Japan was abuzz with the latest from the videogame industry last week. At the annual Tokyo Game Show, Square-Enix delivered big on their promise of a killer 2004 line-up.

Square-Enix took the spotlight at the show, announcing more than four new games as well as a new computer-generated (CG) movie. It seems as if the merger of the two biggest role-playing-games (RPG) developers have not affected their ability to perform.

The title that arguably holds the biggest industry buzz is a movie-sequel to 1997’s RPG giant Final Fantasy VII. Called “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children,” Square-Enix stated that the story will pick up two years after the game, Final Fantasy VII, ended. With the return of the game’s main villain, Sephiroth, and the game’s hero,Cloud, will be back. Although the appearance of other characters have yet to be disclosed, the movie is set for a 2004 release in Japan, with an approximate running time of 60 minutes.

Behind “Final Fantasy: Advent Children,” the official unveiling of “Kingdom Hearts II” for the PlayStation 2 and “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories” for the GameBoy Advance (GBA) was undoubtedly the next biggest surprise. “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories” for the GBA, a 2-D representation of the series with a battle system, which is similar to the original “Kingdom Hearts,” and picks up after the original. This supposedly tied up many unanswered questions from the game.

Both titles are on-track for a 2004 release in Japan.

Other newly announced games from Square-Enix included two new titles, “Front Mission 4” and “Front Mission Online,” in the mech war series “Front Mission.” A Playstation One remake of the original three
“Front Mission” games in one package, “Front Mission History” was also affirmed, as was “Sword of Mana” for GBA; a new title in the highly acclaimed Mana series.

Square-Enix’s most anticipated title, “Final Fantasy XII” was not on display. Its title’s unveiling will be held on November 19th of this year at a private press conference in Tokyo.