Square Enix has announced that on December 18th and 19th they will be having playable demos for both Dissidia Duodecim 012 and the new Parasite Eve game 3rd Birthday as part of their offerings at Jump Festa 2010. This will also be in addition to the standard Closed Mega Theater they have also become known for.

Staff member Hitoshura has been kind enough to translate the page from the Jump Festa Web site:

Play the demo of “Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy”!

Popular characters from the Final Fantasy series join forces for an epic battle to the death in this fantasy action game! Be one of the first to play it at the show.

Try out “The 3rd Birthday”!!

Time is spiralling backwards in this trilling gun action game! Sample one of the missions to save the future of humanity at the show.

The Mega-Theatre & latest games await!

Be sure to check out the Mega-Theatre for the latest videos from some of the hottest games.

Thanks to Hitoshura for pointing this out!

Well, here is my first article in quite some time, and with its publication I can verify that I’m still breathing. And with it I can also verify that I’m still very much in the business of stirring crap up, as you’ll soon see.

With the recent announcement of Dissidia Duodecim, I thought it might be a good idea to offer some predictions for where I expect the story to go, and to address some controversial elements of the overall plot that have seen a resurgence in debate since fans learned of the impending prequel. Something of a follow-up to the Dissidia Plot Analysis FAQ that MakoEyes and I wrote for the first Dissidia, this article will touch on some elements of the story discussed there, but in different detail.

Click “Read the rest of this entry” below for my thoughts on these fan debates, the overall story for this sub-series of the Final Fantasy franchise, and what we can possibly expect to see from its upcoming new entry.

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Dissidia Duodecim, the story of the twelfth conflict between Cosmos and Chaos, and the direct prequel to the original Dissidia has been announced and its trailer’s been released.

As you can see, not only do we get spiffy new characters like Lightning and Kain, but we also get different allegiances, such as Slave Crown Terra fighting for Chaos, new moves for characters from the first game, and entirely new gameplay elements. If Dissidia delivers half the awesome things it seems to be suggesting, it’s definitely going to be just as good as the original and better.

Of course, it’s not just Kain and Lightning who’ve been added to the roster.

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Because we here at TheLifestream forums are geeks, we’ve had a thread running for a little while now on who the most powerful villains and heroes of the Final Fantasy franchise are. As well, I’ve had an interest lately in doing “top 10″ lists. See this thread for my “Top 10 Games of the Decade” list. [/shameless self-promotion]

Anyway, that being the case, it was inevitable that I decide to make an article like this for the front page. Seeing as how we’re now on the cusp of Final Fantasy XIII’s release in Japan, this seems like the right time for such a list, ere we have to include another hero and villain in our calculations.

So join me, won’t you, in celebration of the most powerful heroes and villains of the first 22 years (omg Sephiroth/Kabbalah reference!) of the Final Fantasy series.

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Last week some of the Square-Enix staff, namely planning director Takashi Arakawa and Yoshinori Kitase (director, writer and producer) were present at a gaming event in Munich, Germany. Below is a translation (thanks to Tetsujin) regarding their writing of the scenario and possibly ideas for a sequel.
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