Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies finally has a date outside of Japan. In its home country, the game has been enjoyed for quite a while, with others eagerly awaiting the next title in the successful series.

In North America, Dragon Quest IX will be out on July 11 — exactly one year after its Japanese release. In Europe, the game will arrive on July 23. Australia has yet to be given a date, with the game expected there later this year.

Dragon Quest IX was developed by Level-5, who also developed Dragon Quest VIII, in collaboration with Square Enix. Although Square Enix published the game in Japan, Nintendo will handle the global releases.

With the news, Dragon Quest IX is now available for pre-order on Amazon and Amazon.ca.
.

New details have emerged on Mistwalker’s upcoming RPG, The Last Story, a new Wii game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.

The game will feature a real-time battle system making use of the Wii’s controls and playstyle, but will allow players to pause and input commands as well.

As for the story, the game takes place on a chain of islands, Ruri Islands, which guard the harbour entrance to a mountainous continent. The game will be mainly fantasy, as Sakaguchi seeks to avoid the recent trend towards sci-fi RPGs and make a game with human emotion as its primary theme. The Last Story’s protaganist will be a mercenary who finds himself with a female companion and her white tiger.

It’s already been pointed out but I’ve just got to say it: The Last Story? And that logo? It seems like Sakaguchi is making a home for anyone who was turned off by the heavy sci-fi and un-RPG qualities of Final Fantasy XIII.

Check out these images of The Last Story.

The March numbers are in, and it looks like the PS3 is the platform of choice for the majority of Final Fantasy XIII players.

According to data provided by the NPD Group, Square Enix’s new flagship RPG sold over 800,0o0 copies on the Sony PlayStation 3, while the Xbox 360 system fell short of 500,000 sales.

The perceived superiority of the PlayStation 3, which is a more powerful machine, is likely a contributing factor. The game was also developed originally as a PS3 title and later ported to the Xbox 360 platform for release outside of Japan. (Though it should be noted, the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have any performance problems.) For those that have both consoles, the PS3 would be a likely choice for this game.

Final Fantasy also has a long history on the Sony console line, with all major titles since Final Fantasy VII coming out mainly for PlayStation consoles. (The online Final Fantasy XI eventually appeared on the Xbox 360, though it was first a PC and PS2 game.)

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still scheduled to be a PS3-only title. This data may just give Square Enix a little more confidence in that decision.

Some news from the Fable front. We’ve been hearing bragging about the extended online play in the upcoming Fable III, but word reaches us today that, in the new game, you’ll be able to have children with other players.

While in Fable II, you can choose to marry an non-playable character and have unprotected sex with him or her in order to have a child, Fable III will allow you to do the same with your friends’ characters over Xbox Live.

Cooperative play just got a whole new meaning, folks.

Of course, before we erupt into another Mass Effect-style scandal, let’s be clear about one thing. There’s no simulated sex in the game — all of that business happening in a fade-to-black moment.

We’ll have more on Fable III as we get it.

Although the main title in the FF13 project, Final Fantasy XIII, is just over two weeks away from its English-version release, we shouldn’t expect to see its PS3-exclusive counterpart anytime soon.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which features an independent story in the same universe as FF13, may not even be shown at E3 this year. Tetsuya Nomura, who is heading up the project, told Japanese magazine Famitsu that development is going well, but that whether or not we’ll see the game at E3 is an “uncertain situation”.

The game has fallen a bit behind schedule due to changes to its world map system, reportedly so that characters can be shown on screen.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is a PlayStation-3 exclusive, unlike FF13, for which the English version will also be available on the Xbox 360. Final Fantasy XIII comes out March 9 in North America, Europe and Australia, and last December in Japan, where it is also PS3-exclusive.

Tetsuya Nomura, the man behind the Kingdom Hearts series, has gone on record to say that the next Kingdom Hearts game that his team puts out will not be Kingdom Hearts III, and will not star Sora as the main character.

In an interview with Famitsu, he did say that the game they’re focused on now will tie in more closely with the main Kingdom Hearts storylines, but this isn’t KHIII.

However, the Kingdom Hearts III is still on the drawing board — the news only means that we shouldn’t expect it too soon, as there’s more to come first.