Square Enix Party 2005

July 30-31, 2005

Makuhari Messe

Convention Center

Square Enix

Party 2005

SQUARE ENIX PARTY 2005 was a two-day event held on July 30-31, 2005 at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in Chiba prefecture, Japan. A ticket was required for entry, costing ¥1,000. Attendees had the chance to try out Square Enix's new software, watch stage events, and buy goods. The venue was divided into two areas: the Square Enix Mega Theater with a massive screen that seated up to 5,000 people, and the Experience Zone with around 650 game booths. Several mini stages built into the game specific booths featured unique content and trailers.

The event drew a crowd of nearly 47,000 visitors (24,922 on the first day and 22,059 on the second day). All visitors were gifted with a postcard set (16 in total) featuring illustrations of the exhibition titles. The set was not available for sale anywhere else and exclusive to the event.

A retro games corner was available near the entrance for visitors to experience nostalgic titles such as Rad Racer. A special wall was available for visitors to attach post-it notes providing thoughts and feedback.

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SQUARE ENIX MEGA THEATER

The Square Enix Mega Stage was the centerpiece of entertainment during the party. The schedule was released on Square Enix's website, with surprise guests and announcements happening on the actual day.

History of Grandia LIVE Special Stage (Day 1)

A live music event that traced the history of the Grandia series.
Live chat with Grandia III's voice actors: Masaya Matsukaze (Yuuki) and Haruka Kinami (Alfina).
Noriyuki Iwadare, composer of series, gave a live performance of "Theme of GRANDIA III (Square Enix Party 2005 Ver)", marking his first live music event.
Live performance of "Cancao do Povo (Song of the People)" from Grandia II by Kaori Kawasumi.
Live performance of Grandia III opening theme song "In The Sky" by Miz.

SQUARE ENIX Music Live (Day 1 at 12:30PM)

A special stage show presented by the Square Enix Sound Team, hosted by Udatsu Tanaka, the sound section manager.
Special guest Masayoshi Soken, sound editor, introduced SE Music-TV, a distribution website for Square Enix's music catalogue.
Kumi Tanioka, composer, performed three songs on piano: "Main Theme of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles", "The Republic of Bastok" from Final Fantasy XI, and "Main Theme of Code Age Commanders".
Tsuyoshi Sekito, Kenichiro Fukui and Keiji Kawamori, members of rock band The Black Mages, performed a live acoustic version of "Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII".

Final Fantasy XII Premium Stage Show Vol. 1 (Day 1 at 2:30PM)

The show opened with a multitude of trailers, including Grandia III, Heavy Metal Thunder, Code Age Commanders, Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest and World of Mana. The PlayOneline trailer followed, Final Fantasy XI, several Everquest titles, Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion, Front Mission Online, and Front Mission 5. The trailers then kicked into Final Fantasy titles, showing Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and finally, the highly anticipated new trailer for Final Fantasy XII.
Two MCs took to the stage, including Michio Okamiya, a band member of The Black Mages, who talked about Final Fantasy XII's released date and then introduced Nobuo Uematsu.
Uematsu showed several clips of The Black Mages performances and announced Final Fantasy XII's theme song, "Kiss Me Goodbye".
Angela Aki, performer of "Kiss Me Goodbye", was welcomed to the stage and gave fans a live piano solo performance for the first time.

Code Age Comanders Special Stage (Day 2)

Yusuke Naora, producer of the series, showcased various projects in the Code Age series, including the manga project Code Age Archives, PS2 game Code Age Commanders, and mobile game Code Age Brawls.
Kou Shibasaki, performer of Code Age Commander's theme song, "Memory Pocket -Memopoke-", appeared in a live video.

Fullmetal Alchemist Special Stage (Day 2)

Live chat with voice actors from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime: Mayumi Yamaguchi (Envy), Romi Park (Edward), and Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse). They discussed their work in the upcoming movie, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, and PS2 game, Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl who Succeeds God.
Live performances of the PS2 game's theme song, "Kanashimi no Kizu", and the anime's first ending theme, "Kesanai Tsumi", both by Nana Kitade.

Final Fantasy XII Premium Stage Show Vol. 2 (Day 2 at 4PM)

Special guest Hitoshi Sakimoto, Final Fantasy XII's composer, chatted about his work with the previous day's MC, Michio Okamiya. Four songs from the game's OST were shown to the audience.
Live chat with the voice actors of the game: Kouhei Takeda (Vaan) and Una Mikuni (Penelo).

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EXPERIENCE ZONE: FF TITLES

The event featured plenty of game booths allowing visitors to experience the latest titles by Square Enix. The Final Fantasy XII booth was the most popular.

Final Fantasy XI Booth

"Heroes Combat" event held where players formed a team of 6 to face three NPCs in a battle program created exclusively for the event. Prizes were given to those who were successful, depending on the difficulty of the battle. The most difficult battle program had players face Trion (Knight), Volker (Warrior) and Azido Marjid (Black Mage), and the success rate was quite low.
A Microsoft section dedicated to Xbox allowed players to experience the game on the upcoming Xbox release.

Final Fantasy XII Booth

The booth had 200 game stations set up for players to experience 15 minutes of gameplay, allowing exploration of two areas in the game: Phon Coast and Stilshrine of Miriam.
A 1:1 scale replica of Gabranth's Judge helmet was displayed outside the booth.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Booth

The game's playable debut saw 50 game stations set up for players to experience.

Square Enix Theater

A mini theater showcased 30 minutes worth of trailers, including the Final Fantasy VII technical demo, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and the first look at it's Online mode, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (E3 anime footage only, not actual gameplay), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II.

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EXPERIENCE ZONE: NON FF TITLES

Kingdom Hearts II Booth

With 150 game stations set up, players experienced gameplay in areas such as Beast Castle, Land of Dragons, Disney Castle and Agrabah. A trailer was shown after the gameplay experience.

Grandia III Booth

Players experienced gameplay from several different save points, allowing a varied experience.
Hand towels were gifted after playing the demo.

Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 2 Booth

Special mineral water bottles "Amor no Mizu" were gifted to players.
Players who brought their DS were gifted a downloadable mini game for the upcoming title.

Everquest II Booth

Attendees were greeted by staff dressed as Queen Antonia Bayle.
"Rescue Mission" competition where two teams of 5 players were tasked with escorting two lost characters to their destinations (controlled by staff) within a 30 minute time limit. The winning team were gifted with a special paper clip, towel and USB memory stick containing a serial key for rare in-game items.

Front Mission Online Booth

Special event called "Battle Coliseum" pitted ten players against each other as members of either the OCU or USN army in a contest for prizes. A mousepad was gifted for participation for unsuccessful players.

Heavy Metal Thunder Booth

Tokyo Metal Dolls (from the TV show "Hebimeta-san") and Takehiro Ando, the game's producer, appeared as guests and allowed photo ops.
Stage costumes of the legendary band, "SEX MACHINEGUNS" as well as electric guitars were on display.

Code Age Commander Booth

Meet and greet with Yusuke Naora, producer of the game.
Live music and light shows with DJs held at regular intervals.
Showcase of the manga Code Age Archives.

Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl who Succeeds God Booth

Musashiden II Blade Master

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EXPERIENCE ZONE: MOBILE TITLES

Booths for several of Square Enix's mobile titles were featured at the event. These included:

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII - Chocobo racing contests allowed players to try out the minigame recently introduced in the title.
Dragon Quest I & Dragon Quest II: Evil Spirit God - players were gifted slime-shaped "mobile cleaners".
Final Fantasy I-II
Code Age Brawls
Front Mission 2089
Musashiden II Episode 0
Hajuku Eiyuu Mobile
Gan Gan Mobile
Rock no Tamashii
Hokuto no Ken - players were gifted Raoh and Kenshiro figures.
Portopia Serial Murder
Okhotsk ni Yuu