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Jagged · 05:15 AM

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New Trailer Details:

Quote:

TGS 2007: Final Fantasy Fabula Nova Crystalis Trailer Impressions
A quick glance at the three 13's.

by Charles Onyett

September 19, 2007 - At TGS 2007 in a closed-doors trailer screening Square-Enix ran two incredibly detailed trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII, as well as one for Agito, the mobile version. FFXIII is the PS3-only RPG, and the footage shown was mostly CG, and it filled in some more details about the game world and the characters you'll likely play as. In addition to the gun wielding heroine we've seen in previous screens and footage, this new trailer revealed a brunette with a bow, some kind of cybernetic female that seemed to be partially comprised of water, and a guy with a cap that rides a motorcycle. As with most Square-produced CG sequences, there were a lot of close-ups on the characters as they smirked knowingly before launching into an attack.

Though the video started with the train sequence we've seen a few times now, it eventually revealed a stunning canyon vista where hulking dinosaur-like creatures lumbered in sparkling waters under what appeared to be a planet in the sky dripping ice. The little snippets of gameplay shown featured some fast-paced combat, showing what appeared to be a character turn order sequence in the top left of the screen. Few story details could be gleaned from the trailer, except that it will again involve crystals. But such a notion is already built into the title. No release date was given.

The Versus trailer had less of an epic presentation, but was still impressive. It featured the grey-haired main character descending a staircase outside a stately looking building in a dismal metropolis. He was getting shelled by armored guards at the bottom of the steps but deflecting their bullets with some kind of magical shield. Cut between the action sequence where he decisively sliced them all up with his sword were scenes with a white robed sage overseeing some kind of magical device, and a sword-wielding female character dressed in a skirt. Also shown was a male character in a vest armed with a short gun. He and the grey-haired character appeared to be comrades, as they took a car trip together out of the city into a desert wasteland featured near the trailer's end. No gameplay was shown during the demo, but it did flash a line of text, "this is a fantasy based on reality," whatever that means. Again, no release date.

For Agito, a CG trailer showed a student at some kind of fantastical school activating a crystal-powered device, which subsequently exploded. The trailer was brief, but it appears to incorporate a large host of students as playable characters.

The "cybernetic woman" the article is refering to is the "2 Shivas" by the way.

High Quality screens can be found here:
Final Fantasy XIII en images

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Jagged · 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by INDIGO-1

Okay, Square Enix needs to lay off the Random Latin Name generator, because who's parents in their right minds would name their kid Noctis? Sounds like a venereal disease.

At least Stella is a real name.

Same could be said of Terra, Cloud, Squall and tons of other RPG names. It's not like we don't have weird names in real life anyway, and hey it's better than EDGE MAVERICK and FATE LINEGOD.

As far as the Zipperglove is concerned, I'm just not seeing the big deal about it I guess. Ever Artist generally has some odd fashion design (Yoshida's Ass pants, Amano's beads and pale skin and black lipstick anyone?

Jagged · Dec 17, 2008, 09:15 PM

New Scan, showing off a new character and the Battle System:

Gamekyo : Final Fantasy XIII new screenshots

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Jagged · Dec 18, 2008, 02:49 AM

I'm refering to girl who's named either Olva, Wolva, or Volva Dia Vanilla according to some translations. That armored guy seems to be just a minor/generic baddie looking at his dialogue.

Anyway some awesome concept art:

Prospective Previews: Even More Final Fantasy Madness Blame The Lag

I was speaking idiomatically.

Jagged · 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by a lurker

Volva would be an unfortunate transliteration.

lol, yeah.

New stuff has surfaced now, source is NeoGAF.

Quote:

Apparently this trailer stars a new male character who has a "shota" like nature. We'll be expecting another feminine character as per usual.
There is supposed to have been new never seen before battle footage with Snow fighting. They're defending Vanilla.
They summon Shiva during the battle shown. She freezes them using Ice magic and then runs them over in her motorcycle form.

Quote:

Battles are seamless.

Some new girl, has a bob cut style haircut? oriental style appearance. Seems to take a bit from Rikku in 10-2, that's the feeling she gives off anyway.

A lot of other characters are on screen too.

Lightning working on planning a prison break from where they're being kept; a restraint holding them from entering the main area of the Cocoon?. Lightning is planning it and Snow is taking leadership of the operation

Lightning is in a straight jacket or something. I think this is where it breaks into the original footage when they're on the train and she takes out some of the Cocoon soldiers.

Snow is talking about his ambition to protect Sera and the people of the world but apparently, according to Lightning, Sera has already been captured by the Fal'Cie.

Because of this Lightning belts Snow
Lightning: You didn't protect her! did you! < or something like that

Snow: therefore I came to help!

Lightning puts down her fists.

They show the battle here.
The battle is as flashy as it has been previously mentioned in small amounts in interviews etc.
The quickness and motion in the battle is the most furious and heated FF has ever seen. They were thinking along the lines of FF7AC style it seems.

Shows a bit of the command, jumping is in the game as said previously but the writer of the blog says he was unable to tell how it happened.

In the Cocoon there is a warning voice being projected. It was hard to hear what was being said over the noise of the music etc.

Event scene:

Snow and Lightning help someone being taken away by a solider? Snow takes a Bazooka like weapon from a downed Soldier and delivers a counter attack.

By the way, Snow gives a machine gun to someone, the suspect being taken by the soldiers? She introduces herself as Vanilla.

Another battle, snow summons shiva and freezes stuff then completely destroys them all.

By the way, all voices are in the trailer now, for each character.

People in theater went nuts when the trailer was over clapping, shouting etc.

V-Jump Scan with "pig tailed girl" official name, more battle and real-time cutscene shots:
http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/2008/12...reenshots.html

Jump festa is a two day event, so we might get even mord detailed info FFXIII soon.

EDIT:

Here much more detailed description of trailer, looks like we get our first Black man since FFVIII:

Quote:

As for the new characters..

I would not call the big new male character's hairstyle an afro, but his hair does look like somebody put a tube over his head and then his scalp exploded, permanently frying his hair up in fine DBZ fashion. It's not long and ridiculously spiky, though. Just... exploded. His hair is VERY orange, and he either has it shaved into thin zig zag shave patterns on the sides of his head or he has a lot of tiny zig zagging braids there. He appears to be wearing a frayed or fur trimmed blue vest and is pretty clearly black. He is wearing off-white to khaki colored long shorts with simple gold patterns on them. He also has a silver necklace with a rectangular, flat silver pendant, wide sides horizontal. He's present mostly in the prison break scenes, helping Snow and the other new male and female characters, although he is the only character I was able to identify for sure on the train with Lightning before she broke out.

As for the younger new male, the first thing that came to my mind upon seeing him was Gippal, probably because of his blond hair and main colors pink and black outfit. He wears goggle-like headgear on his forehead. He does not look 'shota' to me, but he does look young compared to Lightning, Snow and big black new dude. He is blond. He looks to be older than pigtails girl by a couple years. He does talk with an affect. For people who know some Japanese, he tacks 'sska' onto the end of 'ja nai ka' questions to make 'ja nai sska' and 'ja nai ssu'. I don't know exactly the real life implications of the affect, whether its regional, age or culture, but it does exist in real Japanese speech. He seems to often have complaints about situations and courses of action, but help out regardless.

New female character reminds me of Yuffie a little, but her hair is at least shoulder length and appears to be tied back. She does not appear to be very patient. She has a purplish butterfly tattoo visible on her shoulder from the back. I think it's her right shoulder. Her outfit's colors are yellow, white and purple. She is wearing a very short, ruffled layered yellow skirt. She shows considerable amounts of skin compared to Lightning and Vanille. She's also wearing something like knee high fishnet socks. I believe she is shown using a gun.

As for what's happening in the actual trailer, there seems to be two separate parts being told at the same time.

First, there is Lightning rescuing Oerba Dia Vanille on a train with the three new characters and Snow. This scene takes place in the very green colored area with all the train tracks suspended in the air, visible in this image.

I'm not sure about the trailers' order of shown events, as both covered similar events while including different scenes, but the story follows this way..

Lightning and the new black character are on the prisoners' train, dressed in the same white outfits we have seen Oerba Dia Vanille wear when she is captured. They are sitting with several other prisoners. All of them are restrained by some kind of force from the wrist areas of the clothes they are wearing. They talk quietly and briefly to each other, and suddenly the train hits what appears to be some kind of force field barricade set up on its tracks, and begins to run out of control. Lightning jumps out to attack and crushes a remote control-like device with her foot, releasing all the prisoners from their hand bindings. Lightning waves her hand past her hip and begins to generate what looks like an electrical field around herself but appears to be connected to her gravity based abilities.

The large dragon-like flying beasts we have seen before attack the out of control train, seemingly in an attempt to stop Lightning from hijacking it. She shoots at them from the train with a large bazooka-like gun. Eventually they knock the train off its tracks.

The fighting ends up outside, where all the other new characters plus Snow join in. They have a lot of help in the form of what appears to be a small rebel force, armed with what appear to be standard, bullet-firing guns of fair power. Some of the train rails have been destroyed by the fighting, and the rebels assisting Lightning and company are entrenched in the rubble.

The people who escaped the train when Lightning broke out want to help them fight, and eventually Snow consents to letting them figh to. Among the escapees is Oerba Dia Vanille, who Snow gives a gun to. She takes it, pretends to aim it at an enemy, and says "Bang!"

The fighting seems to get worse, and a heavily armored enemy airship arrives. It blows away a good portion of the resisting fighters with one cannon blast, and Snow is knocked off the train rail while attempting to rescue another fighter and falls from view.

The scene changes to Lightning on a platform with a character who does not appear to be a main playable character by lack of remarkable clothing (His name is possibly Sazzu by the menus). The other character is a male in very plain clothing, although he appears to follow her around for some time as she moves and fights, possibly a guide character.

Lots of fight scenes are strung together, seemingly more for the purpose of showing off the battle menues than carrying the story forward, as eventually it breaks off to the second main storyline focus area: Lightning, Snow and Vanille in the frozen-looking lake area.

There are scenes of them fighting both monsters and soldiers there, and at one point Snow summons Shiva and uses her in battle to attack. Among his menus when using Shiva are attacks called "Diamond Dust" and "Engine". The attack he performs causes damage in many separate increments. In a scene we've seen in magazine scans, Vanille mentions she has seen "that" before, she thinks, although what "it" is is unclear.

Depending on which trailer you're watching, a dialogue about someone named Sera plays either over a scene near the battle at the train tracks area or in lip synch between Lightning and Snow in the frozen lake area, where Snow mentions Sera and Lightning becomes angry at him for not saving Sera, claiming it was his fault that whatever happened to her happened. Snow seems to believe that he can still save her, but Lightning thinks nothing can be done about it anymore. She hits him twice, and both appear to be near tears. He stops her with something he says about what he thinks he can do. (I believe she asks "What is it you think you can do, huh?" in regards to how to save Sera and he replies "Anything!")The blue golem-like creatures are present during some of the voice over conversation. It seems they are somehow connected to what happened to Sera. (Sorry, I'm fairly unsure about the goings on outside the train fighting scenes).

Throughout the train section of the trailers, many, many charactes are shown, most of whom appear to be rebel fighters and escapees from the train, but I've only described in detail the ones who have been seen in gameplay combat or who have unique clothing.

At some point in time (it's shown at the beginning of a trailer, but I can't pin it down chronologically), Vanille is shown standing outside in her white hooded ohtfit in the green-lit train area, and she mentions the "beginning of the end of the world."

The large green creature/statue like object in the first linked image also features quite prominently in the trailer, but I'm not sure what it is or what it means. In the version where talk of Sera is dubbed over the train scenes, it appears quite often while the conversation plays.

Skecth of the new female character from 2ch:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=2057

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Jagged · Jan 9, 2009, 09:13 PM

There's some new screens on the site, as well as two songs that play. The trigger seems to be random.

FELIPE NO

Jagged · Apr 4, 2009, 09:50 AM

Dengeki Interview

Yoshinori Kitase (Producer)

Quote:

The Characters that Paint the Story
---Being the first SE title for the PS3, there's no doubt that the demo arriving later this month is garnering world wide attention. With the upcoming demo, what are your thoughts, currently?
Kitase: The demo master was finished around december last year. Thus, this demo should be played with the understanding that it is "FFXIII" as it was in 2008. Playing the demo will probably get gamers to thinking "I wonder if this is how the story is going to unfold in the full version?" and hopefully will increase the anticipation they currently have for the game even further. On that note, the final version is progressing very nicely. We're on the final stretch of development for various aspects.

---With the announcement of the demo, a lot of character information has been announced. First off, Lighting. She's the first female protagonist of this series right?
Kitase: If you look only at Lightning's design, she comes off as a cool woman; essentially the type of woman that a lot of men would have a problem handling. But with Sakamoto Maaya voicing her role, I believe a lot of nice femininity has been brought out of Lighting. Because Lightning is a swordsman, it was difficult balancing her modeling. We didn't want her to be too frail looking, but at the same time, we didn't want to make her a muscular macho either.

---So in the demo, you can also control Snow, but anything to say about his design?
Kitase: His character was pretty difficult as well. We originally wanted to make him a athletic nut that yells all the time with the personality of a delinquent ring leader. From there, we left behind the immature belligerent aspect, and worked on evolving the "big brother" aspect of him. Ono Daisuke's voice is perfect for Snow as well.

---What about Sazh, who's garnering quite a bit of attention from all over?
Kitase: We had a pretty easy image of him from the begining (lol). Just that, in general, he appears to be positive and upbeat, but as the story progresses, we come to realize that he's carrying some weight of his own on his shoulders. Because of that, we decided to ask a veteran voice actor, Ehara Masashi, to play his role. He did a lot of ad libbing, and seems like he really got into the role.

---Finally Vanille. She appears to have a story telling role as well?
Kitase: This title's story progresses with Vanilla's narration being sandwiched in between. In the past, we've had girls who've been upbeat and active like her, but due to the fact that she has a narrative role as well, she should have an aura slightly different from similar characters from the past. Because of this, we asked someone capable of acting both sides of her character, Fukui Yukari, to voice her role.

The Demo's new Battle
---I had the opportunity to play the demo and what I found quite impressive was the change into the battle scene being so quick that it almost felt seamless.
Kitase: The game isn't seamless, but I think it's quick enough for everyone to be content with it. Seamless battles are definitely possible, but, for example, due to special attacks and polygon counts for summons due to memory, there are various limitations that are bourne from trying to go seamless. But by having the battles be independant, it is possible to be, more or less, released from those memory limitations.

---The battle is based on the Active Time Battle (ATB), but it creates a sense of speed moreso than before.
Kitase: The battle system being speedy was initially proposed by the director, Toriyama, and Tsuchida was put in charge of dropping in FFX's battle system into the game. Combining command input resulting in flashy action and using the ATB Bar as the cost to do so and wrapping that up into one system that adds the fun of strategery (yes I know it's not a real word) is something we were aiming for from the beginning of development.

---So then, it's not really so much that you can do this because of the PS3, but rather you wanted the battle system to accomplish this so you were able to achieve this?
Kitase: Yes. The first image we had of "inputting a command resulting in a gracefully flowing set of chained attacks" has essentially been systemized in the current battle system.

An Uncompromising PS3
---With FFXIII, I've heard that you're aiming for even more movie-like expression than before?
Kitase: Up until now, scenes we wanted to have a sense of real-time were done in realtime and scenes which we wanted to have higher quality and presentation atmosphere were done with CG movies. But with the PS3, expressions that could once only be done with CG movies before, can be done in real-time. Thus, we've incorporated CG movie quality scenes that are drawn in realtime.

---Indeed, the quality is so high that it's very difficult tell the two apart, even if we were told so.
Kitase: Because of that, production became more difficult (lol).

---Does that mean production methods for the event scenes and what not have changed?
Kitase: They've changed. In the past, the planner also produced the events, but now we have a section that specializes in event cuts. The amount of work required increased drastically to the point where just the planner can no longer cover all the work required.

---By developing FFXIII for the PS3, what are some aspects you think have evolved greatly?
Kitase: Probably the graphics. The huge change from PS1 to PS2 was the number of polygons which could be output, resulting in further details in character design. But going from the PS2 to the PS3, the change is even more drastic. Primarily in texture (i think?). For example, FFXIII has a character named Sazh who has an afro. When the character modelling was brought to me, I saw the quality of Sazh's afro and thought to myself that the PS3 really is different (lol)". But yeah, in reality, the afro isn't due just to the PS3, but also due to the creativity of the designer. Also, skin and fur texture is quite amazing, Chocobo's plummage and Vanilla's skirt's cloth texture...that you can actually almost get a sense of what they might feel like in your hands are some of the many things that really surprise us.

---As a designer, how, specifically, do you have to be creative?
Kitase: With 3D graphic designing, there are people who deal with specific aspects. For example, trying to design Sazh's afro as realistically as possible would be delegated to a certain group. In the case of the Afro, a person named Matsuno is in charge, but the design techniques from that may also be used in modelling grass in a plain to make it look more like a real plain. Aspects which we can't rely just on the PS3 power alone, need to be covered with our prior experiences.

---To ask the opposite, are there difficulties that cropped up because it was for the PS3?
Kitase: Up through the PS2, character modelling was very similar to being an extension of sprites, and it was important for the textures themselves to be relatively detailed. Even facial textures were used as they were being modified in photoshop. But with the PS3, realtime modelling is similar to designing a CG movie. Of particular importance is dropping in post-effects into a completed sequence. For example, the realtime effect of backlight pouring through foliage is something that can be done because we're working on the PS3. To show this as realistically as possible, these environmental effets are the most important aspect that cannot be compromised on, and simultaneously, take the most work and effort. Also, going off on a tangent, while moving around and during battles, you can move the camera around freely, but for example, grass blades, depending on angles, the polygon looks like a flat board. With the PS2, we could have said there was nothing we could really do about that, but at the PS3 level, we can't make those excuses. Because we didn't compromise on these aspects either, I believe the amount of work required increased.

---Finally, with FFXIII, how far do you think you've been able to tap into the PS3?
Kitase: Maybe about 50% in the demo? Of course by the time the final version rolls along, I believe we'll be close to 100% of the PS3's potential. Like with FFVII on PS and FFX on PS2, we're always working our hardest to use the full potential of the hardware at that point in time.

---Speaking of which, you're using Bluray now with PS3, but have you run into any storage space difficulties?
Kitase: Only as to whether we'd use a 1 or 2 layer disc, but that's about it. Add to that, with the PS3, you have a hard drive too. If anything, we struggled more with the memory aspect.

And Finally, for those waiting for the Demo and Final Release
---If you could leave a few words for the fans awaiting the demo and final release.
Kitase: The demo battle system's ATB is only showing the basic aspects so only about 50% of what will be in the final game is implemented. The story that's included is also only a very superficial part. But I think it will be a good show of what can be expected of the final product. Please enjoy the demo and I hope you will be waiting in anticipation for the full version.

MotomuToriyama (Director)

Quote:

Demo that Shows the Battle's Atmosphere
---Can we consider the battle part in the demo to be pretty close to the release version?
Toriyama: Yes. The demo's designed so you can experience the basic system in its entirety. The new Active Time Battle (ATB) sensation, I feel, can be experienced in the demo. Furthermore, this game does not have a seamless battle system like FFXII, but the change into battle is very rapid and has been designed to play with a similar sensation to a seamless system. Of course, moving out of battle is also very smooth, so from a data access/reading point of view, one should be able to play this stress-free.

---In the demo, is it the beginning of the story that's being depicted?
Toriyama: Yes. The story progresses from Lightning and Snow's viewpoint. The beginning starts with an emergency situation called "Purge", and no further information is given so you cannot make sense of the situation when you start off. It's just a very small part of the beginning of the entire game. Thus, at the conclusion of the demo, gamers will have only seen bits and pieces of the story leaving a lot of questions to be answered. We'd like for you to think about the story, but the main aspect of this demo will be to enjoy the battle system

---In regards to FF13's new ATB; the concept of chaining multiple attacks, as well as overpowering your opponent with a Break is a neat concept.
Toriyama: Chains are essentially multiple attacks strung together, and the more you chain, the more your damage goes up in relation to the chain length. Each spell and attack has a chain counter extension rate, so try all sorts of combinations to determine how to easily chain your attacks. And in regards to breaks. This will occur after you've chained a certain amount. Enemies which have been "broken" not only take more damage, but can be lifted off the ground. This is in the official trailer as well, but using this, it really makes downing an enemy exhilarating. At the end of a battle, you will recieve a rating of your battle which will result in a higher rating if you mix in chains and breaks, so please aim for that. Ideally, you would use magics in which you could increase your chain count rather easily, then once the enemy "breaks", lift it off the ground immediately. Then finish the enemy off...by doing so, you can go through the battle rather stylishly. The additional attack after lifting the enemy off the ground does more damage than normal, thus it 's important to use during a boss fight.

---Speaking of which, can any monster be lifted off the ground?
Toriyama: Actually, each moster has a weight value associated with it, so very large monsters are difficult to lift off the ground. For something like Behemoth as an opponent, it becomes important to plan your attacks to increase your chain count and fight strategically. But in the demo, we want you to have a taste of speed and exhilaration, so you can go through it without thinking too hard. From a strategic standpoing, there will be a newer and deeper system that is planned to be implemented in the final release. In the demo, just enjoy the basics of chainig various commands and realizing that different combinations will change the battle drastically.

---Characters that are rather speedy feel to have a higher difficulty associated with them compared to before
Toriyama: In the demo, the balance is a bit on the easy side, but in the final release, specifically referring to the battle, the difficulty has been raised slightly, and may be a little more easy to end up with a Game Over than before. But there's a retry command implemented that will take you to immediately before the battle so don't worry. The easier balancing is so you can try out various playstyle customizations and strategies in the demo.

The Details in Production
---Are there any scenes that you should watch out for?
Toriyama: The situation changes in realtime as yo move around. If you hear a lound noise behind you and look around, you can see a plane plummetting. Also, Sazh leads the way for Lightning at times, but when he points down towards something, please try to get to that location quickly. You will be able to see a real time battle going on.

---You can move the camera in realtime while moving around, but can you do this in battle as well?
Toriyama: Of course. You can move the camera around freely so please find a cool angle for yourself to use. During certain commands, such as lifting an enemy off the ground, the camera angle changes, so there shouldn't be any instance that makes the action difficult to see. Also, we've really worked on the details of magic spell graphics. For example, a fire based spell might leave smoke at where it landed or blizzard spells might leave shards of ice scattered about for a while.

---Is the battle music in the demo the same as that in the final release?
Toriyama: The music in the demo is planned to be used in the same scenes of the final product. On that note, the demo will not contain the standard post-battle fanfare, but in the final product, there will be a fanfare arrangement specifically arranged for FFXIII so please look forward to it. In terms of a victory pose...that's still under discussion (lol).

Secrets of the World Revealed
---What part of the Cocoon do Lightning and co. go crazy in?
Toriyama: It's the very bottom level of the spherical Cocoon. It's not really a place normal citizens would step foot into. In the image below, I think you can see water, but that's really like an underground lake. The location used in the demo uses a somewhat dark palette, but in the interior of the Cocoon, there are bright/festive(?) towns and what not.

---How is the social structure inside the Cocoon?
Toriyama: From the images, one might get the feeling that the Church's militia is supressing its citizens, but the militia acts more like the police force of the Cocoon. They're not really controlling the citizens. If anything, they take care of any monsters that infiltrate the Cocoon. Also, due to Falcie(?), a close to utopian society exists inside the Cocoon.

---Can you describe the existance of Falcie in this world?
Toriyama: Falcie is not something that cannot be seen and exists as matter. In the demo, you can verify Pulse's falcie, but this shape is only but one example. In the final release, Falcie will appear in various forms so please look forward to that.

---Do different monsters appear in the Cocoon and Pulse?
Toriyama: Divided rather largely, there are 3 types of monsters; monsters of pulse, the feral monsters inside the Cocoon, and the monsters that the church's miltia own, but the designs are all different. The monsters that the militia own are designed with over-technology, thus are a fusion of beast and machinery. In this game, monsters you're familiar with have changed greatly from a visual perspective. You've seen Behemoth in previous images, but things like Goblins that this series cannot be without are other monsters to look forward to. Well...just Sabotender (dunno what the western name is) has increased texture detail but basically still looks the same (lol).

---What's the highlight of the demo?
Toriyama: One part I'd like for you to pay particular attention to is the battle part. We've just really focused on creating a sense of exhilaration so we really want for you to have a taste of it. Upon breaking, there's a lot of information that pops up, and you might be a bit overwhelmed. First try to fight however you want to fight, and once you get used to it a bit, start taking into account the chain gauge and breaking; this will increase the strategic aspect of the game. Furthermore, if you start taking into account your party's actions, you'll be able to experience a very stylishly flowing action battle. From a story perspective, the highlight is Lightning and co.'s appearance. There's alot of heavy action right from the get go so please pay attention to it.

Further Evolution in the Final Release
---This is in regards to the battle system, but are there aspects that are not in the demo that might still be modified?
Toriyama: The command part has already gone through various iterations. With your first battle in the demo, you might have a bit of a problem trying to select the enemy or using white (holy in the west?) magic, but this has been rectified in the final product, so don't worry. We're also looking into implementing shortcut-type functions to make command accessibility easier.

---Can you command your party in detail?
Toriyama: In FFXII's gambit system, you prepared before the battle, but in FFXIII, we're thinking of how to adapt to the changing battle.

---In that regards, can you change the character you control freely in the middle of battle?
Toriyama: I can't comment on that in detail yet, but a new system will be implemented.

---We couldn't verify character growth in the demo, but it doesn't seem like character growth is going to be limited to just learning new attacks and spells?
Toriyama: Of course, characters will gain new skills and magic as they grow. Just, please wait for future information on how the characters are raised. Of course, it's not just straight levelling, but we expect to implement a some type of system as was done with the Sphere Board in FFX and Licensed Board in FFXII. Going off on a tangent, but this game's menu system is pretty amazing. I said the traditional blue background with white borders was fine, but the staff worked hard and created a completely fresh menu screen.

---Finally, with the upcoming demo release and fans awaiting the final release, if you could give them a message or 2.
Toriyama: In the demo, we've finally been able to make public the battle system, but bear in mind that it's the very basic battle system. Including what's not encompassed in the demo, the final product will have further polish. I'd like for you to enjoy the demo from both the battle and story side of the game in hopes that it'll increase your anticipation for the final release.

Confirmed VA:
Lightning: Maaya Sakamoto
Snow: Daisuke Ono
Vanille: Yukari Fukui
Sazh: Masashi Ebara

New screenshots:
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After battle you get the results/evaluation screen, in which five things are given.

Battle Time
Max number of Chains
Breaks
Rank out of five stars
TP Bonus

There's another result screen that shows exp, items, etc.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Jagged · Apr 7, 2009, 01:51 PM

OPM(UK) and Edge feature/previews:
OPM UK & Edge May 2009 Issue, feature scans - Final Fantasy XIII: News, Trailers & Screens ~ Final Fantasy-XIII.net

I don't remember Shinra, or Gabladia(sp?) fighting with monsters. Sure Hojo created some things here and there, but they were rare and never part of the company main force, and Gabladia just used machines much like FFVI's Empire.

As far all info about FFXIII has shown, I don't see much that this common with many other FF games aside from conceptual connections bewteen Lighting and Cloud. If anything the game sounding like a fusion of FFVI, CT and Xenogears than FFVII, or VIII.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Jagged · Apr 8, 2009, 04:40 PM

IGN has new info from Famitsu up, I bolded some stuff that I thought were really interesting in particular.

IGN: Final Fantasy XIII Update

Quote:

Final Fantasy XIII Update
Trophy support, frame rates and more ahead of next week's demo.
by IGN Staff

April 8, 2009 - The big Final Fantasy XIII demo is all set to hit Japan next week. But just ahead of that, Famitsu has come through with a huge update on the game via an interview with director Motomu Toriyama.

There's a whole lot of new information in the interview, but let's start off with some details on the demo. The demo is split into two parts. The first part puts you in control of Lightning, who's joined in battle by Sazh. In the second half, you take control of Snow, who's joined in battle by the Nora crew. Vanille appears in the second half as well.

As previously detailed, the demo encompasses the first hour of the game. A group of people are on a train on route to their expulsion from Cocoon after being accused of having taken influence from Pulse. Lightning arrives on the scene just as the group has started to revolt. Meanwhile, on a separate train, Snow and crew are among the to-be-purged and have started a revolt of their own.

Here's some of what you won't experience in the demo. Although Lightning and Sazh start off together, you won't learn about their relationship until a reflection scene that takes place after the events of the demo. Also, while the demo lets you play from the perspective of just Lightning and Snow, the final version will also have sequences that take place from Vanille's perspective. As you advance with one character, the game will switch to another character and you'll experience what that character has been up to. Apparently, such scenes run in parallel with one-another like one of those "Meanwhile..." transitions in a movie.

Most of the demo takes place in an area of Cocoon called "Hanged Edge" (please note that our roman form for this name could be incorrect). This area is on the border of Cocoon and has taken the most influence from Pulse when compared to other areas of Cocoon. It's a dark area, but this is apparently not indicative of the full FF world, which Toriyama describes as being bright and like a futuristic city.

The end of the demo will feature a look at a new character who appears in prison clothing. Toriyama hinted that she's an important character, but did not get into specifics.

The magazine expressed surprise with some of Sazh's motions from the demo (yes, the Famitsu editors were able to sample the demo ahead of everyone else -- see below for what they thought). Apparently, Sazh reacts with surprise from the kickback of his weapons. It turns out that he's not particularly used to battle, and ends up making a lot of unnecessary movements on the battle field.

Sazh's Chocobo may end up appearing along side Sazh during battle. This is something that Toriyama has, in past interviews, suggested might happen, and here he said that the development team is actively looking into it. One problem, however, is that the Chocobo's fur uses a "rich" rendering technique, which makes putting it into the battle system difficult.

On the note of Chocobos, there will be standard Chocobos in the game as well, Toriyama confirmed. However, they won't be used as a means for transportation.

Moving on to the battle system in general, the interview cleared up a lot of the areas that have been a mystery until now. First up, Toriyama explained that the FFXIII battle system is based around the concept of fusing strategy and action -- that is to say, adding the flash and speed of action to command-based battles.

The demo will give only a sampling of the game's strategic component via the ability to stock up commands. Another area of the strategy, which won't appear in the demo, comes from your allies. During battle, you control just one character. Your allies are controlled by AI. However, they react to the moves your character makes. The strategy here comes from figuring out how to connect with your allies and better draw out their abilities. The demo will offer a basic glimpse at this, with allies going in for follow-up attacks when you send an enemy into the air. The final version will give you better control over such things. Specifically, it seems that you'll be able to switch off freely between the characters.

We'll see just about 30% of the final battle system in the demo, explained Toriyama. The game's "Evolved ATB" system (the name for this system is currently under consideration) will show itself in only its base form. There won't be summons in the demo, although they'll be in the final. Additionally, the demo will limit you to just three move stocks, while the final version of the game will have your possible move stock increase as your character develops. The final version will also have changes to the game's menus to make it easier to input commands once you have a lot of commands at your disposal.

Toriyama also revealed something particularly surprising about the battle system. At the end of each battle, your character's HP will be totally recovered! The game is being tuned so that individual battles are tough and you won't win unless you think.

Continuing with the new revelations, Toriyama shared details on the game's chain and break systems, both of which have been only partially detailed in past updates. The goal of these two systems, said Toriyama, was to recreate some of the motions, such as launching enemies up into the air, that were seen in the 2006 E3 FFXIII trailer.

As previously revealed, as you attack enemies, you build up a gauge in the upper right of the screen. This gauge depletes with time. Perform successive attacks before the gauge reaches zero, and you'll have chained your attacks together, resulting in added damage for your blows. The gauge fills up differently depending on the type of attack, with fire magic attacks being particularly generous.

When you chain attacks, you also build up a "Bonus" percentage. When this reaches a certain percentage, your enemies will flash red and reach a Break state. The percentage required for this state depends on the enemy. The chain gauge becomes a timer gauge during Break time, indicating how much time you have left in the Break.

An enemy in a Break state takes on greater damage with every blow, but more importantly also opens itself up to some of those E3 trailer-style attacks. In the demo, this amounts to simply being able to launch your foe up into the air, signaling your allies to let loose with follow-up attacks. The final version of the game will include more options for such break moves.

As a side note, you're not alone in your ability to launch foes into the air. Enemies can do the same to you. In the demo, the Behemoth enemy will launch you up.

Once you've cleared battle, you're presented with a result screen which gives you a one to five star rating indicating your performance. To get a high rating, you need to fight efficiently and finish the battle quickly.

This star ranking system will be in the demo. A couple of points about the results screen won't make it out until the final, though. The game will have support for Trophies and other PS3 features, Toriyama revealed without getting into specifics. He also briefly mentioned that mysterious "TP Bonus" icon that has been shown in screenshots of the result screens. It has something to do with summon magic, but that's as far as he'd say.

Toriyama was even more vague about the game's character growth system. FFXIII will feature a new character development system, similar to how FFX featured the Sphere system and FFXII the License Board system.

One thing to note about character growth, however, is that you won't be able to make just anyone use magic. As part of the story, only the L'cie characters can use magic. Also, magic won't appear in the game until a bit into your adventure, although the demo has been put together to give you access from the start.

Toriyama also offered up a preview of what happens prior to battle as you move about on the fields of play. As indicated by past trailers, FFXIII's enemies are visible prior to battle. The enemies have fields of vision, and when they see you, they will attack. In the demo, all enemies in the area will proceed to join in on the attack, although in the final version, the enemies will react to you individually.
When encountering enemies, the associated effects are colored differently depending on if the enemy has spotted you or not spotted you. When you haven't been spotted prior to an encounter, you end up with a greater time gauge.

For the tech heads, the interview also shared a few technical details. The game will output at 720p and 30 frames per second. There are a few slowdown issues with the demo during battle, but these will be cleared out in the final. Also, for those with SD televisions, the development staff is taking care to make sure the game will be readable by all.

Finally, some good news for those concerned about a massive wait for the final version of the game. According to Toriyama, the major areas of the game are nearly done, and now it's just a matter of connecting everything together. The work of the designers is, for the most part, finished.

This hopefully means a 2009 release is still on track for Japan with an international release not too long after that.

But first, that demo! Two Famitsu editors were given a chance to sample the demo in advance. Their play time lasted one hour and twenty minutes or so. They praised the speediness of the game and the near zero load times. The background music is "cool," said one editor, who also made note of the detail in the backgrounds which allows you to see characters fighting enemies far in the distance as you move about the fields of play. It would be a loss to not experience the demo, said another editor.

We'll be sure and do that next week and let you know what we think.

Originally Posted by Shin

So what about all those robots in the Shinra tower? And how about that stupid prison level in FFVIII where all the monsters were robots? In FFVII you actually have very few fights against Shinra directly on the vast majority of them are robots. Likewise, you spend the entire first half of FFVIII fighting enemy robots. A big evil corporation with robots for troops is a cliche, that's all I'm saying.

I remember fighting Shinra grunts just as much as robots back in FFVII, but your right that in FFVIII you did fight more robots than humans. My point is though none of them controlled any monsters conbined with machinery in their main army like with FFXIII. Biomechical beasts were rare and just side expirements gone more than, furthermore since they mentioned in these articles they likely have some plot importance.

Quote:

If you read that Edge article, on the sixth page it describes the battle system as being a return to that used in FFX and I don't remember the combat system in FFX being anything other than completely generic. Yes, the idea of having a set time to perform the moves is a newish one (Essentially it's like how in FFT different moves take a different amount of time to activate) but this is still at it's heart a turn-based combat system. You pick your moves, you press go and they do them.

Which I don't see anything wrong with IMO. I don't mind battle systems that advanced it's respected series while still retaining that core aspect. Besides brought other stuff to series like "Trigger Commands" and "Controlable Summons".

I also your taking EDGE a bit too literal. FFX's sytsem is only a base for FFXIII and not much more.

Quote:

I think for me, the battle system will succeed or fail based on how clever you have to be with the time planning to win the fights. There's nothing wrong with simple turn based combat in rpgs, after all, SMT:Nocturne is on the face of it a simple turn based game but it's also a game that doesn't allow you to just hit the "Attack" command forever to win the fights, whereas previous FF games have been pretty guilty of that.

That is true, probably has more to do provide accessibly to newcomers. FF games and most RPGs in general normally try balance game difficultyto allow anyone complete the main game and leaving Optional Challenges for the more hardcore gamers. Besides every FF definitely has it's share difficult encounters. The fight against Seymour Flux and Yunalcesca in FFX were really fun for me and it was one few RPGs where status spells actually mattered against it's Bosses.

Quote:

From reading those articles, there's a possibility that there'll be scope for quite a lot of tactical thought in this game, working out how to synch everyone's various attacks together into combos but I guess we won't know until it comes out whether the potential has been realised or not. I suspect, based on previous experience of FF games that the vast majority of fights will be a case of just hitting attack over and over and there'll be a few optional bosses that require a bit more thought but even then, FF optional bosses normally require you to unlock all the best powers and grind forever to have a high enough attack power to wear down their 4 million hp, rather than requiring any particular cunning on the part of the player.

Whether you have grind or not is normally up to the player, depending what your facing it may not make that battle much easier. Grinding isn't an inherently bad thing anyway since it's purpose to give the player more options (items, skills etc) in battle. Some FF Bosses that tend be hard don't really require leveling, just smarter planning.

How ya doing, buddy?

Jagged · Apr 17, 2009, 04:49 AM

Thanks for rip Andrew.

HQ FFXIII Footage for anyone wants it.
FF XIII demo images and videos - Gamersyde

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Jagged · Jun 3, 2009, 03:36 AM

Some stuff from Dengeki:

Quote:

Final Fantasy XIII 60% Complete
Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama discuss changes from the demo, localization efforts and more.
Posted Jun 03, 2009 at 00:50, by Anoop Gantayat

Final Fantasy XIII's development is currently at the 60% complete mark, Yoshinori Kitase revealed yesterday to Dengeki Online during an interview following Microsoft's E3 press conference.

Kitase, producer of the game, appeared along side director Motomu Toriyama at the conference to debut first gameplay footage from the Xbox 360 version of the game. The chosen scene looked somewhat like it was taken directly from the recent PlayStation 3 demo (bundled with Final Fantasy VII Advent Children). However, it had English voices, English text and Xbox 360 button logos. It also marked the unveiling point of the game's first summon spell, Odin.

In a post-conference interview session, Dengeki asked the two about progress on the game in general. "The basic areas of the game are quite far along," said Kitase. "Looking at the game as a whole, we're at 60%. From here on out, we have to brush up a variety of areas as we approach completion."

Toriyama spoke specifically about the 360 version. "Even the Xbox 360 version, whose development was decided upon afterwards, has progressed smoothly enough that we were able to to play on the machine," he said. "Looking at completion level, there's still a difference, but we can see the end point and believe we can achieve the same level of performance."

The different platform aside, we were apparently shown a more advanced version of the battle system than what was featured in the PS3 demo. "The biggest change from the demo version is the battle system," explained Toriyama. "The command menus and other areas may at a glance appear to be unchanged, but they have the systems that are set to be included in the retail version, so the control has changed greatly."

Unfortunately, Toriyama wouldn't share specifics on those differences. As a hint, he said, "In the demo, the point was to finish with the 'uchiage' (launch) command. But the strategy does not end there. The specifics are still a secret, though (laughs)."

Kitase touched upon a separate area of change from the demo version. "The party members in the demo version had the role of following the main character from behind in a support role. However, this has expanded, and evolved. Throughout the last entry [in the series], the image was of a character moving only after the visual effects of magic cast by the previous character had cleared. But for this title, the next character will begin moving while the previous character is in mid move."

Aside from the debut of Xbox 360 gameplay footage, one major point of note for the press conference demo session was the Odin summon spell. Prior to the press conference, Square Enix had not provided a glimpse at the game's summon system -- not even through the usual Japanese publications like Famitsu and Jump.

Toriyama explained the summon system a bit. "Each character has his own crystal, which he uses as a key for summoning. The image is of Odin appearing behind Lightning as a knight who protects her."

Kitase made mention of a "driving mode," where the summon beasts will transform into a vehicle. His comments appeared to suggest that you'll be able to actually ride the summons. However, he also said that you'll also frequently rely on the summons to fight along side the characters in their standard form.

The two also commented on the upcoming E3 trailer for the game. Asked about points of note for the trailer, Toriyama joked "It's in English."

Perhaps a bit more seriously, however, he noted, "It's a first for the Final Fantasy series to have footage in English at this point. I believe it's a big evolution development-wise for the overseas version development to follow the Japanese version development to this level. It's because we want to deliver it as soon as possible to fans throughout the world."

Kitase revealed that the game's English voice recording is being handled by the same director ho worked on the Final Fantasy X series and other past titles.

(NOTE: I originally noticed this interview through Namae no Nai Heya, one of my favorite link amalgamation sites. The link to the original Dengeki Online story as provided by the site was dead -- or perhaps removed. However, I was able to find a version of the story at Yahoo)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Jagged · Jun 6, 2009, 05:00 AM

G4TV has new footage of the PS3 E3 demo:

Hands-On Final Fantasy XIII Preview Videos - G4tv.com

IGN: Final Fantasy XIII Preview

Quote:

E3 2009: Final Fantasy XIII Continues to Impress
Snow shows up at E3 and summons an old friend.

by Ryan Clements

June 2, 2009 - If there's one game I was excited about seeing at this year's E3, it was Final Fantasy XIII. The game was being demoed in a tucked away nook, deep inside the heavily-guarded, labyrinthine corridors of the Square Enix booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting with Director Motomu Toriyama and Producer Yoshinori Kitase (along with a few other journalists) in order to see a recent build of Final Fantasy XIII running on a PlayStation 3. As excited as I was to see it, the demo was unfortunately very short. As in, we were probably watching for less than five minutes before the Q & A session began. Alas.

The demo began with Snow, the blonde-haired, bandana-wearing brawler, as he ran through a crumbling "ruins" environment complete with forsaken pillars and stony paths. Several humanoid enemies appeared in the distance and charged forward and Toriyama noted that all enemies will be visible on the field before battles begin. We already knew this based on our impressions from the Japanese demo, but it's nice to hear that it hasn't changed.

The enemies clashed against Snow and the single battle of the demo began. Yes, we only got to see one big battle, but the contents of that battle made up for the short length. Snow was joined in combat by both main character Lightning and the perky Vanille. This was the first time I personally have seen Vanille in combat, so that was nice. During the fight, Vanille used a large staff weapon that seemed quite conducive to the electricity magic she was wielding.

The highlight of the demo was definitely when Snow executed a summon spell. Holding a blue crystal in his hand, Snow summoned the iconic Shiva into action in a flurry of bright, pulsating glyphs and neat sound effects. It was a surprisingly sweet sequence and I have to say that the visuals themselves were stunning. If you haven't spied Shiva in Final Fantasy XIII trailers yet, you might be surprised to find out that she is now two "sisters" that join together to form an ice motorcycle. Clearly some interesting interpretations have been made with your favorite Final Fantasy summons, but I'm rather pleased with them.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Shiva sisters replace your party members in the battle and they move around the field like any other normal character. The sisters are extremely stylish when they're separated, as one of them uses a floating ice wheel as a weapon. Badass. However, your character will have the ability to activate the Gestalt mode, which maximizes the potential of the summon and -- from what I've seen -- combines the summon and your character together. In this case, Snow mounts the icy, highly-ornate motorcycle in what is sure to be an innuendo-filled combination.

Once this Gestalt mode is activated, the battle becomes somewhat more "action-oriented," as a list of button queues appears on screen enabling Snow to perform such awesome maneuvers like wheelies and rushes. These techniques only require a directional input and a push of the X button, but it's nice to see that the pacing of the battle will change a bit during summons. I was also impressed with the overall visual effects of this Gestalt mode, as Snow would skid across the battlefield and leave deadly icicles in his wake.

After the very brief eyes-on demo, the Q & A section began and I learned a few things that I personally have been curious about since playing the Japanese demo. First and foremost: you'll only control one character in battle at a time and the story will often dictate which character that is (at least towards the beginning of the game). An AI system will be in place for your other two party members, though you'll be able to somehow alter their actions during battle. We weren't told the specifics of this system, so I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

I was also a little disappointed to learn that each character will only have one summon. As we've only heard about approximately four main characters, I'm a little sad if the small character roster limits the game's summon spell potential.

The Q & A session ended with Toriyama and Kitase explaining that the overall project development and localization is about 60 percent complete and English voice recording has just begun (as indicated by the English voices in the recent trailers). Unfortunately, there will not be multiple language tracks this time around. Oh well.

As always, I remain a Final Fantasy fan and this entry in the franchise seems very promising. My time with the demo was totally positive, but only a serious, extended play session could possibly illuminate the game's true value.

Japanese Extended Trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...-fantasy/50923

I was speaking idiomatically.

Jagged · Nov 11, 2009, 01:54 PM

20 paged Famitsu Scan on Alexander, Chocobos, and the Growth System.

New Final Fantasy XIII Scans from Famitsu - Crystarium, Chocobos - Final Fantasy XIII: News, Trailers & Screens ~ Final Fantasy-XIII.net

Rather nicely detailed summary of the article.

Final Fantasy XIII: Chocobos, Alexander, and the Crystarium System (andriasang.com blog, 11.11.2009)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Jagged · Nov 14, 2009, 04:29 AM

Weapon growth/customization has now been revealed:
http://www.ff-xiii.net/images/scans/...20Scan%201.jpg
http://www.ff-xiii.net/images/scans/...20Scan%202.jpg

Summary:

Quote:

Final Fantasy XIII Weapon System Revealed
Build up your weapons to make Lightning stronger and Snow more fashionable.

Posted Nov 13, 2009 at 02:40, by Anoop Gantayat

Lightning's sword will evolve as you play through FFXIII.

Square Enix keeps on finding new things to reveal for Final Fantasy XIII. Joining this week's full unveiling for the Crystarium System in Famitsu comes the latest update from Jump, covering the game's weapon system.

FFXIII lets you make modifications to your weapons. You do this by combining materials that enemies leave behind and that you find in treasure boxes. You'll find over 100 such materials in the game. Depending on your combinations, your weapons will rise in experience and become stronger.

The magazine provides examples of weapon evolution for two characters, Lightning and Snow.

Lightning starts off with her "Blaze Edge" sword. After modifications, this weapon will turn into the more powerful Slash Carbine. The two weapons look completely different.

As his "weapon," Snow uses a special coat that can up the status of its wearer. Make modifications to the coat, and in addition to growing more powerful, its color and patterns change.

As with the Crystarium System update from a couple of weeks back, Jump leaves out the details for the weapon modification system. For a closer look, we'll presumably have to wait for Famitsu either next week or the week after.

In addition to the weapon system, Jump provides a look this week at a new ruins area of Cocoon. This area is located deep beneath the ground. It houses a number of the freakish Shigai creatures. You'll recall that Shigai are what l'Cie become when they are unable to fulfill their assigned task.

Of greater note, it also appears that there's a fal'Cie in the underground.

Source: Final Fantasy XIII Weapon System Revealed (andriasang.com blog, 11.13.2009)

Sounds like a combination of Dark Cloud and FFVIII's Weapon system.

New batch of pretty Famitsu Screens
wƒtƒ@ƒCƒiƒ‹ƒtƒ@ƒ“ƒ^ƒW[XIIIx‚Ì¬’·ƒVƒXƒeƒ€‚ª”»–¾ - ƒtƒ@ƒ~’Ê.com

FELIPE NO

Jagged · Nov 26, 2009, 04:05 AM

It seems I might end up buying a strategy guide for FFXIII: :heh:

Quote:

---------------------------
Cocoon Has A Virtual Online Item Shop

As part of its big mega scoop on Final Fantasy XIII this week, Famitsu has an in-depth look at the game's weapon upgrade system, which was first introduced in the vaguest of details in Weekly Jump a couple of weeks back.
There's one particular bit that caught my eye. FFXIII has a type of retailer that you won't find in most other games. When accessing save points, you have the option of connecting to a special in-game Cocoon website. You can use this virtual e-commerce site to buy and sell items.

In a short interview with the magazine, director Motomu Toriyama described the "online" shop as "different from the traditional FF series" and "cool." He also hinted that some secret characters will appear in the shop. It's unclear if this is the only way to get items, or if you'll also have access to traditional town-based shops. The magazine did not provide a look at the shop, so this area is presumably something that we'll be introduced to in greater detail in the coming weeks.

I wonder if the Cocoon shop delivers to Pulse...

--------------------------------

Weapon System

Final Fantasy XIII's Crystarium system looks like it will offer hours and hours of customization. It's not alone, though. In addition to customizing your characters through the Crystarium system, you'll also be able to customize your weapons using a separate system.

Weekly Shonen Jump offered first details on the weapon customization system a couple of weeks back. Famitsu has returned with the specifics.

FFXIII's weapon customization system is know by just the Japanese word for "reform" (all out of wacky system names, Japan?). This system allows you to power up your weapons and accessories by feeding them special materials that you collect during the game.
The magazine states that once you've advanced far enough in the story, you'll be able to visit particular places in order to conduct the weapon and accessory modifications. This seems to imply that you won't have access to the reform system at all times, although the modification screens shown in the magazine do look like they're part of the main menu.
To use the system, you first select the weapon or accessory that you want to upgrade. You're then presented with a list of materials that you can feed to the item. You can select the material that you want to give, and its quantity.

Adding materials to a weapon can have different effects depending on the material in question. Some materials will increase the weapon's experience value, leading to level-ups and eventual form changes (detailed below). As an example, making use of a Liquid Crystal Lens item gives Lightning's Blaze Edge sword 100 experience points. The management screen lists how much experience you need to make the sword rise to the next level. If you need 300 experience points, and you happen to have three Liquid Crystal Lens items, an easy way to to get a quick level up is to hand over the three items.
Other materials have special effects. Famitsu mentions one example, a material that makes it so that the next material that's added to the weapon has a 1.25 multiplier for its awarded experience. Use this material first, and the next Liquid Crystal Lens item would give you 125 experience points rather than 100. Some items have the reverse effect, reducing the experience of subsequent items.

Leveling up a weapon increases its capabilities and also gives it special abilities. Progress through enough level-ups, and the weapon will eventually reach its limit. Its level status will display a star. This indicates that you can make the weapon change form. To actually make the weapon change form, you have to first obtain a special material for it. There may be a good reason why the transformations aren't automatic. When you transform a weapon, it actually ends up being weaker than its fully maxed out predecessor. Of course, by building up the new weapon with materials, you'll eventually result in an even more powerful weapon.
Jump detailed a couple of weapon transformations in its previous article. Transforming a weapon gives it a new physical appearance. Lightning's default Blaze Edge changes into Slash Carbon. Like Blaze Edge, Slash Carbon is a combination gun and sword.

Vanille's initial weapon is the horribly painful-looking Bind Rod. Its head piece looks like a pair of antlers. Its body consists of four long wires with hooks that deal damage to enemies by latching on and pulling (eek!). Transform Vanille's weapon, and the head piece will change to something that looks like feathers rather than antlers. The body is still wires and hooks, though.
Snow uses his bare hands to fight, but his weapon is actually his coat. When running about outside of battle, the coat displays no unique logos. But get into battle, and patterns appear on its back and sleeves. The initial pattern is "Wild Bear." It shows the face of a bear on the back and sleeves. Upgrade the coat, and the patterns change. Famitsu provides a look at one additional pattern which, compared to the Wild Bear coat, looks like it could have increased magic power.

The common theme in all of the above is that while the weapons transform, they don't completely change to a different class of weapons. Your characters are stuck using their default weapon class. The game has a total of six party members: Lightning, Sazh, Snow, Hope, Vanille, and Fang. Their weapon types are, respectively, transformable sword, gun, coat, boomerang, rod, and lance.
There are a number of ways to obtain the special materials required to use the weapon upgrade system. You'll find over 100 material types in all. Some can be found in treasure boxes, some are earned by winning a battle, some can be purchased in shops. The magazine speculates that you can also earn special materials as rewards for clearing missions. It's also likely that you'll be able to use a steal move in battle to steal materials from your foes.

You can also get materials by selecting to destroy one of your current weapons or accessories. You lose the weapon, but you get materials in return, some of which may be rare.
With the weapon reform system, FFXIII looks like it will be changing some of the paradigms we've come to expect from Japanese RPGs. The idea of buying a weapon in a shop seems to be de-emphasized. Director Motomu Toriyama, in a short interview with the magazine, notes that, although you can buy weapons in a shop, they start off at base level -- not in a particularly strong form.
In FFXIII, explained Toriyama, it's possible to fight the last boss with the very first weapon that you obtained in the game. This assumes, of course, that you've kept on building it up throughout the adventure. Your characters are capable of keeping multiple weapons in their possession, so there will be room for experimentation.

With all the customization options offered by the Crystarium system and now the weapon reform system, FFXIII looks positioned to cause a boom in the strategy guide business. At the very least, that FFXIII Ultimania Guide should end up being thicker than a phone book.
------------------------------

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/200...ual_item_shop/
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/200...weapon_system/

Interesting way to shop, huh? Fits right well with futuristic theme the game has.

More stuff:

Quote:

Final Fantasy XIII Update

Details on Gran Pulse, monster hunting, Cactuar's girlfriend, and one of the pivotal events in the FFXIII story.

Posted Nov 25, 2009 at 16:39, By Anoop Gantayat

Lightning and Hope team up in Final Fantasy XIII. Famitsu has lots of details this week.

Famitsu has its promised mega scoop on Final Fantasy XIII in this week's issue. As usual, while many of the broader details were shared in recent issues of Jump and V Jump, Famitsu manages to get the specifics on such areas as Gran Pulse, the mission system, and new areas of the world.

As detailed last week, the area we've been referring to Pulse since FFXIII's announcement has another name, Gran Pulse. Why the two names? Director Motomu Toriyama tells the magazine that the people of Cocoon refer to Pulse as just Pulse. However, the people who live in Pulse refer to it as Gran Pulse, a name that suggests their appreciation for the natural world. The Gran Pulse name is the proper one, says Toriyama.

Pulse is full of giant beasts, some towering like mountains above the characters. The magazine has an interesting note about the Pulse creatures. They're actually of the same origin as Cocoon's creatures. The same type of monster looks different between the two worlds, as Cocoon's monsters evolved differently due to their enclosed environment.

Of course, there's more to Cocoon's monsters than just natural evolution. The Cocoon government has been turning monsters into weapons by fusing them with mechanical parts. An example is the Behemoth III Reformed beast from the Advent Children demo. This creature was modified for army use, but it's still a bit smaller than the King Behemoth monster you'll encounter in Gran Pulse.

Also getting major space this issue -- almost a full page! -- is the cactus-like Sabotender enemy (known in English as Cactuar). Jump showed screens of a massive Sabotender, but most of the subsequent attention appeared to be focused on the two standard-sized Sabotenders standing in front of the massive one. One of the two had a flower growing out of its head, suggesting, perhaps, a girlfriend for the classic FF enemy. Famitsu notes that the flower Sabotender previously appeared in Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, where it gave up lots and lots of Gil. The magazine also notes that we've seen giant Sabotenders before, in FFVII and FFX-2.

Moving on to the mission system, Famitsu confirms something that Jump only implied. Rather than a general quest system, FFXIII's mission system is all about monster hunting. The missions given to you by the Cie Corpse obelisks that you find around Gran Pulse require that you defeat specific monsters in exchange for rewards. These missions are separate from the main FFXIII story.

When you take on a mission by speaking to an obelisk, you're given the location of the beast, the difficulty in the form of a letter ranking, and a mission description. The description is actually a recollection of the Cie Corpse from when it was in human form.

Finding your mission target shouldn't be too hard. In addition to a general location given in the mission screen, the target is flagged with a red "MISSION" marker above its head.

Defeating the required monsters may not be as easy as finding them, though. The mission monsters are special, powerful beasts. But in exchange for your hard work, you'll get rewards, including items. You'll be able to replay the mission over and over again, earning rewards each time.

You're also given rankings or titles of the form "Kind Rookie" as you clear missions. Screens show the rank rising during the mission result screen. The magazine speculates that you'll be able to take on certain missions only once you've reached a certain rank.

Toriyama shares a few details on the background story of the obelisks (the term obelisk is probably incorrect, but I'm going to use it until someone suggests something better or Square Enix shares an official English name). Cie Corpses, or l'Cie who've failed to fulfill their duty, wander around for a long time and eventually crystalize into the obelisk form. They wait in this state for a l'Cie to fulfill the failed mission for them.

On a sad note, Toriyama confirms that even if you do fulfill the Cie Corpse's mission, they're stuck in the obelisk form forever. As he describes it, they've already reached a state where their spirit can no longer rise.

Finally, a few details on some of the new areas that were introduced in Jump. Two new areas have come to light recently: the Yashias Mountain region, and an underground ruins area.

The Yashias Mountain area appears to be home to an ancient city, but now it serves as the nest for groups of Cie Corpses. Toriyama reveals that the city was created by a high level civilization that once lived in Gran Pulse. Players will have to learn for themselves what happened to that civilization.

The ruins area looks like it's one of the central points in the FFXIII story. It's in the underground of Boudam, the city which Lightning and all call home. The ruins were apparently lifted up from Pulse hundreds of years back, and now there is a Pulse fal'Cie waiting here

The term "ruins" is used in the FFXIII world to describe buildings and other things that were brought up from Pulse. They have a different phrase for ruins of structures that have always been in Cocoon.

According to Toriyama, when the fal'Cie in the ruins under Boudam was first discovered, an investigative team consisting primarily of PSICOM soldiers was sent into the ruins. The soldiers were viewed by the fal'Cie as l'Cie, but they were unable to cope with the weight of their assigned objective, and became Cie Corpses who now roam the ruins.

This incident was one of the reasons that the Cocoon government began its purge of the Boudam area.

Final Fantasy XIII Update (andriasang.com blog, 11.25.2009)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Jagged · Dec 18, 2009, 09:22 PM

Best impression on the game by far from duckroll at NeoGAF:

Quote:

Okay, I've clocked over 10 hours of the game now and have a good handle on most of the systems in the game. Time to write up some impressions.

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW, I'M ONLY 10 HOURS INTO THE GAME.

FFXIII is a really interesting game. No doubt it is the HD successor to the FFX/FFX-2 school of design in terms of many things, but what is surprising is that it doesn't really throw away the concepts pushed forward by FFXII. At the same time, the game itself is a whole new beast. There has never been a FF like this before, and it is a very bold new step for the series. Some fans will almost certainly like it more than others, depending on what your stake in the series is, and what is important to you in a RPG. Either way, I think it is very refreshing to have a game which breaks down barriers while erecting other new boundaries in defining what constitutes a "Final Fantasy" mainline game.

The first thing I noticed about the game was how uncompromising it was in letting the narrative dictate the entire direction of the game. Right from the start, the game starts with a bang. There has never been a FF game or a RPG as cinematic driven as FFXIII. I don't mean it uses a ton of cutscenes (lots of games do) during the game, but rather the entire experience feels like you are playing a part in a film instead of a game which uses a lot of cinematic sequences to tell the story. The best comparison would be with action games, where not only are the levels linear, but everything is designed around the narrative itself which you play through. The game doesn't consider the player's needs or wants in relation to what they want out of a RPG, but instead strives to deliver a very specific experience.

Now that could be pretty bad if the story and characters are terrible and no one cares. Thankfully, I think this is one of the strongest FF games in terms of narrative and characters. It's definitely up there with FFVI. The style of the scenario is such that the player is thrown into the world at a crucial period, and experiences several events unfold which don't quite make complete sense immediately. The game also throws the characters all out at once, without wasting time with detailed introductions or the standard form of character building.

Instead, you learn what each character is like and what they're each about as you play, and as you see them react to situations and discuss their own desires, fears, dreams and experiences. Much of what they have done in the days leading up to the game are vital to developing their characteristics and for the player to understand them, and these events are slowly unraveled through flashbacks as you play the game. This method of narrative means the game pretty much never slows down. The characters are always on the move, and with their lives all in peril there is no time to waste. Yet it also allows the game to slow down for some short moments along the way to build up on the characters and to let their various layers unfold.

All in all the narrative is very strong, the characters are extremely likable, and the plot keeps pushing players forward with the motivation to learn more about everything - the world, the characters, and the crux of what is happening in the world that allowed the events at the start of the game to occur. The sense of mystery is a high point of the storyline, and definitely a driving force for players to keep playing.

Gameplay-wise, the game is also very different from anything before. The battles are faster than ever before, but also more different than ever before. The Optima system is often mistaken for a sort of Job system, and a passive option in battles which allow you to change your Roles. It couldn't be further from the truth. The Optima system is in fact simply another way to input commands.
Because of the speed of the battles, even if the game gave the player the option of inputting commands for each character separately, and toggling using L1/R1, it would be unplayable. No human player would be able to keep up with the battles and to select AND input commands for different characters at the same time.

What the Optima and Role system does is to define 6 very specific type of roles, and limit what each role can do down to their core usage. Hence by changing the Optima of the party in battle, you are essentially specifically changing the commands each party member can make, and hence giving them near-specific orders until you change the Optima again. It is not a passive command, it is something you will have to use in almost every battle.

The game is NOT being played by "AI" so much as command input being aided by AI, and instructed by the player. Due to how battles are designed, and what the player is required to do to win battles, the emphasis is still on strategy and tactics determined by the player. Anyone who claims that the AI party members in the game are "auto play", is probably a person who has previously complained that the Gambit system is "auto play" and so we can know to safely ignore them.

Outside of the battle system, the game actually features some pretty interesting forms of character customization. Gone are character levels, just like in FFX. Instead, in it's place are various systems which break the core meaning of "leveling up" down into different bite pieces to make the player more proactive in considering how to strengthen any given character. Each character starts off with access to a limited selection of Roles. Each character's Crystarium (think simplified Sphere Grid or License Board) for each Role is different. So even between say Lightning as a Blaster and Snow as a Blaster, the abilities they can learn and the stat boosts they can gain from putting in CP is different.

Aside from stats and abilities gained from Crystarium, the game also features a pretty interesting Weapon and Accessory system. Fans of weapons will be happy to learn that unlike FFX, the weapons in FFXIII have stats again. Each weapon has a Physical Attack and Magical Attack stat, and some weapons have an ability attached. Weapons also have levels, which starts at level 1. Using materials gained from defeating enemies, you can pump them into weapons to give the weapon experience, and level it up. Each weapon has a different sort of balance for the stats, so leveling up the initial weapon is just as viable as changing to a new weapon each time you can buy or find a better one, and leveling that up for a little bit before the next one.

In some cases, specializing on a certain weapon and leveling it up over and over might be a much better option, depending on how you plan on using the character it's equipped on. Different weapons gain different amounts of exp from different materials, and using a bunch of materials which give a small bit of exp might sometimes trigger an exp bonus chain for the next set of materials you put in. There's a bit a experimentation involved, although with how limited some materials are earlier in the game, it might be wise not to waste too many on trial on error too soon.

Accessories also have levels, and each accessory has an ability tied to it. By leveling it up, you increase the effectiveness of the accessory. For example, a Silver Bangle Lvl1 would give HP+100, and putting in enough materials to get it to Lvl2 will change it to HP+116 instead. What I've also noticed is that there are synergy abilities as well. Hope had a weapon which had no abilities on its own, but when equipped with that weapon AND a certain accessory, it gave him an ability which boosted Physical damage. The ability is not listed on either accessory, and is essentially hidden. As such, it reasons that there are many more of this sort of secret combinations of weapon+accessory which when equipped grant bonuses.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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