Speaking with Famitsu "Toriyama stresses Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a new style of RPG he can’t wait to show people. This game has a number of changes including a revised travel system. Every nook and cranny is packed with people, which gives the feeling of a living world. Toriyama asks fans to please stay tuned for further news".

Source siliconera

Edit: Extra info

Translation from LJ. Can't believe they actually responded. So nice.

Famitsu expresses surprise that this game is going to release by this year. Toriyama replies that they have pretty much kept people waiting for FFXIII for a long time, so they hope to get this out faster.(Plus they did mentioned before that the deleted content they have for FFXIII is enough to make a game, which explains why they can do it so fast.) They reassure that they are putting their very best to make this game.

They have been taking feedbacks from players and various other sources since the production.
Players can travel between different worlds, meeting people from towns and villages. They want to create a bigger, more lively world that reflects the changes after the events in FFXIII. So the travel system in FFXIII-2 will be one of the biggest and the most exciting changes.

Kitase and Toriyama tell us that they have been working hard since last year so look forward to FFXIII-2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 as they will be sharing more news and updates to us as the dates getting nearer.

http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/forums/...=13861&page=11

Most of the credit for finding the info goes to darthdevidem01

towns in 13........impossible!

No. The entire game will be in towns, to make up for lack of towns.

Then why is there town in the title?

man whoeverr says ff is dying is crazy they have the 3 best games to look forward to by a mile. its at its strongest id say not to mention duodecim and ff4 complete ff is strongly on form

I still think that this game will feature some kind of time travel.

I expect to go to Oerba while it was still actually populated. 

Just updated the OP with new info!

They had enough leftover material from the first game to make another one.

So... tadah! Instant leftover RPG.

Good, FF XIII was amazing, and FF XIII-2 will hopefully make dissapointed loyal fans happy.

so i take it this one won't be in HD cause you know...