TGS 2005: Square Enix Video Wall Presentation - IGN (original) (raw)

Every time we head off for TGS or E3, we carry with us thousands of emails and message board posts begging us to give readers all we can from Japan's most revered developer, Square Enix. And every time, we try to warn them all: don't expect miracles.

Square Enix is a prolific development company, and is constantly dropping surprise shocks for gamers to be excited for. When it comes to trade shows, however, the joint company is often very secretive and careful with the details it doles out. Most of its game announcements come at special Square Enix press conference held at a later time and different place, and the playable demos on hand are often familiar to those in the press in one form or another.

TGS 2005 wasn't an exception, unfortunately. The company has a number of great titles playable on the show floor, but there were only a handful of games to play in total, and its video presentation consisted mostly of trailers we've seen before and sneaks of games that didn't illuminate much more detail that what was known prior to the event.

Square has strictly forbidden filming of any portion of this video presentation (we're probably not even allowed to suggest you try searching Korean message boards for unauthorized clips from the video reel taken by hidden cameras...) Here's a run-down of what was shown in the Square Enix video presentation.

Slime MoriMori 2 (DS) -- An adventure game set in the Dragon Quest realm, this DS game focused on the popular slime characters. In the land of the slimes, all of the gooey, google-eyed creatures are happily playing in the town's streets. It's a cheerful day, but suddenly, giant mean-faced tanks roll into town, crushing the buildings and -- in a shockingly sad event -- apparently killing two characters very dear to our hero slime's heart. From then on, he vows to become a hero, and he takes to a giant happy-face pumpkin tank to do what he can for the cause. There are some short gameplay clips where the slime is seen grabbing cannonballs and engaging with characters, then the dramatic close has the slime thinking of his lost loved ones with a determined look on his face. Slime MoriMori 2 was playable here at TGS, and we'll have hands-on impressions soon.

Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - This short trailer seemed mostly familiar to us, and having covered the game for well over two years now, it's all blending together. All in CG animation (looking gorgeous as always), the trailer video had many of the centerpieces of the series so far. There is the fly-over of the bustling town as people parade in the streets while military commanders plot in the alcoves, There was the deployment of the airships, bound for war. There was the war-torn rubble of the results, which we are cast into with the game. There is the procession of the princess (who, we are told, has lost an empire), and the emergence of the plucky young hero boy who yearns to be a pirate. There is the warrior who has been labeled a traitor, and the two dashing free agents caught up in the midst. The CG footage wraps up glorious footage of war with carnivals and a wedding, finally concluding with the game title. No gameplay, just a whole lot of build-up for what is bound to be an epic new entry in the series.

Dragon Quest II (Cellphone) - The mobile market will be seeing the return of one of the genre-defining classics in Dragon Quest II. After watching the FFXII video, it was funny to fall back to 8-bit visuals. The visuals may have taken a slight bump from the NES original, although we may just be thinking this because it was playing on a gigantic video wall. The game was playable elsewhere in the booth -- characters appeared taller than we remembered, but otherwise, the level detail was very simple and low-res, not transporting the more attractive redesigned visuals from the GBA remake. The screen movement was a little choppy, but as a role-playing game, this shouldn't be a big hindrance. One of the neat aspects of the mobile phone was how the battle screens were completely redesigned for the tall screens of phones, placing the text on the vertical and popping up windows as needed. DQII will be playable on FOMA 90X phones.

Musashiden II (Cellphone) - Continuing on with the PS2/mobile game from last year, this game features RPG battles in fairly impressive 3D on the cellphone. Musashi has the wild hair from the PS2 game, and if memory serves us correctly (our notes are bad because our stressed ears exploded from the loud volume and bled all over the page), this is a prequel Episode Zero entry in the series. Again, this is targetted for FOMA 90X phones.

Detective Game (Cellphone) - Not to neglect our cellphone followers, but we didn't catch the name on this game, and didn't think much of it to describe for you. One of countless graphic-based text adventure games in Japan (again, not to slight the despondent adventure gamers out there who are increasingly furious with lack of media exposure on the underrated genre.) The game had you as a detective searching for a lost treasure idol, which is likely the mcguffin for intrigue, adventure, and a whole lot of dialog. The chances of this being released in America are very slim to absolutely none, but we'll have more on it if it becomes something big in Japan.

Rokutama & MGanGan (Cellphone) - Here's what you must, must do -- you must, must go to Rokutama.com when the service launches. Imagine a giant bearded John Goodman fellow, screaming at you to buy his rocking cellphone songs! Yeah, gots'ta gots'ta. Square Enix advertised this service, as well as a MGanGan.com service for downloading mangas.

FFXI (Xbox 360?) - If there's a lot of pride in Square Enix bringing their blockbuster MMO to the Xbox 360, it didn't show in the video presentation at TGS. The game was advertised in general, but there was no breakdown of platform for what we were seeing -- it could have been PC, PS2, 360 or anything. On the giant video wall, the draw distance and texture detail seemed better than we remembered on PS2, but that's not saying much when you have video 3X your size of a game you've only casually been a part of since its release a long while back. The MMO will continue, at least, and the 360 launch should help reinvigorate the game as it continues on.

EverQuest II (PC) - Square Enix is the Japanese publisher for Sony Online's brand of MMOs, and the company took the opportunity to show off the game and two new expansion packs. The first was of EQII: The Bloodline Chronicles, with characters crawling through dark, blood-red caves. Then the trailer exploded into brightness with EQII: The Desert of Flames, as sand folks fought monsters and warded off giant gold and silver twin dragons. Both expansion packs should be familiar to Americans, so look for coverage in IGN's archives.

Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion (PC) - Square's other PC RPG was its own creation, an anime-styled take on EverQuest. The trailer showed a regular peasant girl who gets swept up into adventure to become a fighting princess in a magical land. The PC game releases in Japan this September.

Front Mission Online (PS2, PC) - The strategy MMO from Square Enix is getting lost in the shuffle (it seems that it might have been a better fit for PS3 -- the footage was decent, but we'd guess that the PC game is held back by the PS2's dated technology.) On Huffan Islands, you become part of a war between factions from all across the internet, including Julianne Moore in the filmed session (seriously, one of the players logged in had it right there in the avatar, "Julianne Moore" ... tell me you'll be my mom, OK?) We've been only been able to be off-and-on with coverage on this MMO game so far (an American release is still to be determined), but it looks cool from a massively multiplayer perspective. There is a blend of tactical play, then lots of action as Wanzers filled the skies with rockets.

Front Mission 2089 (Cellphone) - This cellphone game (which, if we're not mistaken, is already out in Japan) was tossed quickly into the mix. The game stayed true to the 16-bit roots with the cellphone version, using turn-based games and break-out boxes for battle attack demonstrations.

Front Mission 5: The Scars of War (PS2) - Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Front Mission, an all new fifth game has been announced for almost immediate release. Although Square has kept this game quiet up until now, there are aspects of it that look to be worth bragging about. Character detail and world rendering was sharp and expressive for a PlayStation 2 game (although not overly-dazzling), and we're getting the feeling from the epic scope of the trailer that this game will have more compelling battle scenes and bigger-scale combat than before. The game featured a Black Hawk Down-style opening, focusing on the faces of regular soldiers as they nervously swept buildings on foot. Then a gray-haired woman and other superior officers were seen organizing the war and debating the hard times that were due to come. After that, the Wanzers were deployed into devastating battle sequences. Much of the trailer was intermixed with CG, so actual gameplay was a little tough to get a hand on (you didn't see gameplay, just in-game cutscenes), but the footage did have scenes of hundreds of Wanzers (in CG renders) meeting together in battle, as well as roaming through towering cities as they hunted each other. Front Mission 5 releases this December in Japan, and North American release plans are currently undetermined.

The World of Mana (???) - Little to no details came to light in the new trailer of the latest Mana game. The project is said to be a multiconsole, multi-approach game by those in the know, but Square Enix has confirmed none of this. We have fuller details of The World of Mana (with confirmation that it has a "The" in the full title) in our detailed teaser trailer impressions.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD, UMD) - The OAV CG video expanding on Final Fantasy VII has already been released in Japan (to conflicting reviews) and has seen a tizzy of activity about it. That didn't stop Square Enix from running about four TV spots advertising the video release on DVD and PSP UMD format.

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (Cellphone) - The mobile game following the rogue Turks force was a big focus at last year's TGS, and though it's already out here in Japan, it was spotlighted again at the show (and also reenacted by Japanese cosplay actors prior to the video showing, which was quite cool.) The video was preceded by the manga-style anime featuring the Turks that was advertised with the game, along with a few gameplay clips.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2) - The heavy hitter in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is this PS2 action game focusing on Vincent. It looks to be, in a word, awesome. The visual quality is outstanding, and the action was breakneck in the video shown (the game is also playable on the floor, and we'll have more on it later in the show.) Sure, it's hardly what fans think of when they think Final Fantasy, but it was fun to have the characters back at the very least. In the video shown at TGS, we see Vincent sitting in a window as people and creatures carnival in the streets. Then armored dogs come and slaughter the crowd (the attackers ruining a party seems to be a running theme at Square -- somebody must have forgotten Mr. Yoichi Wada's birthday...) The game itself plays like a high-speed Resident Evil 4, using the same widescreen over-the-shoulder view in combat that reminded us a ton of the Time Crisis series. As a special surprise, there were glimpses of Cid Highwind and Yuffie just as the trailer came to a close. If you love the detail in Final Fantasy productions but are not an RPG player, this one may be something to take a look at.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) - Psyche! Nothing was shown of the long-awaited PSP entry in the compilation, and there wasn't even mention of it in the trailer video. This is curious, because Square Enix had a video teaser (supposedly be made of a different animated OVA also due out in Japan sometime) at E3 just this year, and Crisis Core has always been a key component in the Complilation of FFVII. The game is known to be delayed until who-knows-when, and Square's producers have said that they are diligently working on it and have great big surprises in store with the game. Until then, enjoy another commercial for FFVII: Advent Children...

Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) - Rounding out the video presentation, this PlayStation 2 sequel is taking its due time to release here, but the time spent certainly shows in the quality of what was shown. The visual bar has been raised with KH2, and there was one sequence where Sora was facing off with literally hundreds of Heartless creatures on screen at a time (ala Dynasty Warriors). The Pirates of the Caribbean sequence also had brilliant mist and explosion effects, as ships ripped into each other in the sea of watery graves. (Plus, Capt. Jack Sparrow looked every bit as crazy in polygon renders as he did in Johnny Depp's performance.) There's also an absolutely endearing moment where Sora meets up with Mickey Mouse in an original Black & White world (complete with early cinema cartoon shenanigans), and we caught glimpses of FFVIII's Squall, FFVII's Cloud, and some other famous faces. The Mulan stage was highlighted, as was the Pirates of the Caribbean stage. We also saw a flying stage, which brings back some ugly memories of the Gummi Ship sequence. Overall, the trailer made the game out to be dark as hell this time, and the more sinister style and heavy Japanese influence makes us a little leery for how Disney fans will take to this second chapter. Still, the visual design is breathtaking on PS2, the story looks deeper and more intriguing (with more knowable villains to hang the story on), and you can't help but be filled with adoration when you see a dark-cloaked figure walk onto the scene and reveal himself to be none other than a ready-to-be-a-bad-dude Mickey Mouse. Kingdom Hearts II is due for release in 2006 in Japan and abroad.