Welcome to Final Fantasy World...

Famitsu interviewed Ryutaro Ichimura, one of the leads for Squeenix’s new action RPG which utilizes the Unreal 3 engine. This new action RPG is set to be on consoles, most likely PS3. However, they haven’t ousted the idea of putting this new RPG on the next generation consoles. The concept art illustrates Middle Ages Europe buildings and characters. Ichimura aims to target the entire world rather than just the western audience with this game. That’s certainly a bold goal.

So far, the staff has been traveling across the world doing surveys. They’re garnering feedback from different sources in order to help them decide what to put in the game. The core staff contains around thirty five people and will be seeking more recruits in the upcoming months.

Square Enix has been busy at work laying down the foundations for multiple projects. Just recently, Squeenix licensed Unreal 3 engine for the development of several games. The last time Squeenix utilized the Unreal 3 engine was for The Last Remnant. One of the hurdles Squeenix encountered while working with the Unreal 3 engine was that it had to be translated into Japanese before they could use it. This problem caused many problems with the development cycle of The Last Remnant and may explain why it never saw a release on the PS3 system.

Just a couple days ago, Squeenix registered several logos:

Both of these images were registered by the Japan and Europe divisions of Squeenix. Anyone have a clue as to what games will be released based on these images? I, for one, have no idea. My guess is that both these titles are completely original games.

Just yesterday, Squeenix has leaked out that they are indeed working on an original action RPG that utilizes the Unreal Engine with Ryutaro Ichimura as one of the leads for the project. Famitsu reports that it will not be a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy game. Ichimura reveals that he and his staf have traveled the world for the past two years to research art and gameplay direction for the game. Perhaps this game is correlated to one of the logos above.

Squeenix plans to shorten the development cycles of future Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy developer and producer, Yoshinori Kitase, has this to say about the Western market:

“I think we took a little too long getting [Final Fantasy XIII] out. When you think of Western triple A titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Assassin’s Creed, they seem to work with a lot shorter turnaround – they make a new game in 1-2 years. That is something we need to follow up, because that seems to be the best way to keep our fans interested and attracted to the franchise.

With Final Fantasy XIII we took a long time to complete it, so we learnt a lesson. We were determined to produce Final Fantasy XIII-2 in a short time, actual development took about 1.5 years. And we’ll be able to make it available to western fans less than two years after the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Which is okay.”

It seems that the company is quickly changing gears and is frantically trying to adapt to the Western market. Kitase also mentions that turn based RPG’s are in their death throes.

“I think the nature of the franchise is to present something new each time. In the global market we see many players moving away from games that used turn-based systems toward what you might term an action-RPG.”

With that said, don’t expect Final Fantasy XV to go back to its turn based roots. It looks like Final Fantasy Versus XIII may be the last Final Fantasy to have a development cycle of 3+ years. One of the issues with the development of XIII was the lack of a shared vision. Hopefully, future development teams will agree on a course of action and go with it. My opinion on the matter is that I feel that future Final Fantasy games will have graphics similar to XIII. Another factor in the long development process of both XIII and Versus XIII is the fact that Squeenix is so meticulous on creating the most aesthetically pleasing game. I have a feeling that they are going to concentrate more on making their RPG’s accessible to western audiences rather than focus on having the best graphics.

The latest issues of Jump and V Jump magazines display some new information for upcoming 3DS game Kingdom Hearts 3D. The first world to be introduced is Pinocchio’s world which is called “Pranksters’ Paradise.” Judging from the screenshots, the world takes place in the carnival section of the Pinocchio movie.

The next world that is depicted is called La Cité des Cloches which is The Hunchback of Notre Dame world. Expect to interact with Esmeralda and Quasimoto and solve their problems. The enemies of KH 3D are called Dream Eaters.

Square Enix is hoping to expand their influence into other regions as well as genres with this new studio in Montreal, Canada. This studio is set to open sometime in 2012 and will create around 150 new jobs.

The studio’s first project is to work on an announced Hitman game (it isn’t Hitman Absolution). Lee Singleton, general manager of Squeenix London, is set to head up the Montreal studio.

In addition to the new studio, Squeenix is adding around 100 new jobs at its Eidos Montreal studio in order to work on another unannounced title. Look to expect some new Deus Ex and Thief games in the future.

Source: Gamasutra

This isn’t exactly a commercial per se, but it’s a commercial advertising Final Fantasy XIII-2 on a special Japanese program. This special program is hosted by Sazh’s voice actor, Masashi Ebara, and it will air on 12/14. The program is set to showcase behind-the-scenes with the development studio and staff. Check it out!

Release dates

Japan: December 15, 2011

North America: January 31, 2012

Australia: February 2, 2012

Europe: February 3, 2012

The sequel to the controversial Final Fantasy XIII is just months away, ladies and gentlemen. Squeenix hopes to rectify the criticisms of XIII through this brand new sequel. Here is a news round-up of all the features that the player will experience in XIII-2.

Time Travel/Historia Crux

Noel, the leading man in the ever-so fashionable parachute pants, is indeed a time traveler. He has traveled hundreds of years to the past to team up with Serah to help save the future. The Historia Crux serves as a sort of home menu for the game. From this menu, you can select which time periods you want to travel to. This is the feature that will be replacing the role of the world map.  Also important to note is that XIII-2’s time periods all take place after XIII. Thus, there will be no story missions that require the player to travel to the events of XIII. In addition to time traveling, you will be given the option to replay certain time periods over again. This gives you the chance to make different conversation choices to certain scenes.

Characters

Although the player will meet up with all the characters of XIII in some shape or form, the only playable characters will be Serah, Noel, and a monster of your choosing.  In order to capture a monster, just defeat it. Almost every monster in the game has a percentage chance of joining your party once they are defeated. There are over 150 monsters… So uh, gotta catch ‘em all!

Character/Monster growth

Remember the Crystarium in XIII? Well, it’s back in full effect. Serah and Noel will both acquire CP (Crystarium Points) after battle and will be able to use it to advance their abilities just like you would in XIII. However, monsters do not receive CP. Instead, you strengthen your monstrous allies via items. These items can be found in shops and off drops of other monsters. The stronger your monster, the more expensive items it requires in order to further advance its abilities. Monsters can be further enhanced via a process of infusion. You can transfer passive (such as tetradefense) and command abilities (such as Ruin and Firaga) to other monsters by sacrificing them. Command abilities can only be shared by monsters of the same role. This is to prevent your synergists from having moves such as Ruinga.

Fragments

This feature is aimed towards completionists. Fragments are essentially items you receive when certain tasks are completed such as defeating bosses, opening hidden treasure spheres, and completing quests. There are a total of 160 fragments. In the Historia Crux, the number of fragments for each time period will be displayed.  Remember in Final Fantasy X-2 where getting 100% completion would net you a secret ending? I’d bet my left butt cheek that acquiring all 160 fragments will get you some sort of secret ending as well.

Live Triggers

I find it quaint that Squeenix would dole out such a fancy term to such a normal feature of most RPG’s. Essentially live triggers are parts in the game where you get an option of how to respond to certain conversation elements.

Battle

If there’s anything redolent of XIII, it’s definitely the battle system. The battle system is almost exactly the same as it was in XIII. The major difference is the disappearance of the TP system, thus no eidolon summoning. The six roles are back in form: Commando, Ravager, Medic, Synergist, Sentinel, and Saboteur. Serah and Noel will have access to all six roles but the monsters are a different story. Each monster has access to only one role. Thus, choose your party wisely.

Towns

There will be towns and cities in this game. For those clamoring for NPC’s to talk to, the addition of towns should appease them. The transition to towns is seamless since there is no world map. Once you enter a town, random encounters will cease and you can merrily talk to NPC’s and plunder their treasure.

Equipment

Weapons and accessories are handled slightly different in this sequel. First off, the player will no longer be able to upgrade their own weapons. The components you pick off of monsters will be used in buying stronger pieces of accessories and weapons. It seems the focus of this game will be on customizing and powering up your monsters rather than weapons/accessories. Only Serah and Noel can use equipment. Each accessory has an equipment cost and each of the characters has an equipment capacity that can be upgraded through the Crystarium. For instance, Serah might have an equipment capacity of 50. Thus, she will not be able to equip an accessory that has an equipment cost of 75. However, she can equip two accessories that cost 25 each. Although monsters can’t equip accessories, they can equip adornments which do nothing but affect their outward appearance. Want a behemoth that wears cool looking shades? Well, you can actually do that in this game.

Cinematic Actions

These are just fancy terms for QTE’s (Quick Time Events) These pop up mainly in boss battles and in each of the monsters’ special abilities. Every monster has a special ability gauge that fills up as the monsters attacks and receives damage. Once its full, you can unleash the monster’s special attack. All of these special attacks involve a QTE.

XIII-2 Will End in a Cliffhanger

This isn’t exactly a feature, but more of a hypothesis on my part. I make this educated guess because the Final Fantasy XIII-3 domain name was registered by Square Enix. This leads me to believe that the ending of XIII-2 will raise more questions about the XIII storyline rather than answer them. Thus, XIII-3 will be created to answer the questions that XIII-2 will leave behind. Remember, you heard it here first.