Final Fantasy Versus XIII To Have Controllable Airships
Wed, Mar 17th, 2010, 1:37 pm (EST) by Omen
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.
Tags:
Final Fantasy Versus XIII, PlayStation 3, Tetsuya Nomura
Exploration Makes A Return?
Final Fantasy XIII Week One Sales Are In
Tue, Mar 16th, 2010, 3:20 pm (EST) by Omen
With Final Fantasy XIII being a week old outside of Japan, VGChartz is reporting 1.2 million copies sold, bringing the total to just over 3 million copies sold worldwide.
According to the reported figures, there is a split of 61% to 39% in sales in favour of the PlayStation 3 worldwide. We know how the console split went in the UK, so by breaking these figures down in all regions, how do things look?
Well, 680,000 copies of the game sold in the America's with 57% of those being on the PlayStation 3. In Europe, Asia, Africa & the Middle East, the figures are pretty similar with 520,000 copies being sold, however a substantial 66% of those being sold on the PlayStation 3.
So, even with the intensive marketing strategy by Microsoft it seems fans of the giant JRPG still went and bought it on the PlayStation 3. However, how did the release of the game effect hardware sales? We should have that news shortly.
Tags:
Final Fantasy XIII, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Which Version Sold Better?
FF Union: Episode 35 Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
Tue, Mar 16th, 2010, 2:21 pm (EST) by Kyle
Final Fantasy XIII has finally released, and the FF Union crew are in with their first impressions of the game. As part of this special episode, the show is over one hour long, covering impressions, news of the future of Final Fantasy XIII, and a very special music segment. Fans have been asking for it, so we also included background music!
As a reminder, we're interviewing the voice of Snow Villiers tomorrow, so get your questions in fast!
Subscribe to Final Fantasy Union on iTunes
Direct Link: Final Fantasy Union: Episode 35
Visit the Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts Union iTunes Page - RSS Feed
Tags:
Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Union
Snow Villiers Will Now Take Your Questions
Tue, Mar 16th, 2010, 12:16 pm (EST) by Kyle
Only the other day did we announce our interview with Ali Hillis, the voice of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII. We've also now secured an interview with the voice of Snow Villiers, Troy Baker, and once again taking fan, listener, and reader questions in for this interview!
The interview is scheduled for tomorrow, so that means if you want to get a fan question in for our interview with Troy Baker about his role as Snow, you have to get it in fast. You can submit questions on our forums in this thread.
Our Lightning interview will be published later this week (we're actually recording it in an hour) as a special episode of our Final Fantasy podcast, Final Fantasy Union. Our Snow Villiers interview will follow next week, likely after our upcoming episode of Kingdom Hearts Union next Tuesday.
So, get those questions in pronto!
Tags:
Snow Villiers, Final Fantasy XIII
Voice of Snow Interview
PS3 Claims 54 Percent Of UK Final Fantasy XIII Sales
Mon, Mar 15th, 2010, 11:38 am (EST) by Ronin90
Final Fantasy has in recent years been a very PlayStation orientated franchise, but when Square Enix announced it would be coming to the Xbox 360, many were curious as to how it would sell.
Well, we have some information, for the UK at least, where Chart-Track have disclosed that the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII contributed 54 percent of total sales. Considering the amount of marketing Microsoft has been doing, with the Xbox 360 bundle, and Xbox 360 exclusive TV ads, some might actually see this is something of a failure. However, they have still managed to take a huge chunk out of Sony's profits, so from that perspective it was still a result.
The key market will be North America though, as Xbox 360 multi-platform titles frequently outside their PlayStation 3 counterpart.
Tags:
Final Fantasy XIII
Can this be considered a result?
Square Enix Already Considering Final Fantasy XIII-2
Sat, Mar 13th, 2010, 10:29 am (EST) by Ronin90
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.
Tags:
Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Fabula Nova Crystallis
Is that really such a good idea?
Lightning Will Now Take Your Questions
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 2:05 pm (EST) by Kyle
Inline with Final Fantasy XIII's release, we have some exclusive content lined up for everyone who's dug into the game, or maybe hasn't dug in yet. We've previously done interviews with voice actors and actresses from the Kingdom Hearts series on our KH podcast (Kingdom Hearts Union), so we figured it was about time we make a few phone calls and try at some Final Fantasy XIII voice actor and actress interviews; so today we're happy to announce that we will be interviewing Ali Hillis, the voice of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII, in the coming week!
Best part, we want fan questions for the interview. The interview will be a special episode of our dedicated Final Fantasy podcast (aptly named Final Fantasy Union on the iTunes Store), so you will indeed hear Ali Hillis' voice yourself, and possibly hear her answer your own question for her.
You can submit questions for Ali about her roll as Lightning, Final Fantasy, voice acting, or whatever else you think is appropriate in this thread on our forums. We're recording the interview in a few days, so don't dilly dally!
Tags:
Lightning, Ali Hillis, Final Fantasy XIII
Voice Actress Interview
Toriyama: Future Final Fantasy Titles To Be More Traditional
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 12:56 pm (EST) by Omen
Reviews and fans reactions for the latest Final Fantasy title have been a mixed bag this time around, with responses being that the game is missing some vital components that make an RPG. Before leaving GDC 2010, Gamasutra managed to catch up with Motomu Toriyama, the director of Final Fantasy XIII, to ask him some questions regarding the Western review scores.
According to some, there are a few major flaws in Final Fantasy XIII, one of those experiences being the lack of unlocked-houses to ransack for items in unsuspecting towns and cities. Something which gamers had experienced in previous Final Fantasy titles. Toriyama's response to that was, due to the intense storyline and that the characters are on the run, having them stop in towns and cities wouldn't make any sense. However Toriyama also stated that because of the HD consoles being a lot more complex, creating towns and cities would have taken far too long, as they already spent so much time creating the Crystal Tools engine for the game.
Will these components seen in past Final Fantasy titles be making a comeback anytime soon? Read the full article to find out more.
Tags:
Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV
Like Barging Into Others Homes?
More Titles In The Fabula Nova Crystallis Compilation
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 12:26 pm (EST) by Omen
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.
Tags:
Fabula Nova Crystallis
Just How Many Titles Are There?
Dissidia Final Fantasy Hits Euro/PAL PSN Stores
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 11:12 am (EST) by Kyle
For anyone still holding out in Europe for the downloadable version of Dissidia Final Fantasy, today is your day. Square Enix has announced that as of now, the Final Fantasy fighter is available for download on the PlayStation Network via PS3 or PSP, for €24.99.
The game was previously released in Europe on disc around the same time as it did in North America, but for whatever reason North America received the PSN version of the game way back in November, leaving Europe and other PAL regions out in the cold.
So, if you have a fat memory card, or a PSP Go, now's a good time to dig into the game. Remember, sales of Dissidia Final Fantasy could inspire a sequel. Just saying.
Tags:
Dissidia Final Fantasy, PSN
On Euro PSN
Square Enix: Crystal Tools A Mistake
Thu, Mar 11th, 2010, 10:51 am (EST) by Omen
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.
Tags:
Crystal Tools, Final Fantasy XIII, Fabula Nova Crystallis
We Could Have Had XIII Months Ago
Stumble It!
Del.icio.us
Facebook
MyYahoo!
Ma.gnolia
Furl
