he turned to the next most logical choice: chopsticks.

▼ The finished product

So is the Masamune combat-ready? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, it’s shown causing every bit of damage you’d expect from a piece of steel that would stand taller than 95 percent of professional basketball players.

On the other hand, the weapon’s ridiculous length means that it flops around like crazy, which would make it extremely difficult to control and worthless for parrying.

▼ Although this makes it perfect for the dark knight who needs to fight moogles, hobbits, or other vertically-challenged fantasy creatures, but at the same time worries about putting a strain on his back by bending over to mow them down.

Our verdict? As with the genocidal Sephiroth himself, there are logical reasons we should hate Swatton’s Masamune. But like Square’s most popular villain, we just can’t because of how awesome it looks.

Source: Kotaro 269, Web Series Channel
Top image, video: YouTube
Insert images: Wikia, YouTube (numerical addition by RocketNews24)

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Origin: Hollywood blacksmith forges Sephiroth’s massive sword from Final Fantasy VII【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Final Fantasy, perhaps the biggest and best Japanese RPG series ever as far as the Western world is concerned, is no stranger to spin-offs and dubious sub-sequels. There have been a handful of gems amongst them, but there are some that even fans of the main series would prefer to imagine never happened. Rhythm action game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call, however, is one of the few non-core entries in the series that we’re sure gamers would be keen to get their hands on should its makers see fit to release it outside of Japan. And if a patent recently filed in Europe is any indication, they may just get their wish.

Spanish anime, manga and gaming site Deculture reports that a trademark for the game’s subtitle, “Curtain Call”, was recently trademarked in Europe, leading fans to speculate, hope and pray that Square Enix is gearing up to release the game outside of Japan.

The game plays pretty much exactly like its precursor: “battles” take place on the 3DS’s top screen at the same time as coloured symbols fly in from left to right. The player uses the lower touch screen to tap or “hold” a note in time with the beat from any of the 200 confirmed music tracks, which of course come straight out of the long-running series’ massive and much-loved back catalogue.

The game is currently pencilled in for a “spring 2014″ release in Japan, but no official announcement has been made regarding a version localised for Western audiences – something that will no doubt frustrate non-Japanese gamers since Nintendo doggedly insists on region-locking its games and hardware, meaning that imported copies will probably be more useful as tiny tablet computers for your sister’s Barbie doll.

Hopefully this news is a good sign and Square Enix will do the decent thing and provide fans of Final Fantasy and rhythm action games in general with an additional taste of gaming goodness sometime this year.

Source: Deculture via Games in Asia
YouTube DevilRyuji Gaming  

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Origin: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call could be on its way to the Western world
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Put on your nostalgia glasses, people: Square Enix has seen fit to grace us with one of its greatest non-playable endeavors of all time with a Final Fantasy XIII story recap done up in Super Nintendo-era graphics a la Final Fantasy VI – otherwise known as Final Fantasy III or The Best JRPG Ever.

Because this video compresses hundreds of hours of gameplay and hard-earned story revelations into a little under eight minutes, we must issue the most urgent spoiler warning we’ve ever issued, so JRPG fans who have for some reason not yet played the latest Final Fantasy be warned.

You’ll note the extreme faithfulness to the Final Fantasy VI style, up to and including the horrible dialogue – which we honestly don’t know whether or not is an intentional attempt at 16-bit era JRPG accuracy or an honest result of bad translation (“Yes, we can.” “Not without me you’re not!” [???]).

While we commend Square Enix for this great – and totally free – fan service video, we’re still a little sad that in our opinion it’s easily the best thing the studio has produced in 10 years in light of its recent mobile money-sapping simulators and rhythm games that they spent time making while they could have been remastering Final Fantasy VII instead.

Source: Hachima Kikou

• Ultra-cute “chibi” Final Fantasy VII figures now available for pre-order
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• Hollywood blacksmith forges Sephiroth’s massive sword from Final Fantasy VII【Video】
• Finding the heroine’s panties: The most difficult side quest in newest Final Fantasy role-playing game
• Square Enix Reveals Final Fantasy Dating Game, is Elaborate Prank

Origin: 16-bit Final Fantasy XIII story recap will make you weep big fat nerd tears
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Located a short stroll from Shinjuku Station, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, or Tocho, as it’s commonly called, is one of the city’s most easily recognizable landmarks. Its design is distinctive, stately, powerful…and honestly, if you stare at it too long, it starts to look a little sinister.

Driving this sentiment home were a few Japanese Twitters user who worked a little photo editing magic to prove that Tocho would make a perfect dwelling for an RPG boss in a title from video game giant Square Enix.

Tocho’s two towers are the building’s most memorable characteristic. In real life, they house a pair of observation decks, where visitors can peer out over the sprawling metropolis, pick up some souvenirs, and even grab a bite to eat.

However, you’d never expect to find anything so benign up there from looking at Tocho under certain conditions.

▼ We’re guessing there’s a kidnapped princess at the top of the spire on the right, and the evil wizard who’s responsible in the one on the left.

Add in some atmospheric fog, like the kind that rolled into the Tokyo area last weekend, and the spooky effect is amplified.

In particular, there’s something evocative about the way the light is reflecting off the clouds. Hmm…where have we seen something like that before? Let’s see if Twitter user Dadada can jog our memory.

Consider our memories jogged, as Dadada hits the nail right on the spikey-haired head. Tocho in the fog makes an excellent real-world stand in for the Mako reactor from the opening of Final Fantasy VII.

Still not convinced? Look at how natural the game’s hero, Cloud, looks standing in front of the building, in a tweet sent out by user Setsugekka.

We just have one question: Where’s the start button?

Source: IT Media
Top image: Twitter
Insert images: Yahoo! Japan, Tokyo Yakei, Twitter, Guardian Liberty Voice, Twitter

• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call could be on its way to the Western world
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• Hollywood blacksmith forges Sephiroth’s massive sword from Final Fantasy VII【Video】
• Super-explicit Evangelion fan translation leaves Japanese fan scratching his head
• Evoland Celebrates the Growth of the Action RPG Genre in Style, Available to Buy Now 【Review】

Origin: Foggy night transforms Tokyo government building into Final Fantasy dungeon
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Last weekend I was at a department store in Tokyo, and since Valentine’s Day is coming up, the confectionary section was packed with candy makers hawking limited-edition chocolates for the romantic holiday. As I looked at all the sweetness on display, though, something struck me.

In Japan, women give chocolate to the special guy in their life, but the aesthetics are still entirely feminine. I saw dozens of candies shaped like hearts, ribbons, and even teddy bears and other cute woodland animals.

While the craftsmanship was impressive, none of the designs were the sort of things men actually want for themselves, especially when they could have these awesome Final Fantasy chocolates instead.

Developer Square Enix is offering three different sets of Final Fantasy chocolates, all based on the popular seventh installment in the series. The top of the heap is the five piece Final Fantasy VII Materia chocolate, modeled after the magical power-granting material orbs used by the player’s party in its quest to save the world. At 3,000 yen (US$28.85) the set doesn’t come cheap, but that price does get you five different flavors of chocolate, plus the undying gratitude of your game-loving Valentine.

If the sticker shock on the material set is a bit much for you, there are alternative Final Fantasy chocolates that don’t require you to spend 10 hours killing dragons (or working overtime) to acquire the wealth necessary to purchase them. The five-piece Advent Children set includes designs such as protagonist Cloud’s wolf motif and the logo of the sinister Shinra Corporation for 2,000 yen. While it doesn’t have quite the impact of the materia set, the more traditional design does make it more likely the recipient will actually eat them. With the material set, there’s the definite risk that your boyfriend will just display it proudly on the shelf next to his Tifa figurine until both are overrun with ants.

Easier still on the wallet is the three-piece Advent Children, which goes for 1,400 yen.

All three sets are available at Square Enix’s official merchandise shop, Artnia, in downtown Tokyo.

Shop information
Artnia
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 6-27-30, Shinjuku Eastside Square, First Floor
東京都新宿区新宿6-27-30 新宿イーストサイドスクエア1F
Website
Open 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Closed Thursdays

Sources: Hachima Kiko, News 2U
Images: News 2U

• 16-bit Final Fantasy XIII story recap will make you weep big fat nerd tears
• Baskin Robbins Japan pinpoints the flavors of love in time for Valentines Day
• Square Enix Reveals Final Fantasy Dating Game, is Elaborate Prank
• Ultra-cute “chibi” Final Fantasy VII figures now available for pre-order
• Finding the heroine’s panties: The most difficult side quest in newest Final Fantasy role-playing game

Origin: Final Fantasy Chocolates: The gift your gaming Valentine actually wants
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Every once in a while we experience pleasant beauty of synchronicity in life, whether it’s listening to Pink Flyod’s Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of OZ or just listening to The Police’s Synchronicity.

Another such case is the uncannily fitting combination of a North Korean calisthenics video for children with the background music to a Final Fantasy IV boss battle. A video of it was posted on YouTube quite a while ago, but it’s worth revisiting again and again.

First let’s take a look at the original video that’s keeping the DRPK youth fit and active.

Alright, that was pretty awesome by itself, and if you don’t think so you clearly didn’t sit through all four minutes and 14 seconds of it. Please go back and do so now. The rest of us will wait…

Hang on. We’re still waiting for that one lady over ther… Okay.

By the detectable sounds of a Moog synthesizer and Theremin we can assume this is a relatively new video in North Korea made with recently developed musical technology. It’s hard to image how it’s possible to improve on that but we will soon see.

Before that though here is a FFIV boss battle against Zemus so you can hear the background music. You don’t have to watch all of this, Final Fantasy is like bowling. It’s way more fun to play than to watch.

Put the two together and what do you get?

The music adds an extra layer of meaning to the whole routine as the kids put their arms akimbo with added purpose. The whole dance carries a sense of urgency previously unseen in North Korea’s typically laissez-faire videos.

Viewers both Japanese and Western were expecting the children to unite into the FFIV boss Calcabrina.

The rest, on the other hand, were simply confused.

Source: ViRATES (Japanese)
Video: YouTube – Watanuki Makoto Shigatsu Ichinichi Makoto, vinnyfav, MegaUltraJMan, AquaRing, chojiro22

▼ Of course kids don’t get all the fun of movement in North Korea, there are videos for all ages.

Origin: You ain’t seen North Korean calisthenics ’til you’ve seen it done to Final Fantasy IV boss music
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

With well over 20 years since the original Final Fantasy was released, everyone who was old enough to enjoy developer Square Enix’s hugely successful video game franchise from the very start is legally old enough to drink in Japan. So when we heard tale of a realm/café run by the company, called Artnia, where we could combine our passions for role-playing games and alcoholic beverages, we were intrigued, and when rumors reached us of chocolate buster swords, we were out the door.

Our journey took us through pitch black tunnels, subterranean cities, and secluded forests, but we persevered, and have returned to tell all of our adventures.

For the first leg of our voyage, we descended deep into the bowls of the earth, to travel by subway to Higashi Shinjuku Station, right next to the fancy new headquarters of Square Enix. After existing our train and passing through the turnstiles, we climbed a flight of stairs that wouldn’t be out of place leading to the last boss of one of the publisher’s role-playing epics.

Waiting for us at the top, though, was not a fire-breathing dragon, but a selection of inexpensive restaurants that are frequented by the employees of the attached office complex. We were after more fantastical fare, though, so we kept walking, making our way towards another set of stairs that would finally put as back at surface level.

▼ Warning: despite appearances, jumping into the fountain will not replenish your energy or save your progress in life.

As with any proper quest, random monster attacks are part of the package, and as we climbed upwards, we were startled to see this lurking in the bushes.

Our fight or flight instinct kicked in, and having brought our appetites but no longswords, we beat a hasty retreat down the wooded path until our destination was in sight.

With its distinctive egg-like shape, there’s no mistaking Artnia for any other restaurant. While there’s seating outside, the skies above were threatening to open and drop a sheet of rain on us at any moment, so we swiftly ventured in.

If the concept “video game café” makes you envision Cheetos-stained couches and blaring fight scene background music, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that Artnia is a class eatery all the way. The interior is modern and stylish, with a winding bench seat and also a bar counter. The sound of a fountain and an a cappella recording drifted out of the adjacent showroom, and the elegant effect went a long way in explaining why over 70 percent of the customers were women when we stopped by.

The courteous staff seated us at a table and brought the menu, which is entirely bilingual in Japanese and English, as the waiter told us half of the clientele is made up of overseas visitors. Deciding to save our Final Fantasy cocktail for after we’d satisfied our appetite, we began with a stack of chocolate pancakes.

Of course, every café in Japan serves dessert-style pancakes these days, so Artnia has to do something special to grab its customers’ attention. Each order comes with a special bit of Final Fantasy artwork seared into the top layer. Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose which pattern it’ll be, but the menu showed such cute designs as the series’ rideable birds called chocobos, as well as the pint-sized furry moogles which had their big break in Final Fantasy VI.

As we waited, our waitress brought our napkins and silverware, which contained another tip of the hat to Final Fantasy lore, as the napkins bear the logo of Seventh Heaven, the bar managed by stout-hearted martial artist Tifa in Final Fantasy VII.

▼ The knife, while not specifically modeled after any weapon that appears in the series, does look surprisingly combat-worthy.

Next, the staff brought out our pancakes, and we were happily surprised to see the face of Cactuar, the reclusive cactus-based monster that can be found by diligent explorers of Final Fantasy’s desert areas.

Thankfully, the pancakes don’t contain any of the 10,000 needles Cactuar is known to attack his foes with. Instead, it comes with vanilla ice cream powdered with cocoa, chocolate sauce sliced bananas and nuts, and even a few pieces of soft chocolate.

Just about anything tastes good when it’s served with three types of chocolate, but Artnia goes the extra mile by making their pancakes with plenty of buttermilk, and cooking them thick enough for diners to enjoy chewing through their soft fluffiness.

Leafing through the menu, we also came across two special Final Fantasy VII parfaits, modeled after central characters Aerith and Cloud. Aerith’s is topped with strawberries evocative of her pink dress and red coat, but Cloud’s chocolate parfait seals the deal by coming with something even better than fresh fruit.

▼ A buster sword!

Since life only gives you so many chances to eat weaponry-themed desserts, this was an easy choice. As we sat and waited for our order, we wondered what the sword was made of. Granted, a real weapon would be made of metal, but on the other hand, a less expensive material like plastic would probably mean we could take it home with us.

Then, once the parfait cane, we realized how base and close-minded our thinking had been. The best swords aren’t made out of steel or plastic, they’re made out of chocolate.

The edible buster sword isn’t sharp enough to slice the pancakes with, but it is extremely tasty.

The rest of the parfait isn’t any slouch either, with a tasty mix of bananas and thin sliced nuts, chocolate sauce, Panna cotta, and coffee jelly, plus a couple more of the same pieces of chocolate that came with our pancakes.

Now that we’d finished our dessert, it was time for an after-dinner drink. Aside from an extensive selection of teas and juices, Artnia has a lineup of Final Fantasy-themed drinks. Some of these are non-alcoholic, such as the Potion and Hi-Potion beverages made with honey and fresh mint. We wanted something with a little kick, so we turned to the page of cocktails, many of which are named after the mythical beasts that appear in the series, such as Shiva and Ifrit.

What caught our eye, though, were the materia cocktails, named after the orbs of magical energy around which Final Fantasy VII’s plot centers. We settled on the Blue Materia, which is made with gin, lime juice, and blue curacao (the similar Red Materia swaps crème de cassis for the curacao).

Before bringing the drink, our waiter set down a coaster bearing the mark of the Shin Ra Electric Power Company, the on-again off-again antagonist from Final Fantasy VII.

As a coaster, its intended purpose is to keep the table dry. However, there’s a placemat already doing that, so should you decide to stick the coaster in your bag and take it home with you instead of placing your drink on it, we can speak from experience that the staff doesn’t mind.

The drink itself is extremely unique-looking, with a vibrant blue orb in the center that looks just like a materia ball.

The liquid portion is clear, being a mix of gin and lime juice, with the blue curacao contained in the frozen orb floating in the glass.

In regards to the Blue Materia, Artnia’s menu explains, “This drink has high alcohol content,” and they’re not kidding. This is a generous pour of gin, and initially it’s a bit on the harsh side. As the icy sphere thaws, though, the sweet citrus of the curacao mellows out the flavor, and if you slowly slip the drink, you can enjoy a number of flavor profiles before your glass is dry.

On the other hand, polishing off all the liquid in the glass quickly will give you the rare opportunity to hold a piece of materia in the palm of your hand.

Unfortunately, gripping the orb didn’t enable us to leap high into the air or summon Bahamut. Actually, it gave us a burning sensation on our hand, since it was still frozen.

However…

…it tasted great!

Oddly enough, even though we didn’t gain any magical abilities from holding the mateira, after finishing the drink and orb, we did indeed feel stronger, not to mention intelligent, and somehow even more charismatic. Maybe there really is magic in the Materia cocktail.

Either that, or, like the menu says, there’s just a lot of alcohol in there.

Restaurant information
Artnia / アルトニア
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 6-27-30, Shinjuku East Square 1st Floor
東京都新宿区新宿6-27-30 新宿イーストサイドスクエア1F
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Closed Thursdays
Website

Photos: RocketNews24

Origin: Final Fantasy café puts spirits within you with materia cocktails, chocolate buster swords
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

When Final Fantasy VII was first released in 1997, gamers around the world emotionally connected with it in a way that had never been seen before. Years later, the game still occupies a special place in many people’s hearts, with many clamoring for developer Square Enix to release a version with graphics updated to today’s standards.

But even as so may ask for a new edition of the game that looks better, you won’t find anyone asking for one that sounds better, as the role-playing classic’s soundtrack is one of the most universally-loved musical collections to ever come out of the medium. As testament to its lasting appeal, a Final Fantasy VII symphony concert will be held in Tokyo this summer.

The performance, taking place on June 21, will be the first of the Game Symphony Japan concert series. While the tour’s subsequent dates and music selections have yet to be announced, the first features pieces by Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary video game composer behind almost the entire soundtrack for the Final Fantasy franchise.

Uematsu, who serves as executive music advisor for Game Symphony Japan, will make an appearance at the performance, which will be conducted by Kenichi Shimura. The performance will take place at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo’s Akasaka neighborhood, which boasts some of the highest-quality acoustics in Japan. This isn’t the first time for the venue to host a game music performance, as one was previously held for Final Fantasy’s long-time rival Dragon Quest, but it will be the first Final Fantasy concert held at the concert hall.

Rather than simply cherry-pick their favorite pieces from the soundtrack, the organizers have set out to recreate the Final Fantasy VII narrative through the musical selection, going through the beginning, middle, and end of the game’s story in an attempt to recreate the sensation of playing through the game in its entirety. So while you’ll hear stand-outs such as the Final Fantasy VII main theme and arch-villain Sephiroth’s leitmotif “One-Winged Angel,” the orchestra will also play music used for the game’s overworld, fight scenes, and ending credits, as well.

Ticket prices range from 6,500 to 10,000 yen (US$64-$98), depending on seat location. The doors open at 1 p.m., and the concert is scheduled to wrap up roughly two and a half hours later, giving you plenty of time to scoot on over to the Final Fantasy café and grab a Buster Sword Parfait before it closes.

Venue information
Suntory Hall / サントリホール
Address: Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Akasaka 1-13-1
107-0052 東京都港区赤坂１−１３−１
Website

Source: 4 Gamer.net
Top image: Space Battles
Insert images: Comic Buzz, Webry

Origin: Final Fantasy VII concert to be held in Tokyo this summer (yes, they’ll play One-Winged Angel)
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

After pictures of the Pope at the weekly General Audience were circulated online, internet users everywhere have noticed something peculiar: it looks eerily like the entrance of the last boss in a Final Fantasy game. If you don’t believe me, read on!

For the full experience, hit play before continuing:

Our story takes place in Rome, at the Paul VI Audience Hall. It looks innocent from the outside, but danger lurks within.

▼ Who would ever suspect something sinister of happening in a building covered with solar panels?

Inside, there is an enormous statue called La Resurrezione, depicting Jesus rising from the dead. Specifically, it shows him rising from the crater left after a nuclear explosion. No, seriously.

The sculpture measures 23 feet tall and weighs 8 tons. That’s hard to put into perspective, but when you do…

▼ Gah! Look out!

▼ Not to worry. Everyone knows the last boss has to make a speech before attacking.

The sculpture is sometimes lit in different colors.

▼ How are they not wetting themselves? 

Almost like he’s being attacked or something.

▼ Is this the crater?

Although I’m not sure whose side the Pope is on.

▼ I feel like there is a minion in this picture, but I’m not sure who it is…

For those who subscribe to more of a sci-fi view of the the Pope, you are not alone:

Source: LabaQ
Images: LabaQ, Wikipedia, YouTube

• Final Fantasy café puts spirits within you with materia cocktails, chocolate buster swords
• Final Fantasy VII concert to be held in Tokyo this summer (yes, they’ll play One-Winged Angel)
• Japan Celebrates Premiere of Game of Thrones with Ice Castle Theater — in the Worst Location Possible
• Revisit 20 Photos of Some of The Most Powerful Moments and People in Modern History
• Final Fantasy Chocolates: The gift your gaming Valentine actually wants

Origin: The Pope might just be a Final Fantasy character
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

RPGs like Square Enix’s Final Fantasy take us to faraway worlds with extraordinarily picturesque locations; places that couldn’t possibly exist on this planet. Mother Earth would have to be a scenery designer to create locales as visually stunning as RPGs do.

But Earth is a much stranger place than we can imagine, and some of the craziest “must be photoshopped” places turn out to be just the simple strangeness of our planet. Luckily for us, if you ever wanted to visit a place that would fit perfectly into a Final Fantasy world, Earth has you covered. Watch yourself when you stand up, because your jaws are about to be all over the floor.

Welcome to Iceland! Situated in the North Atlantic and with a population of just 325,671, it’s a country with such an interesting volcanic and geological history that it can produce stunning scenery like this particularly breathtaking place called Seljalandsfoss.

Image: JUAN RAMON RODRIGUEZ SOSA

Image: JUAN RAMON RODRIGUEZ SOSA

Described as one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the world, it’s easy to see how a place like this could inspire an RPG world, especially a Final Fantasy one.

Image: Bekassine

What sets this waterfall apart from so many others is that you can walk behind it. By doing so, the atmosphere of the area also completely changes and it’s like you’re looking at the world with a whole new perspective.  The road leading to it is delightfully pleasant too, the Ring Road.

Image: Sonna anata ni

Image: Konrad Zeltner

Image: Matito (flickr）

Image: Dion Photo

Image: Tozonabo News

Image: Reykjavik

If you are ready to hop on a plane to Iceland so you can step into a magical world like Hydaelyn (Final Fantasy 14), your travel agents are standing by.

Image: Square Enix

Just be sure you do your research into all that Iceland has to offer. You probably don’t want to mix up your Hangikjöt (Smoked Lamb) from your Svið  (Singed and boiled Sheep Head).

Source: Naver Matome
Top Image: Katrin Lorenzen

• New Video Game Evoland Turns Technological Advancement into a Game in its Own Right
• Ultra-cute “chibi” Final Fantasy VII figures now available for pre-order
• Evoland Celebrates the Growth of the Action RPG Genre in Style, Available to Buy Now 【Review】
• Foggy night transforms Tokyo government building into Final Fantasy dungeon
• Step into the world of Final Fantasy in real life Lebanon

Origin: Japanese netizens are ready to visit a Final Fantasy world, and you can go too!
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Back in the heyday of Nintendo’s NES, video game hardware wasn’t advanced enough to handle the kind of polygon-based visuals that are the industry standard today. Instead, artists had to bitmap their characters.

Bitmapping involves laying down squares of color, called pixels, to form an image. It’s essentially a digital mosaic, and with enough time and dedication, you could perfectly recreate the cast of your favorite 8-bit classic using a sheet of graph paper.

Or, as one retro fan in Japan recently did, a screen door.

Almost everyone in Japan hangs their laundry outside to dry, usually on a balcony. To provide easy access, many apartments have entire walls that are basically large sliding glass doors, with equally large screens behind them.

Most people just see that screen as a way to let in a little fresh air, but Twitter user Jenihara saw something different: a canvas.

The NES had a display resolution of 256 by 240, and while that’s a lot of pixels, it’s still way fewer than the number of boxes made by the grid of a screen door. In other words, there was nothing holding Jenihara back from sprucing hers up with a few Final Fantasy III characters.

Using a toothpick to apply stained glass ink, Jenihara went to work, using four squares of screen door for every pixel in the character art. Even after quadrupling their sizes, though, there was still plenty of room, and in the end the creative artist finished a complete set of all the job classes in Squaresoft’s beloved role-playing game from 1990.

Don’t assume that Jenihara is strictly a Nintendo loyalist, either, as her other muse is the 1986 Sega shooter Fantasy Zone.

Exposure to air causes the ink to harden, and Jenihara says the colors look especially dazzling when the sunlight hits them, as you’d expect from artwork made with the same materials used for stained glass. For anyone who spent more hours growing up in front of an NES or Master System than inside a church, we’re sure it’s a similarly reverent sight.

Sources: Jin, Inside Games, Twitter
Images: Twitter

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• Do we have time for three hours of classic NES start screens? Yes we do
• Sega/Nintendo rivalry coming to theatres with Console Wars movie

Origin: Fan makes awesome Final Fantasy art with just a screen door, ink, and a toothpick
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Even though the numbered sequels in the Final Fantasy video game series stretch all the way up to 14, there are actually far more titles than that in the franchise. One of the most popular spinoffs to Square Enix’s massively successful role-playing game is Final Fantasy Tactics, thanks to its deep customization, complex and unpredictable plot, and stirring soundtrack.

The strategy role-playing game has been entertaining fans for the past 17 years, and as testament to its lasting appeal, this summer a symphony orchestra concert will be held dedicated to the music of Final Fantasy Tactics. And best of all, it’s free.

Square Enix served as published for Final Fantasy Tactics, and having the company’s name plastered on the box and title screen means it gets the lion’s share of the credit for the high quality of the finished product. Truth be told, though, the title owes its popularity at least as much to the talents of collaborative developer Quest, creator of the Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre series of strategy games. While much of Final Fantasy Tactics’ artwork and job classes drew heavily from the first seven numbered Final Fantasy games, the core battle system and unflinching brutal storyline of Final Fantasy Tactics unmistakably have their roots in Quest’s earlier efforts.

Another thing Quest brought to the table was the music of composers Hitoshi Sakamoto and Masaharu Iwata. The two friends had supplied the scores for Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, and did so again for Final Fantasy Tactics.

The soundtrack they created struck a chord with a group of musicians in Japan, who call themselves the Knights Templar Orchestra, after a class of character that appears in the game. Made up of 70 performers from across the county, the group exclusively plays music from Final Fantasy Tactics.

Their first concert was held in 2007, which was followed up with a second in 2009. This summer, the group is back again with a July 19 performance at the Parthenon Tama concert hall in southwest Tokyo.

The Knights Templar Orchestra will be selecting movements from the complete Final Fantasy Tactics soundtrack, which contains over 50 pieces of music. The group’s aim is to weave them into a representation of the game’s narrative, which focusses on the political and religious struggles of the fictional medieval society called Ivalice.

Gamers with sharp memories and cultured ears have no doubt remembered that this isn’t the only live Final Fantasy music event of the summer, as there was also a Final Fantasy VII concert in Akasaka on June 21. But while tickets for that performance ranged from 6,500 to 10,000 yen (US$64-$98) and sold out almost immediately, the admission to the Knights Templar Orchestra’s is completely free, with a first-come first-seated system. The doors open at 12 noon, and the music starts at 1 p.m.

Square Enix is not involved directly involved in the event, although it has given its blessing to the game-loving musicians’ concert. If that act of generosity has inspired you, the Knights Templar Orchestra is recruiting volunteers to help out on the day of the performance. Those interested can fill out the form here, which asks that volunteers wear a formal suit and be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 19. The group say they need doormen, receptionists, and ushers, which don’t have quite the same flair as prestige classes like black mage, dragoon, and ninja, but are important all the same.

Venue information
Parthenon Tama / パルテノン多摩
Address: Tokyo-to, Tama-shi, Ochiai 2-2-35
東京都多摩市落合2-2-35
Website

Related: Knights Templar Orchestra Tumblr, Twitter
Top image: Amazon Japan
Insert images: PlayStation Lifestyle, Tachikawa Online, Square Enix

• Final Fantasy VII concert to be held in Tokyo this summer (yes, they’ll play One-Winged Angel)
• Square Enix announces new Romancing Saga project! Don’t fire up your PS4 just yet though
• Finding the heroine’s panties: The most difficult side quest in newest Final Fantasy role-playing game
• Square Enix Reveals Final Fantasy Dating Game, is Elaborate Prank
• Final Fantasy Chocolates: The gift your gaming Valentine actually wants

Origin: Final Fantasy Tactics concert is coming to Tokyo, completely free, and needs volunteers
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

The slim, sleek Chocobo that populate the Final Fantasy world may be much better for covering long distances and racing, but as far as cuddling goes, Fat Chocobo might take the cake.

Luckily, for those who have been anxiously awaiting the chance to snuggle up next to a chubby bird, Square Enix‘s Fat Chocobo plush is officially up for pre-order from a variety of retailers.

The plush measures 270 mm wide (about 10.6 in) and 430 mm tall (about 16.9 in), and is retailing for 6,800 yen (about US$66.28). It is scheduled to ship in September.

[Via Tomopop]

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• Sailor Mercury joins the Pullip Doll lineup
• Chinese internet unusually upset by “most usual Chinese face” composite
• Meet Chiyomaru: the cutest gosh-darn sumo wrestler you’ll ever see
• Stand tall with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure hoodies
• Fox’s Animation Domination HD pays tribute to Ghibli with new video

Origin: Chubby Chocobo plush is as round as he is adorable
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