Hey everyone,

Please update your bookmarks, or if you are one of our affiliates update our link. We are going to stop using the domain, though for the moment it redirects to the subdomain. Reason being is that it was a free domain via Koby’s host but he is changing packages soon and therefore will be losing the free domains and so I wanted to switch beforehand so we wont get lost.

Our new link is:

http://shinrainsider.kametsu.com

Well I decided to re-open our old topsite list, however this time freely hosted by iTopsites to prevent our hosting resources from being overloaded. Please if you own a site, do join, I’d much appreciate it!

Shinra Insider Topsites –> Join today!

Oh and for the moment, please don’t mind the default button, I am not at home at the moment to be able to upload the real topsite buttons so I just used that one. Once I get home I’ll fix it with the rank buttons 1 through 20! ^_^

Today I managed to open up a new project I decided to work on called English Dub Kingdom! It features Anime dubbed in English Audio downloads of a lot of various series, including Beyblade, Bleach , Blood +, Blue Dragon, Chrono Crusade, Death Note, Dragonball, Fullmetal Alchemist, Hellsing, Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and Yuyu Hakusho. So be sure to check it out when you get the chance.

English Dub Kingdom

To start off, I’m sorry about the several months of inactivity. I just don’t get online much anymore and when I do it’s mostly to play games, so I’ve neglected this site alot. I haven’t been playing my Playstation 2, nor have I bought a Playstation 3 yet, so I haven’t been keeping up with the latest Square Enix news, and to be honest, I don’t feel like it.

At first I wanted to run a website, but that feeling didn’t last long and because of it I have been dragging around the Shinra Insider name poorly. I’ve been considering closing the place down, but I really hate for it to all go to waste.

Therefore I’ve decided to try to keep this place running. I’m going to add a gallery to the site and try to populate it with alot of awesome Square Enix related artwork, logo’s, and wallpapers. Though with my current lack of interest I doubt it will be up anytime soon, unless Koby wants to add it of course.

As far as the news goes, I’m not going to be around to update it still for a while. I hope to find someone who will be willing to help out. As you might know I added a mod to the Wordpress to allow visitors to post news, but as expected, not a single news post has been made. Surprisingly not even a spam post. Even without active news on this site that focuses on news only, our visitor count has remained around a steady 80 guests a day. Lower then our old 150, but doing alot better then we were when we first started. So please if you have any interest, fill out an application and send it in to me to be a news poster. It’s a very simple job, and doesn’t take much time to do. Just need to keep up with the news announced.

As to our affiliates, sorry about my lack of enthusiasm towards the site, but please bear with it and don’t drop us! Add me on msn if you haven’t already and we can talk whenever I actually log in. I’d like to actually talk to my affiliates rather then simply have exchanged links.. lol.

Anyone know of a nice gallery script I could possibly use, that does the screenshots and everything, I simply just have to mass upload images? It would be really useful. Oh and anyone visiting the site, please join my brother’s forum if you haven’t already. We currently don’t have one so I use his, however I’m just a regular member. =P Don’t really want to bother running a forum. It’s too much hassle to keep active, lol.

Several updates to the site today. If you visit often, you probably noticed the site wasn’t working, or displaying errors. That was because my internet connection is very slow and I was upgrading our Wordpress to the latest version.

Also we have been getting a ton of spam bot’s registering to our Wordpress, however they haven’t been spamming the comment form, which is strange. Either way to stop them, I’ve added a plugin for Wordpress that requires you to enter a simple question to register an account here.

It’s not just that, but I have also added a plugin that lets you, the visitors of Shinra Insider, post news through your Wordpress account. However I must manually approve your news post. I’d very much appreciate it if you submitted news that way, because it would help out alot, and I don’t always get a chance to post the latest news. ^_^

To post news on Shinra Insider simply click the link in the navigation. From there type in the news title, the news text, and answer a simple question and click post. When I get online, I’ll check and accept the news and voila, your news post will be on the main page. If you do a good job, then eventually I will make your account to where I don’t need to validate your posts. ^_^

Square Enix has revealed the blu-ray edition of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, now titled Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is now apparently set for a release sometime next year.

The PlayStation Portable-based action title Dissidia: Final Fantasy has yet to receive an official release date, but at least we now know that the various characters appearing in the game are apparently guided by two opposing gods representing harmony and chaos.

Instead of traditional random encounters, the Level 5-developed Dragon Quest IX for DS will apparently feature symbol-based encounters. Due to delays, Square Enix’s biggest DS title to date will only hit Japanese retail store shelves next year.

IGN has released their information about the latest trio of Kingdom Hearts games announced during the Tokyo Game Show this year, below you will find their statements.

The latest issue of Famitsu has new details on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, one of three new portable entries in the series that were announced in the Square Enix Closed Megatheater at the Tokyo Game Show.

Birth by Sleep gets its name from the unlockable Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix closing movie, which you probably haven’t seen since this director’s cut version of Kingdom Hearts II hasn’t been released outside of Japan. That movie featured a bunch of new characters, including Terra and Ven, the latter resembling Roxas. Birth By Sleep focuses on three main characters, Terra, Ven and a third character.

In development by the team down in Osaka that developed the Re: Chain of Memories component of Final Mix, Birth By Sleep is being headed up by some familiar names. Tetsuya Nomura is director of the project, with Tai Yasue serving as co-director. Patrick Chen is serving as producer with Youichi Yoshimoto as co-producer.

In a developer interview with this week’s Famitsu, Nomura revealed that development on the project actually started long ago, but was halted due to the amount of volume that ended up going into Re: Chain of Memories. The plot was certainly finished in time for the release of Final Mix, as the closing movie for that game was created around it.

Daisuke Watanabe is working on the scenario. You might recognize him from FFXII, KHII, FFX-2 and Chain of Memories. He’s also supervising the DS and cell phone KH games. With Birth by Sleep, his talents are put to particular use, as Nomura says he specializes in multi scenario systems.

The game has three scenarios, each told from the perspective of one of the main characters. Yasue joked with the magazine that players may think the game was made by three different teams, as the play style is different for each character due to their varying personalities and abilities.

Re: Chain of Memories had separate Sora and Riku scenarios. Different here, according to Yasue, is that rather than playing one scenario after the other, you’ll have to use certain characters to clear certain sections. This also isn’t like a ‘zapping’ system, he noted. He’s promising something that players have never seen before.

Regarding gameplay systems, early screenshots of the game show a command menu not unlike previously Kingdom Hearts PS2 titles. Nomura says that of the three newly announced titles, the PSP game is the closest to previous titles in the series and will offer the feeling of action for which the series is known. However, in a separate interview, he also noted that the game will actually be close to the Re: Chain of Memories battle system, with your commands appearing in the form of a deck.

Some new gameplay systems are in the works as well. The character growth system, in particular, uses some ideas that Yasue believes will shock players. While not giving too many specifics, Yoshimoto revealed that they’re thinking up a few systems where players hook up their PSP with other players; this presumably has something to do with the growth system Yasue was speaking about. Nomura noted that this type of multiplayer system wil be completely different from the multiplayer mode of the DS title. He also referred to the DS game as being the only new Kingdom Hearts title with actual multiplayer play, so it’s a bit unclear if the PSP title will actually let players play together.

The game will once again be constructed of multiple worlds, similar to past titles. However, Yoshimoto is promising some new Disney worlds. Look forward to areas like Sleeping Beauty’s Forest.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is still somewhat of a mystery. And it might stay a mystery for a while. In a separate interview, Nomura noted that of the three new portable Kingdom Hearts games, it’s the first one to have started development, and will likely be the last one to see release.

Source: IGN

Square Enix have started there own conference and revealing new Kingdom Hearts titles:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
It’s for the PSP and looks to be a single-player adventure in the vein of the PlayStation 2 iterations, though not “Kingdom Hearts III.” Birth by Sleep’s protagonist was not explicitly named in the presentation, but he looked an awful lot like Zack of Final Fantasy VII/Crisis Core fame.

- Development for this game started a bit early, but it was interrupted by the development for re:COM
- Ven is the male’s alias and his real name is longer.
- There is a mystery of who each character is.
- The Keyblade Master is someone who has not appeared in any of the series yet.
- The story is set to be complex and serious
- The story advances with three people, each with their own different gameplay.
- The battle system is new compared to the ones in previous KH games.
Developed by the KH Re:CoM (PS2) team at the Osaka branch of S-E.
- 3 scenarios, 3 main characters, play in any order
- Battle system is a mix of KH CoM (deck of abilities/skills) and KH’s normal controls
- The random elements and the timing based gameplay is Nomura’s evolution of what he used in CoM and IAWW

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Is for Nintendo DS and appears to star Roxas from Kingdom Hearts II, but its main draw looks to be four-player simultaneous play using members of Organization XIII. It will be in full 3D.

- The full meaning behind the title can only be understood once you complete the game.
- The first idea that came from this game was to show the daily life of the Organization.
- This is based off of after Roxas entered Organization XIII, this game will also revolve around the one year when Sora is asleep.
- Roxas has doubt, and begins to believe if it’s better to leave the Organization or not.
- The scan says that the 14th member is not Namine, however IS a key character to the story.
- You will still be going through Disney Worlds
- Roxas vs Riku will be in the game!
- There is a system that allows you to see the memories of Sora.
- Multiplayer mode is not related at all to the story.
- ALL XIII MEMBERS can be used in Multiplayer mode.
- Every member has a unique style of gameplay, also once you defeat the boss you can replay the mission again as much as you want to. There are different missions for each character.
- You can draw for fun in the second screen.
- Every time you complete a mission, one of the Organization chairs raise a bit higher.
- Developed by h.a.n.d., the guys that made Chocobo DS.
- Multiplayer gameplay is mission based, and your friends can play as any of the XIII Org members.
- Scenario is compared to Crisis Core, in that most people will know how it ends, but not how it will flow.

Kingdom Hearts: Coded
A mobile game, likely for Japanese cell phones. It stars the familiar cast of main characters from the original Kingdom Hearts (Sora & co.) and seems to be set between the first and second PlayStation 2 titles.

- Is considered to be the brother of Agito XIII
- Nomura wanted to make it a playground for the fans.
- This game will clerify where Riku and the King were during KH1
- The Debugging Mode is used to move the data to the real world
- Developed by the Before Crisis FFVII team.
- Disney worlds will be available as individual downloads.
- The setting involves Sora’s memories being accessed, possibly through a computer. It is compared to CoM’s scenario in that sense.
- Graphics are 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds to allow both high spec and low spec phones to be support.
- Planned to be released internationally, hence the focus on compatibility.

Each title is said to have a time-related theme: Birth by Sleep is “the distant past,” KH: 358/2 Days is “time of the other side,” and Code is “time has gone by.”

The latest edition of the Japanese magazine Famitsu featured an article about Star Ocean 4. Yoshinori Yamagishi, Star Oceans’ Producer, and assistant producer Hajime Kojima sat down and talked about the newly announced installment of Tri-Ace’s flagship series. While Star Ocean 4 has been confirmed to be in development for a couple months now, the target platform has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Sadly, Famitsu does not put an end to this speculation, as Tri-Ace has yet to make a decision regarding the target platform. Kojima only said that the game will be released for a platform or platforms capable of displaying beautiful visuals. This most likely means either PlayStation 3, X-BOX 360, or both.

The game’s development has progressed to the point where the basics of the battle system are up and running. Once completed, the battle system will support up to four active party members. The developers describe it as an “orthodox progression” of the prequel’s battle system with new features. However the game’s story is already finished. Yoshinori Yamagishi was not willing to give away any details regarding the era, in which the game takes place. He only said more information would be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. Hajime Kojima, however, assured fans that characters and races from previous installments would appear in Star Ocean 4 and the world would be the same as well. He went on to explain that previous installments did not really have a “star ocean” feel to them, but in Star Ocean 4 it would be possible to travel through space in one’s own spaceship. There will also be events centering around spaceship battles. Tri-Ace is promising a huge world, as there will be a lot of planets, not just two or three. That being said, the game will not be entirely science fiction-oriented, but also offer a fair share of fantasy elements.

The game’s protagonist is a blonde-haired young male named Edge Maverick, the heroine’s name is Reimi. The two are apparently childhood friends. Private action events will also make their return in Star Ocean 4. At the end of the interview, the Tri-Ace representatives briefly touched on the subject of the Star Ocean and Star Ocean: The Second Story remakes for PlayStation Portable. The new Star Ocean will be a complete remake, featuring new scenario and gameplay elements. As for Star Ocean: The Second Story, Tri-Ace was not so forthcoming with information. It was only stated that the game will offer a new experience, even to those fans who have already played the original game on PlayStation. Star Ocean 4 has yet to receive an official release date.

Source: Forgotten Memories

Well today we finally got our first batch of affiliates, and I would like to be able to call them friends of Shinra Insider. So say hello to Elemental Revolution, Final Remnant, and Golden Ocarina. You may find their links at the top of everyone of our pages, below the banner to the right. I hope you go visit them as well!

Other news, I closed the Shinra Insider Topsites at request from my brother Koby. Topsite scripts use up alot of resources and were the cause of all the downtime and errors being shown at Shinra Insider as well as the other sites he hosts. So we removed them. However I will most likely get a free hosted topsite at itopsites.com soon, I haven’t decided yet. So please all members of our topsites, remove the button from your site. Thank you.

Update on September 21st
I didn’t feel like this deserved an entire news post, so I just edited the last one. Anyhow I fixed several errors in the layout that were only a problem in Internet Explorer. Another reason why I dislike that crappy browser. =O As always I recommend Firefox to view this site, but anyhow the problems in IE have been solved. Sorry for the lack of Square Enix news updates, I’ve just been lazy latly and haven’t been keeping up to date with the latest announcements. I’ll get them all up shortly.