Here's a bit of what's leaked out from the interview for Final Fantasy Type-0:
- The keyword for the battle system is "Magic in Action." While you have weapons, magic is main.
- A main concept is "It's not necessary for everyone to gather." The game has a multiplayer system that can be enjoyed by solo players too.
- You can join other players' games for three minutes. While you can extend this, Type-0 is not the type of game where you play together with other players continuously.
- The game will have 12+2 main characters. This means that in addition to the 12 main characters, there will be two characters, Makina and Rem, in a different framework (I'm not sure what that means). These 12+2 characters will be your controllable party.
- You can have up to three characters out in battle simultaneously. Once someone dies, other members will come out to help.
- Until you come to the battle field, you move around the world map and execute a strategy.
- As you play on your own, other players will gradually take part in the battle.
- When you help other players, you earn points.
- In general, your full party heads to the battle field together.
Dengeki PlayStation has a two page spread on final Fantasy XIII-2 this week, complete with a one page interview with producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama. Here's a bit of what they say:
- XIII-2's story begins in Gran Pulse after the ending of XIII.
- The story will feel like it expands out from the after story that was included in the booklet with Xbox 360's Final Fantasy XIII International.
- Outside of Lightning, other characters will appear in the game in unexpected forms. Some will see major changes.
- XIII-2 is a full sequel. You'll learn some of the things that took place in the background scenes of XIII.
- The story will be more dark and mysterious than XIII's.
- The story will focus on the goddess Etro.
- The game will not have the pop feel of Final Fantasy X-2
- The battle system will be an evolved form of XIII's ATB system.
- They're listening to opinions both inside and outside of Square Enix and from outside of Japan regarding characters, story and interface.
- There may be a difficulty setting.
Here are some more Versus XIII details from Dengeki's feature and its interview with Tetsuya Nomura. Included are some comments from Nomura indicating that we shouldn't expect the game this year:
- Main character Noctis is not "cool." He's just a normal youth. He feels "I am strong," but he's not as strong as he thinks.
- Some segments of the trailer show natural landscapes. These are like the fields you encounter in other games. The game will have time progression: morning, afternoon, evening and night.
- Contrary to some theories, the dragon rider character who appears in the trailer is not heroine Stella. Nomura says he wouldn't show Stella in such a state. The character you see in that sequence is an enemy.
- You can steal army vehicles for your use. You can ride air ships, cars and Chocobos.
- The blonde character shown in the trailer is Noctis's friend. The other two characters are friends from Noctis's childhood. The person with glasses is like Noctis's tactician.
- You'll recall that someone in the trailer says "You're not fit to be king," or something to that effect. This statement is not directed at Noctis. (I think everyone assumed it was!)
- Nomura says something along the lines of: This year, we have Type-0 and XIII-2, so please forget about Versus for a while. He asked that people be patient and understand that they're trying to do something incredible.
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- The actual battle screen in the final game will show character names.
- Some areas regarding how the battle screen shows commands will probably change for the final.
- Magic has different effects depending on the character who uses it.
- A young blonde male character shown in the magazine's screenshots is good with guns. He alone has aiming controls and can aim for enemy weak spots.
- When other characters use guns, they have just a normal lock-on.
- The game has a large number of weapons. Main character Noctis can use them all.
- Your battle party can have up to three members. However, the members who aren't taking part in the battle will join in on conversations.
- There are more party members than the four shown in the magazine. However, the game doesn't have a massive number of party members.
- At the earliest, we could see more from Versus XIII at E3.
