A second demo of Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy is now available in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS, featuring Final Fantasy VIII’s The Man with the Machine Gun and Final Fantasy XIII’s Sunleth Waterscape. We’ve spotted some gameplay footage in the wild, check out newcomer Locke Cole take on this Field track!
Get ready to step into some rainbows!
While Final Fantasy XIII was largely about Lightning’s quest to save her younger sister Serah, the roles have been reversed in the game’s sequel. Serah must set out with Noel to find her sister, seemingly erased from the history. Little does she know of Lightning’s new role in the grand scheme of things.
The following video by YouTube user KadeshFlow features a new twist on Serah’s Theme, composed by Masashi Hamauzu.
As a reminder, if you’d like to send us a video to be featured in this segment, feel free to email me!
A while back we got first wind of a new webdomain Square-Enix registered under “finalfantasy13-3.com” and the like, hinting at a possible trilogy. However, it is common practice for companies to file for such domains to protect their own intellectual property.
In the newest episode of Square-Enix Channel (Square-Enix’s Japanese podcast), a representative at Square-Enix Japan confirms that the filing is to protect the Final Fantasy XIII IP and is not indicative of a new title.
Episode I | Episode II | Episode III
The second epsiode of Final Fantasy XIII: Lost Report has been posted on Final Fantasy XIII-2‘s official website. The six episode mini-series sums up the events of Final Fantasy XIII before the sequel’s release in Japan this summer.
As reported on GameInformer.com, it appears that Square-Enix has registered the domain “finalfantasyxiii-3.com” via a proxy registrar (as is often with titles that companies want to keep on the down-low). Now a lot of these filings can be protective for an existing IP, ergo they’ll never turn into actual games, but speculation is already starting about a possible Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. Keep in mind, Square-Enix has also trademarked Final Fantasy Type-1, Type-2, and Type-3, but it has yet to be seen if these will be actual sequels to the PSP Fabula Nova Crystallis title.
Update: It also appears that Square-Enix has “refreshed” the Final Fantasy Versus XIII trademark.
■ View the registry information for the website.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 producer Yoshinori Kitase cleared the air for those still wondering if they’ll be seeing ideas supposedly scrapped or cut from Final Fantasy XIII in the sequel.
“I think those comments have been really nadly [sic] misinterpreted. The fact is that when making any game you need to come up with lots of different ideas and designs that you weigh up against each other before picking the best one. Obviously in that process a lot of ideas and designs have to be discarded,”
This seems to stem a few years back as the production cycle of Final Fantasy XIII continued after the announcement that the game would be coming to the Xbox 360. Art director Isamu Kamikokuryou had mentioned that there were assets that were cut from the final version of the game, such as a zoo in Bodhum and having Lightning’s house be explorable, but those ideas were cut for aesthetical purposes and not because of the 360′s disc capacity. Another comment stated that the team had created art assets for “a whole other game”, but this seems to be misconstrued as the content was cut because of the 360 version or that Square-Enix was holding out to make Final Fantasy XIII-2. In reference to this, Kitase adds:
“We have never knowingly picked up these kind of ideas and recycled them. That’s not what we do. It’s natural for anyone making games to throw away ideas but the scenario of FFXIII-2 is completely newly written and has no connection to anything we didn ‘t use for FFXIII”
With Final Fantasy XIII-2 approaching this winter, many Final Fantasy fans in Japan and abroad are wondering what the team behind XIII-2 is working on for this title given the criticisms behind the first game. Director Motomu Toriyama and Producer Yoshinori Kitase chatted with Gamasutra about what players can expect to be change from the original title. When asked about the criticisms of Final Fantasy XIII, Toriyama replied:
We actually set out with a concept for XIII-2. Our ultimate goal is rectifying every single point in Final Fantasy XIII that has been criticized by the users. The main criticisms, I suppose, were: one, it was too story-driven and therefore was quite linear, and, two, that there weren’t that many towns and cities to explore, and also that there was no matching interaction between the player and the gameplay.
We actually took those criticisms very seriously, and you’ll notice that we tackled them completely and thoroughly. This new game is more player-driven, as opposed to story-driven, so that you can explore different locations and fields to get information and explore towns and other types of locations, as well. So we are very determined to rectify all of the problems, and we think we have.
Previously available in the Ultimate Hits edition of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan, the Easy Mode patch will add the option of changing battle mode difficulty to an easier setting. Players will deal increased damage to enemies in a break state as well as an increased drop rate in component items that will allow players to strengthen their equipment earlier and more often. The patch is only available to those with the Japanese version of the game.
This is mostly unsurprising, but exciting nonetheless. It looks like Square Enix is one of the host of developers taking Nintendo’s Wii U very seriously.
Yoshinori Kitase, head producer of Square Enix Product Development Division One (responsible for Final Fantasy XIII, and XIII-2), stated the following, “After seeing Wii U revealed at Nintendo’s conference, we are now considering the possibilities of bringing the Final Fantasy series to the format.”
Personally, I think the Wii U could be put to great use when it comes to the Final Fantasy series. The controller could be used to display the battle menus, clearing up space on our television sets to enjoy the action without the clutter of menu elements.
