Gender? Clothes? Hair style? Colour? Should that really matter?

Here’s one – how important is boob size selection to you?

If it’s important then you’ll have to sign up for a pre-order of Final Fantasy 14. As this Livedoor blog points out you can plump up if you want too!

In fact; we know that Square want to bring back some the clans from FFXI for FFXIV so that shouldn’t surprise us. It’ll be a larger game too; with parties being up to 6 or 8 in size plus alliances.

We also know that there will be magic you can use while moving as well as HP re-growth. During a battle direction, range and distance will all make a difference.

We also know about the various tribes you’ll encounter in the game. The cute little things you can see in the Final Fantasy XIV above are probably either Plainsfolk or Dunefolk.

In start contrast to the small and cute are the burly Roegadyn; the Seewolf clan and the Lohengarde.

Final Fantasy XIV will have dark elves, oops, sorry, I mean dark-dwelling Shaders and other Elezen clans like the Foresters.

There are two types of feline Miqo’te; the Seekers of the Sun (out and about in the day) and the Keepers of the Moon (out and about at night).

Perhaps the most human looking are Hyuran; these are split between the tough Highlanders and the brainy Midlanders

The account is worth 6 figures – that’s a lot of money to the agency involved.

Square Enix had been with MJ Media but Eidos, which Square Enix bought last year, had been using Manning Gottlieb OMD. In the battle of the two agencies Manning Gottlieb OMD won out.

The first task Manning Gootlieb OMD has to do is get Final Fantasy XIII to take off in the UK. It’ll be a local disaster for Square if their flagship game flops.

So, can Manning Gottlieb OMD do it? Firstly, they’re putting the work out to their specialist entertainment division – an agency called InvENTS. InvENTS looks after publishing, cinema, music and gaming sectors.

Despite the entertainment specialism, InvENTS is still a traditional agency. It’s not associated with social media – which includes such thoughtful activities as supplying fan sites with Final Fantasy XIII insights, material and interviews. It’s not even particularly known for its digital marketing expertise.

Does this mean we’ll be seeing a bunch of bus poster adverts for Final Fantasy XIII and perhaps a pre-roll ad before a few movies this year?

There are reports that the PS3 is a far better machine for running Final Fantasy XIII on than the Xbox 360 but that’s hardly surprising. The game will have been converted across.

So, what about Final Fantasy XIV?

LIghting Lead for Square Enix, Yuuki Akama, is in the unfortunate position of having confirmed Final Fantasy XIV for the Xbox 360. It’s all the fault of a LinkedIn Profile.

As if to confirm just how serious the “leak” is Akama has had LinkedIn nuke the offending profile.

Oops! The dangers of this modern social media world. Reminds of the news from Mashable today that most companies don’t have a social media policy. I bet Square-Enix will have one shortly and be sure to ban staff from writing about pre-production or pre-release games.

From what Google Translate helps me understand the project was given to a coding house in Sweden called Grin. They’re not around anymore which may have the consequences of Square Enix pulling the plug on the project.

The game would have been set right after Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and would have been intended to run not just on the PS3 but the Xbox 360 and PC too.

It’s also worth noting that although this is new to me; it’s not new to the world as the Wikipedia page dates back to September of last year.

What do you think? Should Square Enix ever try and “out source” the development of the next Final Fantasy to the West? A good idea to broaden the appeal of the game or is it just not ever going to work?

It’s also worth noting that, shockingly, Final Fantasy XIII won’t be exclusive on the PlayStation for the ‘Western’ release. It’ll be on the xbox 360 to. Me? I’ll get the PS3 option. Seems safer.

There’s a chocobo in the trailer. That’s a good point.

After having already publicly discussed taking development of the next Final Fantasy away from Japan and giving it to Western developers Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada says the whole series needs something new.

Once again we can turn to an interview with Edge magazine and Google Translate to try and investigate the latest comments.

“I believe FF XIII will be something special and that it will be well received by the audience.

However, it remains to be seen whether we will continue to create this type of game. I feel that the team involved with Final Fantasy XIII should move n to create some of the ‘next generation’ types of play.

Internally and externally I think there is an expectation that Square Enix to produce something new, I think that the FF team could build something different but at the present time they are developing for the audience they enjoy now”.

His comments come at a time of increasingly pessimism from some Japanese publishers about the state of the Japanese game’s industry.

The Final Fantasy series is seen as the archetypal JRPG so this will come as a shock to many.

Square Enix’s President, Yoichi Wade, suggested to Edge magazine that development may happen abroad. Google Translate gives us;

“Eidos has acquired the Square Enix has begun a collaborative project with Mr. President Yoichi Wada has suggested the possibility that the Final Fantasy series has been developed abroad.”

… and …

“Wada, president of the Overseas Development Series, ‘under the supervision of the development of Japan, Final Fantasy likely to develop the overseas studio there is always,’”

First off the game got glowing reviews – perfect, near perfect. Then game players start to grumble. Turns out that the game, although large and long, is awfully linear. You get lots of cut scenes and lots to look at but very little choice.

Then we started to see some awfully impressive bugs. With so many people playing Final Fantasy XIII it’s not surprising that there are a lot of eyes on the lookout for errors but people are noting that it’s such a linear game it’s surprising the bugs weren’t spotted.

I dare say by the time it launches here in Europe it’ll have gone through a few more clean up rounds. Here, for your entertainment, is the latest bug to hit YouTube – an endless jumping bug, a jumping loop, leaping infinity of doom, etc, …

If you want to stop reading and start playing then the link to the UK app store is here.

The game works as you’d expect. Tap the pages to flip the pages. Shake the iPhone (making use of the accelerometer) to roll the dice. An in-game save (I always cheated at Final Fantasy, hey, I was 7) and TLC on the artwork.

If you rate the game based on the music then you might think it was “Escape from the Elevator of Doom!” – arg, musiak! Other than that…

… well, actually. Straight off you’ll find that the page flipping is a little bizarre. You always seem to turn dozens of pages and you’ll be shown a blurry animation for that. I found it a little hard to squint at. My eyes objected.

The game takes care of most of the automation for you. After a typically painstaking walkthrough of the mechanics the application will make you roll the die and lock/open options to you based on your failure/success.

As much as this is a cool app just for being I don’t think it’ll wow the socks off anyone. Me? I’ve splashed the £2 necessary, installed it on my iPod Touch and it’ll now be a useful travelling aid for the next time I’m stuck in an airport (which happens rather a lot to this blogger!)

Thanks to Damir Slogar, Bruno Mateus and their team!