Pretty much everyone on the planet expected Square Enix to announce another Final Fantasy title at its E3 press conference this year, but few could have guessed it would announce three Final Fantasy of them that bear the moniker "XIII." The series is collectively being called Fabula Nova Crystallis (that's "the new tale of the crystal" to those of us not fluent in Latin) with two of the titles appearing on PS3 and one on mobile phones. The premiere title, simply known as
Final Fantasy XIII, was the most talked about and had a wild (mostly real-time) trailer to back up the discussion.
Keep in mind, that Final Fantasy XIII is not a prequel or sequel to the other two FFXIII titles in the traditional sense. As Square Enix explained, the trio is linked through a common mythology but do not have any common characters, worlds, or stories. They all take place in the same universe, but aren't related to each other directly.
The video trailer of Final Fantasy XIII featured a futuristic world with a female protagonist who kicks some serious ass with a short sword-gun combo, similar in appearance to Squall's Gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII
[Editor's Note: the video shown at Square Enix's conference was actually longer than the one shown at Sony's later in the day]. The video began with the woman soaring through a city and then followed her onto a train as she fought soldiers in a battle where she was clearly outnumbered. The train sequence ended with a giant mechanical scorpion monster attacking from above.
A collective gasp was heard in the audience when the movie went from what appeared to be pre-rendered footage to a full set of menus indicating that nearly everything we saw was made using the in-game engine. We were then taken through a series of environments ranging from futuristic cities to dense jungles. All of them were lushly detailed with plenty going on in both the character's immediate vicinity and in the background. Square Enix reps have told IGN that other than a few sequences, the majority of the demo is indeed real-time.
Everything we saw in the trailer pointed towards a title that leans heavily towards the action side of the RPG spectrum. The press release also described "intuitive controls" and an emphasis on real-time gameplay. Although much about Final Fantasy XIII is still up in the air, one thing is for sure -- this is one incredible looking game.
The video trailer for FFXIII shown at TGS was only remixed version of the E3 teaser. The movie kicked off in a speeding train much like the E3 teaser, but quickly shifted to other locations, such as a populated city.
The movie also illustrated how the heroine is able to move with accuracy and speed and highlighted a special device she uses that allows her to levitate when not moving and move faster than a normal human being. This might make sense in battles (the game still uses menu-driven combat and it's rumored that while making decisions on what to do, the action will slow down Matrix-style while waiting for your commands).
FFXIII's presentation ended in the same fashion as the E3 original: with our heroine squaring off against a giant monster. Hopefully, we'll know more details about how the game will play for real sometime in the near future.
From the footage shown at E³ 2006, battles in the game appear to be in real-time, similar to Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII, but without the colored target arcs linking player to target, as confirmed by Square Enix.
In a developer interview, Toriyama stated that the E³ trailer shows what is known as the 'Gravity Bomb', known as the spell 'Gravity' in previous games. Presumably, it refers to the electrical energy field that surrounds the young woman shown in the trailer. She can use it to defy gravity or to attack enemies/
In the upper right-hand corner of the battle screen, a circle-shaped gauge is visible. Once the number inside this circle and other conditions have been met, the protagonist can enter a so-called Overclock status. This status has a slow-motion effect, slowing down everyone but the player. It has been suggested that this Overclock system would replace the traditional limit break system found in previous Final Fantasy games. Overclock seems to resemble the Trance mode in Final Fantasy IX. Once Overclock is activated a number appears inside the meter and decreases, probably signifying the duration of the Overclock mode.
Summons were also revealed in Jump Festa, shown as part Mecha and are featured not only for battle support, as Toriyama states, "The treatment of summons beasts has changed quite a bit," he said, "The fact that the players can summon will not change, but what happens after that will be something totally different." The example he pointed to was Shiva and her transformation into a motorcycle. Toriyama hinted that Lightning may ride Shiva in battle.
Although the main focus of
Final Fantasy XIII will be offline, producer Yoshinori Kitase has stated in the developer interview that players will also be able to take advantage of special online features
Battle system
Toriyama comments on Final Fantasy XIII's battle system, "Final Fantasy XIII took on the challenge of seeing how much of the battles in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children can be recreated in a game. The battles that were impossible to be presented in current Final Fantasy games were shown in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. In reverse, Final Fantasy XIII will show how much of that can be represented in the game." Toshiro Tsuchida, creator of the Front Mission franchise and, previously, the battle director of Final Fantasy X, will return as the battle system director for the game. He has reaffirmed that random encounters will not return, whilst suggesting individual enemies may be given personalities and background stories. The battle system is somewhat of a timed-button input style. This system was made as a sequence for Final Fantasy X's overdrives where a series of buttons were displayed on the screen. When input in the right order, the amount of damage is at its fullest. It will also use Active Time Battle as seen in the screenshots in Official PlayStation Magazine's Issue 107 in August 2006.
