Here are some info and screenshots I found at RPGamer:

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Square Enix has unveiled their plans for a new MMORPG that will keep Final Fantasy XI and friends company on the PlayOnline games list. Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion, an "MMO Action RPG/Strategy game," was hyped by Square Enix as featuring a blend of traditional MMORPG elements, the excitement of an action game, and the depth of a realtime strategy game.

Other than the aforementioned information, other details are few and far between, save for a handful of screenshots, and some artwork and a brief trailer of the game on the official website. Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion is currently scheduled to hit Japan sometime in 2005.

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After being introduced as an online blend of many genres in September, a new batch of deeper details now provides the gaming public with a better idea of what to expect from Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion.

First, following a somewhat common idea in MMORPGs, players must choose a nation with which to align. The countries revealed thus far include Netzawal, ruled by the Beast King Hyunkel; Elsord, ruled by the Wise King Naius Elsord; Holdein, ruled by the Lady General Wadriti Berkstein Holdein; and the Gebrand Empire, ruled by Raiel Ku'belda Gebrand. The story revolves around these five groups fighting over which of them will govern Esucetia, the sixth continent. After choosing a homeland, one must select a character type. The choices available are Warrior, Berserker, Shadow-walker, Hunter, Sorcerer, Priest, and Rune Blade. Among the visual customization options for said characters are seven different facial structures, seven hairstyles, five body types, and five different colors for eyes and hair. Within each job exists another handful of outfits with which to customize the avatar.

New gameplay revelations have stated that crystals will play a large role in the world of Fantasy Earth. Popular myth has the whole world birthed from one giant crystal, while the smaller variety can be found by players and used as sources of power. One such use comes in the form of mastering new skills, while another is related to the building of forts. When a players collects enough crystals, a tactical move can be made by building one of eight different types of forts. Of course, in a game such as this in which player vs. player combat is a central focus, one would best be advised to use caution in building, as other players will be doing their best to destroy the structure. It will be possible to use the terrain to one's advantage when planning the fort-construction, which adds to the strategic apects of the gameplay. As things currently stand, any type of fort can be built on any type of battle map.

Fantasy Earth is currently on track to release in Japan at an unspecified time in 2005. Although Square Enix has trademarked the game's title in North America, no official plans have been announced for such a localization.

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The land is vast and holds many more secrets. Venture into Fantasy Earth and explore more screens.

Screens

Artwork

Here is some recent news about Fantasy Earth from Game Spot.

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Fantasy Earth unplayable at Square Enix Party


Square Enix's anticipated MMO Action RPG unavailable for players to sample, but it's still slated for release during the year.

CHIBA CITY, Japan--Square Enix showed off a new trailer for Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion, which hasn't had too many details released so far. That, unfortunately, didn't change at PlayStation Party 2005. The company's trailer featured an impressive, extended version of the promotional footage shown last year, where a heroine was seen fighting against enemies with her teammates, much like in a console role-playing game. The new trailer added some brief footage of updated in-game screens, but not enough to indicate specific details.

To update the original announcement with additional new information: Fantasy Earth will be a massively multiplayer game for the PC that's an action RPG with strategy elements. Although the game will have its share of goblins and other monsters from which to earn money and level up, its core content will be realm-versus-realm battles between player characters. Players can associate themselves with one of five different countries in the game, and they can fight to take down one another's fortresses in battle. Up to 100 players can participate in a battle, divided into 50 players on each side. One of the key points in the game is to collect more crystals than your enemies, which will be required to execute powerful skills that are advantageous in battle. The crystals can also be used to create new fortresses.

Similar to other Square Enix games, players can summon monsters in Fantasy Earth. But what's unique in Fantasy Earth is that the player's character will transform into a monster, rather than an articificial intelligence-controlled or player-controlled character. Five summoned monsters have been announced so far: a dragon, which can fly and breath powerful flames; a giant, which is slow but good for taking down fortresses; a lace, which can give various status effects to players; a horse-riding knight, who is both powerful and fast; and a chimera, an artificial life-form with numerous attacks.

While Square Enix plans to release the game within the year, it's still tinkering around with some of the game's fundamental systems. The company just announced before the Square Enix party that it's changing the structure of the player character's job classes. Up until now, there were seven classes announced for the game, which were warrior, berserker, shadow walker, hunter, sorcerer, priest, and rune blade. Those have been simplified into three classes: warrior, scout, and sorcerer. This doesn't necessarily mean that players will have less to do, since characteristics of the deleted classes have been merged into the remaining ones. It seems as though players will be able to give their characters unique traits by selecting the available skills from the merged classes.

Warriors are strong at direct hand-to-hand combat, and they possess strong defensive and attacking powers. Scouts specialize in long-distance attacks via archery, as well as ambush attacks using short swords. Arrows aren't powerful, but they're said to be useful in strategic attacks. Sorcerers can use powerful magic attacks and spells that can hinder enemy movements. However, they require casting time.

Square Enix hasn't announced any plans for an English launch yet, but considering the game will only let players use English text for their character names, it seems obvious the company is considering a release of the game outside of Japan.

By Hirohiko Niizumi, GameSpot POSTED: 07/31/05 09:48 AM

More news... (from 9/16/2005): Fantasy Earth looks like it will be going into beta phase in Japan on September 26, 2005, if you go to the official website, www.playonline.com/fe.