Unconfirmed whether real or fake, but apparently it was in this week’s Famitsu. God.
edit; how the fuck did i manage that. moved.
That would be cool, but would SE really take out a full page ad in a magazine to show nothing except a character model from an unannounced game?
April fools?
Would they really use a full page of Famitsu for an April Fools joke? I’m really asking here, I don’t know anything about the money involved. Or maybe it just someone else who photoshopped it? Where did you get this from anyway?
I really doubt this, and in any case, I don’t want it to be true.
It doesn’t look real… that model doesn’t seem to be very high-quality. And I was under the impression that FF8 isn’t exactly one of the fan favorites. If it’s true IMO it’d be the straw that broke the camel’s back - it’d turn Square from a company which is satisfying fans by revisiting old classics into a company that’s whoring itself out by refusing to do anything new.
Anyway, wait and see. Discussion is pointless at this time.
It doesn’t look real at all, and honestly I WOULD expect a magazine to take an entire page for a joke. 
I agree with Cro, I’m calling April Fools.
But look at that boob
Is April Fools a worldwide thing? I thought it was for American Proz only.
You mean it would take that, and not X-2 and 32132132469856549656 FFVII games to realize that?
Yes. A lot of fans were interested in sequels to both FFX and FF7, whereas there hasn’t been any real interest in an FF8 sequel. I’ll admit that they went a bit overboard with FF7, but it hasn’t been their entire raison d’etre. If this is true (which I’m pretty convinced it isn’t) that’d mean that of the last five new FF RPGs, three were sequels, one of which wasn’t even part of fan demand.
No one asked for a X-2. Nomura just wanted to entertain his 12 year old adolesant fantasies.
Ever heard of “market research”? Trust me, Squeenix wouldn’t have wasted even the enormous budget on a game (even one where most of the graphics are recycled) unless it would sell.
I’m confused here. You claimed that there’s no fan demand for a VIII-2, but when it’s brought up that there wasn’t a fan demand for X-2 either (really, I noticed MORE talk of VIII-2 than X-2 before it got announced) you claim that S-E did market research and obviously there was an interest in it since it got made? How can you claim that there is no interest in VIII-2 if you rely on research results you yourself don’t have access to?
You’re misunderstanding me. I think there was fan support for X-2. All I can go on is my own experiences, and it seemed to me like there was a lot more fan material and discussion for FFX than FF8 given that FF8 had several years on it. Maybe your experiences are different, of course.
Cidolfas, you’re my boy, but all your arguments are based on conjecture and as you said “personal experience”. They hold no water. One could find fan support for a sequel to just about any FF game, but most of it centers around FF7 and FF8.
That being said, I’m no photoshop expert, but that’s clearly the only reasonable explanation. The only remote similarity to Rinoa I can see is her hair. Failing that, this could be one of any hundred RPG girls in scantily clad dress. It would be no effort to make a griever logo, and why would Square-Enix appear to be changing the formula of FFVIII from a semi-modern setting to some sort of pirate motif? I’ve seached on the web and found nothing about FFVIII-2. Don’t you think if this was a verified thing, we would have heard about it from some reputable news source by now?
Yeah, it’s fake. 8p We’ve established that, I think.
Anyway… your statement that “most of it centers around FF7 and FF8” is also conjecture and personal experience, as no one has done a study on fan activity and support of FF games. My own experience seems to be that FFX is more popular than FF8.
Interesting point. Why would Squeenix change the formula of FFX about a quiet priestess trying to save the world for 10 years (right?) into 3 half naked bimbos bouncing around and singing pop songs?
I lol’ed. I think I might have added “OH SHIT TIME PARADOX” as well.
While it’s true that there have been no empirical studies on what FF series is more popular and which one’s fanbase wants a sequel more, I think that it’s pretty obvious. A simple search on the web proves which series’ are more popular - a lot more hoopla for FFVII-2 than FFIX-2. Heck, I’ll do a poll right now, if you need it.
Google searches aren’t the only way of measuring fan appeal to something, and are rather difficult to gage. Making a poll here won’t prove anything, as our messageboard is hardly representative of the entire demographic which Squeenix targets. All I’m saying is that I personally have come across more interest in FFX than FF8 given that FFX was released later and hence came into contact with less people and had less time to incubate. As for fan demand, that’s something Squeenix itself has to determine via focus groups and market research.
Well, I’ve had more personal experience that FF7 has more interest than FFX and FF8, given that its arguably the most popular and/or best video game of all time. So there.