Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn edition)

Late last week, I tweeted the following: "Assuming the PS3 gets a price drop later this year, I think I'm going to pick one up just so I can play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn."

Although the main reason I want to buy A Realm Reborn (along with a PS3, of course) is its appealing looking gameplay, I'd be lying if I said its box art didn't have a little something to do with it, too.

The question is: which piece of Final Fantasy XIV box art am I talk about--the Japanese, North American or European one?

I'll answer that at the end of this post. In the meantime, let's take a gander at box arts in question.

For starters, here's the Japanese release's cover image:

And here's the illustration that's supposed to grace covers of the North American iteration:

As for the European version of Final Fantasy XIV, here's its cover art:

Last, but not least, there's the following, which will appear on the outer packaging of the Collector's Edition of the title that'll be sold in Europe and North America:

As for which one I like best, well, I can't help but go with the Collector's Edition. It has to be said, though, that I like the (rather busy) Japanese cover art nearly as much.

Which piece of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn box art is your favorite? Assuming you like any of them, of course...

See also: previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

Hello, Xenoblade Chronicles; goodbye, free time

Please note: I wrote the header above shortly after my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles arrived on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago.

At the time, I planned on spending a good portion of the following weekend playing this open-world, Wii-based RPG. The hubs threw a bit of a wrench into the works, though, when he suggested we leave town for an impromptu vacation (to Las Vegas and Tucson).

As I'm sure you can imagine, that last-minute getaway kept me from diving into this Monolith Soft-developed game. This weekend, though? No plans whatsoever. Well, other than playing Xenoblade Chronicles as much as possible, of course.


                       I have no idea where this location exists within Xenoblade Chronicle's 
                                            world, but I can't wait to experience it.

I played it for a few hours last night, by the way, and already I can tell I'm going to like it. The one aspect of Xenoblade Chronicles that I'm not yet sure about is its real-time battle system. It's a bit irksome, for instance, that your character automatically attacks enemies once you've engaged them in combat. Thankfully, the manually-activated special attacks (called "Arts") inject these events with just enough involvement and strategy to keep them from feeling like the game is playing itself.

I'll do my best to post more impressions of this title sometime next week. In the meantime, are any of you currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles? If so, what do you think of it?

See also: Previous Xenoblade Chronicles posts

Hey, Square Enix: Now that you've told us when Dragon Quest X will hit Japan, when are you going to tell us your plans for the rest of the world?

The folks at Square Enix announced yesterday that the Wii version of Dragon Quest X will hit store shelves in Japan on Aug. 2.

They also released a new, four-minute-long trailer for the game, which can be viewed below (and here).

Although it's been clear for some time that Dragon Quest X is never going to win the "Prettiest Game on the Wii" beauty pageant (no joke, I've been considering hosting one), I think it looks rather nice in motion.

I especially like the battle scenes near the end--with the one involving the crowned pink slime taking the cake.



I also love how the characters in the trailer above hop around like they've been guzzling 5-Hour Energy like it's going out of style. I can't judge, though, since that's exactly what I tend to do in games that offer up a jump button.

Sadly, Square Enix has yet to say when Dragon Quest X will be released in other regions. My guess: Only the Wii U version will make it to Australia, Europe and North America. As such, I have a feeling us westerners won't hear anything about it until E3 at least, and we probably won't see it sitting on store shelves until sometime next year.

Hopefully the powers that be at Square Enix (and Nintendo, too) will use that time to find a way to make this MMO-ish RPG's price tag a bit more palatable, since copies of the game will cost ¥6,980 (about $86) in Japan while 30, 60 and 90 days of online play will cost folks in that territory ¥1,000, ¥1,950 and ¥2,900 ($12 to $35), respectively.

(Via andriasang.com)

'And that's what this game is ... you're inside their thoughts ...'

Calling all MMO fans: One of the guys behind Flickr (Steward Butterfield) is about to launch a new one, called Glitch, and, boy, does it look weird.

Don't take my word for it; check it out for yourself:



I'm not entirely sure what's going on in the teaser trailer above, so I'll just nod in agreement with the folks who suggest it's going to be like "Farmville mixed with Maple Story."

Glitch will launch in early 2011, according to its official site, though impatient MMO-ers can sign up here for access to an alpha build of the game.