Final Fantasy IV DS

There's confirmed news out there that the gaming company that worked hand-in-hand with Square/Enix to recently design the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III for Nintendo DS (the first official US release of the title 15+ year old title) has now set its sights on Final Fantasy IV (originally released as Final Fantasy II on the SNES in the US). From the sources I've seen it's only been confirmed as a Japanese release in Q4 2007 but many are assuming a US release will follow in early 2008.

Some critics complain that there are too many remakes and re-releases of Final Fantasy games out there and that Final Fantasy IV itself was just re-released just over a year ago on the GBA platform with enhanced graphics and sound, a new translation, and added dungeons. They feel the series is stale and instead of re-releasing games Square/Enix should focus its efforts on creating a fresh new game/series. I for one am psyched that a 3D Final Fantasy IV remake is in the works. This has been a longtime "fantasy" of mine and although I'm not a huge fan of the graphics in the DS Final Fantasy III remake (or the preview stills in the image above for IV) I will happily cough up $40 for this realization of my dream since Final Fantasy VII on the PS1. But I'm admittedly biased... they could re-release Final Fantasy IV 100 times on 100 different systems and I'd eat it up. It's quite possibly my all-time favorite video game (with nostalgia taking a respectable share of the credit).

There's no word on whether or not the partnership between Square/Enix and the Matrix will continue after this. The majority of Final Fantasy fans out there would've preferred a 3D remake of Final Fantasy VI instead of IV so we may yet see one more 3D remake. I guess it will depend on the sales of IV 3D. If IV and VI are remade in 3D what else could there possibly be to look forward to? How about a port of VII to the DS?