December2023
Memory Pak Secret Of Mana's Dazzling World Of Colour Opened My Eyes
You're looking a bit green
Welcome to the latest instalment in our nostalgia-inducing column, Memory Pak, where we deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming – good and bad. Today, Secret of Mana turns 30 years old in Japan, and to celebrate this seminal action RPG's anniversary, Alana is reminiscing about how the game's use of...
July2023
News Veteran Final Fantasy Devs Gather To Celebrate Franchise's 35th Anniversary
First three titles covered
The Final Fantasy franchise turns 35 this year and to celebrate, veteran developers of the series have gathered together to discuss their own personal history with its development. Interviewees include the 'Father of Final Fantasy', Hironobu Sakaguchi, Art Director Kazuo Shibuya, and Brand Manager Yoshinori Kitase. The...
June2023
Random Some Square Enix Staff Really Want A Final Fantasy VI Remake
But it would be "difficult", says Square Enix VP
We've already got Final Fantasy VI on modern consoles thanks to the Pixel Remaster, but what if Square Enix decided to remake its beloved 1994 RPG? Apparently, some staff at the studio want to see it, according to vice president and Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase (via @Genki_JPN)...
December2022
Feature Final Fantasy's 35-Year Legacy Of Innovation - How Square Evolved A Genre On The NES & SNES
A Prelude to all future RPGs
Final Fantasy is now 35 years old, and that feels a little bit weird to say. While not the first RPG series to ever grace a home console or even the first Japanese-developed RPG, Final Fantasy is, arguably, the JRPG. Everyone knows it, and everyone has played at least one. There’s a lot of debate about what Final...
Anniversary Super Famicom Favourite 'Final Fantasy V' Is 30 Years Old
A Tycoon of the series
Final Fantasy V is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Japan today! Geez. Released on the Super Famicom on 6th December 1992, Final Fantasy V was a return to the Job System set-up of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy III on the NES. It's also sandwiched between what many consider two of the best Final Fantasy games ever —...
November2022
Random Musician "Restores" Chrono Trigger Soundtrack Using Uncompressed Samples
Music Revolution
Update: The video has been made private, and it appears that Mathew Valente's account has been hacked. We'll be sure to update this post once the soundtrack has been made available again. For now, you can listen to some samples over on his Twitter account: Mathew Valente, known as TSSF and who worked on the cancelled fan game...
June2022
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel #101 - Final Fantasy VI
Or Final Fantasy III, if you like!
Greetings fellow Earthlings, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl! In last week's epic battle to commemorate our 100th Box Art Brawl post, we took a look at the phenomenal GameCube brawler, Super Smash Bros. Melee. It's one of the most iconic Nintendo games of all time, without question, so naturally...
April2022
Poll Box Art Brawl #90 - Super Paper Mario
It's baaaaack!
Box Art Brawl..? You're sure you remember those words, and yet... It's been so long, you're not quite certain of what it all means or even who you are anymore. Just kidding. Yes, we're back with a brand new Box Art Brawl! It's been a minute, for sure - 7 whole months, actually! We're excited to bring back the subtle art of pitting...
February2022
News Super Mario RPG Director Would Love His Final Game To Be "Another Mario RPG"
Super Mario RPG celebrated its 25th last year
Before Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi series, there was the 1996 SNES title, Super Mario RPG. If you've ever wondered about a possible sequel, you're not alone. In fact, Chihiro Fujioka - one of the game's directors is also up for it. In a recent interview with the YouTube channel MinnMax, Fuj
August2021
Poll Box Art Brawl: Duel #89 - Chrono Trigger
Trigger warning
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, our increasingly erratically scheduled series of retro box art polls where we all decide the best regional variants from two or more territories. Last time we looked at F-Zero: GP Legend for the GBA. Europe and North America ultimately duked it out for the silver medal (with Europe having to settle for...
October2020
News Fancy A Glimpse Of An Unpublished Final Fantasy Comic From The '90s?
"Four issues were outlined, two or three written. One and a half drawn..."
Comic book writer Kurt Busiek, whose impressive career includes runs on many familiar titles from Marvel and DC, has recently opened up on Twitter about a video game-related project he was involved with back in the early 1990s — a Final Fantasy comic. As Busiek points out,...
February2018
News MSU1 Support For Yoshi's Island, Seiken Densetsu 3 And Final Fight 2 Is Here
Dinosaur babysitting, action RPG perfection and Mike Haggar's world tour
The Zeldix MSU1 community continues its incredible streak of MSU-1 audio project releases, with this week seeing the conclusion of two major projects from Conn and a nice Capcom surprise from Kurono and PepilloPEV. Without a doubt one of the greatest Super Nintendo (perhaps...
February2016
Video Paying Tribute To Secret Of Mana's Superlative Soundtrack
iRetroGamer tips the hat to one of the very best
Secret of Mana is unquestionably one of the best SNES RPGs ever made, and a huge part of the game's appeal comes from Hiroki Kikuta's gorgeous soundtrack, which still sounds amazing even today. Our friends over at iRetroGamer have put together a video which celebrates the musical legacy of this...
November2015
Video Learn a Little More About Chrono Trigger
Courtesy of Did You Know Gaming?
When any conversation turns to the 16-bit era and classic RPGs, Chrono Trigger naturally gets mentioned. It's a stone-cold classic, undoubtedly, and turned 20 years old this year. As a fondly regarded SNES title - which also had a DS release - it's now been given the treatment by Did You Know Gaming?, the YouTube...
September2015
News Super Nintendo Classic Chrono Trigger Gets Digital Audio Support
Orchestral Time Traveler
In an alternate universe not entirely dissimilar to our own the Super Nintendo got a CD add-on made by Sony, much like the Mega Drive's Mega CD. This would bring full motion video and Redbook audio to the SNES games you know and love. In fact, some games would have been completely different in that universe. Secret of Mana...
July2015
News Secret Of Evermore's Epic Soundtrack Gets The Remaster Treatment
Sean Schafianski works his magic on Jeremy Soule's original tracks
Secret of Evermore is one of Square's forgotten classics - a SNES title created entirely in North America that tried to ape stable mate Secret of Mana, but didn't quite match it. Despite being less acclaimed than some of Square's other 16-bit titles, Evermore still has plenty of fans...
News Square's Romancing SaGa Finally Gets Translated Into A Language We Can Easily Understand
Another Super Famicom classic liberated from the mists of time
1992 Super Famicom RPG Romancing SaGa has finally been translated into English. Designed by SaGa series creator Akitoshi Kawazu, this epic title never received a western release. The game is unique in that it abandons the linear structure seen in so many other JRPGs of the period and...
March2015
News Chrono Trigger Turns 20, but is Ultimately Timeless
History has never quite repeated itself
What do you get when you combine the creator of Final Fantasy, the creator of Dragon Quest, and the creator of Dragon Ball? You get arguably one of the best RPGs of all time, and a game that maintains a strong legacy 20 years after its 11 March 1995 release. Chrono Trigger is the brainchild o
February2015
News Hironobu Sakaguchi to be Honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC 2015
Creator of Final Fantasy didn't end there
The man behind what is arguably the most prolific videogame RPG series of all time will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by his peers at the 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards next month. According to the tales, Hironobu Sakaguchi was at a crossroads when he created Final Fantasy at Square...
August2014
Video Vancouver Elementary School Breathes New Life into Super Mario RPG Soundtrack
If we don't beware, who will?
Many of you who grew up with an SNES controller clutched between your fingers will have fond memories of the bizarre experimentation that was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Little did people at the time know that it would be the first in a huge number of RPGs following the antics of the world's most...
May2014
Feature Celebrating 25 Years Of A Legendary Final Fantasy Title
When is a Final Fantasy not a Final Fantasy? When it’s a SaGa!
Way back in the mists of 1989; when we were all wondering how Nintendo’s Game Boy could possibly stand up to the mighty full colour Atari Lynx and whether it was really worth handing over $200USD/£190 for Sega’s new console, Squaresoft (as it was then known) decided to release an...
November2012
News 47,096 Perler Beads Made This Awesome Chrono Trigger Artwork
A labour of love
When you love a video game very much there are a number of ways in which you can express that adoration to the world. One is to simply tell anyone that will listen, while another is to create a fan-site or something similar which communicates why it's such a fantastic game. However, this imgur user decided that he wanted to do...
October2012
News Final Fantasy's Battle System Is Based On American Football
Who knew?
Square Enix's Hiroyuki Ito has revealed to 1UP the origin of the turn-based battle system in the original Final Fantasy - and it's somewhat unexpected, to say the least. Driven to create an efficient system for Hironobu Sakaguchi's seminal NES RPG, Ito turned to professional sports for his inspiration. 1UP: So did you create the battle...
May2011
News Chrono Trigger Rated, North American Release on the Cards
Square's classic looking to gain some new fans
Sixteen years after its original release, Chrono Trigger makes the jump from the past to the present, launching on the Virtual Console so that a new generation of gamers can enjoy the acclaimed role-playing game from the Super Nintendo era. With the game already available to download on the Japanese...
July2009
Nintendo Download 21-22 July 2009 (Japan)
WiiWare catch-up, another classic Namco arcade game and some simple DSiWare puzzling adventure next week.
Next week's schedule is a little on the light side (though as with previous weeks it's possible that Nintendo of Japan is updating their website piecemeal) with only 1 new WiiWare release, a couple of VC offerings and a single DSiWare release...
