Under the stage name "Piano Squall," Michael Gluck performs videogame
and anime music piano concerts to raise money for charity. Michael
recently announced the launch of GAME, his debut album.

GAME features Michael's original arrangements of theme songs from videogames and anime, including Final Fantasy, Naruto, Super Mario World, InuYasha, Chrono Trigger, Cowboy Bebop, Mega Man, Chrono Cross, Full Metal Alchemist, Tetris, and Evangelion. Highlights include Michael's signature Final Fantasy Battle Medley, which blends nine Final Fantasy battle themes together into a single spectacular piece.

Michael Gluck and videogame publisher Electronic Arts are partnered in
this charitable effort, and together they will donate an amount equal
to 20% of all profits from GAME to the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society.

GAME is currently available for pre-order at Michael's website,
www.PianoSquall.com. The price is $9.99 with Free Shipping anywhere in
the United States. Those who pre-order will receive a free Bonus Track
that is not included on the CD. GAME ships 6/30/07.
 

The Square-Enix Party is coming up!  This massive event will feature Square-Enix's upcoming games.  It will be held between May 12-13th at the Makuhari Messe Convention Centre in Chiba, Japan (near Tokyo).  The event is free to the general public, and about 50 000 people attended it in 2005!  Here is the list of games that will be present for the event:

Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road (Arcade)
Dragon Quest Monster Joker (DS)
Dragon Quest Swords (Wii)
Itadaki Street DS (DS)
It's a Wonderful World (DS)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (DS)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP)
Final Fantasy I (PSP)
Final Fantasy II (PSP)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (Blu-Ray)
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (PSP)
Final Fantasy XI (PS2/X360 and Windows PC)
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (DS)
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

Unfortunately, FFXIII won’t be in playable form at the event. There will be new trailers of FFXIII that will be shown. Otherwise, the Square-Enix party also offers a bunch of interesting bonus items for selected people and the people will have an opportunity to purchase limited edition items at the Square Enix shop. It is mostly a media and fan-based event, but offers the Japanese gaming public a chance to try out some of Square-Enix’s latest offerings.
 

Recently, the development team of FF Tactics for the PSP handheld has revealed that there will be a few nice extra game modes to keep gamers occupied. FF Tactics for the PSP promises to feature cooperative play as well as having a Versus mode. These modes will offer various exclusive features, such as different special items. The anticipated title for the PSP handheld will release in Japan on May 10th.
 

Square Enix has revealed that familiar FF XII characters such as Balthier and Fran will appear in the DS title, Revenant Wings.  Through their adventures that take place after the end of FF XII, the sky pirates eventually trigger some of the key events that lead up to the start of Revenant Wings.  There is a new character in the game, called Llyud who has angel wings.  As well, FF XII: Revenant Wings will be released with a special edition DS, much like FF III was.  The highly anticipated DS title will be released on April 26th in Japan.  There isn't word yet for a North American release date but stay tuned for more details!
 

Recently, Square Enix has revealed some new information regarding FF XIII. They have implemented some drastic changes to the usage of summons in the game, compared to previous installments of the franchise. Summons still assist the party in battle but offer a new set of abilities that are geared towards the action-oriented side of the battle system. ATB (Active time battle) returns in FF XIII and the waiting time to select a command will be almost entirely eliminated. Finally, there is a new blonde-haired male character revealed that rides a motorcycle. No word yet on his role within the game. FF XIII still does not have a release date in Japan.
 

In celebration of Square-Enix’s 20th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, the company is porting FF I and FF II to the PSP sometime this year. The ports will be based off the PlayStation versions and will include the extra dungeons found in the GBA games. Square-Enix plans on improving the visual quality of the graphics to fit the higher resolution of the PSP handheld. There will also be a gallery mode added in the game. Both games will be sold separately in Japan.

Recently Square-Enix has announced that they intend on releasing a slightly remade version of their PlayStation classic, Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (Japanese title) on Sony's PSP handheld.  The PSP version will feature some extra job classes as well as some new cinematic sequences.  There is no official release date for this title in Japan as of yet.

Another FF Tactics game is in the works and is currently titled as:  FF Tactics A2: Fuuketsu no Grimoire but there has been no details or other information released in regards to that game.  We will update you on this interesting news development once more details are available.
 

Another spin-off FF title has recently been released in Japan only.  Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book was released in December 14th, 2006.  The basic storyline is as follows:  Chocobo and his friends, Black Mage and White Mage were reading through a book and it turns out the book is cursed and a demon sucks up all of the Chocobos into the pages and its up to Chocobo to save the day.

The gameplay also features some mini-games and the battle system is quite complex and unique.  It involves selecting attack cards from an existing deck of cards.  The winner of each duel is determined using a rock-paper-scissors type of ordeal.  The person who draws first gets the first attack.  The actual storyline is more deeper than this and the mini-games themselves have their own prologues.  The graphics are similar to Paper Mario in style and substance.  An interesting FF spin-off title to check out, to say the least.

Here is a trailer which was posted on YouTube:
 
Since this game is not planned for a North American release, we will only have this news story as a brief overview to this game.
 

As part of a campaign to promote the release of Final Fantasy V & VI for the Gamebody Advance, Square-Enix has decided to give away 5000 copies of this special edition box set which includes the Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI Advance OSTs.  Also included is an art booklet featuring some of Yoshitaka Amano's works.  You can read more about him here.  The only way to get a chance to win one of these items is to send in box coupons of Final Fantasy V and VI Advance which are featured in the Japanese versions.  Unfortunately, this offer is not available in North America.


 

The much anticipated Square-Enix title: Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 2 finally managed to hit the North American market on Halloween.  The response was swift and positive, with many retailers reporting very brisk sales in addition to the rave reviews offered by many gamers.  Square-Enix had a limited release of their collector's edition of Final Fantasy XII, which included a bonus DVD with US/Japanese trailers.  Also included in the collector's edition was a "making of Final Fantasy XII" video.  These items were enclosed in a special metal case. 

Next month (December), expect a full and detailed review of Final Fantasy XII along with complete information on the battle system and the characters.  It promises to be the biggest Final Fantasy title to date and the FF Odyssey crew is very excited to have their hands on the most talked about game this year.