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GamesCom: Yoshinori Kitase Interview
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GamesCom: Yoshinori Kitase Interview

Tue, Aug 31st, 2010, 5:26 pm (EST) BY DARRYL

Yoshinori Kitase is one of Square Enix's most decorated employees. Having originally started work on their SNES Final Fantasy games, Kitase was one of the key figures on Final Fantasy VII.

Since then, he's seen his role shift to that of Producer, a role which he recently fulfilled on Final Fantasy XIII and is currently fulfilling on The 3rd Birthday. More »


Square Enix: We'd Love To Keep Producing Games For PSP
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Square Enix: We'd Love To Keep Producing Games For PSP

Thu, Aug 26th, 2010, 7:59 pm (EST) BY DARRYL

Square Enix haven't had much luck on the PSP with regards to piracy, but they've still been one of the platform's biggest supporters. In Japan, aside from Monster Hunter, Square Enix titles adorn the top of the sales charts and it looks like this is a trend they want to continue.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is around the corner and they also have The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy Agito XIII planned for the system. More »


Square Enix Reveal GamesCom 2010 Line-Up
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Square Enix Reveal GamesCom 2010 Line-Up

Tue, Aug 10th, 2010, 12:10 pm (EST) BY DARRYL

Square Enix have announced the games that they will be showing publically at this year's GamesCom, which takes place from the 18th of August to the 22nd. More »


The World Ends With You Sequel Quite Likely
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The World Ends With You Sequel Quite Likely

Mon, Aug 9th, 2010, 10:58 pm (EST) BY COLIN

Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura has revealed that if time allowed it, he would love to do a sequel to DS hit The World Ends With You.

Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer for the 2008 action RPG and admits that a sequel would be a wonderful thing to do; however, he is also currently working on several other projects including Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Final Fantasy Agito XIII, The 3rd Birthday, the Kingdom Hearts franchise as well as other unannounced games. More »


Female Gamers: Do Looks Matter?
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Female Gamers: Do Looks Matter?

Fri, Jul 16th, 2010, 6:01 pm (EST) BY ADAM MA

Doubting the popularity of games like Samurai Warriors is a little silly. There's just something about taking on an entire army of faceless enemies that everyone can identify with. In a recent interview with Samurai Heroes producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, he explained some of the reasons for their series' large success, and about halfway through there was a statement that made me shake my head. In short, it was the proclamation that the reason his game was so popular amongst women was because of the character design, and choice to minimize the violence. That most women are also turned off from big, burly hulk-type characters. It seems like a very typical Japanese statement, a broad sweeping generalization that must only apply to a foreign culture. Or perhaps he's just wrong in general.

How to capture the female gamer is something that gaming communities love to discuss and many girl gamers are quick to agree that preconceived notions of female interests are wrong. It’s the same as making the assumption that boys should play with trucks and girls with horses. Why anyone enjoys playing any game is really dependant on more factors than 'the main character is blue', or simply just the art design. In fact, there are plenty of games I've loved whose art has driven me absolutely batty. Windwaker is a fantastic example of a game that didn't move me visually, but gameplay wise was an absolute blast. How many games have attempted to push graphics first and foremost, and fallen flat on their face? More »


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E3 2010: Hands-On With Mindjack

Fri, Jul 2nd, 2010, 4:24 pm (EST) BY COLIN

Square Enix had an interesting plethora of non Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games at their E3 booth this year. From Kane & Lynch 2 to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and even Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. However, even among these well known franchises, Square Enix had set up a demo booth for a new and interesting take on the third person shooter genre called Mindjack. The concept is simple, hack into the minds of others and make them you allies in order to fight against a corrupt organization in a world where cybernetics have become so commonplace that it threatens to "destroy the very core of humanity." More »


E3 2010: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Hands-On Preview
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E3 2010: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Hands-On Preview

Mon, Jun 28th, 2010, 5:08 pm (EST) BY KYLE WYNEN

While Square Enix lacked any big surprises for Kingdom Hearts fans at E3 2010, they did at least bring a fully translated version of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep with them to the show floor. We checked up on the Square Enix booth to get some more hands-on time with Birth by Sleep, as the last time we had played it was Tokyo Game Show 2009, shortly before the game's Japanese release.

While gameplay feels exactly the same, we were however presented with a choice to play through new segments of Ventus' story, Aqua's story, or Terra's story, and of course, it was all voiced in English. Kicking things off with Ventus' story segment, Ventus is in the middle of chasing down a huge squid-like Unverse (the "new heartless" for Birth by Sleep) through some sort of space worm hole. Ventus is clad head to toe in his knight suit, atop a space surf board of sorts, assumed on a mission to take down the Unverse. More »


E3 2010 Nintendo Liveblog
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E3 2010 Nintendo Liveblog

Tue, Jun 15th, 2010, 11:57 am (EST) BY SHAWN

Welcome to the GamingUnion.net liveblog for the E3 2010 Nintendo press conference. We'll be updating this post as the event unfolds, so be sure to check back for all the latest Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS updates. More »


E3 2010 Preview: Square Enix
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E3 2010 Preview: Square Enix

Wed, Jun 9th, 2010, 12:01 pm (EST) BY ADAM MA

Square Enix is a company with a history entrenched in the world of RPGs. Between franchises like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean, it's hard to associate them with anything else, but Square Enix has been keeping themselves busy publishing some pretty fun and (considering my preconceived notion of them) different games. So what will fans be able to expect from the infamous Square Enix? Quite a bit actually, and all of it looks pretty darn good.

In the RPG category Square Enix's two biggest games would have to be Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Though BBS is already released in Japan, it's doubtful Square Enix would pass up the opportunity to plug the franchise a bit more. More pressing however, is the new (offline) Final Fantasy, of which details have been very limited up to this point. A clip here and there, a few character backgrounds, and some flashy CG is all fans have had to chew on for quite a while now and knowing how much criticism hit their last Final Fantasy title I would expect Square Enix would want to show they've still got what it takes to make an incredible RPG. More »


Kingdom Hearts Union: Shanelle Gray Interview
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Kingdom Hearts Union: Shanelle Gray Interview

Mon, Mar 15th, 2010, 11:24 am (EST) BY DARRYL

Despite being part of ABC soap opera One Life to Live, Shanelle Gray is probably better known by gamers for her role as Larxene in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chains of Memories.

One of our sub-sites, More »


Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Coming Summer 2010
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Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Coming Summer 2010

Wed, Feb 10th, 2010, 11:49 am (EST) BY DARRYL

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep was released in Japan last month, but although Square Enix had confirmed that this PSP exclusive will be coming to North America, they had never specified when. That is, until now.

According to the latest edition of Game Informer magazine, the game now has a provisional release window of Summer 2010, which means it will likely see a release during the months of June and August. More »


Nomura Strongly Hints At Kingdom Hearts 3
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Nomura Strongly Hints At Kingdom Hearts 3

Sat, Feb 6th, 2010, 1:37 pm (EST) BY DARRYL

It seems like ages ago that Kingdom Hearts 2 was released on the PlayStation 2, and since then Square Enix have produced numerous spin-offs like Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. However, they've been completely quiet on the game that fans have been craving - Kingdom Hearts 3.

It's understandable really, as they have quite a few other big titles on the go at the moment, but things have started to change a bit recently. Tetsuya Nomura, one of the key figures behind Kingdom Hearts, has been laying down some hints and they've been becoming more blatantly in recent weeks. More »


No Plans For A Final Fantasy VII Remake
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No Plans For A Final Fantasy VII Remake

Sat, Jan 23rd, 2010, 9:28 am (EST) BY COLIN

This week's issue of Famitsu magazine has an entire page dedicated to Square-Enix's most popular character, Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII. The feature talks about when he was born among other things and showcases the many appearances Cloud has made in other titles like Dissidia. More »


Can Knights In The Nightmare Really Work On PSP?
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Can Knights In The Nightmare Really Work On PSP?

Wed, Jan 13th, 2010, 7:07 pm (EST) BY SHAWN

In the latest issue of Famitsu, it was revealed that Sting would be releasing a PlayStation Portable port of Knights in the Nightmare, which was released in North America by Atlus last June on the Nintendo DS. More »


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Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Review

Posted on 2009/10/15 BY DARRYL

Kingdom Hearts is back in town once again courtesy of Square Enix and Disney's creative minds, this time with Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days on the Nintendo DS. It's been quite a while since Kingdom Hearts has served up some new plotline and this time Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days pits players against the heroes whose roles they normally play, for a little change of scenery, and in true Action RPG form too. Taking advantage of the platform to boast both single player and multiplayer story modes, this is definitely not the stereotypical spinoff carbon copy. More »


FIFA 10 Maintains Domination Of UK Video Game Sales Charts
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FIFA 10 Maintains Domination Of UK Video Game Sales Charts

Posted on 2009/10/12 BY DARRYL

EA have been quick to announce that FIFA 10's launch was the largest ever seen for a sports video game, and it doesn't look like its momentum is going to stop any time soon. More »


TGS 2009 Awards: Best PSP Game
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TGS 2009 Awards: Best PSP Game

Posted on 2009/10/07 BY DARRYL

Continuing on with Gaming Union's TGS 2009 Awards, next it's the turn of Sony's hand-held device, the PlayStation Portable. Sony were at this year's Tokyo Game Show with a plethora of PlayStation Portable titles on show from a range of different publishers. Many of the titles were also platform exclusive, which is rather impressive More »


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Kingdom Hearts Union, New Podcast Series

Posted on 2009/08/25 BY KYLE WYNEN

As part of the Gaming Union Network, we're happy to announce the release of our new podcast series, Kingdom Hearts Union! More »


Nier's Kingdom Hearts Similarities A 'Coincidence'
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Nier's Kingdom Hearts Similarities A 'Coincidence'

Posted on 2009/06/16 BY DARRYL

Nier is something of a new venture for Square Enix. Traditionally known for their role-playing games, they've had a few forays into other genres in the past, to mixed success. However, one of the successes was Kingdom Hearts, something of an action adventure / role-playing hybrid. More »


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Dragon Quest Sticking To Its Traditional Roots

Posted on 2009/06/03 BY DARRYL

Front Mission Evolved is a new game from Square Enix, a spin-off from the Front Mission franchise. However, it's being developed by a Western developer, Double Helix, with the hope that it can try to penetrate the Western market more successfully. More »