madara

Holy dropping bombs, Dragon Quest, possibly epic action hybrid like mana is for FF, announced for launch(hopefully not just a rushed sword version remake). Two more Final Fantasy announced one for Wii and one for DS!!

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors!!!!


E3 06: Square Enix press conference--LIVE NOW
Japanese RPG magnate begins a week of E3 festivities with its lavish press conference, bearing the promise of electrifying next-generation development details.
By Staff, GameSpot
Posted May 8, 2006 1:02 pm PT


Attendees mingle.
LOS ANGELES--Kicking off a week of potentially explosive gaming announcements is Square Enix's annual pre-E3 press conference, being held this morning at LA's Palladium event venue. With new consoles due out this fall from Sony and Nintendo (and the Xbox 360 already plowing ahead at full steam), excitement here is understandably high about new products the titanic Japanese publisher may announce for next-generation platforms.

A throng of eager journalists assembled outside the Palladium prior to the event. Surprisingly, Metal Gear Solid designer Hideo Kojima made an appearance, eschewing the spotlight and sitting among the regular audience.

The Square Enix press conference.

Following a brief delay, the audience was herded into a fashionably decorated auditorium where the company's most closely held secrets will be revealed. Banners displaying existing properties--from Final Fantasy XII to Dirge of Cerberus--draped the walls, display cases full of statuettes bearing familiar likenesses greeted attendees at the entrance, and a rousing score from many of the company's most popular games.

But even minutes before the show began, no hint of Square Enix's new, next-generation games was yet in evidence.

1:02 pm The conference is starting with a cavalcade of announced products on video--Dawn of Mana, Final Fantasy V and VI for GBA, Rocket Slime (!), some mobile stuff. President Yoichi Wada's now taking the stage, wasting no time talking about the promise of next-gen and telling us they've got some hot secrets for us today. So let's have 'em already!

1:06 COO Daishiro Okada is now on stage discussing the upcoming lineup. Final Fantasy XII will be out October of this year. Finally. Also some mobile stuff. Space Invaders? Elevator Action? Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episodes also on mobile this summer.

1:10 Now we're getting into the meat with a long trailer for Final Fantasy XII, all in English. Sounds like they're sparing no expense on the voice acting for this one--it's all appropriately haughty, in line with the tone of the story.

1:18 More trailers for announced, current-gen stuff like Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and the latest FFXI expansion. Now it's Final Fantasy on mobile--I knew my nerd sense was tingling for a reason.

1:24 Looks like their mobile strategy rages unabated--Dirge is the standout since it's all in 3D. Now we've got Final Fantasy III for DS, billed as "the only Final Fantasy never to reach Western shores." They're urging us to "complete the fantasy" with this 3D remake--fine by me since it looks like the best DS RPG yet.

1:28 Final Fantasies V and VI for GBA--not the biggest news, but near and dear to many hearts for sure. Promised to have new surprises. Now it's Mana time, starting off with the sorta middling Children of. But what's this? Ten years before Children of Mana, a 3D game: Dawn of Mana, of course. More CG than gameplay, but it looks pretty good.

1:32 Once upon a slime! It's Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, which is the most bafflingly adorable name I've ever heard. Apparently, "it's payback slime." So cute, I'm sold. Now Shinji Hashimoto is taking the stage to talk about the utterly unsurprising massive success of the many Final Fantasy VII projects, from Advent Children to Dirge and the mobile games. Hey, and a US date for Dirge: August 22, with new features included.

1:43 Still showing off the Compilation of FFVII stuff, all of which is out here or in Japan. Bring on the next-gen games!

1:49 I spoke too soon: Here's our first real footage of FFVII Crisis Core for the PSP. Stars Zack of Soldier fame, apparently, and there's a ton of Sephiroth in here (down, boys 'n girls). No gameplay footage, only real-time cutscenes, but it looks amazing for a PSP game.

1:51 Here we go--Dragon Quest is coming to the Wii. Some dude is fighting a stone golem in a forest. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Launch title for the Wii! No real footage of the game, but still, big news.

1:54 The hits keep on coming--now we have Akitoshi Kawazu, exec. producer of Crystal Chronicles. Two new games from that series: one DS, one Wii. DS game is Ring of Fates, and will have wi-fi multiplayer (duh). Looks a bit more whimsical than the Cube version, same basic sense of style though. They're showing four players at once, like you'd expect. Yay DS!

tenaciousdave

Someone over at neogaf got the new EGM early and posted all the info from it.

-No improved graphics on Virtual Console (as in, they aren't redoing the models, doesn't talk about framerates and such).
-TG16 will have it's 1st party games out at launch, 3rd party will come later as demand increases.
-Estimated prices for the VC are "a few dollars for NES, $5 for SNES and $10 for N64"
-VC games are pro-scan enabled.
-$250 "seems appropriate"
-More 3rd party exclusives than the Cube
-Zelda is 80% complete, delay was for graphic tweaks, wii functions and because they want the game to be measured on a scale of 1 to 120 instead of 1 to 100.
-NO SWINGING THE CONTROLLER for the sword, you just press a button. There are some cases where you will swing though. Reason = you'll get tired too fast
-Controller does sound effects, built in speaker on the controller
-Widescreen on the REV only!
-Navi is only when you play on the REV.
-Something with online is planned but no battle mode.
-More dungeons than OOT already
-More items too

-New Mario and Smash Bros this year!

Drexl

$200 seems a lot more appropriate. Unless they're packing in a game or that's just a very limited time price (for the early adopters that will pay that much), it's going to be a tough sell. I'm definitely getting a Wii, but I'm not paying $250 for it.

sureAV421

@200 i'm getting one at launch. @250 i'm waiting.

pinata242

$250 may seem appropriate, but I don't think we're going to hear anything on that for a while, so I wouldn't consider it gospel.

I'd pay it even without a pack-in game or any "free" VC downloads, which I'm sure they'll offer. I have a feeling I'm going to be dropping a lot of money on launch games anyway that I won't really notice if the console is $200, $220, or $250.

Mr. Cinema

I'd pay $250 for one if it supported HD, but I don't think it's going to. Which I don't like because I want all my gaming in HD. I love the 360 in HD.

CreatureX

For $250 I would want two controllers and a game included in the box!

Michael Ballack

Ah, the good old days when you bought a nintendo with 2 controllers, mario bros, duck hunt, a remote gun, and the power pad.

tenaciousdave

I'd still buy it at $250 because I'll always be a diehard Nintendo fan.

PixyJunket

$250 would be my limit.. though to tell you the truth I'm expecting to not care how much it costs after tomorrow!

Josh H

At $250 there would have to be at least a couple absolute must plays at launch for me to pick one up right away.

It looks like there will be so, I'll probably be getting one.

Michael Corvin

The more I think about it $250 is pushing it. We are talking about a minor upgrade to the Gamecube. I'm on the fence about that one.

pinata242

I'm sure we'll know for sure tomorrow. Sony has basically assured us that Nintendo will respond. Even if Reggie has to go vigilante and adlib some shit.

tenaciousdave

These Tony Hawk Wii pics look horrible.

jeffdsmith

Those were already linked too earlier today. They are from a Gamecube build, and crappy at that. It has since been improved according IGN, I expect they are focused on the game dynamics before fixing the graphics later.

edytwinky

Definitely. $250 is reasonable enough for me, seeing how much all the other systems cost. Nintendo is in this to make a little money off the system. In due time it'll be $200, but $250 is fine for the moment

chess

If it's $250 with two controllers (or at least the shell or nun-chuck, that would be about right.

If you are going to dub your system "We", you almost have to include two controllers, right?

Would also like to see a disc of basic minigames to orient to the controller...or better yet a full fledged game.

jeffdsmith

I would agree with that logic, it fits Nintendo's message, lets hope they come through.

lukewarmwater

So they're not going to reveal the price or date? wtf

stupid question but are they going to reveal the gb successor?

and ZELDA AND METROID! WOOOO

IIG

Red Steel=no gore??? The games only look a little better than GC games from early reports. What happened to 2-3 times as powerful? Eh... I'm starting to get a little scared.

ckw4b

After reading the Time article, I am getting a chubby just thinking about playing RE5 with the new Nintendo controller.

ckw4b

Yes, let's keep churning out GTA rip-offs and endless first person shooter sequels.

STR1PES

those are not Wii screenshots....

they are of the Nintendo DS lite......it's been confirmed on a lot of sites....

Microsoft fanboys & Sony Fanboys have been trying to tell people it's the Wii though

sureAV421

Virtual Console Controller. Looks very comfortable/versatile

Binger

A couple of questions that I have not seen but are probably here. How does this thing connect to the TV, component, S-Video, what?

Also will it display 16:9, even though it is not 720p/1080i-p? Current gen (XBox, PS2) have a setting for 16:9 but the games don't really support it so I have black bars on one side of my screen even in stretch modes on some games.

Does the motion sensor have to be placed on top of the TV? My components are 15ft away from my display so I would need a pretty long cord.