quote

In advance of its big May game party, Square Enix has unveiled two new projects in the pages of Weekly Jump -- or, at least, two new spins on older projects.

The first game revealed was Final Fantasy XII International: Zodiac Job System. Like prior games such as Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XII will be getting rereleased in Japan with the addition of the English voice acting and, possibly, English text as an option. Additional content changes are being included in the form of a new job system allowing characters access to different, unique license boards.

The second unveiling was Final Fantasy IV DS, a full 3D remake of the fourth game in the long-running series. Unlike the slightly upgraded port delivered in the form of Final Fantasy IV Advance, this new version follows in the footsteps of Final Fantasy III DS in featuring new polygonal character models, full 3D backgrounds, and new story elements.

Expect more images and information about these two games to surface as the Square Enix Party takes place over the course of this weekend.

quote Learn new abilities!

In the original version of Final Fantasy IV, each of your party members all had unique abilities that were likened to them and only them. Palom and Porom had Twin Magic, Edward had Sing, Rosa had Prayer and Cecil had Dark Wave, and so on and so forth. I'm sure you've often wondered what it'd be like if, say, Cecil could use Sing or Rosa and Rydia could use Twin Magic. What if I told you that you could be able to do that in the FFIV DS remake? Shocked?

Whatever your reaction may be, the fact of the matter is I'm telling the truth! In the most recent Jump magazine scan, it is revealed that one of the newer features to grace the Final Fantasy IV DS remake is the ability of your (main) party members to inherit the abilities of former party members. As I mentioned above, it is possible for Cecil to inherit Edward's Sing ability as well as Palom & Porom's Twin Magic ability as evidenced in the scan below. This makes things a bit interesting as it allows you the ability to customize your characters with skills that highly benefited you from previous party members, though I don't know how much you benefited from Edward's singing.

This main new feature of the game seems very promising; but what I'm more interested in knowing is whether or not you'll have the ability to replace your party members with those former party members towards the end game as you could in the GBA port of Final Fantasy IV. I enjoyed taking Palom & Porom with me to the final battle.