I hope you’re ready for some more history, because it’s time again to bend our minds to understanding where RPGs have come from, and possibly posit where they’re going.

When last we left off, we had just finished off the Western-end of the iconic year of 1997, so let us go back and see what was happening in the East in the meantime before we pick up the Western strands again.

Continue reading El33tonline’s editorial by guest writer Fayyaad, A complete history of role-playing videogames: Part 4.

The PlayStation Blog has published its inaugural sales chart for PlayStation Network games, listing out the top twenty best-selling games on the service for the month of September.

Would you have guessed that Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection is at the top of the sales listing this month, followed by Resident Evil 4? Did you ever think in your wildest imaginings that Final Fantasy VII, Angry Birds and Saints Row 2 would have appeared on the same listing?

Well, find out what other games appear on this month’s PSN sales chart, and blow your mind:

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1993 was the year gaming changed forever. A pre-rendered point and click adventure game called Myst was released and went on to ship millions of copies and become the best-selling game of all time. It was not until the uber-popular ‘The Sims’ franchise came along that its record was bested.

I was an impressionable 9 year old at the time, and I remember ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ while my friend demonstrated Myst to me on his PC. Here was a game world full of sights and sounds that had a fidelity I had never experienced before. The textures on the stone pillars and trees actually looked like their real-world counterparts. Was I dreaming? No, this was the revolution in gaming graphics that the CD-ROM had made possible.

Continue reading El33tonline’s editorial: ‘The Glory Days of Pre-rendered Backgrounds.’

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase has once again gone on record as saying that a remake of the fan favourite Final Fantasy VII is highly improbable, due to a variety of problems related to the difficulty of reproducing the title in high definition quality and the length of time such a project would need to be completed.

Kitase lamented:

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During a conversation between consumer games blog VG247 and developers working on Final Fantasy XIII, Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, the pair revealed that, while an official remake of the classic RPG Final Fantasy VII isn’t currently in development, they do speak about it from time to time, reminiscing about the project and thinking about how they would go about re-creating the experience on the PS3.

Speaking through a translator, Kitase and Toriyama said:

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It’s been revealed that, during its first two weeks on sale on the PlayStation Store, Final Fantasy VII has managed to wrack up a whopping 100 000 downloads, quickly becoming the fastest selling original PlayStation game available on the PlayStation Network.

Not content with millions of sales from the original release on both the PlayStation and PC, nor remaining happy with sales generated from the numerous game and movie spinoffs, Square Enix must surely be pleased with sales like this on the PS3, paving the way for more re-releases and, perhaps, even proving that a next-generation Final Fantasy VII remake would be enthusiastically received.

It’s probably safe to say, though, that most of those 100 000 downloads were from people who have either already played Final Fantasy VII, or still own the original…

The game weighs in at 1.32 GB and currently sells for $9.99 on the PlayStation Store. Will you get it? If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, the answer is obvious.

Source: The Escapist

Announced first at Sony’s press conference yesterday, but now a reality, Final Fantasy VII has hit the North American PlayStation Network, and is available to buy and download for $9.99.

Source: FFVII on PSN announcement site

Kotaku have revealed that Japanese PlayStation 3 owners are now able to buy and download Final Fantasy VII from the PlayStation Store right now.

The version of Final Fantasy VII on offer is the ‘International’ edition, which comes complete with niceties added to the Western release of the game that the original Japanese version didn’t include.

Additions (that Western audiences probably took for granted) include on-screen hint arrows, a better management system, an extra cut-scene that further makes sense of Cloud’s past, as well as additional monsters and bosses, such as Emerald and Ruby WEAPON.

The Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII International (Japanese language, naturally) is priced at ¥1500, or roughly $14.99 on the Japanese PlayStation Store.

Source: Kotaku

If you haven’t yet got your hands on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, then this director’s cut of the movie, Advent Children Complete, is for you, especially if you enjoy beautiful CG animation and high paced swordplay. Being a Final Fantasy fan also has something to do with its allure.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children tells the tale of Cloud and the gang after the events of Final Fantasy VII (the game), as some new trouble shows itself in the form of Sephiroth wannabes, desperately looking for Jenova.

Check out the new trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete below:

You can also watch another trailer that shows a bunch of the extra scenes in this version of Advent Children over here.

What’s this? A trailer for Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Complete?

It sure is, and with it comes glimpses of the new scenes that will apparently ‘complete’ the original Final Fantasy VII Advent Children CG movie, which told the story of Cloud and co. just trying to get by after the events of Final Fantasy VII.

Despite their intention to live a peaceful life, danger soon shows up at their door in the form of Jenova-seeking, trouble-making, Sephiroth off-shoots. Fisticuffs ensue.

Watch the trailer for Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Complete below (in Japanese).

Japanese gamers who haven’t yet invested in a PlayStation 3 (or even if they already have) will have an extra incentive to do so, with the announcement of a special edition PS3 - especially fans of Final Fantasy.

The Final Fantasy 160 GB special edition PlayStation 3 comes complete with the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie, a special edition console makeover and a Final Fantasy XIII demo. This package will cost ¥49,980 and will be out on April 16th in Japan.

You’ll also be able to get Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete on its own on the same day, which comes with the Final Fantasy XIII demo.

Only in Japan, though.