Thanks for sharing, Dave Brown, Jonathan Barrett, Adam Olson and gyophry (who did both Brütal Legend and Final Fantasy VII).

I peruse columns on Sundays and today found myself cracking up over Emily Short’s GameSetWatch column, ‘Homer In Silicon’: Communicating Character.

In it, Short recounts her first brush with Fable II’s romantic interaction system. She was told non-playable characters would have gifts for her, so she mistook the ring icon above a villager’s head as being the thing that would be gifted to her if she raised their relationship stats. It’s an easy mistake to make, I guess — and you do get that gift in a manner of speaking. But Short took issue with the whole system, because it made a cock-tease out of an otherwise honest woman.

[W]hen he’d fallen in love with me and wanted to get married, I was startled and not at all pleased. I realised what the ring on his meter indicated then, when it was too late and I’d led him on. I had no intention to get married, but when he started to follow me around (a mistake thanks to more confused socialization on my part), I let him.

Then she led him out into the wild where he was killed by bandits. Bummer.

But it got me thinking about dating in video games and how the courtship ritual is either over-simplified or confusingly elaborate. Take the entire Sims series, for example — in the early days, you couldn’t even Ask Out On Date, just Flirt. Now, in the Sims 3, you can sleep with somebody you’re not even in love with, but damned if you can get them to marry you without sinking a ton of time into the Flirty interactions. And then there’s weirdness like Final Fantasy VII’s Gold Saucer date. Which you can wind up having with Barret, despite not being able to pursue any other romantic interaction with him.

Strangely enough, the only “normal” dating scenario presented to me in video games comes from Grand Theft Auto and Bully. That’s even funnier to me than Short’s misunderstanding.

Column: ‘Homer In Silicon’: Communicating Character [GameSetWatch]

At the Gamescom convention in Germany, website VG247 asked Square Enix producers Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama about the possibility of a FFVII remake. The translator replied:

There’s not official project that’s up and running for a remake ofFinal Fantasy VII at this point. Both Toriyama-san and Kitase-san were involved in the development of the game, however, and it holds a special place in their hearts. They do talk about it on a personal level, like, ‘If we did it it would be like this or like that.’

So, they do talk about it, but there’s no official project yet. But there’s that PSN release that just came out, so if you could play that for the time being, it should be fun.

So while Square Enix ponders the possibility of FFVII, you can go occupy yourself with Final Fantasy VII on the PSN. M’kay?

FF bosses: No FFVII remake project “yet,” play PSN release “for the time being” [VG247] [Pic]

Renowned Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu rocked San Francisco last Saturday along with Grammy award-winning conductor Arnie Roth at the Distant World concert.

It wouldn’t be Distant Worlds without the music of Final Fantasy and it wouldn’t the music of Final Fantasy without Spehiroth’s theme from Final Fantasy VII, One Winged Angel. There have been many performances of this number over the years – nearly all of which you can catch on YouTube – but it never hurts to have one more, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. You might say it’s over done, but really, if Uematsu digs it, why shouldn’t you?

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY is a world concert tour commemorating Final Fantasy’s 20th anniversary. The tour kicked off in Sweden December 4, 2007. I’m not sure where the concert is heading after leaving Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, but here’s hoping it wasn’t the last we heard of Uematsu and Roth.

Enjoy!

Final Fantasy VII, originally released on the original PlayStation in 1997, hit the PlayStation Store on June 2nd. That’s a nice haul for Square Enix and Sony—and maybe even Electronic Arts?—considering the classic Japanese role-playing game was released at the premium PS one Classics price of $US9.99 USD.

Sony announced today it will continue its plans for more PS one releases, confirming Wild Arms 2, Mobile Light Force (aka Psikyo’s shooting game Gunbird) and Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol as upcoming, undated releases.

Gaze upon the carefully rendered work that is Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete’s Blu-ray box art, which features enough perfectly groomed hair and giant sword to satisfy any Japanese role-playing game fetishist.

The Japanese release, with its clearly inferior box art, is just a few days away, something we expect to do exciting things for PlayStation 3 sales in its homeland. At least for this week, as the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete special edition PlayStation 3 will likely kick hardware sales up a notch.

It will also bring about the masses’ first opportunity to play Final Fantasy XIII, as well as carry some high-definition trailers along with it. We’ll have to wait until June to get it here in the Americas. Until then, we’ll just stare at these two lovely men as they fly toward the other’s embrace.

US Advent Children Complete Boxart Revealed [UFF Site - thanks, Alex!]

Or play it on your PSP, even. That is, if you have a Japanese PSN account. Today, Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII International on the PlayStation Network.

Final Fantasy VII International is how Square Enix re-released the new and improved American version in Japan on the PlayStation. The International version featured improvements like on-screen arrows, an enhanced management system and an added cut scene that helped explain Cloud’s past.

The Japanese language game is priced at ¥1,500 (US$14.93) on the PSN.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete isn’t the only FFVII product that is getting a revised release. Book Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega is, too.

The new edition is dubbed Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition. It includes new FFVII related info from Square Enix, a new interview with Cloud voice actor Takahiro Sakurai and new artwork.

The book will be released April 16 in Japan.

FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition [PSP Hyper]

As Blu-ray movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete readies for release, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura talks about the film and the franchise.

As has been previous announced, Square Enix has gone through and amped up Advent Children for this HD release.

Fan favourite FFVII has been revisited multiple times with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, which encompasses games and movies like Advent Children. To date, there have been four Compilation of FFVII games and two films. The series is headed up by Nomura and fellow Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase.

When asked about the next entry in the series, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura replied, “We do have an idea for the next Compilation, and for the time being, that’s all we can say. It won’t start up anytime soon.”

With Nomura busy with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Kitase producing Final Fantasy XIII and all hands on deck for both games, Nomura’s probably right.