Final Fantasy XIII and Versus Megathread

[jefXfree]

Final Fantasy XIII is an upcoming console role-playing game being developed by Square Enix. It will be released exclusive for PlayStation 3 in Japan, then for PlayStation 3 worldwide in Europe and North America. First appearing at the 2006 E3, the game features a futuristic, high-tech world.

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Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection. The game shares a common mythology with Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but they are not directly related to each other. Motomu Toriyama, a director and scenario writer of previous Final Fantasy titles, will direct and write the game's story.

The concept for Final Fantasy XIII's battle system is to maintain the strategic nature of command-based battles. The system stemmed from a desire to create battles similar to those found in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Like those in Final Fantasy XII, battle sequences are integrated into the world environment. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system will return, but is expected to work differently from its predecessors.

The battle system that was shown during the E3 2006 trailer was only a prototype. Recently, Square Enix showed battle footage in various Japanese magazines and trailers which introduced a new interface. You can only control one character at a time in battle, although battle parties of up to three characters have been shown. You can stack up to three commands per turn and release them all at the same time to form a combo. These commands include series staples such as Attack, Fire, Blizzard and Cure, as well as new ones such as Launch, which sends the enemy up in the air. The game does not make use of MP but introduces "cost points" for each command. Cost points determine how many times the commands can be used per turn. The overclock gauge from the prototype battle system is replaced with a break bar. The minimap shown earlier has also disappeared from the battle interface. The player is able to view the HP and name of the enemy before engaging it in battle. When the player engages an enemy, the camera moves to another position and the battle menu appears, making the battle transitions nearly seamless.

The classic summoned creatures will return in Final Fantasy XIII. Carbuncle emerges from a disc-like object when it is touched by the character Vanille, Ifrit and Siren also appear doing performances in a trailer. Shiva will return and takes the form of a pair of sisters who can merge into a motorcycle, which the character Snow rides, and can use ice to create a path to drive on.

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HD ENGINE

 

[mobius387]

idk, so far its uk only.

boooooo

 

[Horhay]

I am sure something will show up over here in the US as well.

 

[DaMexiRican]

I want to hear more about VS

 

[DaMexiRican]

Considering that an entire game's worth of content was supposedly cut from Final Fantasy XIII, one could imagine there's a veritable gold mine of content waiting to be polished and released as DLC. Apparently not, however, as producer Yoshinori Kitase has allegedly indicated, "at present we're not considering [DLC]." The quote is said to originate from a brief interview featured in an Ultima Guide for the game (via FFReunion), and Kitase apparently added that DLC is still "possible," but it's just not something Square Enix is working on right now.

Kitase cited the team's drive to create a complete experience in the final retail game as one of the contributing factors to putting DLC plans aside. He also pointed to the game's exceedingly long development time and the developers' focus on getting the game finished as soon as possible.

 

[mobius387]

I want to hear more about VS

+1

 

[jefXfree]

Final Fantasy XIII getting DLC after all?

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase has confirmed that Square intends on churning out post-release DLC for the hotly anticipated RPG.

At least, that’s according to a translation provided by the chaps at NeoGAF based on an interview with Kitase in OPM Benelux, where the Square Enix bigwig is quoted saying: "We did prepare a DLC but it will arrive a little later in the West.”

Elsewhere, Kitase revealed that the firm originally flirted with the idea of adding additional content to the western version of FFXIII, though ultimately pulled out as they felt the extra development time and delay wasn’t worth it.

Final Fantasy XIII is due out in North America and Europe on March 9.

 

[mobius387]

No VS talk...at least for awhile

Sony's Jeff Rubenstein talks about FFXIII and answers a question about VS on the PlayStation blog:

Jeff Rubenstein replied on January 31, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Ah, Versus? SquEnix ain’t gonna talk about that with FFXIII coming up so soon, I know that much.

When they’re ready to start talking Versus (and I don’t know when that is), I expect you’ll be seeing them here to address you all directly.

 

[Darth]

This will be the only thing that'll be pulling me away from MW2. I LOVE this franchise. Question is, if you're able to name characters in this one (like previous games) who's gonna be my "girl"?

 

[jefXfree]

FF Versus XIII news coming this month

Sony America’s Jeff Rubenstein has let slip that Square is planning to unleash fresh info on PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII at some point this month.

When quizzed as to whether or not the U.S. PS Blog has been in contact with the Japanese developer in regards to the elusive RPG, Rubenstein replied: “I have, and they’re eager to get some posts on the blog in February.”

Versus XIII last popped up in December in the form of a new trailer at the Jump Fiesta, which culminated in the message: “Revelation will come next time.”

Stay tuned for more info as it breaks.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Yes!

 

[jefXfree]

Square Enix Talks Final Fantasy XIII

Over on the PlayStation.Blog.Europe, Jem Alexander managed to wrangle up a great Q&A with Final Fantasy XIII Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Motomu Toriyama.

Do you have any plans for Final Fantasy XIII PlayStation Home content?

It is already happening in Japan. There will be costumes for Lightning and Snow, and there’s a personal space as well as chocobo and other character figures. We don’t know at the moment whether this will be brought to Europe.

Will Final Fantasy Versus XIII have any links to Final Fantasy XIII?

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, but XIII and Versus XIII only share the same basic mythology. The fal’Cie and l’Cie are just a small part of this mythology, but the story and the characters are completely different.

Are there any games within the Fabula Nova Crystallis series that have yet to be announced?

At the moment we are concentrating on releasing Versus XIII and Agito XIII. At the moment we have no other specific plans to release any other titles as a part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series.

What made you decide to make Final Fantasy XIII a series, rather than a standalone title?

If you look back at the Final Fantasy series, at VII for example, this later let to Advent Children and Crisis Core. Also, for FFX, we created FFX-2 after its release. In those cases we obviously released the original title first and then created the sequel. This time we wanted to create several games in the same project from the outset.

Will there be an English demo?

We haven’t decided whether to make a demo available yet.

How much emphasis is placed on story and cutscenes in FFXIII? Do you feel it’s balanced with gameplay, or heavy on either side?

The basic playtime is about 50 to 60 hours, for the main story. Amongst which, the cutscenes make up about 10 hours. So, quite a large amount, with very high quality graphics, of course. So there’s plenty of story and gameplay to enjoy.

What will you be moving on to now that Final Fantasy XIII is finished?

At the moment we are still concentrating on finishing off and promoting the overseas version of Final Fantasy XIII, but many of the team have obviously accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience and they will be moved over to work on Versus and Agito. Personally, we don’t know what we’re going to move on to next.

How much sidequest content is there in XIII?

We call them “missions”, rather than “quests”. During the second half of the story, when the characters go down to a place called Pulse, there are many missions available there. In the majority of them the boss of the mission who you have to defeat, is more powerful than the main boss of the story. I’ve already told you that the basic playing time is 50 to 60 hours, but if you want to complete all the missions, the total time is probably twice that or more.

So what are the chances of a CG movie based on FFXIII, like Advent Children?

There are no plans at the moment, but once it is released over here and, if there are some particular characters or features that are received particularly well, then we might make a decision. And of course we need to see how it goes down sales-wise and regarding user reactions, first.

What are your feelings about the current state of the game industry in Japan, compared with the West and what Western games have you been most influenced by?

Some people have been saying that the Japanese game industry is dead, and all that… I dunno. I will say that Final Fantasy XIII is one really epic title for high definition consoles. With this game, we are going to resurrect the whole thing. As for Western games that have influenced us — FPSs mostly. The Call of Duty series, for example.

How do you feel about Yoichi Wada’s statement that Final Fantasy XIII will be the last game of its kind for Square Enix?

We don’t know exactly what he meant by that. We don’t really know what he meant by this style of game. If you consider that during Final Fantasy XIII’s development, at peak time the team consisted of over 300 people. It was a huge team, plus it took a several long years to get the game finished. So, if Mr Wada meant that we would never make another Final Fantasy title with the similar number of people, taking as long as FFXIII did, we would agree.

Obviously in the future we want to be much more efficient. Having worked on XIII, we feel that we have got much better at making good games for high definition consoles. In the future our teams will be smaller and more effectively run. We suspect that is what Mr Wada meant by his statement.

The God of War HD remake for the PS3 has been very popular in the US and people in Europe are very much looking forward to it. Do you have any interest in creating an HD remake of a PS1 or PS2 Final Fantasy game?

We don’t know the details about the HD remake of God of War. If it’s just a case of attaining high resolution graphics, only, then that wouldn’t be that difficult, but if we were to achieve the same graphical standard as in XIII with a PS1 title, then that would be a huge, huge task. Almost unrealistic.

Even with a PS2 title it would be difficult. In the case of God of War, there weren’t really that many characters in the game — the main character and some monsters, maybe ten people or so. That would not be unachievable. As with Final Fantasy titles in the past, like on PS1, even just the main characters amount to around 10 people. Then you have all the NPCs, you’re probably looking at about 200 characters total. All with individual textures for the skin, plus costumes, facial features and everything. That would be a really tricky job.

Will there be any New Game content in Final Fantasy XIII?

When you finish the main quest there are some growth elements of the the characters which will unlock once you’ve defeated the last boss. After this is done, you’ll be easily able to return to Pulse and take part in the many missions available there. There is no way to start the game again with your current character stats, however.

Is there a specific reason why Japanese voices were left out of the game?

For the European version, the facial expressions and lip synchronization are all lined up with the English lines, so the Japanese voices would not match up right. That was the main worry.

People are aware that there is a lot of content that has been cut from the game. Do you have any plans to use this content in the future?

You say “content” but, in reality, it’s more like “ideas”. Maybe a map was a little bit too complex and we felt like the player would get completely lost, so we simplified, or whatever. So this content won’t be coming out separately, as it has been binned.

Will there be a hard drive install available?

There is no installation, the game runs directly from the disc.

Finally, why does Sahz have a Chocobo in his hair?

What happened was, initially we only had a concept of this character being happy and jolly. Nomura designed the character and gave him an afro while, flippantly, drew a small chocobo next to him. As we looked at this, we liked the idea and the chocobo got added into the story. That’s how it happened.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Game still sounds interesting to me. But I want to hear more about VS

 

[mobius387]

Final Fantasy XIII: Complete Official Guide - Collector's Edition
On sale-- $21

amazon.com/gp/product/0307468380?ie=UTF8&tag=dealprocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307468380

this is the hard cover edition. very nice if you are a collector and a GREAT price.

 

[jefXfree]

Final Fantasy XIII: Your Questions Answered

Earlier in the week, we told you we’d be meeting up with Square Enix to talk Final Fantasy XIII with Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Motomu Toriyama, along with the Battle Director Yuji Abe. So all your questions went to the former, which you can read in full form below.

But the FFXIII love fest didn’t end there. With the game less than a month away (March 9!), Jeff and I got to play a nice chunk of the game…enough to get familiar with the battle system to chat all about it with Mr. Abe. In the video, you’ll get an in-depth look into the game’s battle system, which I have to say, once you understand it, it’s quite intense.

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PSB: With western RPGs becoming so popular, how were you influenced in Final Fantasy XIII to encompass all audiences?

Kitase/Toriyama: No games were a direct influence in particular, but we definitely looked at the FPS genre and other Western games to incorporate more speed and increase the pace of gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII. In terms of the FPS genre influence, the story progression of FFXIII is very similar to that (FPS) genre in the sense that different challenges and situations are presented to the character one after the other. That’s how they progress in the storyline.

PSB: Of course, there are a lot of North Americans that imported the game. What do you say to those who say the game might be too linear? Does the accusation bother you?

Kitase/Toriyama: The earlier part of the game was intentionally created to be a linear experience because we wanted to make the experience similar to a movie or drama where players really get to know the characters and what is behind their actions.

And also, since this is a brand new system for FFXIII, we wanted to take the correct steps to make sure players can control that system at will. So it is a surprise that so many people are commenting that the game is linear, but once you get into the area of Pulse in the game , it’s much more of a free world and the battle system really comes to life. And once you have a good idea of how to control it, you can go full force and it should be a completely different experience.

PSB: Do you think that the idea of RPGs from the 80s and 90s being wide open is a dated stereotype?

Kitase/Toriyama: There’s sort of a template to the RPG system, traditionally, where players would go to the town and find out information through text, leave town to fight monsters and then come back to town and buy health and items, etc. FFXIII didn’t really look for some sort of template to follow, but we tried to go out and create and set a new trend for RPGs. So there isn’t really a thought to stick to tradition.

PSB: How long would a play-through of the game with missions take?

Kitase/Toriyama: As far as hours, of gameplay…if you play straight through the story it would be about 60 hours of gameplay. But if you decided to play through all the missions, it would be, well, basically eternity. It could last forever. The enemies in the Pulse area are much stronger, as well, so there’s lots of replay value there.

PSB: What is the native video resolution and audio format on the PS3?

Kitase/Toriyama: Final Fantasy XIII runs in 720p and Dolby Digital 5.1.

PSB: Final Fantasy traditionally chooses a song to accompany the game. Why did you go with Leona Lewis in the Western version instead of a traditional Japanese artist?

Previous FF titles brought over the Japanese songs to the Western versions of the game, but we felt that with a song that’s sung in a language that’s understandable to North American or European users, it would bring the game closer to the player and depart from the idea that Final Fantasy is a game that comes from overseas. Overall, it would tighten the relationship between the player and the game, so that’s why we decided to go with an English theme song.

PSB: Are they any plans for PlayStation Home integration with FFXIII in North America?

As you know, there’s some activity in the Japanese PlayStation Home but for North American activities, things are still in the planning stages and there’s nothing confirmed at this time.

PSB: How does Final Fantasy XIII compare to the First Final Fantasy game that you worked on?

(Toriyama): The first FF game I worked on was FFVII, and similar to XIII, it was a title that brought a drastic series as a whole (moving also from the Nintendo platform to PlayStation), the graphics were extremely renewed and different, so there was a huge jump there. For FFXIII, it’s the first time the series is coming to high-def consoles, and the graphics are so high-quality that you can express very detailed expressions and emotions.

PSB: So did you see a lot of the same challenges with FFXIII that you saw with Final Fantasy VII?

Kitase/Toriyama: The challenges were different because with FFVII, the team was in the dark and 3D graphics were so new that they really had to figure things out from scratch. So they got a hold of the 3D technology with VII, and fined tuned it for X, so with XIII, it’s kind of going along the same path. The team already has this knowledge and skill to work on 3D graphics, but of course with XIII things are so much more polished and the level of the CG movies are on par with movies. The team is really looking to inspiration for movies for comparison points for FFXIII. So the challenges were different for both games.

PSB: What did you learn from working on your first high-definition Final Fantasy game?

Kitase/Toriyama: One thing that the team, and especially the art team can take from the experience of developing FFXIII to future titles is the CG tech, especially the textures for the characters. For previous gen consoles, the art was essentially drawn and it was more of illustration work. But for FFXIII, a lot of CG tech was involved and getting the art and texture of the skin right was a key component for FFXIII…definitely something that the team will take to future titles.

And of course every developer is really looking to make their characters and worlds look as realistic as possible, but we wanted to go one step behind and evoke emotion through the characters. The shine of the lip or the look of the stockings can evoke a sexual tension. The same goes for the male characters…we want the fans to think they are cool, and they are more than just a game characters.

PSB: What was it like working on the PS3 for the first time?

The PS3 is definitely a spectacular machine and the team was really able to realize its visions for the characters and graphics, and at the same time, were able to have big onscreen battles going on. The PS3 hardware was something that really helped envision the game.

PSB: I heard there was content removed from the original game? Could it possibly resurface as DLC?

Kitase/Toriyama: Regarding the DLC content, we feel that the final product is 100% enjoyable…it’s the complete package. So we’re not planning any DLC at this time. In regard to the rumored cut content, we feel it was taken out of context. There are a lot of ideas that are brought to the table, and then the team takes the best ideas out of those, and the final product is polished that way. There was content that were “ideas” that didn’t make the final content, but the team isn’t looking to release that as downloadable content.

PSB: In FFXIII, it seems like there’s a movement toward more realistic characters. What’s the direction you’re going with these particular characters?

Kitase/Toriyama: There is definitely a conscious movement toward depicting emotion and realism for the characters. The team wants to create characters that mature audiences can relate to, as well.

PSB: Any news on Agito or Versus?

Kitase/Toriyama: No set date yet, so you can keep on the lookout for new information. And though we can’t really go into detail, a quick overview of the status of development; 100-200 staff members from FFXIII are now finished with the game, and all the people that have been working on it, they have all this knowledge of PS3 tech (and PSP) and they can bring it to these different teams and the development speed will probably increase.

 

[jefXfree]

No DLC in the works for FFXIII, says Square

Final Fantasy XIII’s Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama have poured cold water over any hopes of seeing downloadable content for the eagerly awaited JRPG, describing the final product as the ‘complete package.’

A quote from one of the pair (it isn’t made clear who actually divulged the info) from a recent interview reads: “Regarding the DLC content, we feel that the final product is 100% enjoyable… it’s the complete package. So we’re not planning any DLC at this time.”

Elsewhere, they also addressed rumors of content that was supposedly cut from the final game, stating such claims were taken out of context: “In regard to the rumored cut content, we feel it was taken out of context. There are a lot of ideas that are brought to the table, and then the team takes the best ideas out of those, and the final product is polished that way.”

“There was content that were ‘ideas’ that didn’t make the final content, but the team isn’t looking to release that as downloadable content.”

This isn’t the first time DLC has been mentioned for the game. Kitase first touched on the subject back in December, stating there would be no DLC for the Japanese launch of the title. Since then we’ve heard rumors that it was under consideration, though this latest development appears to have finally put the nail in the coffin – for now, that is. Stay tuned.

 

[mobius387]

they must be tired of working on this game for the past 4 years and dont wanna put any more effort into it

how come just about every time i read something in the news about square, its disappointing news? what happened to this company???

 

[Darth]

they must be tired of working on this game for the past 4 years and dont wanna put any more effort into it

how come just about every time i read something in the news about square, its disappointing news? what happened to this company???

Just wait 'til this game comes out. I'm sure NO ONE will be disappointed. I hope.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Just wait 'til this game comes out. I'm sure NO ONE will be disappointed. I hope.

Me too

 

[mobius387]

one of the first reviews that came out gave it a 70ish out of 100

the sad thing it, if its not fabulous, ill be very disappointed after all they put us through. i expect much more now.

 

[mobius387]

Producer talks PS3/360 comparisons

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase has commented on the comparisons between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, saying the only difference is the disc number.

"The development team created the PS3 version first, of course, but they didn’t alter the content at all in order to bring it to the 360." said Kitase in an interview with GamingTarget. "It’s the exact same experience and the same gaming experience that they had set out to create is present on both the PS3 and 360 versions."

He then added: "Graphics wise as well, they’re comparable there. There’s no difference there in the experience. And, I guess the only minor difference would be the fact that for the 360 version, you have to switch out the discs every once in a while."

The game releases for both consoles next month.

connectedconsoles.com/ps3-Square-Enix-Comment-On-FFXIII-PS3-360-Comparables.cfm