Awesome Final Fantasy

A smooth and action-packed short by John H. featuring one of the most famous rivalries in video games, Final Fantasy VII‘s Cloud against Sephiroth (with special guests). Behind the scenes here.

Nearly 5 years since it was announced, we finally get to see some gameplay footage of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The battle system seems similar to Kingdom Hearts and Crisis Core. Battles at 2:40.

Limited to a single print run, the Collector’s Edition of the Final Fantasy XIII Guide is a 272-page hardcover that includes walkthroughs, extras, and a bonus 16-page story overview.

Release date and pricing details are TBA, but these screen shots for Final Fantasy I and II are cause enough for celebration: both games are coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Set to Leona Lewis’ theme song, this international trailer for Final Fantasy XIII lets us hear the English voice actors for the first time; they’re superb, but lay on the emo extra-thick.

Final Fantasy XIII’s mile-high Cocoon city gets a mile-high overview in this trailer; it focuses mostly on the new combat system, which includes paradigm shift, summons, and crystal points.

If you’re a true-blooded chocobo, seven-letter hero, or adventurer with a thing for thickets, we promise you’ll shed happy triforce tears over Brentalfloss’ Final Fantasy with Lyrics.

It may be purely cinematic and completely Japanese, but this Airship video for Final Fantasy XIII is worth a billion words; the first part is mostly dialog, with more action in the second.

If you haven’t seen Avatar yet, the Japanese Intro for Final Fantasy XIII is a great second runner-up for a fantastically visual Friday: it runs three minutes and is (not surprisingly) gorgeous.

Final Fantasy XIII’s ridiculously detailed Shiva Bike looks even hotter in real life with this 21″ transforming modelM by Kotobukiya; it includes two figures that combine into a single bike.

This Dynasty video for Final Fantasy XIII is a franchise puff piece with a few bits of new gameplay, but the news at the end is worth the wait: the game arrives in North America 3/9/2010.

Even if you don’t understand Japanese, you’d really have to be soulless to not get excited by this 7 minute Final Fantasy XIII trailer; it’s stuffed to the gills cinematics and gameplay.

This TGS 09 trailer for Final Fantasy XIV starts off pretty somber, right up until 1:40 when Armageddon hits for 20 glorious seconds; we hope some of this is actual gameplay.

Beyond its storylines and gameplay, Final Fantasy is also known for its fantastic music; the video above is a sampling of songs played at the Square-Enix Premiere Party in Tokyo.

Final Fantasy XIII’s director Motomu Toriyamu gives us a walkthrough of the demo shown at GC ’09; he discusses command queues, role shifting and detailed facial expressions.

$10 lets you replay one of the best games in Square Enix’s stable: Final Fantasy VII is available on PSN, giving both old-school gamers and new initiates a chance to loathe Sephiroth.

It was one helluva surprise for E3-goers, but Final Fantasy XIV is official; exclusive to the PS3, the trailer above shows a return to steampunk/fantasy sensibilities; PS: Chocobo at 1:00!

Part action montage, part Japanese-subtitled soap opera, this complete trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII looks utterly fantastic with a nice soundtrack; still, what happened to the voices?

Simultaneously awesome and ridiculous, Master Chief and the Arbiter take on some random baddies with a twist: they’re forced to fight a-la Final Fantasy, resulting in a five minute battle.

Courtesy the fine folks at FinalFantasy-XIII.net: these gorgeous high quality scans are the best we’ve seen of Final Fantasy XIII; they come from a two-page spread from Famitsu.

If you liked the Dissidia trailer but wanted some more meat, the aerial battle gameplay video above should tide you over: dizzying midair combos with Squall vs. Cloud = epic win.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is out in Japan; this runnin’ / flyin’ / jumpin’ opening cinematic is both gorgeous and torture for North American fans, who will have to wait until mid-year 2009.

Final Fantasy’s next installments are bordering on vaporware, but these two trailers should tide us over a bit: FF XIII’s video is uplifting, but we prefer the grittier feel of FF Versus XIII.