Picking up right where Final Fantasy XIII left off, you will have to work with some new faces and keep peace throughout the world.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Credit: Square Enix

The game will be on both the Playstation 3, Xbox360 and will ship to Japan this year.  U.S. and Europe gamers can wait until next winter to get their hands on this game.

So would you say that the designers will be able to clean up the so called “mess” that Final Fantasy XIII brought with it???  Leave a comment below.

Here are links and videos for your enjoyment :)

• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Teaser website
• Official Trailer

Square went nutz taking all of the trailers off youtube…this was the only one I could find

Forum:  Click here for discussion of Final Fantasy IX coming to PSN

UPDATE:  After reading this a little more cafeully, I must give the people at Final Fantasy Online kudos…Turns out this was a April Fools joke.  So sorry, I do not know if there is a FFIX release in the making.  I do know there is a petition out there though, you can get to it by clicking here.

Final Fantasy IX PC: Special Edition >> Box packaging and discs.

After blunders in the PC ports of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, Squaresoft tries again by releasing a special edition PC version of Final Fantasy IX.

We didn’t think Squaresoft would bother trying again, but they did. After keeping completely quiet about a PC release of Final Fantasy IX for quite some time, even after releasing their Playstation 2 hit Final Fantasy X, Squaresoft recently released new screenshots and disc packaging images of a “special edition” PC port.

While we’re not exactly sure what aspects of the game entitle it a special edition, Final Fantasy IX PC comes with 4 CG-character decorated discs and the screenshots emulate the graphic features of previous PC releases: sharp, smooth 3D polygons over pixeled backgrounds and text. FMV movies are incredibly sharp and appear in a letterbox format, somewhat similar to the impressive video sequences from Final Fantasy VIII. However, Squaresoft says this particular PC release is far superior from its past counterparts, featuring better support for video cards and has enhanced digitally tracked music, leaving the previously used and unimpressive midi soundtrack behind.

Xbox 360

With the American release (according to vgreleases.com, March 9, 2010) of FFXII coming soon, I started wondering which system would do better than the other with this BIG release. For the first time that a Final Fantasy has been release to the Xbox, I am curious to see the numbers once it is released.  I almost think the Xbox 360 will give the PS3 a run for its money.  Though once I can get myself a PS3 my first game will be FFXIII.

One other question I was asking myself is if the Xbox does do better than the PS3 in sales for FFXIII, could that maybe spark a exclusivity to Xbox‘s in the future?

I don’t know…it was just a thought.  What do you think? Leave a comment below.

PlayStation 3

PS3′s all over were having issues since Sunday.  With PSN being inaccessible and some games being unplayable, Sony had a lot on their minds.  The PS3 bug appeared to affect PS3′s that came out before the 2009 PS3 Slim.  Loading some games on those systems would throw a “Trophies can not be loaded” error.

One of those games affected by this error was the Japanese copy of Final Fantasy XIII.  Now I don’t know about you, but having one of the most anticipated games of the year and not being able to play it would drive me crazy.

There was some good that came from this though, Sony did respond rather quickly and kept everyone updated on their PlayStation Blog.  In one of Sony’s updates they replied, “We’re aware that many of you are having difficulty connecting to the PSN this evening.  Those of you with ‘Slim’ PS3s(120/250GB models) appear to be unaffected.  Know that we have narrowed down the issue and have engineers working to restore service even as you read this. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and genuinely appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this.”

Sony would eventually release this Official Statement confirming that they have resolved this issue.

If you continue to have trophy trouble, trying re-synching them.

This is an interesting story.  It talks about a special Vinyl record that contains a collection of eight songs from Masashi Hamauzu.

Here is the full story (Source JoyStiq.com):

Square Enix hasn’t announced a release for the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack outside of Japan. Instead, it has announced a second FFXIII music release in Japan that is going to make you even more jealous. On February 26, the publisher will release a collection of eight songs from Masashi Hamauzu’s Final Fantasy XIII score on a 12-inch record, including an exclusive version of “Ragnarok.”

The limited-edition vinyl record, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII, is exclusive to Square Enix’s E-store. Importer NCSX secured a shipment of the record through one of its vendors, but that has already sold out. Maybe we’ll have better luck when Square releases the eight tracks on 8-track.