Monster Hunter is coming to Final Fantasy!

Final-Fantasy-XIV-Monster-Hunter-WorldIt’s that time of the year for the best developers in the world of gaming to join together for a week and show off what they’ve been working on. Today was the day for Square Enix to display what they have and a very particular announcement made waves almost immediately.

Two dominant open world games will be joining forces this summer when Monster Hunter: World will be coming to Square Enix Final Fantasy XIV in what has been one of the more stunning developments to come out of E3 so far. Short trailer but full of fun and familiar notes that will get fans of both titles excited.

Now a couple of notes regarding the summer release. In order to get access to the joint venture, players will need to create a character in Final Fantasy XIV and obtain a level of at least 70 and complete the “Stormblood” quest. Sounds like a chore huh? Not to worry as new players will get a bit of a head start with enough exp points to reach a level of 60 if the character is created on a preferred world.

If you havent picked up the game yet or have been on the fence maybe this is just the type of move to make your decision. Either way this shaping up to be and interesting summer. If you need to catch up on news from E3 do it with @tehlunchboxpub on twitter.

Final Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U Direct Rundown

Final Smash Presentation
Ever since E3 2013, game director Masahiro Sakurai has been constantly giving the public various trailers for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U, revealing new characters and stages along the way. Now, a year after the game has been released Sakurai has released one final presentation demonstrating the new content soon to be released.

To start, it was announced that Corrin, the protagonist of the upcoming 3DS game Fire Emblem Fates, will be a brand new playable character. This makes Corrin the sixth playable character from the Fire Emblem series. The character does have a swappable gender, like Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening and Wii Fit Trainer, so you can choose to play as a boy or girl. Outside of standard sword slashes, Corrin’s main draw is various temporary dragon transformations. Corrin’s Final Smash, Torrential Roar, sucks in anyone nearby and blasts them away with a giant whirlpool of water. Corrin won’t come with a new stage, but two new music tracks from Fire Emblem Fates will be added to the existing Fire Emblem stages. Corrin will be available for download in February 2016.

As announced in a previous direct, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, will be added to the roster as well. Cloud was revealed to be the most requested character from the Final Fantasy series. He will appear in both his FFVII outfit, as well as his look from FFVII: Advent Children. Cloud’s attacks feature wide, fast slashes from his Buster Sword, and a Limit Break that works similar to Little Mac’s KO meter. Unlike Little Mac, however, Cloud can charge his Limit Break meter through his Down Special. Bringing the Limit Break meter to full charge will allow one Limit Break attack, stronger than his normal attacks. His Final Smash is Omnislash, which works very similarly to Ike, which will bring an opponent to the air and thrusted back down after a volley of attacks.

Cloud will come along with a new stage based on Midgar. In the stage, Materia will appear randomly. If a player collects enough Materia, they’ll be able to bring forth a Summon, which will cause various destructive hazards to appear. Ifrit, Ramuh, Odin, Leviathan, and Bahamut Zero are all confirmed to appear. The Midgar stage and all its functionality is confirmed to appear in the 3DS version of the game. Unlike Corrin, Cloud and Midgar will be available immediately.

Sakurai then showed off a wealth of new Mii Fighter costumes, as this will be the last wave in the Mii Fighter releases. This time around, we have Geno from Super Mario RPG, Chocobo hats from the Final Fantasy series, Bionic Armor for the Brawlers, Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle, Ashley from WarioWare, Inc., Gil from The Tower of Druaga, and Tails & Knuckles from the Sonic The Hedgehog series.

In one final announcement, Sakurai revealed one final character, and the winner of the previously held Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot: Bayonetta. Unlike most of the roster, Bayonetta is a combo fighter as she is in her respective game. She can fire her guns in the middle of combos, grant herself midair combos with Witch Twist and AfterBurner Kick, and summon Madama Butterfly through her Smash attacks. When countering opponents, Bayonetta can use Witch Time to slow them down and get the upper hand. Her Final Smash, Infernal Climax, puts everyone under Witch Time, allowing you time to strike your opponents enough times to summon Gamorrah to chomp at anyone who opposes her. Like Cloud, Bayonetta comes with a stage: the Umbra Clock Tower, a platform of a falling broken clock tower seen in the first stage of the original Bayonetta. Bayonetta and the Umbra Clock Tower stage will be available for download alongside Corrin in February 2016.

To close out, it was announced that amiibos of Roy, Ryu, and Famicom R.O.B. will be released on March 18, 2016, with Cloud, Corrin, and Bayonetta amiibos currently in development.

While development of overall productivity of the game is winding down, it was revealed that all DLC was created after development of the main game was finished, a rarity in this current gaming climate. With a game that is already so feature rich on its own, the announcement of today’s DLC, as well as all previously released stages and characters, made for a fitting send off to a well-produced game. We thank and salute you, Sakurai.

Now let’s start campaigning for Shantae to appear in the next Smash…


TLBX MattMatthew G. is the head of Teh Lunchbox Publication’s Twitter and Contributing Writer. For more up to date information, news, previews, and reviews, keep it here on tehlunchboxpub.wordpress.com and LIKE and FOLLOW us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch!

 

Final Fantasy V is On It’s Way to Steam!

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Those of you always looking for something new on Steam can look forward to seeing Final Fantasy V on September 24.

Expect to see improved graphics, controls, and new content. Some of that new content includes four new jobs – oracle, gladiator, cannoneer, and necromancer – “The Sealed Temple” dungeon from the 2006 release. In addition, the optional boss Enuo, created by Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts) will also be available.

Check out Final Fantasy V when it hits Steam and take a look at the trailer below.


Stephon W. is a contributing Editor for Teh Lunchbox Publications and sorry, he doesn’t do social media. But you can follow the team on facebook (Teh Lunchbox Publications), and on twitter @tehlunchboxpub

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake: It was Bound to Happen

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Sony and Square Enix held out for as long as possible, but the fans want what they want. Now the fans have a Final Fantasy VII HD remake to look forward to.

Before it was stated that Final Fantasy VII would come to Playstation 4, just not as an HD remake. It looks like those plans have changed. A small teaser was shown and you can see it below.

There is no news as to whether the HD remake will make it too other platforms.


Stephon W. is a contributing Editor for Teh Lunchbox Publications and sorry, he doesn’t do social media. But you can follow the team on facebook (Teh Lunchbox Publications), and on twitter @tehlunchboxpub

 

You Won’t Get 50 Characters, But You Can Start With 14

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It’s not the worst news, but it is a little bit of a downer. Square Enix says that their day one roster for Dissidia Final Fantasy won’t include the full 50 man roster, instead it will start only with 14.

There were rumors of the game starting with a whopping 50 characters to choose from, but that was shot down when Gematsu reported that through a live stream, Square Enix said they will start the game with 14 characters, but will move towards the 50 man roster through updates post-launch.

Dissidia Final Fantasy fans can still rest easy as the game won’t deviate from its Playstation Portable predecessor with seven characters already confirmed, including Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII), Terra Branford (Final Fantasy VI), and of course Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII).

Unfortunately, the game is only a Japan exclusive, Hopefully its growing popularity and fanbase will assist in the game making its way over to North America. While you wait for some good news regarding its expansion (I hope), check out the first trailer below if you haven’t already.


Stephon W. is a contributing Editor for Teh Lunchbox Publications and sorry, he doesn’t do social media. But you can follow the team on facebook (Teh Lunchbox Publications), and on twitter @tehlunchboxpub