Final Fantasy: Versus XIII Still in Development
Final Fantasy: Versus XIII, that elusive dangling carrot on the end of a stick, has almost earned Duke Nukem: Forever status as another title that just can’t seem to be released. Going so far as to assume its inevitable cancellation after being a no-show at this year’s E3, we’re pleased to announce that Tetsuya Nomura, the game’s director, has spoken up not just about the next Kingdom Hearts, but about the future of the title with some fresh new details.
Speaking in this week’s issue of Famitsu, Nomura acknowledged the radio silence from FF:VXIII and also stated he doesn’t know for sure when the opportunity to release more information will present itself. His attitude seemed to express that his hesitation is indicative towards a larger, meaningful information dump. Regardless, he delved into greater detail about the title’s use of manipulable cutscenes and dynamic battles, as well as a phone peripheral to accompany the release.
Nomura explained that during moments of character cutscenes, players will have control of the camera to experience without limitations. The idea, he said, is in an effort to not disturb the gameplay, similar to a style seen in current popular FPS games.
Veterans of the series can recall cut scenes that feature higher polygonal character models from the regular versions of the characters used in battles and events. Looking to finally bridge the gap, Versus XIII will feature ‘unified’ models. Think of it this way: your playable character will now actually look like the one dodging explosions and running from danger in the cutscenes.
When Nomura procured a few screenshots for the interview, including one featuring the events of a real-time battle, one interviewer was in disbelief because of the graphical quality. Apparently great care has been taken with the presentation of the game, with the lighting being a primary focus of attention. The actual screenshots have not hit the public.
With the release of Final Fantasy: Versus XIII, Square-Enix will be releasing a Noctis phone, similar to the the Cloud phone released with Advent Children.
Now, with the game in deep development, voice actors are currently being called in to record parts of their dialogue. Four of the main male characters, Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus have each seen studio time, sometimes together where overlapping dialogue was necessary.
[Via]
10 Responses to “Final Fantasy: Versus XIII Still in Development”
Let’s hope this stays true to the true FF games. Only way I’ll buy is if it does, it’s really good, at least one of the best FF ever and it doesn’t have any of the greedy crap that like paid DLC that should be free and things like that.
That depends on YOUR opinion of a TRUE FF game. It better not be FF 1 2 3 8 x, x-2 or XII ALL of those except for 8 is worse than XIII. But I NEVER wanna see SCHOOL again in one of future FF games. It makes me think about Persona and I shiver LOL!
This is the only FF currently on my radar. I wasn’t a big fan of XIII (In fact, I quit roughly half way through) so XIII-2 just isn’t there for me. Versus looked so much more entertaining storywise, though we never really did see a whole lot as far as actual gameplay goes.
I was disappointed in FFXIII and it’s sad because that was my first Final Fantasy experience. I had always wanted to try the games but never had the money haha. I bought FFXIII on release day (or pretty close. I don’t remember) even though I had never played any of the others. This one seems like it will be a million times better so I haven’t given up hope on Final Fantasy. My biggest fear is that it will go multiplatform which will delay it longer and make the game suffer (sorry xbox just can’t hold a candle to PS3 in terms of power) like what seems to have happened with FFXIII. I don’t even know what else to say.
What made you choose FF XIII as your first Final Fantasy game? I’m gonna try to say this nice: It better not have been the production value or that it was the newest one.
DL FF 7 8 9 on Playstation store dude
I’m very happy to know Final Fantasy Versus 13 hasn’t been cancelled because every since it was announced I was very excited for the game and heck I still am. I really hope Square Enix releases more information about Final Fantasy Versus 13 soon and I hope they release the game in late 2012 through early 2013.
Release date? 2015? Well, you can go ahead and kill me now…
the game isn’t even in full production yet
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/07/13/nomura_on_ff_versus_xiii/
what more there is to say other than Square Enix and greedy Wada using staff members for other projects (see FFXIII and now XIII-2) and halt this one a million times over and in the end someone in there will throw along the lines the excuse “we switched it to multiplatform to speed up development”
greedy,greedy,greedy
FF Versus XIII is one of , if not THE most anticipated title for me. BUT I hate to see all the hate XIII is getting, man if you haven’t finished the game you have no say and when I finished it, yes I was disappointed that it didn’t elaborate on a lot of things and ended like it was the middle of the story without a true cliffhanger. I got pissed because it didn’t feel like a complete game SOOO the point is this, HERE COMES FF XIII-2… A PLANNED SEQUEL not just a random idea and I am looking forward to that game with much anticipation as well.
“Nomura explained that during moments of character cutscenes, players will have control of the camera to experience without limitations.”
WTF does that mean? is sounds like a very shitty idea, cutscenes in JRPG’s should fucking ROCK, I mean, soo, can I turn the cam away from Noctis during a vital confrontation? I MEAN WTF! IF that is the case then I will not be touching it at all
I always wanna SOAK in what happens.
But I have no idea how it works yet so maybe I’m wrong, maybe it kicks ass
And the footage I have seen from the game have KICKED ASS, everything looks to be FF back to former glory (and when I say that it does not mean that FF XIII sucked, it was great just not FF 4 5 6 7 8 9 great LOL!!)
Noctis looks awesome!
I saw some “gameplay” trailers for this and actually looked quite good, like a more serious KH. Square has clearly aimed to make games that appeal to modern day players, which makes sense, but being old skool, I don’t like em.
I don’t like moody main characters either!