In this thread you can discuss about Final Fantasy XIII Versus
I will keep updating the thread with new informations as soon as I get them
Final Fantasy Versus XIII is an action role-playing game currently under development for the PlayStation 3 which, alongside Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Final Fantasy XIII-2, makes up the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy compilation. However, the game has no physical connections to the rest of the compilation, and will feature a wholly independent story and a unique visual design.January 18th, 2011
The official Trailer will be released in high definition on the 27th
Mirrored with English Subs
The trailer begins with someone calling out to "Prince Noctis," the game's main character. Noctis is in the rear seat of a car that's speeding down the highway, and his driver has apparently awakened him.
The car approaches an armed checkpoint but is quickly let through once the driver inputs something on the car's computer to make a barricade go down. Based off the digital readouts at the checkpoint, the area into which the car travels appears to be sealed off from general traffic.
One point of note in this opening passage is that we get to hear Noctis speak for the first time. This was one of the promises made by director Tetsuya Nomura in a recent interview.
In the second part of the trailer, the dialogue goes silent as Noctis and Stella speak to one-another at what looks like a high class party. Stella is the girl from past trailers, and the conversation she and Noctis have about their shared ability to see certain phenomenon was also seen in a past trailer. The scene has changed considerably, though, with some clear graphical updates. Stella looks like she's been given more life, and the backgrounds have more depth and detail.
Following the party scene, we see a man sitting in a seat that looks like a throne. Famitsu.com reports that this man is Noctics' father and the current King. This man says something to the effect of, "Unfortunately, you cannot become King. I will not give the thrown to anyone. My name will go down in history as the final King."
We were promised gameplay for this trailer, and that's just what we get after the party scene. The camera does a flyby through the city, ending up back in the party hall, and behind Noctis' back. It looks like the player has taken control here, leading Noctis through the party hall as soldiers break through the windows.
Subsequent footage shows Noctis in a party of what appears to be up to three characters, running through the city as it comes under attack, and engaging in high speed battle with soldiers and larger foes.
The short trailer form last year's Tokyo Game Show showed bits of a battle between Noctis and a large behemoth-like creature. In this trailer, the battles show a full party, along with actual menu icons. The icons on what seems like a command palette to the lower left of the screen list ""Magic," "Item," "Summon" and "EX-ARTS." To the lower right, you can see your party member's stats, including HP and MP. One notable point about the statistics icons is that they show the character's faces animating.
As for those party members, outside of Stella and Noctis, Square Enix has not formally introduced any characters for the game. However, you can make out a few names in the trailer, including a character named "Ignis."
The footage hints at more action than one might expect from an RPG. In addition to the characters making use of swords and guns, some sequences show Noctis boarding vehicles, including a tank and a bipedal mech. It looks like Noctis will have considerable firepower at his disposal.
But how will all this work out into a game? Unfortunately, the trailer was not accompanied by any details on the game. Tetsuya Nomura, surprisingly, ended up skipping out on the event. The event MCs, Kenichi Suzumura and Takahiro Sakurai (both of whom will be appearing as voice actors in Type 0), said that Nomura decided to convey his message through the video.
With around five minutes of gameplay footage having now been shown, we're hoping Nomura will more clearly outline that message in future interviews.
Incidentally, the trailer closes with this:
It looks like Versus XIII is still a PlayStation 3 exclusive release. Sadly the trailer doesn't reveal a certain release date nor a release period.
Official Sqaure Enix Site:http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/versus13/Here are those bars you can see to the right in video and what they say. Seem to show MP and HP.
Ignis
Gladiolus
Noctis
Gladiolus
Phompio?/Prompio?/
Noctis
As shown in the trailer, Noctis can have characters that assist him during battles. Several other mechanics, apart from hack and slash have been shown: Shooting mechanics. It's unknown how they will work in the game, or which characters will be able to shoot. Also, the player seems to be able to control mechanic structures, such as tanks or robots. The footage also depicted a menu titled "EX Arts," but its function remains unknown.
January 20th, 2011Shonen Jump released a new scan for Versus and Typ-0
January 23th, 2011
This is Final Fantasy XIII main character Noctis Lucis Caelum's outlook on the world:
"Fools set the rules in this world. Just take a look around. It's undeniable."This text appears, in English, in a CG image of Versus XIII that's shown in the latest issue of Jump.
The comment from Noctis appears to be the only new bit from Jump's brief look at Versus XIII this week. More details are expected from Dengeki and Famitsu, so be on the lookout for flying gets!
January 24th, 2011The Japanese Dengeki magazine will arrive this weak and new informations about Versus leaked today.
The suited man who was sitting in the throne is a main character of the game and also Noctis's father . He's the king of the only nation in the world that posseses crystals.
January 25th, 2011The Dengeki Games Square Enix coverage that leaked out yesterday disappointed, but sister publication Dengeki PlayStation more than makes up for it! The magazine has four pages on Final Fantasy Versus XIII, two pages on Final Fantasy XIII-2 and four pages on Final Fantasy Type-0. These blowouts are accompanied by interviews with Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama.
Screenshots in the magazine hint at a number of elements, most of which will be familiar to those who viewed trailer (an HD version is due for release on the 27th, although you may find a low res version floating around now). A battle screen shows commands for Magic, Item, Summon and EX-ARTS. There's also a scene of Noctis using a thunder-like magic.
Noctis has great physical ability. But beyond that, he also has a secret power that only the royal family possesses (Noctis is a prince, in case you weren't aware). When he unleashes this power, his blue eyes turn red. Countless swords appear in his surrounding, and he's able to control these freely. He also becomes capable of instantly warping from point to point. If you watch one of the earlier Versus CG trailers, you'll recognize the power that's mentioned here.
A few Versus battle system details have leaked out first:- 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 and when using him you can switch to a third person view for precise aiming at enemy weak points, buildings and other objects. While all the other characters can wield guns, this character alone has the aiming mode.
- 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. The other characters have unique specialities.
- 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.
And we got 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:- The game's combat system is party based, giving you a party of at most three characters. During the early parts of the story, party members will be swapped in and out for you. However, as you advance in the story, you'll be able to freely switch out members. Potential party members go beyond the four characters shown in the trailer although Nomura said that the game's cast is not particularly massive or anything.
- You'll be able to switch off between the different characters in your party. They all have different attack capabilities. As an example, all characters are capable of using magic, but the effect of the magic differs. When Noctis casts magic, the magic emerges from his weapons. On the other hand, the party member with glasses (shown in the trailer), will light his surroundings with fire.
- The battle scenes shown in the trailer appear to be early, as they will be seeing some interface changes. The final version will show character names, for instance. The staff is currently conducting tests in this area of the game.
- 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.
- Even when you're not directly engaged in combat, you'll want to be on the lookout as you play. The game has a realtime event system in place. As you move about, you'll sometimes come under attack, or some event will automatically trigger. For example, when Noctis reaches a pedestrian bridge, a behemoth beast will attack. Another example is a plane crashing into the road. Implementing these kinds of real time events, which transition seamlessly into the flow of gameplay, takes a long time in terms of development, said Nomura. There are many examples shown in the trailer.
- The natural landscapes shown later in the trailer are from the game's world map, revealed Nomura. Time will progress here, becoming dark, day time, evening and so-forth.
- Nomura also revealed that the opening moments of the trailer, where we hear someone calling out to Noctis as "Prince Noctis" is from the beginning area of the game.
- 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!)
Closing off the interview, Nomura was asked about a release target time frame, and responded that because the focus is on quality, he's not sure when the game will be released. Noting that Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 are all due out this year, he joked that we should forget about Versus for the time being. The game will take more time, he explained, as they're trying to do a number of incredible things. This is something he hopes players understood from the trailer.Our next update on the game will come at the earliest at E3, Nomura told Dengeki. Famitsu is also set to have a Nomura interview this week, so we may actually get a few additional bits there as well.
January 26th, 2011Yesterday we got quite some new informations about the game leaked via Dengeki and today I can add some from Famitsu.
They also had the chance to interview Mr. Nomura and some points were replicated like they were mentioned in the Dengeki.
However some facts are new and those I will summarize in a short list.
- Your characters in Versus will not have jobs. However, your enemies will include dragon knights (or dragoons if you prefer) and summoners.
- There is a summoning element to the game.
- Your weapon selection will include: swords, axes, spears/lances, hand guns, machine guns, rifles, bazookas, and shot guns. This is just a partial list, though.
- The Ignis character the guy who has the glasses on is good with assist-style attacks. He can toss knives at enemies. It's not entirely clear if Nomura uses the name Ignis for this character though the one who summarized it on the blog uses it.
- The character with the scar on his face uses a fighting style. He can make use of a pile bunker and broad sword.
- The game will have positional damage elements for attacking enemies.
- Larger enemies will have weak points.
- The game does not have team attacks for your party members!
- You can combo your attacks across character changes that means that you can keep your combo that you are currently in and stil keep it going when you switch the character you're currently controlling.
- As an example, you can make the scarfaced character ( yes there is one charcter with some scars) do positional damage with his hammer, then switch to Ignis, or you can make the enemy shrink away in fear from Ignis's magic then call in another character to attack.
- You can bring party members back to life if they die. The exception is Noctis. If he dies, the game ends. This reminds us pretty much of Final Fantasy XIII if the leader dies the game is over. Though I'm not entirely sure if the game even ends when Noctis is in the Party an dies but not as a leader
- The difficulty is being set towards the high end.
January 27th, 2011First off you can now watch the Official Trailer in HD on the official Square Enix Final Fantasy XIII Versus site:Final fantasy XIII VersusJust click on Trailer.
Or watch it on the official Square Enix youtube.
The Voice acting is still Japanese and I don't think there will be an english Trailer for now.
And already read about the content of the magazines but apposite to it we got the scans today.
They aren't in high resolution but it's nice to have them anyways.
These are the scans from the Dengeki magazine
January 31th, 2011Today Famitsu released some direct Feed screenshots. Yeah but don't get too excited it is nothing really new.
They've put a little commentary under each picture.
First off our Hero Noctis. Famitsu says that the game's story shows how Noctis attains some sort of new power and faces off against the invading Niflheim people
In this screen we can see a mysterious unnamed character wielding a gun at Noctis' father.
The next screen shows a battle scene with Noctis and a couple of his friends. Battles will have a total of three members, one of whom is Noctis.
Outside of the Magic, Item, Summon and EX Arts of the command palette to the left, and the bars labeled "EX," "MP" and "HP," some of the text looks like it's been intentionally blurred out.
And last but not least the last screen shows a city battle scene where your character enters a mech. Famitsu notes that battles in Versus XIII are full of such gimmicks like mechs and tanks.
February 1st, 2011Famitsu released released today the full version interview with Tetsuya Nomura and director shares lots of new details on Final Fantasy XIII Versus.
I will write it as a Mix of Q&A and summaries.
Much of the interview refers to the trailer, so you may want to view it here again if you are too lazy to scroll up all the time:
STORY AND CHARACTERSFirst off the Trailer shows almost only in-game sequences. The opening section, which showed Noctis and his driver driving down a freeway was CG (not live action footage, as Famitsu confirmed), but everything from the conversation between Noctis and Stella was set on real time running on the PlayStation 3. This includes the flyby scene with the masses of buildings that precedes the combat part of the clip.
They arranged the Trailer like this to allow the viewer to get a better grasp of the characters. Furthermore, the ally clothing has been redone.
These areas appear to be final designs, although Nomura said that he's playing around with the hair a bit. Even the voices that you hear for the allies during the combat scenes is from final voice actors, chosen via auditions.
Nomura detailed a few of the character and story elements that were hinted at in the trailer:Ignis :
Is the ally with glasses and the only party member outside of Noctis whose name has been confirmed, was raised from childhood to be something akin to Noctis' military tactician. This is why his lines in the trailer sound like he's counseling Noctis. For the trailer, they selected scenes that would make the relationship between Noctis and Ignis clear.
Noctis Father:
A scene in the trailer (around 2:09) shows Noctics' father, the king, saying to someone that he won't give up the throne and will be the final king. This dialogue is taken directly from the game, but it's actually used in a different scene. The identity of who the king is speaking to is a secret butn it isn't Noctis.
Nomura also said that the throne the king is shown sitting in during that scene is different from the throne we see Noctis sitting in at the end of the trailer (around 6:12 ).
The Trailer also sows a scene (at 4:30 ) set in a forest clearing in the evening showing someone walking towards the king. This scene looks like it's in first person. According to Nomura, this is an event scene that the player can control. The viewpoint is low because it's a scene from Noctis' youth.
Mysterious Man in a white Robe:
Towards the end of the trailer (around the 6:00 mark) there's a scene showing Noctis' father in a standoff with a character in white robes. Famitsu noted that in a previous trailer, Noctis was seen in a standoff with a man in white robes. The two white robed men are different, Nomura said.
Both confrontations take place in the castle, but in different locations within the castle. The inside castle is being made large, said Nomura, and players will be able to move their character around in it.
Famitsu asked one questions about the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology.
Will the l'Cie, who were depicted in Final Fantasy XIII as humans given the power to use magic and summons in exchange for being burdened with a mission, appear in Versus XIII?Nomura confirmed that as Versus XIII is based off the same mythology as FFXIII, the term l'Cie and other such terms will appear. However, going along with the modern look of the world, the language used in the conversation will also be modern. He didn't explain what this means precisely in terms of the use of the phrases.BATTLE SYSTEMMoving on to the battle system, Famitsu noted that the movement in the battle scenes looked faster than in the brief Tokyo Game Show trailer.Why is that?Nomura noted that he already said in post-TGS Twitter updates, the TGS footage was actually slowed down to make it easier to see the motions. What we're seeing in the new trailer is the real deal as far as speed goes.During combat, you an do all sorts of actions, like double jumps and so-forth. All the characters move with great speed.Is the battle system similar to Kingdom Hearts where characters perform actions once you've selected commands?Nomura responded that it's close to that.
What about the icons and gauges during the battle scenes?The icons and gauges we see in the battle scenes are a mix of finalized and temporary. The commands are temporary. The gauges for HP and so-forth are final. Character names were deleted from the gauges shown in the lower right. All the screenshots you see of the game in magazines and at Famitsu.com also have the named removed.
There's an orange gauge to the right of the HP gauge. This is part of an original system for the game. Nomura did not elaborate.
The character faces above the HP and orange gauges are meant to be a window showing a closeup of the character's faces as they fight. This way, even if you're separated from a character, you can tell when he's having trouble.
One of the commands shown in the command palette is "SUMMON."Nomura confirmed that there will be summon elements in the game as well as he also confirmed that you'll be able to ride Magitek Armor mecha and Chocobos. He said we can think that all the familiar elements from the Final Fantasy series will be in the game.Regarding magic, however, there's one major story-based consideration. All characters can use magic, but Noctis must be there. As part of the story setting, magic can be used because Noctis is there.
One of the earliest realtime scenes from the game showed Noctis and Stella speaking about the goddess Etro during a scene in the trailer . They mention something about sharing the ability to see a certain "light."?This power of light is different from the power of magic, said Nomura.As shown in the trailer, your party can have up to three members. The party members will initially be chosen for you as part of the story, in part because of tutorial considerations. As you advance in the game, you'll gain the ability to select your members. As Nomura already said to Dengeki that Noctis is always a part of the party and if he dies the you will see a Game Over Screen.
You're free to switch off between the three party members during battle. But this switching isn't necessary. You can play the game exclusively as Noctis if you like.
Will different characters have different weapons and skills?Each character has their own specialties, and they attack differently depending on the weapon.
Nomura said that he wants players to discover their own strategy, as far as timing and situation goes, for switching between characters.
Noctis has access to a variety of weapons, like swords, axes, lances and guns. Looking at guns alone, you'll find such varieties as hand guns, machine guns, shot guns, rifles, bazookas and more. One area the development staff is placing a focus on is making the motions for when you use the various weapons look different.Different from Noctis, the various party members outside will be able to use only certain weapons. Here's what the party members shown in the trailer can do:
Ignis- Specializes in support-style attacks. He's particularly strong with magic, but can also use throwable knives and other such weapons. The trailer also shows him wielding a katana blade.
Scarfaced Character- He'll fight bare handed and will also use large weapons like pile bunkers and broad swords.
Blonde Character- He's a gunner. Noctis can also also use guns of course, but when he does so he fires with auto aim. The blonde character, on the other hand, will display a targeting reticule, allowing you to aim for enemy weak points.
The blonde guys's aiming is particularly useful for larger monsters, who have weak points in various areas and can be targeted for positional damage.
Switching between weapons is part of the base action gameplay. For Noctis, you can go into the menu to set him with multiple weapons. These will automatically switch out as you fight. Depending on the weapons you've set, you'll get various combos.
Can the members perform team attacks?No it won#t have team-up attacks that has the three party members automatically group together for a super attack. However, Nomura noted that players can time their character switches to chain together multi-character attacks on their own. This can apparently be seen in the trailer, although Nomura said that most players probably might have not noticed it as it's super quick. Examples of using this system involve having Ignis use magic to send the enemy flying back, then switching out instantly to have another character come in for an attack.FIELDS AND WORLDSNomura Said:Final Fantasy Versus XIII will have a lot of freedom and they're working on adding a variety of gimmicks.
By "gimmick," Nomura means such things as how in the trailer we see a behemoth creature running to destroy an overhead walkway as Noctis crosses it (around the 4:25 mark, but the behemoth battle starts before this). If you don't make Noctis cross the bridge, the behemoth will not destroy it. These types of gimmicks are tough on the development side of things, noted Nomura.
Those behemoth beasts will be of different size depending on the situation. In the trailer scene, they made the creature big because the fight takes place amongst tall buildings and there wouldn't be as much impact if it was small. In the wild, the behemoths will be a bit smaller.
The city scene where Noctis is facing off against the behemoth is full of destroyable objects:
The trees and electricity poles for example. There's also a lot of interactivity.
Following the sequence shown in the trailer, you'll end up fighting a behemoth on a three level freeway area. The road has been damaged, so you'll need to move around by jumping and so-forth. You can also make use of the buildings that line the road. The emergency stairwells of the buildings can can be entered and climbed to get to the roof, with Noctis pulling himself up to the very top via the air conditioner. Nomura was actually surprised to find this area when test playing the game.
With all the freedom, Nomura expects players to not be able to experience everything in one go.Furthermore there will be, the kingdom ruled by Noctis' father. There are also other large kingdoms, and in between them you'll find villages. Even the villages are expansive. Nomura was once again surprised by the size when checking the game.
As indicated in the trailer, the fields have a day-night cycle. You'll encounter different beasts at different times of day. They sped up some of the time progression in the trailer to make it more easily seen.
Our Next informations about Versus?:
Closing off the interview, Nomura hinted that there's still a lot that we haven't seen from Versus XIII. There will be character growth systems and other exclusive systems in the game, none of which is visible in the trailer.
The next time we can expect to see more of Versus XIII is at E3, which takes place June 7 to 9 in Los Angeles. However, an E3 showing has yet to be finalized, Nomura said.
February 21st, 2011According to Aibo at the Final Fantasy Reunion site, the latest issue of V Jump lists the platform for Final Fantasy Versus XIII as both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as you can see in the picture:
The image itself is most likely a legit one, as I believe it's Aibo himself with the magazine.
Of course, it's mor than doubtful that Square Enix would announce a 360 version of one of its biggest games in the information box of a V Jump article, so this is likely a case of V Jump making a little printing error!! (Lets hope it is one)
Aibo has sent a Tweet off to V Jump asking for clarification.
V Jump has responded to Aibo's inquiry via Twitter. The Xbox 360 listing was indeed a mistake.Thank god please all you magazines out there don't scare me like this again.Confirmed StaffProducers: Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase
Image Artwork: Yoshitaka Amano
Mechanic Concept: Takayuki Takeya
Clothes Design: Hiromu Takahara (Roen Creative Director)
Scenario Writer: Kazushige Nojima
Music: Yoko Shimomura
Main Programmers: Hiroshi Harata, Kentarou Yasui
Planning Directors: Yuuichi Kanemori, Takayoshi Nakazato
Planning Director (World): Takeshi Endou
Planning Director (Event): Jun Akiyama
Graphic Director (Character Model): Tomohiro Kayano
Graphic Director (Animation): Tatsuya Kandou
Graphic Director (Map Model): Masahide Tanaka
Graphic Director (Visual Effects): Shuichi Sato
Graphic Director (System Menu): Takeshi Arakawa
Art Director (Character): Tomohiro Hasegawa
Art Director (Map): Takayuki Ohtachi
Movie Director: Takeshi Nozue
Director, Concept Game Design, Character Design, Base Story: Tetsuya Nomura
