Upon the release of Advent Children Complete in North America, many fans were surprised, and disappointed when they discovered that the old theme “Calling” by Kyosuke Himuro was played during the end credits, instead of the new theme “Safe & Sound” created specifically for Advent Children Complete by Gerard Way & Kyosuke Himuro. The iTunes release of the single was also limited to Japan only, and has not yet been released outside the region. This was especially odd, given the fact that both artists live and met in LA, California, in addition to the fact that Gerard Way’s fanbase is fairly large in the United States, and seemingly could have assisted sales.

With the recent release of Advent Children Complete in Europe, it has been confirmed that the EU version doesn’t contain the new theme song either. This makes the Japanese Region the only version of Advent Children Complete that had the new theme during the end credits.

This is especially odd, with Gerard Way recently performing “Desolation Row” for the end credits of the internationally released film Watchmen, and Kyosuke Himuro’s original ending theme appearing in the film, it’s unlikely, though possible that a licensing conflict prevented the song from being used. Either way, at this point there’s been no announcements from S-E regarding the changes, or if there will be any non Japan Region releases with the song.

Amazon.co.jp has recently added several pre-orders for PSP sets that include a product code for FFVII. All the sets are the same, but have different colored PSPs.

- Mystic Silver (3000MS)
- Pearl White (3000PW)
- Piano Black (3000PB)
- Vibrant Blue (3000VB)
- Spirited Green (3000SG)
- Radiant Red (3000RR)
- Bright Yellow (3000BY)

The release date is August 7th, and the sets are priced at 19,800 yen (about 1000 yen more than a PSP on its own).

Source: Mezzo.net

Below you’ll find the a summary of the Before Crisis – Final Fantasy VII Special Episode featuring the Legendary Turk. Enjoy reading up on the legendary badass of the Turks. A big thanks to S & G for bringing us this summary!

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For all those fans waiting for Dissidia Final Fantasy, the E3 demo of the game has been added to the Playstation Network today. As with all PSN demos, it’s free to download and play. So charge up your PSPs, and make sure you’re at least running Version 5.50.

For our friends in the Europe, it appears that the demo isn’t available for download due to region differences, however, we do have a link to the Demo file for those that would still like to get to try it out. You’ll have to drop the eboot.php file into the PSP/GAME directory to get it to work. Here’s a diagram of the directory to put it in.

EDIT: Thanks to user comments we’ve realized that the license is also necessary to play the demo as well. Sorry about the confusion. Below you’ll find the download link for the license to put in your PSP “LICENSE” folder. You can find the folder in the “PSP” folder.

License Download

Final Fantasy Dissidia Demo Download Link

The game features the following five playable characters.

So if you want a look at the game yourself, or want a heads up mastering the gameplay, definitely give this demo a try.

In a Wired magazine article showcasing the works of Nobuo Uematsu, an interesting piece of information was revealed on the composer’s work and his relations with Square Enix as of today.

Uematsu left Square Enix in 2004, going freelance and establishing his own music production company and record label. He stepped back from Final Fantasy for a while, handing off composing duties to in-house composers while exploring a variety of other freelance game projects. A week ago, Square Enix announced that Uematsu would return to score Final Fantasy XIV.

Uematsu says he’s also composing the soundtracks to two more Square Enix games that will be announced later this year. He’s also working on a solo album of music for children. The album will be released in both Japanese and English, as a nod to his worldwide fans.

What could those two unnamed titles be? Check out the rest of the article for more info on the man behind the music of Final Fantasy.

Square Enix really, really wants you to get on board and pre-order Dissidia, apparently. They want you to buy it so much, that they’ve even offered a coupon code to their mailing list that will allow you to get 5 dollars off the price through amazon.com. The promotional code becomes valid on Friday, July 24th at 12AM PST.

EDIT: Actually, the promotional code is now valid, a day early! Not only that, but the price for the game hasn’t increased at all. So with the discount and excluding shipping, you can get the game for $31.99.

And the coupon code is:

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Another big thanks to Xcomp who has translated another entry from the On the Way to a Smile collection. Case of Yuffie. You can read the story below and find the rest of his translation work here and also his accompanying thoughts on Yuffie’s novella here. Enjoy!

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If you recall, Square Enix acquired British game company Eidos Interactive (of Tomb Raider fame) back in April. Today it was announced that the subsidiary will now be called “Square Enix Europe.” This also involved some shedding of labor,

“Unfortunately we are expecting some jobs to be impacted directly by this in both Europe and North America. We are hoping to minimise this wherever possible and offer support and advice to any employees directly affected.”

The article goes on to say that marketing and sales distribution in the US and Canada will be transferred to Square of North America and that

“the Eidos name…will continue to live on through the various development studios around the world, which will all now report into Square Enix Europe.”

Source:http://www.videogameszone.de/aid,689…x-Europe/News/ (German)
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article…rope-operation

the official European release date has been confirmed to be the 4th of September, which is only a week after the American release.

In addition to that, there will be a collector’s edition which will include the following items:

- A special slip case.

- A music compilation of excerpts from the original soundtrack.

- An artbook titled “The Art of DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY”, contains 48 pages of assorted illustrations, including bonuses.

- A mini Brady Games guide, contains 32 pages of information on combat.

- Two exclusive lithographies of new never-seen-before images.

Source: FFchaoticcosmos

That’s right. You can now stalk..I mean…follow one of the creators of FFVII on 1UP.com.

Yoshinori Kitase has set up a blog in honor of Dissidia’s Western release where it will talk about the development and creation of the game.

Check out his blog right here and read up on it.

The Advent Children Complete Soundtrack, named “Reunion Tracks”, will be released in September 16th, 2009.

Besides the rearranged tracks featured in the movie, it will also feature the music tracks from the “On the Way to a Smile: Case of Denzel” OVA.

Source: Square-Enix Japanese Site

Thanks to our member Hitoshura for bringing this to our attention.