Weekly roundups

Former president calls Square Enix “a complete failure”

by Flintlock November 10, 2012 0 comments

We’re trying a new article format here at the Lifestream: a roundup of Final Fantasy stories from the past week.

Most of them would not have merited their own articles – perhaps due to not having enough of a connection to Final Fantasy VII – but are still things we think our readers would be interested to hear about. We’ll also be including the latest activity from the forums and a look ahead to any community projects we have organised. Let us know what you think about the format on the forum.

Former Square Honcho Calls Square Enix a “Complete Failure” with “No Vision” (via Kotaku)

With Square Enix posting losses in its latest earnings, former Square Co. boss Hisashi Suzuki thought this would be good a time as any to kick the company while it is down.

Via Twitter, Suzuki didn’t hold back, claiming that the total value of publicly traded stock is not higher than it was before Square joined with Enix. According to Suzuki, “The merger was a complete failure. There’s no vision for the future.” He ended his tweet by pointing to Square Enix’s recent losses, adding that development costs were heavy.

Discuss this on the forum (hat-tip: ForceStealer)

Gaming In-Jokes Don’t Overpower Heartwarming Wreck-It Ralph (via Wired)

What actually happened with Wreck-It Ralph, which hits theaters on Nov. 2, was an expert-level threading of the needle. It does have references to classic games, many of them, pulled from several different makers’ biggest titles: Super Mario, Pac-Man, StreetFighter. There are hidden supernerd references (“Aerith Lives” is scrawled in graffiti on a subway wall).

Discuss this on the forum (hat-tips: Danseru-Kun and Maidenofwar)

Final Fantasy Artist Makes Sprite Models For Final Fantasy VII – XIII’s Heroes (via Siliconera)

For Final Fantasy’s 25th birthday, Square Enix asked pixel artist Kasuko Shibuya to make sprites for Cloud, Lightning, and Gilgamesh.

Shibuya worked on the Famicom Final Fantasy games as a character and monster artist. Square Enix asked fans in Japan which characters they want to see as sprites for the Final Fantasy Tribute – Thanks – album. This CD has tunes from 25 artists including Aoi Teshima and De De Mouse who are working on the Final Fantasy IX theme song “Melodies of Life”.

Discuss this on the forum (hat-tip: Pixel)

More from the forum

• A fan-made video series using Final Fantasy VII action figures has been released
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will use elements from Versus XIII
• One-Winged Angel makes it onto a CD of the greatest video game music
• One of our members has recorded an impressive vocal cover of Tifa’s Theme
• The latest part of the popular “Final Fantasy VII abridged” series is out

Coming up

• The Lifestream awards

You may have also noticed that we’ve made some changes to our website’s layout this week. Here’s the lowdown:

• We’ve given extra prominence to our top story on the front page, as well as the three that were published before that. On the bottom left of the page you will find the previous eight articles, while on the right side you can see which forum threads have been posted in lately. Don’t be shy about joining in the discussion!
• The individual article pages have got wider, as we felt the previous layout was too narrow for a modern website. They should, however, resize properly no matter what resolution you’re using.
• For the first time, we’ve optimised the site for viewing on a smartphone or tablet.
• The navigation system, which was growing longer and longer, has now been moved to a neat drop-down menu underneath the banner.
• We are now making proper use of article categorisation. Categories are visible next to articles on the front page, so you can quickly see more stories on the same subject. No longer will everything be filed under Final Fantasy VII!
• We’ve sprinkled a bit of added awesomeness all around.

These changes have been in the works for a long time, and are the result of no small amount of work from a handful of our members. Thanks to everyone involved!