Final Fantasy XIII

[Newtype]

Put that in the wrong thread.

 

Here's the one thing people are forgetting.

 

The PS3 does have one big advantage that everybody seems to be forgetting.

 

Care to guess what that advantage is.

[The NZA]

 

CELLL POWWAARRRR

[Newtype]

Close but no.

[The NZA]

 

lotta screenshots cropping up for this one....

 

first batch

 

high quality shots

 

so uh, im not sure if there's a price on it yet, anyone else buying the Advent Children blu-ray LE with the demo for this one? you know damn well its the only FF we're seeing this year.

 

 

while were at it...a look at the combat system:

 

Final Fantasy XIII is due out this year in Japan. For those who are familiar with its battle system, let's learn about it. Everyday you should learn about something, you know.

 

• Command Stock: Players selection which action they'd like to from a cluster of five "Action" slots.

• Cost: Each of these five actions has a number attached to it and denote the number of slots a particular action requires.

• Enhanced ATB (Active Time Battle): This refers to the bar under Lightning's name (the one with "444"). Players can perform various actions before it is empty. Commands with higher "Cost" drain the ATB bar faster.

• Symbol Encounter: Enemies appear on the game's map. There is no battle screen transition.

• Chain & Bonus: Found at the screen's top right. "Chain" refers to the number of consecutive hits inflicted. It's not clear what "Bonus" refers to, but Famitsu thinks it's related to Final Fantasy VII's Limit Break.

• Enemy HP: The HP and names of your foes are displayed — unlike previous games.

 

...yeah, im not sure how it works either. hopefully thats a sexy way of saying "FF XII and Chrono Trigger bred this".

 

PPS some quick versus scans, for the road

[The NZA]

goddammit. we knew this, but still.

 

 

You Won't Play Final Fantasy XIII Until 2010

 

Waiting for the latest instalment in the Final Fantasy series? Great! You just keep on waiting, because Square Enix boss Yoichi "Imperial Hot" Wada has said it won't be out in the West until 2010.

 

Speaking with Reuters, Wada confirms that while the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII (which is exclusive to the PS3) will take place in 2009, the Western release - which will appear on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 - won't go down until at least April 2010.

 

Or, in a way I can put it to maximise disappointment, over a year away.

 

thanks, xbox!

[The NZA]

demo info

 

 

The 1/23 issue of Famitsu rings in 2009 with interviews with 21 developers who are slated to shake things up this year. The meatiest stuff comes from Yoshinori Ono about the FFXIII demo.

 

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase hopes to ramp up FFXIII production and that the PS3 gains more ground. The PS3, Kitase says, must have more attractive games to draw in players. Famitsu says FFXIII is the best choice, and Kitase states that he hopes so.

 

Future news on FFXIII will focus less on cutscenes and more on gameplay. When asked how long the demo is, Kitase explains that it will only let players explore "the basics" and has players try out the game's new battle system.

[Newtype]

*GASP* They take the time to show gameplay.

[The NZA]

An interesting piece on the tech end of how the game might work on 360..havent finished reading it, just thought some of you might dig it. It includes gameplay videos as well.

[Newtype]

It's funny but at this point I just don't care about this game anymore.

[The NZA]

ah, but we've not played the demo yet! anyway, anti-hype's bound to build after all this time waiting.

 

Meanwhile, new E3 trailer:

 

[The NZA]

[archangel]

wow, even in Japan they understand the potential power of tapping into the Morgan Freeman.

[The NZA]

japan notoriously doesnt know what to do with black people in games. mushroomfro there is the 10 years of progress they've made since Barret.

[gunsmithx]

game is the sex! the preview on advent childern complete was pretty cool so I have high hopes for this one.

 

Also whats wrong with afroman?

[The NZA]

eh, you know - he's just kinda in the early stages of an internet "japanese dont know what to do with black characters, so make them old and rough and comedic", he's-the-new-barret thing. its mostly GAF, not a huge cry of racism so much as looking like a bland character, but hey, i hope it turns out that he's more dynamic than his look so far.

 

i gotta get with my friend will and see if its my turn to try out his japanese FF VIII demo; should be fun looking at pretty pictures and mashing buttons and hoping for the best.

[bishopcruz]

eh, you know - he's just kinda in the early stages of an internet "japanese dont know what to do with black characters, so make them old and rough and comedic", he's-the-new-barret thing. its mostly GAF, not a huge cry of racism so much as looking like a bland character, but hey, i hope it turns out that he's more dynamic than his look so far.

 

i gotta get with my friend will and see if its my turn to try out his japanese FF VIII demo; should be fun looking at pretty pictures and mashing buttons and hoping for the best.

 

 

But isn't giant afro-man an actual regression from mister T? It's going from the early 80-s to the mid 70's. If this trend continues there might be hope though, maybe basing some FF characters on Jazz legends or something. Of course, we'll likely just get blackface.

 

STILL wish this was more like 12 in look and design, at least design, but we will see.

Edited August 8, 2009 by bishopcruz

[The NZA]

bwahaha...sadly, blackface is far more likely than, say, Bird.

 

Yeah, i originally thought the combat system was gonna reflect more of XII, but the haters are celebrating a return of some from of ATB? im lost. i thought early impressions said a happy blend of XII & Chrono Trigger? fuck, at this point, id rather just hack & slash like Tales than turn-based again.

[Newtype]

Square Enix's long in the making Japanese RPG epic Final Fantasy XIII is... well, epic. It's going to be huge, expanding beyond the confines of your standard Xbox 360 game disc. Possibly on three (possibly more) DVDs when it ships.

 

Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama said during our Q&A session today that, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be identical in content, Xbox 360 owners will at some point have to get up off the couch. He said to expect "about" three discs' worth of content, when all is said and done.

 

Toriyama says that we should expect about 40 to 50 hours worth of gameplay for the main quest, so a minute or two dedicated to ejecting, swapping and reloading probably won't mean much in the long run. Perhaps a sandwich could be made during this time period?

 

What won't be on the disc(s) for either version will be the native Japanese language track, unless you're buying the Japanese version. Anyone hoping for a dual-language voice over option will be sorely disappointed.

 

Toriyama also indicated that the team is still working on compressing the game's data—and that the game isn't yet complete—so plans may change.

 

[The NZA]

What won't be on the disc(s) for either version will be the native Japanese language track, unless you're buying the Japanese version. Anyone hoping for a dual-language voice over option will be sorely disappointed.

 

id love this one day, but realistically, we're not there yet - even with blu-rays. fuck, i want my jrpgs to allow quicksaves as a new standard, but that's another rant.

 

ok so if 360 gets 3 discs, whats that magnificent looking collection in the picture above? that's one helluva LE if anything.

[Newtype]

id love this one day, but realistically, we're not there yet - even with blu-rays. fuck, i want my jrpgs to allow quicksaves as a new standard, but that's another rant.

 

ok so if 360 gets 3 discs, whats that magnificent looking collection in the picture above? that's one helluva LE if anything.

 

A mock up of how many DVDs it would take to play FF XIII on the 360.

 

The question that still has yet to be answered if the game would required to be installed per disk on the 360 or if the PS3 install is going to be like MGS4.

[The NZA]

i honestly hope nothing installs like MGS4 did. id rather have the option of "dump @#$%in 10 gigs on the drive and install once" than some interlude to the next act shit...the only good thing about that was "keep ya waiting?", which i swear needs to be a dynamic wallpaper for PS3 when 3.0 comes out.

 

ps im getting the ps3 version but id buy that mockup for the book.

[The NZA]

there's our north american box art, one on the right - i like it. far more subtle than what we got in years past (think VIII).

 

 

also, the special edition PS3 looks gorgeous; again, that's how you do a casemod. id be tempted to skin mine that way if it wasnt the old style.

 

 

and yeah, in case you didnt guess it: the soundtrack is monstrous.

[Iambaytor]

Is the Japanese language track really that important? Final Fantasy XII had some of the best voice acting I've ever heard and I'd hate to think that one day down the road I would be deprived of Fran-like dulcet tones just because nobody wanted to hear Tidus and Yuna laugh again. (Seriously, I would pay that woman to come read me a bedtime story every night.)

[The NZA]

yeah, XII raised the bar on voice-acting and i dont expect it to suck again. i tend to think id use the japanese audio with subs the first time through mostly cause its the original language, but this is one of the series' id have to ask around about first - i mean, i got nothing against it but japanese metal gear doesnt sound half as awesome to me. its cool to have the option though, where its feasible.

[spiffytee]

oh cool, now we can debate on sub vs dub in a videogame.

 

oy vey!