Square Enix answered a few questions about the Ivalice Alliance in an interview and even hinted at the possibility of a Vagrant Story port to the Sony PSP. From how Squeenix responded to the query, we'd also bet on a game starring Basch and a U.S. version of Final Fantasy XII International: Zodiac Job System.

Now that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is out, we've seen how Square Enix can port such dated games to the PlayStation Portable. Vagrant Story, another PlayStation title from the Ivalice Alliance, is sure to woo fans if it gets a makeover. When asked if there are plans to port that to the PSP like what Square Enix did with FFT, Ivalice Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu replied:

Vagrant Story was a title that pushed the PS one to its limits. The technical hurdles in porting it to the PSP would be extremely high. Of course, I think it's the next natural candidate for such an update, and there's no denying its extreme popularity overseas.

Basch, who was initially intended to be Final Fantasy XII's leading man, doesn't seem to be out of the scene. FFXII: Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS has Vaan as the main guy, which leaves the question of what happens to who's supposedly the main character in FFXII. Square Enix declined to answer, and left us scrambling for our thinking caps.

On another note, producer Hiroyuki Ito left a tiny open window for any North American FFXII International: Zodiac Job System release. Chances are slim, but enough for the faithful. According to Ito:

Right now, the prospects of a North American version are the playoff prospects of a 9-6 team, down 2 with 2:02 left to play, facing 4th and 7 on the opponent's 43-yard line.

You can check out the entire interview of Kawazu and Ito with 1Up by following the Read link below.

If you've read our past articles, you know by now that FFCC: Crystal Chronicles will start off as the main character being strong instead of a pushover that needs to level up. This time around, we've got new info from an interview with executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu and director Toshiyuki Itahana.

Added to being initially powerful, the hero will also have various abilities and weapons right off the bat. Not much about these are revealed, but it's confirmed that the players will get to use that glowing hand thing.

Some also think that summoning could be available because the appearance of a Bahamut-like creature in the teaser video.

Gameplay will make full use of both Wiimote and nunchuck, with the controls probably adapting to different scenes . The game will focus on playability, so you can take out massive monsters and bosses with relative ease.

Unfortunately, no U.S. release date yet as of now. Don't worry though, we'll keep you informed.

 

Motomu Toriyama, writer and director of FFXII: Revenant Wings, and Eisuke Yokoyama, producer of the said game, spoke to 1UP and mentioned several tidbits on why there is a delay when it comes to releasing Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings to North America.

Aside from the obvious localization, Motomu Toriyama noted that they still have to tweak the interface a bit, and make the game slightly more complex. Toriyama reasons that since the Japanese market isn't too familiar with RTS styled games, FFXII: Revenant Wings was designed more for beginners. They'll change that for the US version.

And no, Revenant Wings does not use the same engine as Heroes of Mana for the DS. Eisuke Yokoyama says: "It's not at all related."

As for the story of Revenant Wings, Toriyama notes that since it's set after the events in FFXII, it'll deal more with showing how things came about in that particular version of Ivalice. Hopefully, it'll give us a better idea where all of the Occuria - Esper - Magicite plot-bunnies in XII came from.

In related news, regarding another game set in "Ivalice", Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Director Yuicihi Murasawa and Ivalice Alliance Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu talked about how their sequel to the GBA title is shaping up.

When it comes to gameplay, Murasawa says that while they kept the Law Card system, they changed the features of it a bit just to be fresh. Also while it follows the same basic system of FF Tactics Advance for the GBA, they added in a lot of new details like mini-games and missions.

Other noted gameplay additions include the removal of "bones" (dead characters) that litter the battle field, the ability to revive KO'd characters anywhere in the stage, and a more balanced character progression - every single clan member gets experience points after a party clears a battle.

Murasawa also noted that now that they've got two screens, managing your characters, and doing all the usual upkeep things like checking skill progression and equipment should be a lot easier.

For the complete interviews, feel free to head to the 1UP report via our Read link below.

 

Okay, since there's a decent amount of Buzz for this Square Enix game that's set to use the Unreal Engine and grace both Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, here's the latest news that we could find regarding The Last Remnant. The development team assigned to work on it follows below:

• Director: Hiroshi Takai
• Chief Artist: Kimihiko Miyamae
• Events: Kouji Kobayashi
• Composer: Tsuyoshi Sekito
• Producer: Nobuyuki Ueda
• Exec. Producer: Akitoshi Kawazu
• Art Producer: Yusuke Naora

This info was first leaked into the wilds of the intarwebs via Jonnyram of NeoGAF. A quick sift through Wikipedia reveals that composer Tsuyoshi Sekito has games like Brave Fencer Musashi, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Final Fantasy Origins, and Front Mission Online under his belt. He's also worked with Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui, and Keiji Kawamori on the music of "FFVII: Advent Children."

Yusuke Naora on the other hand has served as art director for these Square pieces: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He's also served as Art Supervisor for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Director Hiroshi Takai has worked on Saga Frontier, and The Bouncer, among others. Kimihiko Miyamae previously worked on Unlimited Saga. Kouji Kobayashi's got FFVIII and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica Complete in his resume. Noboyuki Ueda's most known for FFVIII and Akitoshi Kawazu was involved with FFXII.

We've got another Square Enix Party '07 interview, and the guys working on Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War speak this time. GamesRadar sat beside Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu, Co-producer Shingo Kosuge, and Translator Tom Slattery to get juicy info about this upcoming title.

Since the release of Final Fantasy Tactics back in 1998, several spin-offs were released and Ivalice Alliance was formed. GamesRadar asks, "Have you had to make any adjustments to the game in the remake because of this?" and Kawasu replied "No, there's nothing that particularly changed because of the Ivalice Alliance."

Series fans were filled with joy when Aeris sold them flowers in FFT, while Cloud was a hidden playable character. Are there any new secret characters in the remake? "We've added two new characters, both of whom are from other Ivalice Alliance games: Balthier from Final Fantasy XII and Russo, who is the main character in Final Fantasy Tactics A2," says Kawazu.

More on the interview after the jump!

Gaming news website GamesRadar recently had the chance to pump Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu and Director Toshiyuki Itahana as well as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates Director Mitsuru Kamiyama for some info on their upcoming games. Here are a few snippets of what they learned.

DS and Wii connectivity for both games is a no go at this point, unlike the original which had GBA and GameCube connectivity. According to Kawazu, though, once the Wii gets into more and more households, then the team behind the games would definitely "start contemplating these concepts."

As for controls, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers will use the Wiimote for movement and attacking. The game will also utilize the nunchuck for "different purposes in different scenes," although Itahana notes that as a team, they made sure that the gameplay will not be "taken over by a feature in the hardware".

For the full interview, click on the "read" link below.