As promised, Yoshinori Kitase posted his announcement on the European Playstation Blog just moments ago. The announcement is in video form but it's loading extremely slowly because of thousands of fans trying to watch it all at once. Try your luck at trying to view it for yourself below. I have to say it's maybe a bit overly epic for what it is.

For those of you who want to know now, here's all the details announced in the video.

Final Fantasy XIII is coming March 9th in North America. We assume it's a simultaneous release with Europe from the way it was revealed in the video but I'm sure we'll get confirmation soon.
Leona Lewis will be performing the theme for the English version with her song song "My Hands".
The video includes never seen before battle footage as well as the first time we've seen Chocobo's being ridden in motion.



Source: EU Playstation Blog

Shonen Jump's latest issue includes a new feature on Final Fantasy XIII with new screenshots and for the first time, proof that characters will be able to acquire new weapons. In the second screenshot included in the first scan, you can clearly see Lightning fighting a Flan with a new, never seen before weapon. We'll update you when we find out more info.



Thanks to our forum member john tora volta for finding them.

The US Playstation Blog has posted an update on what we can expect from the super special Final Fantasy XIII announcement this Friday. Apparently a "never-seen-before" Final Fantasy XIII Video is going to be aired in the 10-Screen Theatre on Playstation Home. We aren't sure if this is going to be a trailer, cutscene or gameplay video but at least we know the wait isn't all for nothing.

We don't know if this will be the only part to Friday's "Huge" announcement but we are promised that Yoshinori Kitase will be part of it in some way. Who knows, if the video does turn out to be a trailer it could possibly be the last we'll ever see.

Source: US Playstation Blog

Last week, scans from Weekly Shonen Jump popped up and everyone was introduced to Hope's summon, Alexander, and the fact that the series staple chocobo can be ridden whilst journeying Pulse. The week prior to that, scans from Weekly Shonen Jump showed up depicting the character growth system, Crystarium.

Now the time has come, as per usual, for Famitsu to run a full, detailed feature. The issue on sale tomorrow covers all of the above, along with some new area screenshots that look rather pretty - as far as you can tell from the small, low-quality images, anyway.



Source: 2channel

Yoichi Wada, President of Square Enix, has been interviewed by gameindustry.biz about Square's endeavours so far this year. In the interview, he comments on the current development status of Final Fantasy XIII saying "We've completed the master of the Japanese version, and for the US and European versions we're just adding the final touches. The last stage of development has gone very smoothly this time."

Although most of us are used to delays from Square, this is a good sign that FFXIII will arrive on time in Japan. Even though we don't have a date for the Western release, Wada said last week that it should possibly come out before April. If only the finishing touches are being added, he's hopefully right.

Source: gameindustry.biz

The single for Final Fantasy XIII's main theme is being released on the 2nd of December and as well as containing the song Kimi ga aru kara, a second insert song announced at the Premiere Party will also be included.

The company Sugawara is contracted to, For Life Music Entertainment, has uploaded a preview of the song Eternal Love. Below, I have it ripped to an mp3 and uploaded onto Megaupload for you to enjoy all 45 seconds of it.

Eternal Love preview
Source

We already knew thanks to Square Enix's puzzle a few days ago that we'd be receiving some kind of announcement this Friday. Now Square have confirmed this and promoted the announcement to "Special" and "Huge".

The games European website has been updated with a countdown ending Friday at 3:30PM GMT. Larry Sparks from Square Enix Europe says "We wanted to share the news with as many people as possible, so we have created a special video that will be unveiled on Friday. We hope you enjoy the announcement." We still don't know what the announcement could be but the general consensus is that it's something to do with the games release date.

Final Fantasy XIII Official European Site

Source: MCV

Square Enix updated Final Fantasy XIII's official website today with a new Field tab. All that's there at the moment is a little thing on Palumpolum and some images that - as far as I can tell - have all been seen before, mostly recently, and there's not a thing interesting among them, but it's a given that each major location of the game will be added over time.

Thanks to forum member Squirrel Emperor for notifying us.

Official Final Fantasy XIII website (Japanese)

Well that didn't take long. Forum members hintonmj and Squirrel Emperor have already worked out the anagram posted by Square Enix about an hour ago. The anagram says "Announcement Nov Thirteenth" so we're obviously going to find out something then.

It could be plenty of things ranging from the announcement of an English demo or the confirmation of a Western release date but it looks like we'll have to wait a week to find out what they're holding from us.

Source: A puzzle for FINAL FANTASY XIII fans! - Forum thread

Square Enix North America has posted a puzzle on the Square Enix Members blog for fans of Final Fantasy XIII to solve. The puzzle is an anagram which they'll reveal the answer to on Monday. Here's the message:

Solve this anagram to find out what lies ahead: A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto

If you have any idea what the solution is or would like to see how members of our community are getting along with the puzzle, visit this thread.

Thanks to our forum member lightning.versus.xiii for finding this.

Source: Square Enix Members Blog