Such as it was last year, Square Enix held their own press conference yesterday during the first day of the Tokyo Game Show. The gaming giant held nothing back from the public, as just about every known upcoming title from Square Enix--as well as a few surprises--were either shown or discussed during the conference.
The conference began with a speech from Youichi Wada, president of Square Enix, who discussed the company's newfound venture into network games. He gave an example of Square Enix's success in the genre by stating that Final Fantasy XI had 170,000 simultaneous accesses on the 23rd alone. After Wada finished the speech, trailers for Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Dragon Quest VIII were shown.
Yuuji Horii, the man behind the Dragon Quest series, addressed the audience following the Dragon Quest VIII trailer. Horii stated that with the power of Level 5, as well as the PlayStation 2 hardware, the development team was able develop a game featuring many new systems, such as the game's day and night cycles.
After Horii wrapped up his speech, Takashi Tokita took the stage to talk about his two newest projects; Egg Monster Heroes for the PlayStation 2 and Hanjuku Eiyuu: 4-7 Hito no Hanjuku Eiyuu for the Nintendo DS. He mentioned that Egg Monster Heroes would see a winter 2004 release, while Hanjuku Eiyuu: 4-7 Hito no Hanjuku Eiyuu is slated towards a spring 2005 release.
Next, information regarding Radiata Stories and the Japanese version of EverQuest II was provided. The details discussed were already public knowledge before TGS. However, it was mentioned that the Japanese beta testing of EverQuest II would begin in December, and would be followed by the full release in early 2005.
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, the PlayStation 2 remake of the 1992 Super Famicom title, was next on Square Enix's itinerary. Akitoshi Kawazu, The game's director and producer, took the stage to state that the developers are aiming to make Minstrel Song an easily accessible compilation of the SaGa series, which will appease veterans to the series and novices alike.
Yoshinori Kitase, head of Square Enix's first production team, took the stage to discuss the newly confirmed Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to wrap up the conference. Kitase discussed the compilation, and screened trailers from the three titles in the compilation: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, and the newly announced Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
Although it wasn't mentioned by the speakers during the conference, Square Enix announced via press materials that Front Mission 5 was under development. Nothing else was announced about this new entry into the Front Mission series other than it is being developed for the PlayStation 2.
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