Fellow IGN Affiliate Gaming Age is reporting that Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 will be released around Christmas in Japan, with a Saga Frontier 2 Demo disk. Also, they are reporting a January 15th release date for Final Fantasy VIII in Japan.

    (Ed: This ends the "news". What follows below are rumors and may be interpretted as spoilers. Read on at your own risk.)

    A rumor is circulating that there is a possible bug in Final Fantasy Tactics. Supposedly, it is possible to lose characters who are sent out on a job from a bar. Apparently, it is also impossible to remove them from your band, since the game still thinks they are out on the job.

    Some information has been uncovered regarding Garden and Idea and their involvement in the plot of FFVIII. This information was apparently released by Square at the Tokyo Game Show:

"At a glance, this world is peaceful. But in the closet it hides many small problems, carrying a situation where war can break through at any time. The Garden was created in such a world. A private school of soldiers created to quiet down the disputes. Located all around the world, but not working under any country. By sending the soldiers of the Garden around the world, the seeds of world war were being destroyed and the military powers, balanced. At first glance, this world was peaceful. Until the legendary witch awoke from the long silence."

    We would like to thank Alexander Schaewe for sending us this information.

    Another rumor concerning Final Fantasy VIII circles around the character Laguna. Change his eye color, and he looks like the newly unveiled character Irvine. It is possible, that while the "character" Laguna my be gone, his image will live on in the form of Irvine.

    We would like to thank Ryuukishi Jaana for demonstrating this fact, with a nice image that can be found here.