Final Fantasy is getting a heavy showing this year, with Fabula Nova Crystallis getting the most screen-time, as well as Crisis Core and Revenant Wings making some large showings alongside a few smaller mobile titles and the like. But Final Fantasy isn't the only Square-related game at the show!
Kingdom Hearts 3 .com should be your second port of call after Insider, seeing as it will be hosting all the Kingdom Hearts-related news brought to you by either the webmaster Ash or myself! Final Fantasy's biggest spin-off, the series is growing by the year and should also be a huge atendee at Jump Festa.
If Fabula Nova Crystallis is your thing, Final Fantasy 13 .com will be covering the series as well as us, so check them regularly in case we've missed something here!
Jump Festa will begin in two days time, December 17!
The site's currently a haven for all news regarding Kingdom Hearts and any of it's sequels, so be sure to check it out for all the latest news on one of Square-Enix's fastest growing series!
Don't forget to say hi to the webmaster, Ash, by leaving a comment! :)
Kingdom Hearts II Reaches 2.5 Million Sold Copies I'm back from my vacation and back to posting news and first up, Square has announced that US and Japanes sales of Kingdom Hearts II has reached 2.5 million.
Since it's December 22nd release in Japan, 1.2 million copies of the game have been sold. 1.3 million copies were shipped in the US where the game was released on March 28th.
This had taken the Kingdom Hearts series up to 8.5 million sales and Square-Enix are hoping that Europe will help the series reach 10 million sales worldwide.
Kingdom Hearts 2: English Cast and Trailer Videos MTV have got gotten exclusive interviews with a large selection of the KH2 cast including the main Kingdom Hearts characters, Final Fantasy VII and X-2 and some Disney characters.
Also on the site is an exclusive trailer which includes the first time we've heard the english version of the theme song titled Sanctuary and english screenshots.
MTV Overdrive can only be viewed by US visitors however visit the Final Fantasy Insider Forums for trailer rips which can be viewed by everyone.
25 Feb 2006
ESRB Changes Kingdom Hearts 2 Rating [UPDATE] The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an independent self-regulated company which examines games and provides age rating, has changed their rating for Kingdom Hearts 2.
The game's official cover release shows the games previous E (everyone) rating for 10 years and over, however this new rating is T (teen) for 13 years and older. Although the exact reason for increased rating is not yet known, their description for the game is "Fantasy Violence & Use of Alcohol". It seem that the use of Alcohol may be the reason for the change.
Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories ESRB rating was E 6+. Europe's PEGI rating was a E 7+ for Kingdom Hearts and E 3+ for Chain of Memories.
Update KH2 is now rated E 10+ again. The new desciption lists the same as "Mild Blood,Use of Alcohol,Violence"
Square-Enix Official Confirm KH2 Cast and Shipping Date Square-Enix have announced the shipping date for Kingdom Hearts 2 and voice actors for the english version and now for your viewing pleasure, the North American Boxart.
Although some of these have been originally posted before, Square confirms some new actors and the characters they play while some others have been confirmed in interviews or official sites.
Previous announced voices are
Sora: Haley Joel Osment - returning actor
Aerith: Mena Suvari - new actress, replacing Mandy Moore
Tifa: Rachael Leigh Cook - new actress playing new character
Riku: David Gallagher - returning actor
Kairi: Hayden Panettiere - returning actress
Roxas: Jesse McCartney - new actor playing new character
Namine: Brittany Snow - new actress playing new character
Hades: James Woods - returning actor
Chicken Little: Zach Braff - official voice actor for Chicken Little
Cloud: Steve Burton - returning actor.
New confirmations are;
Diz: Christopther Lee - new actor playing new character
Yuna: Hedy Burress - original voice actor of Yuna in FFX and FFX-2
Rikku: Tara Strong - original voice actor of Rikku in FFX and FFX-2
Paine: Gwendoline Yeo - original voice actor of Paine in FFX-2
Mulan: Ming Na - original voice actor for Mulan in both movies
Mushu: Mark Moseley - Eddie Murphy in Mulan 1, Moseley ever since plus in KH1
Aladdin: Scott Weinger - original voice of Aladdin and returning in KH2
Pince: Sean Marquette - new actor playng a new character.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is sheducled to ship on March 28th so release dates will be sometime after. It is also possible that english voice actors will crossover to Advent Children (which is weird because Advent Children came out first so AC actors should be doing the crossing over)
The entire article has is now available on Find Articles (see source link below) which ended by revealing some of the voice actors. As you would expect, several and the most important characters will have the same voice however there has been some changes.
Sora: Haley Joel Osment - returning actor
Aerith: Mena Suvari - new actress, replacing Mandy Moore
Tifa: Rachael Leigh Cook - new actress playing new character
Riku: David Gallagher - returning actor
Kairi: Hayden Panettiere - returning actress
Roxas: Jesse McCartney - new actor playing new character
Namine: Brittany Snow - new actress playing new character
Hades: James Woods - returning actor
Chicken Little: Zach Braff - official voice actor for Chicken Little
Cloud: Steve Burton - returning actor.
As the March issue, the article also says that you'd need to another month to play the game but although no release date has yet to be confirmed, April has been suggested as the release date on numerous occasions. It should also be noted that Nomura did have a comment on a possible KH CG movie and said “If we were to create it, I would definitely consider it and the movie should be possible”.
The article also includes spoilers and information about some of the new worlds.
Kingdom Hearts 2 Soundtrack Available To Download As I write this, it has just been 1 day since the Kingdom Hearts 2 Official Soundtrack has been released but on that same day it was made available for download.
The Japanese exclusive CD (for the moment anyway) contains two CDs with 89 tracks and can be downloaded from FileFront or using a program such as Bittorrent.
Neither FFI or the Staff of KHU are responsible for this soundtrack for being available. We did not rip it or upload it so we can't be held responsible for slow downloads, removal of file, broken links or dead torrents.
The second Formation Arts collection goes on sale April 2006 priced at 6800 yen ($59)
24 Jan 2006
Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts figures Diamond Comics have issued a press release annoucing their plans to import and release the Kingdom Hearts "Formation Arts" figures exclusively in North America.
The figures will have a suggested price of $12.99 and will be available in March with each Formation Arts figure being several inches high. Character such as Donald, Sora and Jack Skellington will be 4", 6" and 7" tall repectively and will come on Blister card packaging.
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