Gaimaga Blows Out Final Fantasy XIII - IGN (original) (raw)

The latest batch of Japan's biggest monthly game magazines have made their way out following E3, and contained within are juicy new details on Final Fantasy XIII. The July issues of Hyper PlayStation and Gaimaga (the latter formerly known as Dori-Maga) provide new hints on what we can expect from the bothPS3 entries.
Motomu Toriyama, director of the main FFXIII title for the PS3, revealed to Gaimaga that scenario work for his project is 80% complete, with the game's visual engine, running on actual PS3 hardware, being nearly finished. "Now," he said, "is the time for the true start of FFXIII." Final Fantasy Versus XIII appears to be trailing in development. "Absolutely nothing has been done on the actual scenario," director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura revealed to Gaimaga. "However, I've had the plot worked out for some time, so you could say I'm discussing the plot and concept with the staff. However, we've yet to start actual work on the scenario."

Toriyama and Versus producer Shinji Hashimoto defended the decision to release FFXIII on the PS3. According to Hashimoto, the development staff determined that one DVD would not be enough for the type of visual expression they were attempting to make. Toriyama noted that, regarding visual expression, the PS3's shader abilities are a big factor.

Series producer Yoshinori Kitase pointed out that the use of shaders has caused some difficulties with development. Making a standard texture, something that would have been done with a PS2 game, would typically require the work of just one designer. With the switch to shaders, designers and programmers have to be paired up, resulting in some logistical difficulties.

Kitase has some insight into the differences in making a game for the PS2 as opposed to the PS3. As announced at the FFXIII unveiling press conference at E3, Final Fantasy XIII development originally started on the PS2. This was approximately two to three years ago. Following their work on the Final Fantasy VII technical demonstration from last year's E3, the development staff started anew on the PS3 -- tossing everything they'd created for FFXIII up to that point. "We're truly making everything from scratch," commented Kitase in regard to the game's White Engine. "We're currently at the step where we're attempting to make an easy development environment."

Hyper PlayStation asked the staff why they decided to announce Versus as a part of Final Fantasy XIII and not as a brand new Final Fantasy XIV. The concept and thinking behind Versus would not be possible in a standard numbered Final Fantasy title, Nomura responded. However, Kitase jumped in, assuring that Versus is not just a side-story, as it has some of what makes a numbered FF game what it is. However, he added, "With Versus, we are trying out a type of adventure that we couldn't do in the numbered series."

Nomura also noted just how different Versus will be from XIII -- different characters, a different world and even different visual design. The directors of each FFXIII game, including Final Fantasy Agito XIII for mobile, seem to have quite a bit of freedom, and the result could be some remarkably different software. The look of the game's world, the concepts, themes, characters and era -- these are all up to the game's director. The only area that has to be preserved is the mythology which was finalized during the lengthy pre-production phase that preceded actual development. This pre-production phase was actually longer than it's been for any previous Final Fantasy title.

The development staff didn't get into specifics on gameplay in this latest batch of commentary. However, a few intriguing hints at what we can expect were provided. Toriyama hinted at the use of vehicles in the main FFXIII title. "It's the near future, so something of surprising form will appear," he said with a laugh. "Will the main character ride? That's something that we can't reveal yet. However, I was wondering if we could do something with that gyro controller."

Weapons seem like they will play a big part in the main FFXIII too. Toriyama noted that with the PS2, weapons were forced to have the absolute minimal amount of polygons. With FFXIII, the staff has devoted considerable polygon budget to the weapons... going so far as to include details right down to "transformation gimmicks." Weapons can change form in the middle of battle, which is what we see in the FFXIII trailer as the main character uses her sword as a gun.

How this will play out in Versus is unclear at this point, although Nomura did note that, despite having a limited amount of time to make the CG E3 trailer, a good amount of time was spent designing the sword that the main character holds while sitting on his throne at the trailer's start. If you're up for some speculation go for it!

Back to FFXIII, Kitase stated to Hyper PlayStation that one of the team's goals is to show "the next type of RPG following Final Fantasy X." FFXIII will make some big changes to the RPG genre, right down to the basic progression of going to a town, talking to people, then moving on to battles. Kitase believes people will feel "Is this really FF?" when they play the game.

We can expect some traditions to continue, though. The battle scene in the E3 trailer shows the main female character fighting enemies on her own. Toriyama confirmed that the main character will indeed fight as part of a party, but added, "We won't be stopping with just the basic idea of a party, though." Party-based fights, with actions involving your allies, will likely be a main part of the game.

One of the best points Gaimaga makes is in showing how closely the real-time and CG visuals in FFXIII resemble one another. The magazine has two close-up shots of the main character, one in real time, the other CG (this is the shot marked as CG in the magazine). The two are remarkably similar, right down to individual hair strands.

FFXIII won't be ditching CG movies, of course. "Based on the scale and concept of the footage we want to make, we consider either real-time or CG movies," explained Torishima. Torishima also pointed out that as close as the main character models may seem, there are differences between them on the order of millions of polygons; the models used for the CG cannot be used directly as data on the PS3.

Square Enix has done quite the job of getting lengthy spreads in Japan's biggest game magazines without actually providing solid gameplay or story details (we still don't know the main character's name). With Toriyama and Nomura both admitting that true development has only just begun on both FFXIII and FF Versus XIII, expect this teasing to go on for quite some time. Of course, any Final Fantasy news is good Final Fantasy news, so we'll be sure and be on the look out for even the smallest updates.