Jump Festa Shows Off Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest

Thanks to IGN PS2 for its information about the new Final Fantasy XII trailer debuting at Japan's recent Jump Festa exhibition The Magic Box has some still images from the "lengthy seven minute trailer" for the PS2 RPG sequel, which shows cinematic action and battle scenes, but unfortunately without "[revealing] much about the gameplay systems." There's also a hands-on look at the PS2 remake of Dragon Quest V, which apparently brings "a little bit of new flavor to a classic old-school game", originally released on the Super Nintendo back in 1992. Finally, 1UP has a brief overview of the festival, including pictures of a Slime-infested Christmas tree.

Re:Ah, Final Fantasy 12...

[Scrameustache]

"Did You Think We Couldn't Make Our Hero Any More Effeminate? Hah, You're Wrong, Loser!"

No kidding!

Game looks good, but is there some kind of contest on "how girly can our hero be?" going on or something?
Is the trans-gender demographic the next big thing in videogames?

Hey, japan, we liked Snake better than Raven! Snake is a gruff guy, not a girly-man whith a needy girlfriend who won't shut up. Get a clue!

Re:Ah, Final Fantasy 12...

[Pluvius]

Hey, japan, we liked Snake better than Raven! Snake is a gruff guy, not a girly-man whith a needy girlfriend who won't shut up. Get a clue!

Only one problem with this: If the original Metal Gear had been made with modern technology, Snake would've basically been Raiden without the needy girlfriend.

Rob (I actually liked Raiden, considering the fact that he was supposed to be a complete rookie)

Nope.

[Inoshiro]

"Snake would've basically been Raiden without the needy girlfriend."

Hideo Kojima based Solid Snake off of Snake Pliskin from "Escape From New York [imdb.com]." Raiden was supposed to be a bishounen, but Snake was never meant that way.

Of course he was based off of Snake Plissken.

[Pluvius]

That has nothing to do with the fact that in the first Metal Gear Snake was supposed to be a green rookie with an idol complex towards Grey Fox, not to mention the fact that he was too naive to realize that Big Boss was purposefully sending him on a suicide mission. I'm sure he wouldn't have been quite as whiny and girly-boy as Raiden was, but he certainly would've been far from the total badass we see him as today.

Rob

Re:Ah, Final Fantasy 12...

[Rethcir]

True, ever since the 8-9ish area of the FF series, our male heroes have been visibly more and more effeminate. From what I hear though, that is the Japanese idea of the ideal male body form, sort of like how most people think of a buff quarterback type of guy over here in America. Either way, I tend to reserve judgement on the character designs until I play the game. I just hope the story remains interesting.

...And for god's sake Square-Enix, please invest in some good English lipsynching in 12! There are

Do you know whas Bishounen is?

[Inoshiro]

Go and see what Google shows you [google.ca].

Yea, Bishounen are guys who are feminine. If you study any Japanese culture, you'll see that bishounen are quite popular. The same way bishoujo are popular. Women have many tastes, and women's sexaulity is a little freer in Japan -- there are more women who like to watch 2 men togther, for example. Are you a guy? Do you like watching 2 women get it on? Why?

Japan makes a lot of video games, Japan likes bishoujo and bishounen. This is why you see lots in video games (look at Guilty Gear XX sometime).

Of course, you could always take a gander at US character design. It reflects the culture just the same way -- all bulgy guys and women with impossible measurements!

Re:Do you know whas Bishounen is?

[Scrameustache]

Women have many tastes

I wish women's perversion wouldn't be the deciding factor in videogame character design.

But meh, so long as the game is cool, I can overlook super effeminate main characters. It makes it harder to identify, but I guess keeping some distance from the character slaughtering endless NPCs might not be a bad thing in the long run...

Unfortunately for you..

[Inoshiro]

"I wish women's perversion wouldn't be the deciding factor in videogame character design."

Women are about over 50% of the public, and getting their gaming dollars on top of your gaming dollars is a pretty good slam dunk for most companies (if they can pull it off). Think how many more copies of FFX-2 have sold because of the fact that women and men can enjoy it just as easily. SquareEnix has been getting a lot more gaming gold from the femmegamers recently, thanks to most RPGs easy-to-enjoy gameplay.

Right now, some woman is thinking: "I wish men's perversion wouldn't be the deciding factor in videogame character design." Take one look at Ivy in Soul Calibur [soulcalibur.com] if you don't understand what I mean ;)

Re:Ah, Final Fantasy 12...

[Pluvius]

Its story was ridiculously muddled and Byzantine; even Xenogears was easier to understand. The gameplay features the Job System, which I absolutely hate (more's the worse that said system is in far more FF games than any others). And I've never paid much attention to video game music, so, whatever.

Rob (But I think we can all agree that it's not as bad as SaGa Frontier)

Re:Ah, Final Fantasy 12...

[suyashs]

SaGa Frontier 2 wasn't a gem either, it had a totally pointless Knights storyline and a fairly drab story...

Dragon Quest

[Joe Tie.]

I might be alone in this, but I'm far more excited about the Dragon Quest V remake. Final Fantasy has been moving more in the direction of the middle ground, but good old Dragon Quest should be a bundle of old school RPG charm combined with just the right amount of graphical upgrades. Final Fantasy might be good, but also might be bad - Dragon Quest V sounds like an already great game is getting just souped up enough to increase its already large appeal.

Re:Dragon Quest

[oGMo]

I'm even more excited about DQ8 (which looks like the RPG I've always dreamed of), but DQ5 definitely looks cool. Hopefully it will be on the order of DQ7 (which I loved... 3 hours of play before you even see your first battle ;-)).

FF12... I'm not any more or less excited about than anything else, and pretty much for the reasons you said. I liked old school Final Fantasy (1-5, and I liked 6, but that really changed the direction of future games); I wish they'd make more like those. Enix got it right wi

Re:Dragon Quest

[dtfinch]

For the last week I've been playing Dragon Quest V for the first time. Sure, it's illegal on an emulator, but I never had the opportunity to purchase it, being only released in Japan, and 3x speed is much more playable than the original. I recognized most of the graphics from the original Dragon Warrior, with very few visible changes at all to the engine. If not for everything else that would make it a very cheap game. But the storyline was better than most RPG's I've played. It goes through several generat

Here are the actual videos...

[suyashs]

Although they have been shot with a camera, its certainly better than some screenshots http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/movies/ff12-jf.w mv Here's advent children http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/movies/ff7ac-jf. wmv and finally, Dragon Quest V (PS2)... http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/movies/dq5-jf.wm v

Re:Here are the actual videos...

[Sesse]

404. :-)

/* Steinar */

Re:Here are the actual videos...

[suyashs]

Did you remove the space betwen the wm and v?

Re:Here are the actual videos...

[Sesse]

Yes, of course.

/* Steinar */

Re:Here are the actual videos...

[suyashs]

Looks like they've been dotted...

Dragon Quest

[77Punker]

Isn't Dragon Quest called Dragon Warrior in the USA?

Dear Square Enix...

[silentbobdp]

Where is my new fucking Chrono title? You trademarked the name when you trademarked that goddamn awful "Unlimited Saga"...don't you think it's time you start talking?

- Me

Re:Dear Square Enix...

[silentbobdp]

That's what I was referring to. They trademarked "Chrono Break" and "Unlimited Saga" in Japan on the same day.