This piece of artwork was recently posted over at Creator’s Voice Z. It was done by Fumio Minagawa to celebrate the release of A Shantotto Ascension, the latest add-on pack for Final Fantasy XI. Minagawa was the artist behind the add-on’s cover art.

Along the top: “Congratulations on the release of A Shantotto Ascension!”

Shantotto is squeezing her Moogle Rod, letting out a “giri giri” sound. Besides being a squeezing, grinding noise, “giri giri” also means “just barely” as in “just barely making a deadline.”

The Moogle warns, “You had better make that deadline, kupo…”

Along the bottom, Minagawa admits, “This is an illustration that I forgot to enter into the FanArt Competition. (true story)”

If you enjoy Minagawa’s artwork, you can see much more at RGB230.com

While it’s not FFXI specific, I came across an article that I thought was kind of interesting.  It has to do with how Japanese fans refer to the Final Fantasy series.　This news was reported not just on gaming websites but regular news sites as well, proving how famous the Final Fantasy series and Square Enix is in Japan.

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Hello, everyone. I hope you’re all enjoying Final Fantasy XI. I think they released an expansion recently… something about pants, I dunno.

Thought I’d share a few interviews with you having to do with Square Enix and localization. They center around Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder, two freelance translators who work together as Kajiya Productions. Kajiya (鍛冶屋) means “blacksmith.” 鍛冶師 (ka-ji-shi) will be the name of the class appearing in Final Fantasy XIV.

Read on for the interviews!

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Sorry for the wait!  We are finally ready to release the results of our 1st Anniversary commemorative contest, the Bilingual Treasure Hunt.  For those that don’t remember, we had five clues written in Japanese that people would have to try to translate into English and then send us a screenshot that fits the clue.

Curious who won and what the answers are to the clues?  Click more to find out!

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In the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation, they talk a bit about the upcoming “Vana’diel Collection 2″ which contains the original game, all of the expansions, and the 3 add-on scenarios. The new packaged collection is expected to go on sale in Japan on November 12th for 6090 yen.

The people at Dengeki PlayStation got a chance to ask a few questions to Final Fantasy XI Art Director Ryosuke Aiba about the cover art to be used for the new collection. Riverne is the inspiration for the design. Aiba says he is fond of that area for its dynamic, fantasy look. The wyrm on the cover is also reminiscent of the “Chains of Promathia” expansion.

Also look at the armor some of the characters are wearing. Some of those outfits are not currently in the game. Aiba says there could be a chance that some of those outfits might be used in the future. There’s also a chance, he says, that some of the designs are ready to go already. If there is a lot of passionate feedback from the players, they might consider putting them in the game.

As a final question, they ask if the wyrm in the picture is supposed to represent a Dragoon or Beastmaster’s pet. Aiba makes a vague reply and says he personally wishes that wyrms had a bigger part in the game because when people think of fantasy, they think of dragons. He says people should look forward to how wyrms are used in the future as well.

So, how much should we read into the few comments Aiba made? Some of the armor designs are interesting. Even more interesting is how Aiba responds to that last question. Is it a hint for the future? Could it be that the new avatar is a wyrm? We’ll just have to wait and see!

The blog appears to be going into “Auto-Standby” since we are using Twitter feeds and not the actual service. If you hit the play button, it still shows everything and updates like normal.

*This blog uses an iframe, so if you can’t see it, you may have to adjust your settings.

Square Enix has launched a music page featuring a collection of 60 different CDs they plan to have on sale at the Tokyo Game Show. The collected song list spans more than a few Final Fantasy titles, some Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and several other Square Enix franchises.

Customers will also receive a special “Sampler CD” with songs from upcoming titles such as Final Fantasy XIII and The 4 Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden as well as golden oldies like the TGS2007 trailer for Final Fantasy XI Wings of the Goddess.

Square Enix has obliged gamers looking to go green with a free Square Enix Music “Eco Bag” in which to place your merchandise. In Japan, it is common to shop with a reusable tote bag called an “Eco Bag” instead of continually getting paper or plastic bags from the supermarket. It comes from the English word “ecology,” but is pronounced like the echo in “Echo Drops.”

You can visit the newly opened site here and see all they have to offer. By the way, let me tell you from personal experience that CD #26 is a trap. Next time you want to make a remix CD Square, call up DJ Plaeskool.

平和

And yea, it was said unto the people, “Let it be known throughout the land that Elmer totally called it.”

Just kidding… but it appears that Hiromichi Tanaka was being a little sly after all when he subtly sported a dogtag during his interview in Famitsu Wave. The Final Fantasy XI dogtag is now set to be the second product in the Final Fantasy XI Players Collection line. Orders will be taken beginning September 24th, so it is sure to make an appearance at the Tokyo Game Show as well.

As you can see, the tags come in three styles – Windurst, Bastok and San d’Oria. The buyer can have their character name and server carved into the back to “ensure complete exclusivity for its owner.”

In Japan, the price will come to a nice, round 10,000 yen including tax. The US price is reported to be $106.99.

Famitsu
PlayOnline

Sage Sundi spoke recently at the CESA Developer’s Conference on the subject of RMT. Going into Final Fantasy XIV, Sundi explained the history of Final Fantasy XI and how they have been combating the varied methods RMT employ to disrupt the game. There were harsher than usual words spoken as well, with Sundi calling RMT “criminals” and saying they were not even considered legitimate users of the game.

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UPDATE: Amazon is now displaying a sale date of January 25, 2010.

A few days ago, I mentioned that the colored versions of the Tarutaru statues were shown off at Chara-Hobby. The same site that brought us that information actually sells figurines and such online.

They are now reporting that the statues will go on sale in late December. There will be 5 figurines, the 4 we have already seen pictures of as well as one secret unnamed character. Aniani lists the recommended price for a box of 9 figures as being around 4200 yen (roughly $45 USD) which is around the 500 yen per statue people have been predicting. However, there is no guarantee that a box will contain all 5.

What character do you think the secret statue will be?