February 2006

Here you can find news items that were posted on Hell and Heaven Net in the past.

Kingdom Hearts II

The English theme of Kingdom Hearts II that is called "Santuary" will be also song by Utada Hikaru, who did the Japanese version called "Passion".

Square-Enix gave permission to MTV to put a piece of the song on their website as a trailer along with a couple of interviews MTV had with some of the voice actors of the English version of Kingdom Hearts II. One of the actors is Haley Joel Osment, who provides the voice for the main character, Sora. To view it all click on the link.

» MTV Kingdom Hearts II special

Today, on Valentines Day, Grandia III has been released in the United States! So, if you live in the US and love Grandia games, go get it! If you never played a Grandia game, I suggest you try this one.

Today Square Enix has come with a press release which states the official release date of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children for the United States! The movie will be released in the US on April 25th on DVD and UMD. The DVD will be a special edition containing 2 discs which will cover bonus material like "the making of", deleted scenes and a "Sneak Peak" of the upcoming games in the "Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII" series.

Square Enix has also updated their Advent Children website, which shows the countdown now and some new character profiles.

» Square Enix's Press Release
» Official Advent Children US website

Kingdom Hearts II

Today Square-Enix Inc. and Buena Vista Games have announced the release date for their sequel Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2 and they revealed the English voice cast of the game.

The release date will be March 28, 3½ years after the release of the original Kingdom Hearts (which has sold over 2.6 million copies in North America), more than 1 year after the KH: Chain of Memories for the GameBoy Advance and the recent release of Kingdom Hearts II, which sold over 1 million copies in only 3 days!

Here's a list of voice actors who will contribute to the game:
Sora: Haley Joel Osment;
Riku: David Gallagher;
Kairi: Hayden Panettiere;
Roxas: Jesse McCartney;
Diz: Christopher Lee;
Cloud: Steve Burton;
Tifa: Rachael Leigh Cook;
Aerith: Mena Suvari;
Yuna: Hedy Buress;
Rikku: Tara Strong;
Paine: Gwendoline Yeo;
Mulan: Ming-Na;
Hades: James Woods;
Chicken Little: Zach Braff.

The European version of Dragon Quest VIII, that sold more then 4 million copies in Japan will not support 60 Hz, only 50 Hz. Luckely Square Enix optimilized the game so it will show nice on 50 Hz and no black borders will appear on the screen, like with Final Fantasy X.

One bad thing Square Enix did is editing the title for the release in Europe that caused the 8 to dissapear. Because of this the European Dragon Quest lovers might not expect on any previous Dragon Quest title. Pity.

The game will be released in Europe somewhere in April.

» European Box Art

12/02 Update: European Dragon Quest teaser website opened

Two days ago Square Enix announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st. The company posted a consolidated net profit of 4.29 billion yen ($36.58 million USD) on sales of 68.99 billion yen ($588.18 million USD). Compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, sales were up 13.2%, while net profit was done by 67.7%. This decline in profit however was expected, given that last year's third quarter saw the release of Dragon Quest VIII in Japan. As for the top performers of the three month period from October to December 2005, Kingdom Hearts II sold 1.1 million copies in Japan, followed by Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 for DS (260,000 copies) and Front Mission 5 for PlayStation 2 (180,000 copies). In total, the game division recorded sales of 21.20 billion yen ($180.74 million USD) and an operating profit of 974 million yen ($8.303 million USD).

Despite the continued popularity of Final Fantasy XI, the release of Front Mission Online, and the Japanese version of EverQuest II, Square Enix's online game division saw its sales decline by 9.2% to reach 9.62 billion yen ($82.02 million USD). Operating profit dropped by 15.7% to reach 3.75 billion yen ($31.97 million USD).

The lower profit of the offline and online game divisions was upset by the success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which has sold more than one million copies in Japan since its September 14th, 2005 release.

Due to the acquisition of Taito, an AM division appeared for the first time in today's balance sheet. This debut could have been better, though, as the division posted an operating loss worth 234 million yen ($2.00 million USD) on sales of 20.69 billion yen ($176.39 million USD). Square Enix has left its projections for the full fiscal year unchanged. During the January to March period, the company has already shipped Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and will release its often delayed, highly anticipated PlayStation 2 RPG Final Fantasy XII on March 16th.

Source: RPGFan