Really, coming from the expectation of a Final Fantasy game, this aint such a surprise right?

 http://www.the-magicbox.com/

 Yahoo Japan reported that Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII has sold 1,516,532 units between December 17 - 20, and 245,406 units of PS3 were sold on the same period.

The new game guides have been released for viewing now and here are some pictures!

http://finalfantasy.cc/news/1-latest-news/560-ffxiii-the-guides

You are aware that each release of a Final Fantasy is accompanied with several official guides, explaining both the context, the scenario and the mythology of the game, but also detailing every point of the adventure, in order to assist the players who are wishing to finish the game at 100%. Today, Square Enix officially announced the release of the guides Scenario Ultimania and Battle Ultimania for Final Fantasy XIII.

See the latest news about FFXIII about the trophies, the countdown, and.....the cookies?!

http://finalfantasy.cc/news/1-latest-news/555-ff-xiii-the-trophies-the-countdown-andthe-cookies

At only one day of the Japanese release of Final fantasy XIII, some lucky people managed to get their hands on a copy of the game. Being generous, they share some informations, like, for example, the 13 first trophies that the player will be able to win in the PS3 version of the game. Theses aren't spoilers, since the ones simply involving an advancement in the storyline won't be shown. The translations of the titles aren't official.

The popular Famitsu magazine gives the scaores and ratings for the Final Fantasy XIII game!

http://finalfantasy.cc/news/1-latest-news/549-ff-xiii-famitsus-verdict

Final Fantasy XIII ratings go for 39/40, almost perfect score!

The first part seems to be a mix of everything we have seen so far, but after that... Ok ok, I wont spoil anything so you have to see it for yourslef.

Link >> Trailer @ FFXIII Official Site (HD)
Link >> Youtube Version (SD)

And here it is the Youtube Version with english subtitles !! . Link to the Translated Version

A new Summon has been revealed, and its joining the Go Karts

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0911/

New Images shows Hope's summon beast Alexander, and it can transform into a flying gun shooting fortress. Well this is something different as thre previous ones,right?

 Yes they are back and about time! Chocobos join the FFXIII party

  http://www.the-magicbox.com/
 

 Square Enix revealed the chocobos in Final Fantasy XIII, the chocobo seems to have its own life meter.

Square Enix revealed the character growth system in Final Fantasy XIII, it is called the Crystalium System, which replaces the character level-up system and resembles the Sphere Grid system used in FFX.

 http://www.the-magicbox.com/0910/

After each battle you earn Crystalium Points (CPs), which can be spent in the Crystalium System to acquire new abilities. New abilities become available once you learned certain abilities in the grid.

In addition the magic level-up is demonstrated in the Crystalium System, you start with Fire, and you can learn Fira by level-up the blaster role, and it can be further upgraded to Firaga, which can hit multiple enemies and blast them into the mid-air.

http://www.the-magicbox.com

Here are some pics of FFXIII´s energy Elixir drink and figurines

Sad, but I think this was pretty much expected.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/

In an interview with Tetsuya Nomura in Famitsu, the producer mentioned that Square Enix has no plans to work on a sequel to Dissidia: Final Fantasy, the team is currently busy with another project, and their next project is probably not a new Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

I think we have seen this new Summon at TGS09´s FFXIII trailer 

http://www.the-magicbox.com/

Square Enix also revealed that Sazh Katzroy's summon is Brunhild, a fire element summon beast who uses a large axe as weapon. Burnhild can transform into a jeep type vehicle. 

Square Enix revealed new character in Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 and Xbox 360.

www.the-magicbox.com/

The new female character is Oerba Yun Fang, who was previously seen in the TGS trailer, she uses a spear as weapon, and she works for the Sanctum, her summon is Bahamut.

Oerba Yun Fang's voice actress is Mabuki Andou (Balsa in Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit).

By the way, we can see in the scan that she uses Bahamut as Summon partner .

What will be Oerba´s true intentions?

Final Fantasy XIII Raises all the Media´s Expectatives!!. And us too

http://www.the-magicbox.com/

- First of all, Amazon Japan reported that they have sold out the pre-orders of Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 in Japan, they will not accept anymore new pre-orders until further notice.

- Yoichi Wada also mentioned that he expects to ship 6 million copies of Final Fantasy XIII worldwide, the game will be released in Japan on December 17, 2009.

- Against this Media Create estimates the sales of Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 will be around 2 million copies, the reason is that the installed base if PS3 is lower than PS2 when Final Fantasy X was released, at the time PS2 has a 5 millions installed based. PS3 will have around 4 millions installed base by December 2009.

Sony announced the Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Edition PS3 in Japan, which will be available on December 17, 2009, for 41600 yen. Thats aroun 450us$ .

http://www.the-magicbox.com/

The bundle includes Final Fantasy XIIICeramic White PS3 with 250GB Hard Drive and Lighting's design on the shell, Ceramic White Dual Shock 3 controller, power cord, AV cable and USB cable.

 Square Enix revealed its Tokyo Game Show lineup ,

but sadly No Vs XIII and Agito will be played

 http://www.squareinsider.com/news/article/1533  

Here is the official line up from Square Enix: 

• Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden (NDS)
• -Dissidia: Final Fantasy Universal Tuning (PSP)
• -Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)
• -Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
• -Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP)
• -Front Mission Evolved (PS3/360)
• -Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• -Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (WiiWare)
• -Final Fantasy XIV (PS3/PC)
• -Final Fantasy XI: Vandiel Collection 2 (PS2/360/PC)
• -Lord of Vermillion II (Arcade)
• -Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road II (Mobile)
• -Dragon Quest More Mysterious Dungeon (Mobile)
• -Secret of Mana (Mobile)
• -Kingdom Hearts Coded (Mobile)

 Square Enix has officially announced the release date of Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 in Japan, the game will be released on December 17, 2009, for 9240 yen.   

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game20090908.shtml 

Additionaly tons of new stuff were announced for the upcoming release: 

• *Sony will also release a PS3 Bundle Pack with the game on the same date.

• *Square Enix announced the theme song for Final Fantasy XIII will be performed by Japanese artist Sayuri Sugawara, named Kimi ga iru kara [Because You're With Me]. A CD single of the song will be released on December 2, 2009, two weeks before the launch of the game in Japan.

• *In addition, Square Enix will also release the FFXIII  theme energy drink in Japan, called Final Fantasy XIII Elixir, the drink will contain high amount caffeine, ample royal jelly and vitamin B. The drinks will be hitting the market in December.

Square -Enix has revelead two new FFXIII Character:

Dahj Katzroy who is the 6 year old son of Sazh KatzroySazh Katzroy. He lost his mother at the age of three, and has been raised by Sazh alone ever since.

Serah Farron, she is the sister of Lightning and fiancée of Snow Villiers. She is a headstrong girl who likes to solve her own issues without getting others involved. She is a L'Cie and is marked with a tattoo of red spheres on her left arm.

Finally a release date of FFXIII for North America and Europe, just some months more after sooo much time !

 http://www.squareinsider.com/news/article/1531

Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase told VG247 that Final Fantasy XIII will get released in Europe and North America simultaneously on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during spring 2010.

"We don't have the actual month down yet, but in Japan it's scheduled for a winter release, and in Europe and North American territoriers it's spring 2010," said the producer.

He added: "For Europe and North America, the PS3 and 360 versions are going to be released simultaneously."

Kitase also said that they have been working hard to cut down the wait for European and North American gamers.

"For previous titles it took usually about a year to localise each version and bring it over to Europe, but for this title there should be a considerably shorter gap and [we'll] bring it to European territories as close to the North American release as possible."

They also mentioned that the Xbox version would probably require 3 DVDs.

First we had a female lead character, and now a female lead villain . this could be really interesting

http://www.squareinsider.com/news/article/1529/

 

Scans from last´s issue of JUMP however also reveal that the female soldier seen in various trailers is in fact the game's villain, a Lieutenant in the Holy Government named Jill Navato

Working side by side with the recently revealed Yaag Rosch to protect Cocoon from the invading Pulse threat, Jill will be the first prominent female villain since Final Fantasy VIII. released just over ten years ago in JP~ 

The await for this innovative Final Fantasy game is getting over . I hope this game bring us good things.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm 

Square Enix will release the Wii action RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers in Japan on November 26, 2009.