Final Fantasy XIII

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.

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Zombies' Bussiness isn't Over Yet

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5 , is the fifth installment in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was developed and published by Capcom. Capcom officially announced Resident Evil 5 on July 20, 2005 and it was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and is scheduled for release on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe.

Jun Takeuchi, the game's producer, said that Resident Evil 5 will feature similar gameplay to Resident Evil 4. The player will control Chris Redfield similarly to how the player controlled Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, with the same over-the-shoulder perspective. The game's environment will also play a significant role. The Mercenaries minigame, which was featured in both Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4, will make a return in Resident Evil 5.

The game will also feature new types of enemies. The extended E3 2007 trailer revealed several sequences involving Redfield attacking hordes of fleet-footed enemies, who possessed melee weapons. Takeuchi has also stated the game's enemies will also possess human-like intelligence and awareness. Furthermore, he stated they will be different from the previous ganados. Takeuchi said that they have "greatly increased the number of weapon variations" compared to the previous games in the series, while the requisite handguns and shotguns also return.

In an interview with XBOX360ISM, Keiji Inafune stated that the game will feature some online elements. Resident Evil 5's main story mode can be played with two players, in a co-operative online mode. The feature will allow players to enter or leave anytime during the game. Players will not always stick together, and can be separated at points during the gameplay.

Trailers at Tokyo Game Show 2008, revealed an "offline co-op mode." This mode delivers the same co-op experience as offered by the online co-op mode, only with two local players controlling the action in split screen.

Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, play it with your man

Resident Evil 5's setting will have a similar feel to the film Black Hawk Down. Takeuchi added that the development team is composed of staff members who worked on the first Resident Evil. He has stated that Resident Evil 5 will be an actual sequel to the Resident Evil series. Before Takeuchi took over, the game's former producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi stated "it's safe to say that Resident Evil 5 will naturally proceed from where Resident Evil 4 left off".

In a July 2007 Famitsu interview, producer Jun Takeuchi revealed the main playable character is Chris Redfield and the game takes place roughly ten years after the events of the original Resident Evil. The story will explore Chris' life during the ten year interval between the two games. During the game's events, he is a member of a group known as Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), and sent to investigate an incident in a desert area that serves as the game's setting. Takeuchi also confirmed that a female character from the series, who is seen briefly at the end of the trailer, will appear in the game. In an online interview, Takeuchi revealed that the game's plot will be set in Africa, and will concern "the origins of the virus". He also stated one of the plot's key elements will revolve around the whereabouts of STARS and Redfield's life after the first Resident Evil game. The story is set in the fictional African country of Kijuju.

Another game trailer that was released on May 31, 2008 depicted a female character named Sheva Alomar who is an agent of the West African branch of the BSAA, who will assist Redfield. Alomar will follow Redfield, while supplying him with ammo and support. She will also be able to engage enemies, and will require the player's assistance from time to time.

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The antagonists of the game includes Chris Redfield's nemesis Albert Wesker, and a woman named Excella Gionne, a relative of the founder of the Tricell Pharmaceutical Company who operates the company's African branch. Ozwell E. Spencer, the founder of Umbrella Corp. and a key figure in the background story of the series since the original Resident Evil, will be formally introduced in the game.

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