Retro Gaming Australia

Be glad Enix got over the whole CG thing. Ghastly box art.

Dragon Warrior I & II is another remake of…you guessed it. Of course, if you actually want to play this remake, you’d better start saving your pennies, because complete copies don’t come cheap.

CG sells, evidently.

Final Fantasy VII was the game that turned the tide of the fifth generation console war, bringing the underdog Sony to the top of the gaming market. With the game’s 15th anniversary coming up, you’d think Square-Enix would be looking at doing something special, but evidently not.

Search for Final Fantasy VII on eBay

So a couple of months ago, Square Enix announced their plans for the 25th anniversary of Dragon Quest – namely that they’d be releasing a collection containing the first three games in the series in Japan. Now we’ve got a little more information on what’s exactly in that package.

Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection contains the first three Dragon Quest games – both the original Famicom and the remade Super Famicom versions, a 130 page book of articles written by famous manga authors sharing their fond memories of the series and a special 25th anniversary medallion.

In addition to the games on the disc, there is also an archive section with concept art and planning documents for the series, special anime introductions for the first three games in the series produced by Kamikaze Douga, and a special sneak peek at the upcoming Dragon Quest X.

Seems like Nintendo could learn a thing or two from Square Enix on this front, eh?

Dragon Quest fans are being spoiled for choice with new merchandise for the series upcoming 25th anniversary. Earlier today King Records revealed the Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest Scene-Separated I~IX CD-BOX, a 10 CD set containing music from every mainline Dragon Quest game released to date.

The set is a little unconventional. Rather than being grouped by game, the music on each CD is grouped by song type, so you’ll have one CD for all of the castle themes for the series, one for all of the battle themes, and so on.

The set is due out next year, and will set you back 15,750 yen.

Via Destructoid

Square-Enix has announced via their Facebook page that the iPhone version of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions will be available this Thursday for $US15.99. Quite a bit steeper than your usual 99 cent distractions. You’ll need a 3GS or better to play the game.

The game is not a universal app, so an iPad version will be coming out later in the year (at least one month later, according to SE).

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions was developed for the PSP and released in 2007. It is a remake of the original Final Fantasy Tactics, released on the PlayStation in 1998. Apparently much of the slowdown from the PSP version of the game has been corrected, and an autosave function has been added (in case someone has the audacity to call you while you play games on your phone).

Seiken Densetsu, or the Mana series as we know it, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The first game in the series was released as Final Fantasy Adventure in America and as Mystic Quest in Europe, just to make the name confusion all the more fun.

In celebration of the milestone, Square-Enix is releasing this absolutely massive soundtrack box. Inside are twenty CDs of music from each game in the series, from Final Fantasy Adventure through to Heroes of Mana. It’ll set you back 21,000 yen.

If that’s not enough Mana series music for you, the album SQ Chips will also be released in September. This album will feature 8 bit arrangements of Square’s classics. A recently released preview album revealed that two of the tracks come from Secret of Mana.

On top of that, there is also the Re:Birth / Seiken Densetsu Kenji Ito Arrange Album, due to be released in October. It’s a tribute to the soundtrack of the first game in the series, Final Fantasy Adventure.

Via Destructoid

It’s Dragon Quest‘s 25th anniversary this year, and Square-Enix is ready to relieve you of your money. In addition to the previously announced compilation disc (which has the Famicom versions of Dragon Quest I-II-III), the company will be releasing a whole heap of merch.

The first thing they’ve announced are these Dragon Quest branded playing cards. Called the Dragon Quest Dot Monster Trump Card set, these cards feature pixel graphics of your favourite Dragon Quest enemies, rather than boring old kings and queens. They’ll be out in September for 1,200 yen, but you can get them from AmiAmi now for 870 yen (plus shipping).

Also coming this year are Dragon Quest jigsaw puzzles, which are designed after the boxes for the Famicom versions of the games. They’ll set you back 630 yen a piece in September, but they’re also available from AmiAmi for a cheaper 435yen (plus shipping).

Via Destructoid