Famitsu has the full scoop on
Final Fantasy XIII again and with only a month to go before the
demo drops, it’s time to know more about the battle system. The latest screens are still from the train sequence with Lightning and
Nora members’ face off with Holy Government’s army on the ground. Which are likely the only fight scenes you will get from the demo.
Lightning with a bazooka, which she is familiar with since she was part of Holy Government’s army before. But what kind of enemy that a bazooka must be used?
The Holy Government army watch as digital monsters come out from the orb above. According to the Famitsu article, your timing will decides the outcome of the battle. The battle screen’s layout has been refined so that it feels fresh but fans of the series will still feels familiar.
Time Gauge
Final Fantasy XIII featured an enhanced Active Time Battle (ATB) system. As time goes by, the Time Gauge (the longest bar on the screen that’s divided by three slots) gets filled up. Commands entered by the players will be executed as soon as there is sufficient amount in the gauge. Additionally, and unlike typical ATB implementations, players can input commands even if the Time Gauge is still not filled up.
Command Cost
Each of these commands has a cost associated with them and it’s essentially the amount of slots (called Command Stock in the
previous report) they required in the Time Gauge in order to execute.
As the screen above shows, the commands waiting to be executed is displayed above the time gauge. Besides executing them (press the triangle button) as soon as there is enough slot, you can wait until the Time Gauge is full and execute them in one go.
There is no MP indicator in the battle screen, everything seems to be consolidated into the new system. Magics that affect single unit appear to cost only 1 while those affecting a group of units cost 3.
HP & Time Gauge Display
HP and Time Gauge of your party members are displayed at the lower right potion of the screen. As Famitsu noted, this can be exciting since you can timed your commands based on their Time Gauge for maximum damage and more importantly, cool looking moves.
Chain & Break
If you managed to land several successful hits on your enemies consecutively, the Chain Gauge (top right of the screen) increases and the damages you can deal increase gradually too. When the gauge is full, “Break” is triggered for even bigger damages. There is no information on the bonus percentage yet but Famitsu think it’s related to Break.
Uchiage Command
When in Break mode, “Uchiage” (Launch?) command can be used to send enemy flying into the air for some spectacular fight moves.
Battle Result Screen
Your will be given stars based on your performance in the battle. No idea what TP does yet. Finally, the partial list of voice actors is out, they are:
- Maaya Sakamoto for Lightning
- Daisuke Ono for Snow
- Yukari Fukui for Vanille
- Masashi Ebara for Sazh
Source:
Famitsu
