Final Fantasy XIII On Track for 2009

Director speaks out on development progress, characters, and more.

www.ign.com

US, February 25, 2009 - Were you concerned when Square Enix president Yoichi Wada told investors that Dragon Quest IX's Japanese delay to July might have an effect on the release of FFXIII? If not, what's wrong with you? Any delay in the Japanese release of the game almost assuredly means a delay outside of Japan as well!

All is not lost, though. FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama had some calming words in an interview in this week's Famitsu. Development on FFXIII is still progressing towards a 2009 release and is going smoothly, he told the magazine. He also noted that that the the game's demo version, which will be included with the Japanese release of Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete in April, was finished in December.

Of course, Wada and the other Squenix suits will likely have the final say on when FFXIII gets released, but it's certainly good to hear that the game is coming along.

Famitsu also got Toriyama to spill a bit about the demo. Players will be able to play for about an hour, he said, confirming past reports at a sizable play experience. There may actually be a multi-faceted side to the demo, as Toriyama revealed that Snow and Lightning will not meet during the course of the demo. Players will be able to enjoy the stories for the two characters separately.

Furthermore, because the full battle system is included in the demo, Toriyama expects players to find a lot of replay value. Despite the inclusion of the full battle system, though, he assured that the battles we see in the final version of the game will be evolved even further.

Joining Toriyama in the interview session was FFXIII character designer Nao Ikeda. The two shared a few details on some of the recently announced characters and story elements.

First off, afro guy, Sazh. This character is like nothing ever seen in the series and appears to have caused quite the impact, said Toriyama. He admitted to being a bit worried. In Toriyama's mind, Sazh is bright and full of expression, and also has a comical element about him.

Don't like Sazh? Well, you'd better get used to him, because Toriyama also revealed that Sazh has the most lines in the game! For his voice actor (presumably the Japanese version), Square Enix made use of a veteran who was given freedom to ad-lib.

Sazh and Lightning come to know one another at the outset of the game's story following some big happening, explained Toriyama. They did not know each other prior to that.

One of the reasons Sazh's unveiling caused quite the stir was due to the baby Chocobo he keeps in his afro. The Chocobo caused a big reaction, explained Toriyama, and the development staff is now considering giving it more time in the game. He joked that while the Chocobo does not appear in battle, he's currently in negotiations with the battle team about this.

Our latest update on FFXIII detailed Nora, a group comprised in part by four members: Snow, Lebreau, Maqui, and Gadot (these are the official Romanized names, as listed in Famitsu). Famitsu confirms that Snow is the leader of this group, whose name comes from the Japanese word for stray dog (nora-inu). There's actually a hidden meaning in the name, Toriyama explained, but players will not learn it until events that take place after the demo.

Ikeda shared some background on Nora, explaining that it was formed by youths who do not like being controlled by the holy government. Their major activity involves fighting off monsters, but they consider their role of protecting the city as somewhat of an enjoyable sport. The residents of the city place great trust in them.

Monsters? Yes, Cocoon has monsters, and one of the holy government army's jobs is to deal with them. The "PSICOM" soldiers, mentioned in the last trailer, deal primarily with fighting monsters and rarely face off against human foes.

The members of Nora have made it their business to save people who are being force migrated to Pulse because it turns out that their city, which is located by the shore, is believed to have taken influence from Pulse and is being purged. The members of Nora hope to stop that.

Those four members mentioned above will be encountered in the demo version of FFXIII. But when playing the final version, players will encounter a fifth member, whom Toriyama joked was too cool to be revealed just yet.

We can do without the fifth character as long as we get to at long last get our hands on FFXIII. The April Japanese demo can't come soon enough!

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i do belive ff13 will be released in japan this year on playstation 3.

i think a 2 - 2.5 million first week sales for software in japan. and hardware 600k or just 500k+ in the first week.

very informative. i'm glad they like Sazh, cause I really like him so far.

I was hoping they commented more on the character system...
I hope it's not like FFXII where everyone can use everything. I want it to go back to FF 4,6-10 where characters have their OWN weapons and such. It makes them more original. And I hope its not full of guns

I'm sure this game will come out this year:

- FFXIII demo is coming out in april, the game has to follow "soon" to keep the hype machine alive"
- One fiscal year = one big game is too stupid, really.
- Keeping a game that is "ready" is a huge and stupid lost of money.
- SE needs a big game for this xmas, they have none excepted FFXIII.

So: FFXIII = xmas 2009 in japan.

Not going to happen.

It would be really good news for the PS3 if FFXIII released this year at Japan.

Looks like SE had to scrap the "no DQ and FF in same fiscal year" rule they usually go by. This gen has been so bad for SE financially they just need the games to release as fast as possible really, end of.

 i agree SQ has been poor so far.

more unveiled characters yayyyy¡¡¡¡ i thought they revealed them all. FF13 in christmass of 09 would be big¡¡¡¡.

Ehm, no it isn't. Financial results are always compared with the previous year, so results of the 2010 FY will look very bad if the year before a mainline DQ AND FF are released. And that will lead to a drop in stocks. That's why they spread their main games out out.

SE doesn't need a big hit for Christmas, DQ9 will totally ensure a very healthy fiscal year on its own.

Most sensible way it will go:

2008: Star Ocean 4
2009: Dragon Quest 9
2010: Final Fantasy 13
2011: Versus + Chrystal Chronicles + KH
2012: Dragon Quest 10

(years are financial years. 2008 ends March 31st 2009) 

Holy crap if the PS3 did numbers like that I would poo myself