Final Fantasy Versus XIII To Have Controllable Airships
Wed, Mar 17th, 2010, 1:37 pm (EST) by Damian
Tetsuya Nomura, legendary character designer and director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII has recently been posting on twitter. Unfortunately, he does not have his own Twitter account, if he did, we'd be all over it; Instead has been answering questions via the Square-Enix Members account.
When asked how far along Final Fantasy Versus XIII was in development, Nomura replied with:
"Not everything is connected together, so the various areas have different levels of progress. However, you can fly across the world map in an airship."
Airships are quite the tradition in Final Fantasy titles, so thats not really the biggest news here. The big news is the fact that they are controllable across the world map. That one sentence suggests a lot more exploration in Final Fantasy Versus XIII than it's older brother, and should make traditionalists of the franchise happier.
Square Enix Already Considering Final Fantasy XIII-2
Sat, Mar 13th, 2010, 10:29 am (EST) by Darryl
Final Fantasy XIII has been out for less than a week, but Square Enix are already talking about a possible sequel for the title - and yes, by sequel, we mean direct sequel.
Speaking with a Dutch publication, Kitase said "In the past three years we worked both on the world and on the various systems. Creating these systems isn't very glamorous and can frankly be a bit boring. If we could do a XIII-2, we could direct all our attention to the story and refine what we have already built."
For a company that likes to keep information very tight-lipped, recently, Kitase really isn't doing much to stop rumours starting up.
More Titles In The Fabula Nova Crystallis Compilation
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 12:26 pm (EST) by Damian
In an interesting interview with GameInformer, Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy XIII, basically confirmed that there are more titles in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation, besides Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII.
Yoshinori Kitase's exact words when asked about future titles in the compilation were, to "please look forward to future announcements." Just how many teams of staff do Square-Enix have to be working on all of these titles?
Keep reading to find out more.
Square Enix: Crystal Tools A Mistake
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 10:51 am (EST) by Damian
Speaking to GameInformer in a post Final Fantasy XIII release interview, Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy XIII, has revealed that creating the Crystal Tools engine for Final Fantasy XIII was a mistake.
Kitase stated that due to the amounts of refinement an engine has to go through, it would have been a lot easier and quicker if they had just worked with existing technology. With the game being in development for 5 years, it certainly hinders Square-Enix as a company.
With the Crystal Tools engine being made for multiplatform games, extending the development time of their titles by a substantial amount, it's a wonder whether Square-Enix will continue to use this method in the future, or whether they will use existing engines as Kitase has suggested.
One thing's for sure, the development time for Final Fantasy titles needs to be cut if Square-Enix are to attain a more reliable profit. It's also not a bad route to take if fans of the series are getting the games faster in future.
Final Fantasy XIII Media Blowout, Tons of Media and Interviews
Fri, Feb 12th, 2010, 9:01 pm (EST) by Colin
With the release date of one of the industry's biggest and most anticipated titles drawing ever closer, gamers just can't help but fidget in their seats as they endure the excruciating countdown. Fortunately, there's been a rather huge media blowout this week with plenty of video interviews, previews and the like to satiate the hungry masses.
Interviews with producer Yoshinori Kitase and designer Motomu Toriyama reveal a wealth of information about Final Fantasy's story and gameplay. Many have asked the question if players were only capable of controlling the main character at any given time, but as it turns out, they'll be given the option of who to control as well as who to put in their party. They also speak about the history of Final Fantasy XIII, its technology and the development process which, as Kitase stated, the developer wished they could have "brought the game out a little sooner to players."
Read the rest and check out the media after the jump.
PSM3 Reviews Final Fantasy XIII, Gives Very Average Score
Sun, Feb 7th, 2010, 10:07 pm (EST) by Darryl
PSM3 Magazine, one of the main magazines in the United Kingdom, have managed to get their hands on Final Fantasy XIII for their March 2010 Edition. However, their review wasn't overly flattering.
They gave the game 70%, which by video game standards is as average is it comes - not exactly promising news. This is just one publication though, and they are generally quite harsh. Time will tell if other publications have a similar opinion, as other magazines also publish their scores ahead of the game's release in a month's time.
Either way, we've been waiting a hell of a long time for this game and even if it doesn't meet the high standards that Square Enix have set for the franchise, there will certainly be a lot of hours clocked on this bad boy.
Final Fantasy XIII Comes Second To Mario In December
Tue, Jan 12th, 2010, 8:00 pm (EST) by Darryl
We're almost half way through January, but Famitsu have released sales figures for December 2009, a month which saw Final Fantasy go head to head with one of gaming's most iconic figures, Mario.
Unfortunately, Final Fantasy came out second best, as New Super Mario Bros Wii sold just under 2.5 million copies. Final Fantasy XIII only managed to sell 1.7 million, but it was still a pretty impressive showing nonetheless.
It'll be interesting to see how the game performs throughout January, as it had quite a sales drop-off in its second week.
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