Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII is a video game that consists of 6 releases-
Seven Minutes Of Final Fantasy XIII
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E3 2009: Final Fantasy XIII X360 Demo
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Final Fantasy XIII Trailer
Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection.
Overview
Currently being developed by Square-Enix for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, Final Fantasy XIII is a highly anticipated game from this long-celebrated series of Japanese role playing games. What is known about the game and the story is extremely limited, but developers have gone on-record stating that the intention is for this game to be more action-oriented and fast-paced than previous instalments. The main goal is to create battles that are on par with some of the fight scenes found in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a CGI-animated movie set in the world of Final Fantasy VII. No release date has been given so far, and information on the game's characters and setting has been kept to a minimum. The game was initially intended to be an exclusive for the Playstation 3, but at E3 2008, Microsoft officially announced that Final Fantasy XIII is indeed coming to the Xbox 360 as well, and is going to be simultaneously released with the PS3 version both in the United States and Europe. The game however, is still proclaimed as a PS3 "exclusive" in Japan.
Final Fantasy XIII is the major title in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, along with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. None of the games, however, are directly related to each other, nor are they in the same universe either. Motomu Toriyama is confirmed to direct and write the game's overall storyline, while Tetsuya Nomura will be leading the character designs. Masashi Hamauzu will be one of the main composers for Final Fantasy XIII, and will be working alongside Nobuo Uematsu for the theme. The game is set in a futuristic world called Pulse, and is filled with dangerous creatures that freely roam the land. It also features a utopian society that is secluded and shut from the dangerous world that it lives on.
Square-Enix later announced during their DKΣ3713 event that the Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray will include a demo disc of Final Fantasy XIII for the Playstation 3, and is set to be released around March 2009. The demo is also being planned for territories outside of Japan, although any information of that and of an Xbox 360 demo is yet to be confirmed. Famitsu Magazine revealed that the demo will be over 90 minutes long and will be on a separate Blu-ray disc.
Characters
Lightning: The Main Protagonist
The full cast of Final Fantasy XIII is yet unknown. The following characters have been shown in trailers and screenshots of the game, along with other released information.
Lightning ( Raitoningu) is a young woman previously associated with the Cocoon military, who has been given a task by a Crystal. The two yellow stripes on the her left shoulder symbolise her Rank and Social status. Lightning has long strawberry-blonde hair and is 178cm tall. For her design, character designer Tetsuya Nomura was asked to create a "female version of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII". During development, he has described her as "not very feminine". Lightning wields a combination of a gun and a sword and has buttons on her finger tip and thumb which can be used to manipulate gravity. She is voiced by Watanabe Akino
Snow Villiers: Mr. 33 cm
Oerba Dia Vanille: The woman from Pulse
Sazh Katzroy: The Bro with the Cho in his Fro
Hope Estheim: The Tragic Youth
A fifth playable character is a young. silver-haired boy named Hope Estheim who lost his mother during a purge and becomes a main hero of the game. His mother, a woman who fought alongside Snow, ultimately ends up dead and it leaves Hope less than happy with Snow as a result. As Hope comes to fight alongside our heroes, he is consoled by Vanille after his mother's death. The weapon in which Hope uses is a boomerang, which he uses to take aim at foes from a distance and allows for the possibility of multiple hits.
Team Nora:
In the Jump Festa 2009 trailer, three more characters who are part of Snow's resistance group "Team Nora" are seen in the hijack of the captives' train:
Maqui is a member of Team Nora, and he uses a machine gun as his main weapon. Character designer Nao Ikeda describes Maqui as an introverted character, but now idolizes Snow, and tries to mimic the way Snow dresses.
In a trailer at the DK Sigma 3173 event in Tokyo in 2008, two antagonistic characters were featured: a high-ranking female commander with knee-length blond hair and glasses who interrogates the captive Vanille in the trailer, and an intimidating man wearing his hair up in a ponytail, who leads the Cocoon army.
Development
Final Fantasy XIII was first shown at the 2006 E3 convention. Along with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the PlayStation Portable game Final Fantasy Agito XIII, Final Fantasy XIII is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII project, but none are a prequel or sequel of the other instalments. Square Enix explained that although all three games take place in the same universe, they are not directly related in terms of story. The game runs on the Crystal Tools engine, a seventh generation multi-platform game engine built by Square Enix for its future games. The engine and the game were originally slated to be used with the PlayStation 2 but were later moved to the PlayStation 3.
Several of the game's developers have worked on previous instalments of the series. Motomu Toriyama, director of Final Fantasy X-2 and director and scenario writer of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, will direct the game and write the story. Eiji Fujii, previously the movie director of Final Fantasy XII, will return in this position. Isamu Kamikokuryō, previously the co-art director of Final Fantasy XII, will return as well, with Tetsu Tsukamoto designing the weapons. The main programmers will be Kazumi Kobayashi and Yoshiki Kashitani. Occasionally, developers from Final Fantasy Versus XIII assist with the development of Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy X 's battle director Toshiro Tsuchida will return as the battle system director for the game. He intends on giving individual enemies their own personalities and background stories. He chose not to comment when asked whether players will input commands for individual party members or control will be limited to the current party leader. Final Fantasy X 's co-composer Masashi Hamauzu will be scoring the game, with former regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu providing the main theme.
Changes from the Demo to the Final Release
- Toriyama says that all frame-rate dropping issues seen in the Demo will be fixed, for the Final Release.
- The difficulty will be drastically increased. Toriyama goes on to say, it's expected that Final Fantasy XIII will be the most difficult Final Fantasy game ever crafted.
- Party Members are completely AI/CPU controlled, in the Demo. In the Final Build, the Player will be able to issue Party Members commands to follow as well as have an interface for managing them.
- Continuing your Chain is not important to finishing the Demo of Final Fantasy XIII. However, in the Final Release of the game, it will be absolutely vital to conduct Chains.
- In the Demo, if the very first hit of a Chain ends up killing-off an enemy, the attacking Character will continue attacking the air for the duration of the Chain Combo. This will be changed in the Final Release, so that the Character will stop attacking.
- The classic Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare Music is not present in the Demo, but it will be in the Final Build (Victory Poses are still currently under consideration).
- Subtitles will be added to the Final Release, for NPC's, where there is only voice in the Demo.
- In the Demo, all enemy encounters come from the front. However, in the Final Build there will be different encounter types, like from the back and/or being surrounded.
- The Levelling System was not in the Demo and will make it's appearance in the Final Release.
- In the Final Release, the Player will be able to add Segments to the Time Gauge, through the Character Growth System. In the Demo, the Time Gauge currently maxes-out at 3, with no way of increasing it.
- In the Final Release, the "TP Bonuses" acquired after battle will mean something. These are related to Summons, which will also be usable in the Final Release, as they are not in the Demo.
- The Final Build will have Command Shortcuts and also an "Item" Command, which is missing in the Demo.
- The Final Build will have a more streamlined targeting system, in battle, than the Demo did.
- Snow Villiers is weapon-less in the Demo Version, and attacks with punches and kicks. He will, however, have weapons in the Final Release.
- Sazh Kalzroy's battle animations are currently undergoing an altering, of sorts, and will be more "jolly" in the Final Release and less "bizarre" as in the Demo.
Release
Due to the frequency of rumoured release dates appearing on the Internet, Square Enix's official website issued a statement reminding consumers that any "confirmed release dates" reported by sources other than Square Enix are "erroneous and should be disregarded". During Microsoft's media briefing at the 2008 E3, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be released first in Japan on PlayStation 3 in 2009, then released in North America and Europe on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The latter would start development only after the Japanese PlayStation 3 version is completed, and could possibly come on multiple discs. A Japanese release of the Xbox 360 version of the game is not planned. At the DKΣ3713 Private Party event in August 2008, Square Enix announced that a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII will be included in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete (due for release in March 2009 in Japan) on Blu-ray Disc for PlayStation 3, along with new trailers of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The demo will see a limited release, subject to the initial shipments of the Advent Children package.
Gameplay
An 'Overclock Mode' is added in Final Fantasy XIII's gameplay. It is present on the top right corner of the battle screen. When this gauge is full, the player can activate it and slow down time and everything else but the player who activates it. This allows the player to defeat enemies with quick precision and ease. Once Overclock Mode is activated, however, a timer inside the circular gauge begins to count down, which means this mode has a certain time limit and can be only used for a brief period of time.
Summons also return in the game but it seems that they will play a role inside and outside of battle. For example, outside of battle Shiva can transform into a motorcycle. The Party system also returns, allowing full control of all the characters, unlike the gambit battle system present in Final Fantasy XII.
Judging from magazine scans, it is possible to evade as well as counter attack. Lightning's weapon can morph into other weapons like a gun into a blade. You can score multiple hits on an enemy and the enemy can hit multiple targets. You can hit multiple targets at once using special attacks or weapons. You can store multiple commands and execute them at once. There is no MP in the game, instead each attack has a certain number of uses or requires charging to use. The game transitions from field view to battle view seamlessly. You can see enemies on the field and warning signs appear on enemies that have spotted you. There is a chain as well as a break bonus in the game, details are unknown. You can visibly see the name and HP of enemies in battle.
Battle System
Lightning is up against a large size “Heavy Attack Manasvin” made by the Holy Government. The machine is being used for patrol as well and the massive looking laser attack seems deadly. Its various parts suggest a wide variety of attacking options.
Command Stock: Players select the “Action” (the five buttons near the bottom left of the screen) they would like to use, which is then moved to the Command Stock slots (three slots above the Action buttons) to be executed in turn. Some “Action” buttons seem to have several layers behind them, which means you’ll have more than five actions to choose from.
Enhanced ATB (Active Time Battle): The bar underneath Lightning’s name indicates that the game will be using ATB system, where players can perform various actions before it’s empty. However, ATB in FFXIII is a little different and can be controlled by the players as it is affected by the kind of commands being executed in the Command Stock. Commands with larger “Cost” will drain the bar faster compare commands with lower “Cost”.
Symbol Encounter: Enemies are visible on the map and there will be no battle screen transition.
Enemy’s HP: Unlike previous games, the enemies’ names and their HP are displayed.
Plot
Only a few pieces of the story have been released. The game will feature a woman that is code-named Lightning. She has limited control over gravity and a weapon that can transform from a sword into a semi-automatic rifle. The game is set in a world called Pulse, which is full of aggressive life forms. The Crystals return in XIII, and they create a floating city called Cocoon for humans to take refuge and they contains millions of inhabitants. Players will also encounter Fal'Cie, higher beings who execute the will of the Crystals, and l'Cie - humans who have been chosen to obey the Crystals as well . The people of Cocoon choose their "l'Cie" who carry out missions for them. Lightning, Snow, and, Oeba Dia Vanille are all I'Cie and they have the ability to communicate with the Holy Government through "Vision". It seems that even the l'Cie are not clear of their missions. It is possible that the world of Cocoon and Pulse are at war with each other. The people of Cocoon seem to be afraid of the world underneath them (Pulse). The Holy Government evoke the right to take anyone from Cocoon and remove them for being "a bad influence"Holy Government Army
Links
| Game Name | Final Fantasy XIII |
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| Original US Release |
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| Aliases |
FFXIII FF13 Fabula Nova Crystallis |
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