Knowing The Latest Is Everything You Can Hope For

The Final Fantasy VIII has already been released and little news reach our shores. However, we'll be putting our best efforts to let you know how the english version of FFVIII will look like, latest information on Final Fantasy Movie, spoilers from the game and other RPG-related news from Square. So be sure to visit here often.

MORE Information on Final Fantasy Movie
| Date : 14th of March |
Source : (Oops! We forgot where we got this)

Here's what Ted from Cinescpae wrote about Rumours and News.

"Few facts are yet known about the infamous Final Fantasy film, but news recently broke from a source in Square Japan that filming is over half complete in various Californian and Japanese locations. It has been directed by Hinonobo Sakaguchi, the producer all eight Final Fantasy video games and was written by Al Reinert, whose credits include Ron Howard's critically acclaimed Apollo 13. The executive producer is Jun Aida, who produced the Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner Street Fighter.

"Over 75% of the film will be computer-generated, but the generation is supposedly unnoticeable due to the new technology used by the film's animation director Andy Jones. Jones' past credits include James Cameron's immensely successful film, Titanic and Steven Speilberg's family fantasy, Hook. Currently, 165 animators are working on the project in full co-operation with Square of Japan, who will also release the film in the Summer of 2001 as their first live-action movie. The computer effects with be fused with live action in such a way that the CGI images should look remarkably more realistic than the actors and actresses in the film. On a side note, the same effects program will be used to create the title character of Universal Picture's 1999 film, The Mummy.

"The production is moving along quite steadily with filming, but animation is so complex that sources at Square are stating that it is taking them nearly 30 days to complete four minutes of film effects. Most shots are created through motion-capture filming, which takes a filmed actor or actress and computer-generates them into a number of different images. Sources state that nearly all of New York City and Los Angeles were filmed from the air with digital cameras for extensive mapping sequences and a fly-through that highlights the film's intro sequence.

"The plot is complex, which will please fans of the game series. It takes place on Earth in the year 2065. A group of scientists have discovered that life is a simple form of energy, which sparks a controversy among religious groups around the world. Magicians have emerged from the inner-cities and proved that the god-like powers of mages really do exist through the amazing advances in science. A renegade scientist discovers that an extra-terrestrial force is about to attack Earth and begins a quest gather a group of fighters who can hold off the evil plague. At the head of this invasion is Grey, an ArmorMan Warrior who will stop at nothing to save the planet he loves.

"Along with Grey is a young woman who has almost solved the complex language code of the aliens, a brawler with a keen wit, a young magician who holds more than she gives away, and several others. Together, the small group will discover that there really is more to life than science and that after death, consciousness always goes on in your heart. They find more about themselves, the world, and the power of friendship in order to defeat the greatest threat the world has ever seen..."

"The characters are very complex and they all have very long histories, which will later be elaborated on in a hopeful sequel and prequel. The character of Grey, for example, is an ArmorMan Official in the city of New York who protects and serves just as the police of the twentieth century did. His story will be the basis of a video game and several books before the film debuts."

An anonymous source at Square disputes the accuracy of Ted's plot synopsis, however, and jokes that it's actually better than the real one. In addition to pointing out that the plotline mentioned above is incorrect, the source had the following corrections to offer up:

"The film is all CG (no live action) and is a long, long way from completion. The original script penned by Al Reinert has been entirely rewritten by Jeff Vintar with a totally different plot (although Al's name is listed first on the front page). The lead character is a female scientist and the aliens have already killed off most of the world population when the tale begins.

"There are no concrete game plans although at some point the development of a game is assumed. I have never heard anything about a book and seriously doubt that one is being actively developed although Square may be trying to sell the book rights."

Jun Aida describes the story as being only "loosely-based" on the series of seven video games which have become one of the most popular interactive franchises in the world. "Unlike other films derived from video games, we don’t follow any one game," he explained. "Only the main theme from the game of life, love and the ritual aspect is carried through each game."

FFVIII Soundtrack Was Released Earlier Than Stated!!
| Date : 8th of March |
Source : FFVIII Benevolent

Yes, this was a surprise. We were checking by a Game Tokyo outlet on the FF8 soundtrack and was given a shockingly reply. It was already released and was out of stock! The exact price is S$54.50. We are willing to buy and currently searching all the other outlets. FF8 soundtrack is a 'must' to buy if you are more than satisfied with the music pieces created by Nobuo. We heard from a source that the music are "far more" classical than the FF7 music pieces. We are very sure it would sell well.

Playstation 2 Development
| Date : 8th of March |
Source : Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Yup, the final moment has arrived at last! Playstation2 is no dream to us, but a living reality in which will deliver wide entertainment for serious gamers who are looking for better graphics performance, lightning fast speed, a DVD compatible and more than you expect. As you see, we have make a copy of the features of the next generation game console, Playstation2!

CPU
128 Bit "Emotion EngineÔ"
System Clock Frequency 300 MHz
Cache Memory Instruction: 16KB, Data: 8KB + 16KB (ScrP)
Main Memory Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM)
Memory Size 32MB
Memory Bus Bandwidth 3.2GB per Second
Co-processor FPU (Floating Point Unit)
Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 1,
Floating Point Divider x 1
Vector Units VU0 and VU1
Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9,
Floating Point Divider x 3
Floating Point Performance 6.2 GFLOPS
3D CG Geometric Transformation 66 Million Polygons per second
Compressed Image Decoder MPEG2

Graphics
"Graphics Synthesizer"
Clock Frequency 150MHz
DRAM Bus bandwidth 48GB per Second
DRAM Bus width 2560bits
Pixel Configuration RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32)
Maximum Polygon Rate 75 Million Polygons per Second

Sound
"SPU2+CPU"
Number of Voices ADPCM: 48ch on SPU2 plus definable, software programmable
voices
Sampling Frequency 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable)

IOP
I/O Processor
CPU Core PlayStation (current) CPU
Clock Frequency 33.8MHz or 37.5MHz (Selectable)
Sub Bus 32 Bit
Interface Types IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Communication via PC-Card (PCMCIA)

Disc Device
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

Final Fantasy Movie Information
| Date : 4th of March |
Source : FFVIII Extreme

Recently Cinescape released the following info on Final Fantasy The Movie, "The plot is complex, which will please fans of the game series. It takes place on Earth in the year 2065. A group of scientists have discovered that life is a simple form of energy, which sparks a controversy among religious groups around the world. Magicians have emerged from the inner-cities and proved that the god-like powers of mages really do exist through the amazing advances in science. A renegade scientist discovers that an extra-terrestrial force is about to attack Earth and begins a quest gather a group of fighters who can hold off the evil plague. At the head of this invasion is Grey, an ArmorMan Warrior who will stop at nothing to save the planet he loves. "Along with Grey is a young woman who has almost solved the complex language code of the aliens, a brawler with a keen wit, a young magician who holds more than she gives away, and several others. Together, the small group will discover that there really is more to life than science and that after death, consciousness always goes on in your heart. They find more about themselves, the world, and the power of friendship in order to defeat the greatest threat the world has ever seen... "The characters are very complex and they all have very
long histories, which will later be elaborated on in a hopeful sequel and prequel. The character of Grey, for example, is an ArmorMan Official in the city of New York who protects and serves just as the police of the twentieth century did. His story will be the basis of a video game and several books before the film debuts." <<source: Cinescape.

Release Date For FF8 English Version
| Date : 4th of March |
Source : FFVIII Extreme

We've got news from the source that english version of Final Fantasy 8 might be completed in 2nd September.  Well, we'll be waiting patiently for that release date and we'll provide more information on their current process. One more thing, we hope Final Fantasy 8 could beat Zelda 64 which is still the #1 RPG right now. Square would be very surprised when that happens!

How Final Fantasy 8 All Started ...
| Date : 23rd of December |
Source : FFVIII Omega

Final Fantasy VIII inches ever closer to release, and as it does, we keep learning more and more about it. Here's the latest. Currently eleven GF are known: Bahamut, Cerberus, Carbuncle, Cochocobo, Brothers (actually two monsters, Sacred and Minotaur (from FFV), Pandemonium, Siren, Alexander, Quetzalcoatl, Shiva, Efreet, and Leviathan. Seifer Almasy is an enforcer of discipline in Balamb Garden. His assistants are Fuujin the God War and Raijin the God of Thunder.

Irvine Kinneas is a student of Garbadia Garden. The latest screenshots show Laguna wearing a Garbadia soldier's uniform - he probably lives in Garbadia. Laguna says that he wants to become a journalist after he's discharged from the army. The exact relationship between Laguna and Squall is still unknown. However, Squall and Zell make it to SeeD. And they'll be fighting the Garbadian army, which means Squall and Laguna will be enemies of some form...

Squall will meet Laguna in his dream. At this point, it's not known what kind of dreams he will have.

There's an area (or country) called Timber where Rinoa lives. Timber was taken over and occupied by Garbadia. Rinoa is a leader in the resistance movement called Owl of Forest. She and Seifer are acquaintances.

After seizing a TV tower in Principality Doll, the president of Garbadia, Deling, declared war on the whole world. A witch, Idea, is behind the Garbadia plots. So, Rinoa goes to Balamb Garden to ask them to assassinate the witch. Then SeeD (including Squall and Zell) and Rinoa and some people from Garbadia Garden will hit the road to kill the witch.