Final Fantasy XIII is still a long way off, so can it really be the killer app the Playstation 3 has been waiting for?
By Brent Kampe
In the mythical land of North America, where Final Fantasy sells far better than Dragon Quest, fans of Square Enix's flagship series have been foaming at the mouth for more details on the elusive Final Fantasy XIII, which was originally announced in a teaser trailer at E3 2006. Since then, Squeenix has spoon-fed the masses with merely minuscule morsels of information, which its ravenous fan base has been more than willing to pounce upon, devour, and scour the net in hopes of even more. But, will the game be able to live up to the excellence of its antecedents and deliver on years of media hype by the time of its release? Well, from what's been made known so far, it certainly seems to be following the series' pattern, making just enough changes to be fresh but keeping just enough tradition to be Final Fantasy.
One World, multiple platforms
Final Fantasy XIII is the centerpiece of a triumvirate featuring another PS3 game, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and a cell phone game, Final Fantasy Agito XIII. All three of these games are set in the same universe with a common mythos, and are collectively titled Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, or "new crystal fable". It is not known at this time whether these three games will be the end of the set, as more games under the Fabula label have been rumored to appear, such as the trademarked Square Enix title Final Fantasy Haeresis XIII.
This sales model of releases clustered around a single intellectual property is fairly similar to the company's Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Ivalice Alliance game groups, which both included related games (and in the case of Final Fantasy VII, even a full-length movie) that stretched across multiple platforms. The key difference here is that Square Enix has announced these satellite games for FF XIII years before it has had a chance to prove its popularity. While this shows a great deal of possibly premature confidence in the title, it is also indicative of the company's new development philosophy of "polymorphic content", which grants gamers perspective of the same game world, only on different gaming platforms.
The setting of FF XIII specifically will take place in a dichotomous world, with an art style that will reflect its Romanesque nomenclature while still allowing the futuristic designs seen in the trailer. Above exists the sealed-off, shelled world named Cocoon, whose inhabitants fear the outsiders of Pulse, the world that exists beneath them. Therein, crystals are used to create powerful machines and an advanced society, but all is not well as a group of mysterious creatures suddenly awaken and begin to threaten the world.
The story then proceeds in epic Final Fantasy fashion, and Square Enix has vaguely hinted at an overall theme, claiming that the game's focus will tell the story of "those who resist the world". Not exactly an alien concept to the series, we think.
Character matters
Witnesses to the E3 trailer have noted that Lightning, the game's svelte heroine, may just represent the first-ever central female character of the main, numbered line of Final Fantasy games. While the protagonist status of Lighting has not yet been confirmed, it would seem to make sense in light of the fact that the game's director also worked on Final Fantasy X-2, which prominently featured three women as the only playable characters.
Mr. 33 cm, *wink wink*
Mr. 33 cm, *wink wink*
Lightning wields a gun sword, similar to Squall of Final Fantasy VIII fame. Few details about other characters have been released since then, but developers have mentioned a rough-and-tumble male that may be the focal character of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Tetsuya Nomura, a Square Enix character designer, has referred to this character simply as "Mr. 33 cm" (a reference to his shoe size), but it is not known whether he will appear in more than one of the Fabula Nova Crystallis games. Little else is known about him, other than that he has a "cowboy-like" wild personality and employs a humorous combat style.
On the other side of character design, enemies in the game are said to be appropriate to their setting. The idea of limitless, faceless fiends that have pervaded the rest of the series may be chucked, as the developers have claimed that enemies will be distinct, with their own histories.
Engines of war
FF XIII will be built on the company's proprietary White Engine, which is tooled to render animated sequences specifically using the PS3's Cell processor. The result? Nearly pre-rendered quality graphics in real time. There were rumors that Square Enix had abandoned this engine after the company licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3, which would have most certainly alleviated the rising costs of next-gen game development. However, these rumors have since been fully debunked. In any case, high graphical expectations are set for the game's final release, as the company has had a history of pushing new consoles to new limits with this particular series.
The Active Time Battle system (ATB), a Final Fantasy mainstay, will make a return, though it has been revamped to accommodate a faster-paced style of gameplay. When a player's turn arrives, he will be able to input commands that can be blended together. For example, rather than just slashing, the player can make a stab and slash combination, which will be animated seamlessly.
This game might actually allow you to *cough cough* ride Shiva. Vroom vroom.
This game might actually allow you to *cough cough* ride Shiva. Vroom vroom.
Enemy encounters have also been refined into something yet unseen: again the series eschews the random battles, opting for a smoother process akin to FF XII's map-roaming enemies, but the result will not be quite as free-form. Players will be able to modify the conditions of the battle before engaging, perhaps using a trap system similar to the Xenosaga series. Players will once again be able to encounter and utilize the graphical fanfares known as summons, but they will have a tweaked role this time around. Shiva, for example, will be able to transform into a motorcycle, possibly to be ridden by the protagonists.
With gorgeously refined graphics, a new gameplay slant towards action and speed, and the plot benefits of pre-planned multiple releases, FF XIII is shaping up to continue the series' trend of benchmark-setting games. However, since its release has been pushed back to April 2008 at the earliest, series fans still have a long time before the next-gen fantasy is finalized.
Still, there are plenty of Final Fantasy releases (e.g. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, etc...) to keep them away from reality's reach in the mean time. Let's just hope that the Fabula Nova Crystallis series will not be subject to the same delays that plagued its predecessor, Final Fantasy XII.
http://www.gamepro.com/sony/ps3/games/previews/123088.shtml