Final Fantasy XIII is coming to Xbox 360. Square-Enix is trying to reach as broad of an audience as possible for its next epic role-playing game, which means bringing it to a Microsoft system in North America and Europe. Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase and Square-Enix corporate executive Shinji Hashimoto were in town for the announcement and IGN got the chance to sit down for a small question and answer session to go into a bit more detail than what was revealed in yesterday's larger press conference. The game is still a work in progress and so details remain slim, but we were able to wrestle a few details out of the tight-lipped developers.The first question on the floor was one to clarify how, if at all, the Xbox 360 release would affect the PS3 version. The short answer is that it won't. Final Fantasy XIII is being developed first for the PS3 in Japan, a region that won't see an Xbox 360 release. The Xbox 360 iteration is a port of the PS3 build, but Square was quick to point out that you can't say this will cause a delay of the PS3 release in America. Separate teams are working on the two versions and both are moving along on schedule. There shouldn't be a delay in any releases.
Hello there.
Previous Final Fantasy games have taken at least six months to bring them from Japan to North America, and then another six months to reach Europe. The team plans on cutting this time down considerably for Final Fantasy XIII. Because of this shorter time, there are no plans for additional content over what the Japanese original has.
Let's get it done!!!
There also are no plans to have the games be different on Xbox 360 and PS3. Nothing has been decided for sure yet, but the team is looking at ways to compress the audio and pre-rendered cutscenes that take up a lot of data without affecting the quality when bringing the game from a blu-ray format to the DVDs that Xbox 360 reads.
Several screenshots have been released at this E3 and Square has been showing a trailer behind closed doors and at press conferences to attendees. We asked for details on these characters, but Square is not ready to talk about them just yet. The only one they would go into any detail on is the girl featured prominently in the video. She's called Lightning, though that isn't her real name. The trailer often shows her alone, which was done to portray one of the major themes in the game. The game doesn't begin with a large group of people fighting together. "There's almost sort of a rejection at the beginning," says Kitase. Lightning refuses to fight alongside others at first and, "then the relationship builds from there. The trailer was crafted to portray that theme and get that message across."
Bring it on....
The trailer also showed some key words, such as cocoon and pulse. The Final Fantasy XIII series, including Versus, is based on the Fabula Nova Crystalis mythology. Pulse is a keyword that arises from the crystal mythology. Just as bridges or streets could be named after myths, Pulse is the name of a certain region in Final Fantasy XIII.
You can have the wallet, just don't shoot.
As far as the battle system goes, details are still slim. The system is called "ATB" and is said to be an enhanced version of FFXII. FFX, for those that aren't in the know, did not display the enemies on the battlefield and then teleported the player to a separate screen for the randomly occurring fights. FFXII, meanwhile, had a battle system closer to what you find in a standard MMO where the enemies can be seen in and then engaged on the same screen. Kitase says he "took the best of X and XII and created something entirely new and evolved it... there will be monsters on the field but it's a little bit different from the MMO style that XII had."
The director of the game, Toriyama, really likes to focus on story and motion. The director of the battle system, meanwhile, likes to focus on the battles and making that exciting. Kitase says that those two elements will be very well blended. "There is possibly going to be certain moments of the game where the story is very played up and players will be going in a linear direction, but then battles will also kick in at a certain point. [They're] aiming for a good balance there."
Kitase spoke briefly about the audio direction Final Fantasy XIII is taking. The team is in the midst of casting voice actors for the Japanese version right now, so there are no key names that could be given. "In the Final Fantasy series, we're always looked to find voices that match the appearance and personality of the characters best. So in that sense, we're looking for someone that is right for the image of the character and has talent in voice acting." In terms of the music, the team will start working on putting together the soundtrack after the cutscenes are finished and polished to match them properly. This hasn't happened yet, but they do have an idea on what direction the music should take. For this game, the team would like to incorporate more voices and choral work.
Kitase spoke about carrying the Final Fantasy torch and commented on how this game will be unique, yet familiar. "In the grand scheme of things, Final Fantasy XIII is probably very different and new from anything you've seen in the series before. But, everybody on the team has played XII and the previous titles and there is an unseen connection there among the series." He then went on to tell a story about a conversation with Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series. In it he asked Sakaguchi about what makes a Final Fantasy game a Final Fantasy game. Jokingly, Sakaguchi told him that as long as you have white text on a blue background, you should be fine. Final Fantasy XIII doesn't have that, but Kitase says it's still a continuation.
Hello there.
Previous Final Fantasy games have taken at least six months to bring them from Japan to North America, and then another six months to reach Europe. The team plans on cutting this time down considerably for Final Fantasy XIII. Because of this shorter time, there are no plans for additional content over what the Japanese original has.
Let's get it done!!!There also are no plans to have the games be different on Xbox 360 and PS3. Nothing has been decided for sure yet, but the team is looking at ways to compress the audio and pre-rendered cutscenes that take up a lot of data without affecting the quality when bringing the game from a blu-ray format to the DVDs that Xbox 360 reads.
Several screenshots have been released at this E3 and Square has been showing a trailer behind closed doors and at press conferences to attendees. We asked for details on these characters, but Square is not ready to talk about them just yet. The only one they would go into any detail on is the girl featured prominently in the video. She's called Lightning, though that isn't her real name. The trailer often shows her alone, which was done to portray one of the major themes in the game. The game doesn't begin with a large group of people fighting together. "There's almost sort of a rejection at the beginning," says Kitase. Lightning refuses to fight alongside others at first and, "then the relationship builds from there. The trailer was crafted to portray that theme and get that message across."
Bring it on....The trailer also showed some key words, such as cocoon and pulse. The Final Fantasy XIII series, including Versus, is based on the Fabula Nova Crystalis mythology. Pulse is a keyword that arises from the crystal mythology. Just as bridges or streets could be named after myths, Pulse is the name of a certain region in Final Fantasy XIII.
You can have the wallet, just don't shoot.
As far as the battle system goes, details are still slim. The system is called "ATB" and is said to be an enhanced version of FFXII. FFX, for those that aren't in the know, did not display the enemies on the battlefield and then teleported the player to a separate screen for the randomly occurring fights. FFXII, meanwhile, had a battle system closer to what you find in a standard MMO where the enemies can be seen in and then engaged on the same screen. Kitase says he "took the best of X and XII and created something entirely new and evolved it... there will be monsters on the field but it's a little bit different from the MMO style that XII had."
The director of the game, Toriyama, really likes to focus on story and motion. The director of the battle system, meanwhile, likes to focus on the battles and making that exciting. Kitase says that those two elements will be very well blended. "There is possibly going to be certain moments of the game where the story is very played up and players will be going in a linear direction, but then battles will also kick in at a certain point. [They're] aiming for a good balance there."
Kitase spoke briefly about the audio direction Final Fantasy XIII is taking. The team is in the midst of casting voice actors for the Japanese version right now, so there are no key names that could be given. "In the Final Fantasy series, we're always looked to find voices that match the appearance and personality of the characters best. So in that sense, we're looking for someone that is right for the image of the character and has talent in voice acting." In terms of the music, the team will start working on putting together the soundtrack after the cutscenes are finished and polished to match them properly. This hasn't happened yet, but they do have an idea on what direction the music should take. For this game, the team would like to incorporate more voices and choral work.
Kitase spoke about carrying the Final Fantasy torch and commented on how this game will be unique, yet familiar. "In the grand scheme of things, Final Fantasy XIII is probably very different and new from anything you've seen in the series before. But, everybody on the team has played XII and the previous titles and there is an unseen connection there among the series." He then went on to tell a story about a conversation with Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series. In it he asked Sakaguchi about what makes a Final Fantasy game a Final Fantasy game. Jokingly, Sakaguchi told him that as long as you have white text on a blue background, you should be fine. Final Fantasy XIII doesn't have that, but Kitase says it's still a continuation.
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