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A recent developer blog post by Square-Enix's Tetsuya Nomura revealed a great deal of new information regarding the Fabula Nova Crystalis project, which comprises the PS3 games Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, as well as the cell phone game Final Fantasy Agito XIII.

The world of Final Fantasy XIII is called "Cocoon," and it uses crystal technology to create a highly advanced society. It is also completely surrounded by a large shell, which protects Cocoon and its inhabitants from all manner of evil residing outside of the shell, whose space is collectively called "Pulse." Cocoon's government reacts to the threat of the Pulse lurking monsters with "drastic measures," and uses the threat of exiling Cocoon citizens to Pulse as a means of controlling the people. Lightning, FF XIII's protagonist, is "chosen by the Crystal" to stop "those who would destroy the world," but Nomura (who is working on FF XIII as a character designer) was vague on any details otherwise.

Summons are going to be handled very differently in Final Fantasy XIII than in past FF games. They still serve as allies of our protagonist, but have some very unusual abilities; for example, the summon Shiva can now be transformed into a motorcycle, which Lightning can ride during battle. Somehow, this action-oriented feature is going to be implemented in a classic ATB system, but Nomura also stated that the game's developers are having "difficulties" implementing these new features.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII, an entirely separate game on its own, is supposedly set in a single kingdom within the same universe as Final Fantasy XIII and features a conflict centered over the last remaining crystal of said kingdom. The still-unnamed main character is a silver-haired swordsman who can teleport to any location where his sword is thrown. FF Versus XIII is being directed by Nomura himself and will use an action-oriented game engine based on the Kingdom Hearts series. Neither FF XIII nor FF Versus XIII has received a release date yet.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII is going to be a fully-3D cell phone game that centers on protecting another one of these crystals. That's essentially all that is known about Agito thus far, that and the fact that it doesn't have a release date either.

Source: RPGFan

This post has been edited by Tiddles on 11th February 2007 23:27

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END SPOILER

Quote (laszlow @ 11th January 2007 17:55)

for example, the summon Shiva can now be transformed into a motorcycle, which Lightning can ride during battle.

What
the...

Oh well. Cocoon sounds interesting enough, it'll probably compensate for the transformer-like summons.

Moderator Edit

You've been around long enough to know to watch your mouth, chief. -R51

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 12th January 2007 00:07

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Uhhh.... Shiva's a motorcycle in FF13? That's really lame, coming from Squenix.. I wish they would realize just how downhill they've gone already.

EDIT: FH, you need to control your anger, man. And I don't think Cocoon is a working name for the world.

Moderator Edit

It is not your place to be a mod. We have been over this TIME and TIME again. STOP IT.

This post has been edited by Neal on 12th January 2007 05:24

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Shiva can now be transformed into a motorcycle

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Uhhh.... Shiva's a motorcycle in FF13? That's really lame, coming from Squenix.. I wish they would realize just how downhill they've gone already.

I completely agree.

So far FFXIII sounds 100% lame.
Iit hurts to see FF falling so badly.

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

OMG SHIVA IS TEH MOTORCYCLE NOW THE GAME SUCKS

Anyway, I'm not going to judge the game until I can lay eyes on the finished project.

Of course, I am a bit stoked for the return of Crystals.

This post has been edited by Zeromus_X on 12th January 2007 04:03

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OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

Ugh... there are going to be too many FF XIII's to focus on. I don't think I'm going to bother at all.

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Do you think we're forever?

The actual RPG XIII, not the Mortal-Combat-esque or cellphone one, i will actually try to get, PS3 or not, because without it my collection of FF mainstream games would not be complete.

I welcome any changes or additions, such as the Shiva-cycle, because who knows what they could eventually do or act like! For example, what if you get to ride Bahamut like one of your airships, or even better, the overworld is a connected 3-d world like in a lot of MMORPG's...but i really doubt that overworld part...hehe

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<DrkMagimaster282> MWAHAHA. I,
DrkMagimaster282, shall wreak havoc and destroy...
<Mother>TIIIIIIMMYYY...are you planning evil, unkind revenge again in the bathroom??
<DrkMagimaster282>UMMMMMMMM...NO.

CoN day is May 27th, 2005
Join elder-geek.com for unbiased reviews, no console wars here...

Could be worse, they could turn a race of mysterious raiders into a pointless race enslaved by cheesy star-gods that seeks to kill all life in the galaxy for no apparent reason...

Even I, with the dumbsday clock, am reserving judgement until we know more, but the preliminary estimates here are: Nobmura's at it again, the chain and belt obsessed fud. There had better be a sodding alien invasion at some point with a plot like that.

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Well, the motorbike could be good if they do it well - somehow. The thought of our beloved ice goddess being a bike rings other bells in my mind though...

I've got to say, the main character (Lightening!?) looks just like Cloud from Advent Children.




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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I'm actually looking foward to these changes. Just imagine the potential of using summons as vehicles! Also, I thought that Lightning wasn't the main character so what's the deal here?

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And don't drive your car off a cliff like I did. Girl, no man is worth 10 points on your license.

I am intrigued by the idea of riding an ice goddess in to battle, and wish to learn more.

Sounds pretty wild thus far.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Final Fantasy going down hill?,someone's smoking rocks!

Last I heard Final Fantasy XI has millions of gamers online, and Final Fantasy XII has been a huge hit so far, getting perfect scores in Japan and nearly perfect scores in North America, I don't think that puts Final Fantasy on that downhill hellish road, at least not in my map.

Shiva tranforming into a motorcycle, that's not a big deal, I actualy kind of look forward to seeing what the hell this gonna be like. I welcome everything new into the universe of Final Fantasy, and never judge anything until I actualy see it with my own eyes, and play it with my own hands, so those judges out there, STOP IT!

Lightning sure looks a lot like Cloud, why I wonder, simple my friend, the people working on this project are the same people who worked on Advent Children, and we know that character designs by Nomura have looked the same all the time, so it should come as no surprise that every new FF project where Nomura designs the characters will always look a little something like past characters. This look a like characters will never change until Nomura is removed from his character design position, then we will finally see new concepts.

This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 13th January 2007 19:03

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

I have a hard time imagining the Shivacycle without cringing. I think it's still too early to pass verdict on the game, though. Lots of things have sounded pretty lame in the initial description only to fit together just fine in the finished product.

I'm really hoping that FFXIII is a worthwhile game. If it's not, I'm going to have a hard time convincing my husband to let us buy a PS3, for one thing. But, mostly, it's that we've been taking turns with FF games. I got to play FFX first, he got FFXII first, and it's my turn for FFXIII, the first one in the series that looks like it might actually have a girl kicking butt as the main character. If it's lame, the experience will probably merge with my FFX-2 flashbacks to drive me into a mental institution.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

I hope she shoots Diamond Dust out of her exhaust pipe.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Hmm, if Shiva is going to be a motorcycle, I can only imagine what Ifrit is going to be... I'm sure ladies would love riding a big, burly fire demon into battle, as well.

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"You underestimate the strength of a Jedi's mind, Brejik. A mistake you won't live to regret, " -Bastila Shan(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

The motorcycle thing sounds odd I agree.
But I like the fact they finally have a female lead to a FF game, it's about time.
Let's just hope it's not a total let down, or they'll probably end up blaming it on that, and it will be male leads for the rest of time!

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

Quote (SaffireWeapon @ 13th January 2007 18:59)

Final Fantasy going down hill?,someone's smoking rocks!

Last I heard Final Fantasy XI has millions of gamers online, and Final Fantasy XII has been a huge hit so far, getting perfect scores in Japan and nearly perfect scores in North America, I don't think that puts Final Fantasy on that downhill hellish road, at least not in my map.

Sales do not reflect the quality of the media, it is content. It's that simple. If the quality of the content has got worse in someone's eyes or if they just start getting stupid, it does not mean they are on crack. I feel that any legitimate complaint regarding content cannot be dismissed out of hand without proper counterpoints beyond "on crack."

This more action-orientated gameplay kind of sounds excactly like The Right Path to me, and that horrifies me, as every time they've been heading down a component part of my perfect FF game, they veer left and somehow get it wrong. This could of course be the first time that's not the case, assuming FF12 doesn't turn out not to be, but I'm placing no bets either way.

This post has been edited by Del S on 15th January 2007 19:45

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

I find it funny that they would choose Shiva to be a motorcycle... wouldn't such a thing be more appropriate for Ifrit? Shiva would be better off as a snowmobile.. or maybe they can give her a team of huskies and a sled for them to pull her around on. ha ha.

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Do you think we're forever?

Admittedly when XII was announced, I was one of the first people to bash the idea, and it turns out I'm actually liking it a whole lot. Granted, what I had heard (sappy love story a-la FF8) and what it really turned out like (smaller-scale (than most FFs) storyline centered around political strife and upcoming warfare) were two very different things.

However, let's not kid ourselves here - while the storyline sounds promising (can't say I care one bit for the names though - Cocoon, Pulse, Lightning... is the imagination juice brewing in the developpers' heads finally empty? I'm a bit edgy about bringing back crystals. Getting the whole "desperate attempt to hold the veterans' interest" vibe... but then again, maybe it'll be cool) the execution sounds like it will be terrible. FFXII's execution had some serious flaws but at least it came out working well enough and the system managed to hold itself together for the most part. Mainly because it wasn't TOO cheesy. It didn't have teleporting swordsmen and summoned Transformers™ beasts. It stuck more or less to the roots of FF, with summoned beasts and what was essentially a well-masked turn-based battle system one would easily mistaken for a real-time battle system.

I used to think killing off the turn-based ATB system FF had would kill the series but it turns out it didn't. Mainly because Square kept it, but carefully buried it in a real-time environment (ever tried walking away from something? It still hits you from across the screen if its turn is up.) But it sounds like Square figured that wasn't good enough and decided to throw in all the random junk they could imagine. At least, it SOUNDS that way.

I really look forward to more details. Maybe this won't suck horribly. Maybe it will, and the FF era is coming to an end after 13+ installments. We'll just have to wait and see (I kinda find it amusing the developpers are having a hard time fitting all of their ideas together and making them work - I get this "we had 50 really cool-sounding ideas like robot laser-cats and ninja squids that turn into swords, but we're not sure how to make it work yet. IT'S SO COOL! Hey Miyatsubo, pass the blow." vibe...)

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Does the world described in this game remind anyone of FF Chronicles?

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

I'm slowly coming around to the idea of "Espers, Robots in disguise, Espers, more than meets the eye"

Lightning actually looks like an interesting character, and then there's that blonde guy in the cloak. Personally I'm hoping it's going to be multi-platform, at least on the 360 as well, because I really don't want to have to buy a PS3.

But I can't deny I'm intrigued.

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Dudes, I saw the trailer for Versus XIII and, dudes, that was awesome! I mean, the prince dude in that is sick, with all of his swords flyin' around and killing people. I am definately getting that game when it comes out...

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We, who cannot see into tomorrow, have no way of knowing... But... But... If you don't find dreams yourself... if you don't capture your ambitions... happiness won't just come to you.

For now, FFvXIII looks more interesting than the main FF XIII. The idea of "mighty morphin" summons sounds weird, but I'm looking forward to learn more about it and see maybe a little bit of what the guys behind the fantasy want to do. There's no denying that us, the fans, will always have different opinions about new things coming into the series and old things been laid to rest, I for instance love it when Square tries something new, I gotta admit, the junction system from FF VIII was actualy good when you think about it, the problem with that was the battle system that was used to execute it, and the fact that it became pointless once we found out there was no point in leveling up. I always believed that if the junction system were to ever be used again, and the appropiate battle system was developed, something might come out of it.

Anyway, anything could happen. The "transforming" summons can be good as well as bad, it all depends on the execution, and the purpose of them transforming in battle. We all saw what happened with Final Fantasy XII. There were some, including me, who believed that this 'real time' battle system was not going anywhere, and so far I love it. FF XII is on my top list of FF games.

For now, it might be wise not to jump into conclusions about FF XIII and FF v XIII, let's wait and see. Once they are released, let's say how good or crappy they are.

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

We'll see.
Shiva's a bike? Okay, what's everybody else? And why not Fenrir the Motorcycle?
Names? Well, good names end sometimes.

I was quick to criticize FF12 before I played it, when I heard of the "MMORPG features" (not a problem actually) and saw how StarWars-esque (not even the good kind) the battle in the intro was. I am now quite enjoying playing FF12.
I'll comment when I play it.

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN