A Square Meal

First, the development giant released the first official information on their upcoming Playstation 2 epic, Final Fantasy X.

The game looks to be a major departure for the series, as it will be presented in full 3-D and will be the first Final Fantasy game to feature voice acting. In addition, the Gaming Intelligence agency is reporting that the game will not use a separate world map, which should make exploration a whole lot more fun.

Not many plot details have leaked out just yet. The story in Final Fantasy X will revolve around a 17-year-old man named Tidus and his love interest, Yuna, also 17.

Tidus is said to be an upbeat youngster and a star at an underwater sport called Blitzball. Yuna, on the other hand, is the daughter of a legendary summoner (and a summoner herself). She is apparently unhappy with her family's fame and hesitant to use her powers.

The two will be joined by several other characters (official names are not yet available) as they journey to defeat a mysterious entity known as Sin, which is said to take the form of natural disasters.

Other features now slated to be included in the game include: random battles; boss battles that take place on the field map itself; a three-character party; Blitzball (described as a cross between basketball, soccer, and rugby) as a mini-game; and a more interactive method of plot development. The game is tentatively scheduled for a November release in the U.S.

However, Final Fantasy X, as exciting as it looks, is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Not only does it seem like the company will finally bring the Playstation remakes of Chrono-Trigger and Final Fantasy IV to North America, but at a Jan. 22 management press conference, Square announced that they had 23 games currently in development.

Eleven of these games will be remakes, and those remakes will include each of the first nine Final Fantasy games.

Which leads to the next twist in the story. In addition to the first three Final Fantasy remakes for the Wonderswan Color, which were announced last year, the three Playstation Final Fantasy games (VII, VIII, and IX) will be remade and enhanced for the Playstation 2.

The three Super Nintendo installments (IV, V, and VI) were set to come to a handheld system, and series director Hironobu Sakaguchi had said he wanted to port them to the Game Boy Advance. That prospect now seems unlikely.

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