The latest edition of the Japanese magazine Famitsu featured an article about Star Ocean 4. Yoshinori Yamagishi, Star Oceans’ Producer, and assistant producer Hajime Kojima sat down and talked about the newly announced installment of Tri-Ace’s flagship series. While Star Ocean 4 has been confirmed to be in development for a couple months now, the target platform has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Sadly, Famitsu does not put an end to this speculation, as Tri-Ace has yet to make a decision regarding the target platform. Kojima only said that the game will be released for a platform or platforms capable of displaying beautiful visuals. This most likely means either PlayStation 3, X-BOX 360, or both.

The game’s development has progressed to the point where the basics of the battle system are up and running. Once completed, the battle system will support up to four active party members. The developers describe it as an “orthodox progression” of the prequel’s battle system with new features. However the game’s story is already finished. Yoshinori Yamagishi was not willing to give away any details regarding the era, in which the game takes place. He only said more information would be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. Hajime Kojima, however, assured fans that characters and races from previous installments would appear in Star Ocean 4 and the world would be the same as well. He went on to explain that previous installments did not really have a “star ocean” feel to them, but in Star Ocean 4 it would be possible to travel through space in one’s own spaceship. There will also be events centering around spaceship battles. Tri-Ace is promising a huge world, as there will be a lot of planets, not just two or three. That being said, the game will not be entirely science fiction-oriented, but also offer a fair share of fantasy elements.

The game’s protagonist is a blonde-haired young male named Edge Maverick, the heroine’s name is Reimi. The two are apparently childhood friends. Private action events will also make their return in Star Ocean 4. At the end of the interview, the Tri-Ace representatives briefly touched on the subject of the Star Ocean and Star Ocean: The Second Story remakes for PlayStation Portable. The new Star Ocean will be a complete remake, featuring new scenario and gameplay elements. As for Star Ocean: The Second Story, Tri-Ace was not so forthcoming with information. It was only stated that the game will offer a new experience, even to those fans who have already played the original game on PlayStation. Star Ocean 4 has yet to receive an official release date.

Source: Forgotten Memories

With Square Enix holding their Pre-Conference today, quite a bit of info was revealed. The president of Square Enix opened up the conference with, “Thank you very much for participating despite your busy schedule. We’d like to share with you a lot of the initiatives we have embarked on today.” After his speech, they proceeded to show some videos for their upcoming games.

The first video was of Star Ocean, which now has three confirmed titles being released. There is Start Ocean: First Departure, which is nothing but a full remake of the very first Star Ocean game, an will be for the Sony PSP. Star Ocean: Second Evolution, which is a remake of Star Ocean: Second Evolution, and also for the Sony PSP. and last but not least, Star Ocean 4. The producer, Yoshinori Yamagashi, had this to say, “Star Ocean 4 is currently under development to meet the highest specifications, and is being developed by Tri-Ace.” Star Ocean 4 is expected to be available on the Playstation 3.

Chocobo Mystery Dungeon was another video shown at the Pre-Conference. It will allow Chocobo and his friends to explore the dungeon, and it is available for the Nintendo Wii. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates has also been given a date. It will be released in Japan on August 23 for the Nintendo DS. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers was also shown at the Pre-Conference. It features air ships and appears to be a nice adventure game that has many elements similar to Skies of Arcadia. Crystal Bearers will be available for the Nintendo Wii.

In the latest issue of the Japanese magazine, Famitsu, had some news about a new Star Ocean game! Yes, you heard it right. Square Enix will reveal the new game in the Star Ocean series next month in its Square Enix Party 2007 set on May 12 and May 13.

As far as to which platform the game will be developed for is still unknown. However I’d say it’d most likely see a release on the Playstation 3.

This news is pretty exciting, or at least to me, because I been wanting to see something besides all this talk about Final Fantasy XIII, and it lasting for the next decade. Now if only they’d release some information on a new Grandia series game.