Well, I'm creating this thread in order to know what you people expect to see in Final Fantasy Versus XIII... I think most of the people have bigger expectations for this game than the expectations they had for Final Fantasy XIII (Well, at least I do :P)
So... I'm going to post some news on the game that I found on the internet and after copy-pasting all those news I'm going to tell you what I expect from the game :P
Airship Travel Returns in Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Mountains and oceans are barriers no more for players of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, through the return of the classic airship. Square Enix's Tetsura Nomura is known for his work on many popular videogame properties over the years, including Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. His current PS3-exclusive project, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, is set within the same universe as the recently released Final Fantasy XIII, but is said to be mostly unrelated. In a recent interview done through Square Enix's Japanese Twitter account, Nomura has confirmed that airships will make a confident return in Versus XIII, as their full functionality has been sorely missed in current Final Fantasy games. When asked how development was progressing on Versus XIII, Nomura's reply translates to: "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." A seemingly minor comment, but to fans of the more traditional versions of Final Fantasy it could be very meaningful. The airship is a gameplay aspect that dates all the way back to the very first Final Fantasy for the NES. Anyone that has played Final Fantasy no doubt has a mental image of that first airship rising from the desert sands, and I'm not going to say it was the first RPG to include the feature, but the airship has been an integral part of almost every Final Fantasy since the beginning. This basically changed with Final Fantasy X, after which navigation on the games' world maps worked differently. More than just a form of quick travel, the airship symbolized freedom and non-linearity, giving players the ability to explore previously inaccessible areas and to find hidden secrets. Final Fantasy XIII is often attacked as a linear experience, and with only 12 hours into the game my experience has confirmed those attacks, though I hear it gets better later. Still, earlier Final Fantasy games gave a feeling of freedom and excitement right from the beginning, rather than locking players into a set path and shoveling them along it. For longtime Final Fantasy fans, the mere existence of an airship in Final Fantasy Versus XIII that can be flown across a world map could mean the return of gameplay aspects some were looking for in Final Fantasy XIII. The keyword here is "could," but the hope is now at least there in some form. Source: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99284-Airship-Travel-Returns-in-Final-Fantasy-Versus-XIII One of the biggest surprises of the Tokyo Game Show -- in part because producer Tetsuya Nomura had said it probably wouldn't be there -- was a new video for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. And this wasn't any old trailer. It contained what appeared to be first actual gameplay footage from the game. Famitsu.com managed to score an interview with Nomura and quizzed him on just what was being shown in the video. The new Versus XIII footage showed the game's main character running around in a town at various points during the day, then out in a field that was populated by large monsters. The footage was filmed with a camera, presumably by the game's staff whose commentary could be seen in text shown below the footage. According to Nomura, the footage wasn't actually from a development version of the game, but was rather part of a technology test. It's not the case that everything shown during the clip will be used in the actual game. The clip was quickly made in an effort to show that Versus is in development and ease fan anxieties. Regarding the scene showing the main character walking around town during different times of the day, Nomura said that this was just a test of how far they could differentiate day and night scenes. The NPC characters who populated the town during the daytime were actually borrowed from Final Fantasy XIII. The map that was used for the following field scene was made in two weeks, said Nomura. It won't be used in that form in the final version of the game. The "behemoth" creature from the clip was without textures, he also said. Regarding the game's fields, Nomura added that Versus will probably have more natural landscapes than Final Fantasy XIII (I recall him having said something like this this in the past). It appears that the only "official" parts of the trailer surrounded main character Noctis. The clothing worn in the trailer by Noctis is the official clothing designed by Roen Creative Director Kei Takahara. The Famitsu.com interview went off into a lengthy aside about the game's clothing tie-up with Roen. Asked if accessories for the game would be Roen branded, Nomura said that Noctis does not wear accessories like necklaces and earrings. The only accessory he wears is a ring on his right hand. This ring is worn as part of the story. While Noctis wears nothing but the ring on his right hand, he wears a biker glove on his left hand. Asked if this means that Noctis rides a bike, Nomura responded with a laugh, "Probably." The Noctis character shown in the video is pretty much finalized, said Nomura. Asked of there have been any changes to the characters since past showings, he said that the hair has been cut a bit shorter, although the style is unchanged. And finally, the big question about development progress. According to Nomura, the development team has been working on tests since last year. Since the Spring, they've been gradually increasing staff. With FFXIII's development winding down, staff from that project are coming over to Versus, so he expects development to accelerate from here on out. Source: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/09/28/nomura_on_ff_versus_xiii/ Tetsuya Nomura is one of Square Enix's most powerful producers, so I probably shouldn't be saying this... but man, Nomura, you're a big fat liar! Late last month, Nomura revealed to Famitsu that Square Enix wouldn't be holding a Closed Mega Theater in its Tokyo Game Show booth this year. He also said that the company it probably wouldn't be showing new footage of Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. He was wrong on both accounts. While it's true that there wasn't a traditional sit-down closed theater in this year's Square Enix booth, there was something extremely similar to it. After playing Final Fantasy XIII and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, players were ushered into a shared viewing space between the two demo areas where they viewed the latest Square Enix trailers on a massive Sharp LCD monitor. This theater was standing-only. But it wasn't visible from outside the booth, making it fit my definition of a closed theater. Following my first viewing, I tried my best to peak through the curtain closing the theater off from the outside world because I'd seen something during the trailer showcase that I really liked: actual gameplay footage of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. While we've been seeing realtime footage of Stella and Noctis's first meeting since last year's DK-something-something-90210 event, the new TGS video offered a first look at gameplay -- that is, someone was clearly moving a character around. I'm pretty sure that character was Noctis. A series of clips showed Noctis moving around through the streets of a European-style city, first surrounded by other people, and then alone at night. Next, the footage switched to Noctis moving about a vast field. Here, he was joined by monsters, some massive. I was actually reminded of a scene of Hope running around FFXIII's vast Pulse fields in the TGS FFXIII trailer. When referring to the Versus XIII TGS showing, I use "footage" instead of "trailer" because what we were shown wasn't actually a trailer. The footage was all off-screen, filmed off presumably development units by the development staff. It was set to the same music from past trailers, but there wasn't any attempt to make a promotional trailer out of the various gameplay clips. Below the footage, subtitles showed a conversation being had by Tetsuya Nomura and other staff members as they viewed the footage. They seemed to be joking around mostly. For instance, someone asked why there was no one around in the night scene. Nomura's response was that everyone had probably gone home. Admittedly, I was only able to view the trailer once, so I didn't get to look too closely at the text. There may have been some other gameplay secrets hidden in there (if the usual progression holds, a Famitsu interview will clear up such things in a couple of weeks). This was definitely an unconventional method of showing off first gameplay footage from a game. But, then again, it's not entirely surprising. The DK-something-something event also offered visitors a glimpse at early prototype clips of Versus in similar fashion, with the developers joking around as the brief footage flowed across the screen. Versus wasn't the only attraction in the "closed theater" trailer real. Square Enix also had new footage of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Final Fantasy Agito XIII and The 3rd Birthday. The Final Fantasy XIII trailer was also new for most visitors, although I'd seen it in advance at the Premiere Party event a couple of weeks back (I was happy to see it again, now that developer interviews had shed some light on what we should be looking for). Like Versus, the trailer for The 3rd Birthday included first actual gameplay sequences. Here, while a proper trailer, the gameplay scenes were largely obscured by post processing effects. From what I could make out, the game is a third person shooter, with the action taking place from behind Aya's back. There was just a few seconds of blurred gameplay footage mixed in with what was already a short CG trailer, so it's tough to say more. Still, being shown first gameplay footage -- regardless of the form -- is a good sign that a full unveil is on the way. Final Fantasy Agito XIII has seen playable footage in past trailers. In this latest trailer, I noticed the characters' battle menu palette changing depending on the character. While fight and defend/evade were always there, two other commands would change between such things as Snipe, Black Hole, Nebula. I presume these are skills. Square Enix will hopefully start getting specific on the game once FFXIII sees release later this year. The Famitsu.com article makes one additional note about the Agito trailer. Apparently, some footage indicated that the players were taking on a mission of some form as assigned by a Magic Guild of some form. The mission that appears in the trailer asks that players use magic once within a minute. As for the Birth By Sleep trailer, I'll have details on that in my hands-on playtest of Aqua's stage. With all the press conferences and stage events going on, Birth By Sleep was one of the two games that I was able to play today (the other was Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker). I'm glad I did play it, as in addition to Birth By Sleep being a showpiece title for the PSP, the play session also got me into Square Enix's secret closed theater. Source: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/09/24/playable_ff_versus_xiii_footage/ A recent Famitsu interview with Final Fantasy Versus XIII Director, Tetsuya Nomora, sheds light on some production changes that may cause the title to miss its E3 outing opportunity. According to Nomora, the world map is “lacking” and needs to be revamped. After initially saying that the game could make E3 with if all went according to plan, this latest interview reveals a little uncertainty on the director’s part. Source: http://www.ripten.com/2010/02/17/world-map-changes-may-delay-final-fantasy-versus-xiii-e3-showing/ Left in the charge of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts team, Final Fantasy Versus XIII was originally announced at E3 in 2006. Since then, all we’ve seen are trailers, the most recent one being a teaser rendered using the game engine, which was shown at Jump Festa ‘10. Tetsuya Nomura explained to Famitsu magazine changes being made to the world map might set the schedule back. "For displaying characters on the world map, we were originally planning on using the method used by FF#, with a small Noctis running about on the screen. But that didn’t look too great, so we ended up switching to the method used by FF#," Nomura said to Famitsu, according to a transcript translated by Andriasang. The two "#s" in the quote pertain to Final Fantasy game numbers that Famitsu were asked to edit out of the interview. “We were hoping to debut it at E3, but we’re not sure now,” said Nomura. Missing the overworld map found in older Final Fantasy titles? Be sure to check out Final Fantasy Versus XIII, then. Tetsuya Nomura recently reconfirmed that the game will feature a world map. Not only that, but you also get to travel around in an airship. This was revealed in a Twitter interview conducted by Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto. When asked how far along Versus XIII is, Nomura answered: Not everything is connected together, so the various areas have different levels of progress. However, you can fly across the world map in an air ship. As far as a release date is concerned, however, Square Enix is keeping a tight lid on that. Still, Nomura indicated that he wanted to release at least two games within the year, although presumably this applies just to Japan. Nomura has his hands deep in Versus XIII, Agito XIII, and The 3rd Birthday right now, and those are just the confirmed games.Tetsuya Nomura Talks Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Producer expects development on FFXIII sister production to accelerate.
Square Enix Debuts Playable Final Fantasy Versus XIII Footage
Tetsuya Nomura is a liar. But it's all good!
Map Changes May Delay Final Fantasy Versus XIII E3 Showing
Next Final Fantasy Versus XIII Reveal May Be Delayed Due To World Map Changes
Final Fantasy Versus XIII has world map, airship
Final Fantasy Versus XIII To Have Controllable Airships
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.
Some trailers here:
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Final Fantasy Versus XIII official site: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/versus13/
I think all that info tells us some things to expect from the game (like an airship, World-Map, etc)
Well now... here's what I want to see in Final Fantasy Versus XIII:
- A Controllable Airship to travel around the world map. I hope it's accessible around the middle of the game =).
- Obviously, a World-Map like in the old Final Fantasy games (Simillar to FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX). From the info we've got so far, it might have a World-Map similllar to the one in FFVIII (I hope :P). I also hope the "freedom" of the world map is simillar to that of FFVIII's world map =) (like in... you're supposed to go to a cave but you see a city and say "I want to check that first" and go there :P)
- At least 10 Towns/Cities. Some big ones and some very small ones.
- NPCs in Towns/Cities and maybe around the World-Map too. And the ability to talk to some of them and get Side-quests from them or maybe items =P.
- The ability to go back to places I've already been to earlier in the main quest. (as in... I'm at the door of the final dungeon where the final boss is waiting for me but I decide to go back to the town where I started the game in... so I just take the airship or ride a chocobo and go there).
- Around 100 Side-Quests. Maybe only a few (let's say 2) available at the beginning of the game and, as you advance in the plot, you unlock more... but they don't get blocked or not accessible anymore when you do something in the game. They are always accessible once you've unlocked them no matter what.
- At least 15 secret/unlockable dungeons... some of them with the most powerful monsters inside :P
- The ability to take control of any character you want that is in your party (if there are parties in the game :P). Like... I play a little with Noctis and want to switch to Stella so I go to the party menu and select Stella as the party leader and then I can control her instead ^_^.
- A lot of secret/optional bosses. They should put Omega Weapon and Ultima Weapon in the game! that would be awesome =) and other super strong bosses too ^_^
- Secret Eidolons/Guardian Forces/Espers/Summons or whatever they're called in this game. Maybe like 5 or 6 secret summons?
- Secret weapons/accessories/armor, etc.
Well... I'm not sure but I think that's all ^_^ So... what do you want to see in the game? =D
I think that this is my most anticipated game of the entire generation, lol... After this game releases, I won't be waiting for any other game anymore (as long as a game I don't know about is announced?)
A banner stolen from some site xD
Release Final Fantasy Versus XIII nowwwwwwwwww!!! lol :P
