Famitsu Sheds New Light on Final Fantasy XIII

Posted on Friday 19th May 2006 at 08:32 by SilverFork

While very little is thus far known about Square-Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy romp (the thirteenth one, that is), Japan's Famitsu magazine earlier this week revealed a few previously masked details apparent in the screenshots featured within the article: Next to the protagonist's Hit Point meter below the screen, an ATB (Active Time Battle) Cost stat can be seen. This would not only indicate the return of the Active Time Battle system (and possibly an accompanying ATB gauge), but more importantly suggests a required "price" in points for every move each player executes. Another new feature, visible in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, is a gauge in the shape of a circle. Famitsu speculates that a number inside the circle must, through some unconfirmed means, be met and, along with varying accomplished conditions, will allow characters in battle to enter an "Overclock" status - perhaps Final Fantasy XIII's version of previous games' hyper-powered attacks attained in similar fashions. This alleged Overclock status forces all but the active character into a sort of slow-motion state, but at the same time can reportedly be quite precarious business to carry out.

Lastly, the article has informed that the words next to the ATB Cost stat read "Lighting" (although it's unclear whether or not this is a misspelling of "Lightning" by the writer) and has been judged to be the protagonist's first name. Additionally, the weapons used by the female protagonist - a gun and a sword - are in reality two weapons in one; as dictated by the predicament or the enemies involved, this changable weapon can be toggled from one to the other.

As to be expected, the subject of a Japanese release date for Final Fantasy XIII has not yet been openly negotiated.

Source: RPGFan

Posted in: Square-Enix News, News from Japan

Written by	SilverFork
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Comments

Shotgunnova	Comment 1: 2006-05-19 09:58
	I support gun usage, but another name of atmospheric origin? C'mon. =p
Del S	Comment 2: 2006-05-19 12:44
	Sheesh, can't they just call someone Kevin for once? In this case, Kevin would be much more amusing. But no. It's the same old sort of name. And a transforming gun rather than both at once a la 40k. And there's a bullet time feature. How original. Why do FF12 and FF13 both sound like they were initially on the right track to my perfect battle system but take a left turn onto Toned Down alley? FF13 already seems to have turned. Hopefully this time they had someone write a damn storyline that could be called original without giggiling. Edit ooh, ooh, Lighting? Maybe she'll shine light on the plot in the near future, hahah. She looks quite bright, IMO, ahahaha. Some people might take a shine to her, hehehe. These sorts of bad puns are stunningly light on the ground, hee hee.
Zeromus_X	Comment 3: 2006-05-19 13:38
	I'm just happy there's crystals.
NeoEx-Death	Comment 4: 2006-05-19 19:32
	Dear God, they're still making more numbered ones?.. Then I hope they make 17 more of these so I could play Final Fantasy XXX! It will be a Final Fantasy game ported for both the PS2 and the GBA as a Dating Sims!! All of the hot sexy women from FF7 up to FF29 will be featured in there and with each pretty boy male main protagonist from each of these games to be featured aswell. For the GBA is the remakes of FF1, FF2, FF4, FF5, and FF6! Same condition as the PSX version. ...I wish. Lighting?.. Wow, that's a terrible name. I wonder what the villain's name would be?.. "Killer"? xD Quote I'm just happy there's crystals. There are?
Silverlance	Comment 5: 2006-05-19 20:56
	...Lighting? ...Yeah... I'm a little worried that I could read through that and not be the least bit bothered. I think I'm used to Square's stupid names. Del S, btw, FF7's main character is supposed to be named "Claude", not "Cloud," according to an old mag (EGM I think? I dunno?) which was one of the first to cover the game. The kana is VERY similare for either name, maybe even identical depending on how you prenounce "Claude." Food for thought. Wasn't bullet time cool back in the early 2000s? I'm skeptical about the crystals. FF9 had crystals... ...during the final 5 minutes of the game right. I'm not sure how crystals would fit into the whole futuristic theme, frankly. Let's hope the plot will outshine (snicker) the other next-gen FFs'. Hopefully they won't make a terrible god-awful mess of the battle system this time around... I'm still a bit skeptical about a totally futuristic FF, but it seems like it could be good if Square plays its cards right.
Zeromus_X	Comment 6: 2006-05-20 05:48
	The girl's name is 'Lightning', not 'Lighting'. As for the crystals, this is what I found. Meh. Quote Square-Enix has recently revealed some details about their upcoming Final Fantasy XIII titles, which are Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy XIII Agito. The details are as follows: Final Fantasy XIII will not have online functionality. Each of the different episodes of Final Fantasy XIII will have characters that are independent of each other, and the storylines for the games also take place in different parts of history. The only thing that will be in common for these titles are Moggles, Chocobos, and magic and myths around the Crystals. The central theme of all three games is the Legend of the Crystals The word "Versus" in the title of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which is Latin, means a change of direction. In Final Fantasy XIII Agito, the Latin word "Agito" means moving violently or stimulus, this game will end up having action elements implemented into the game. No information about the release date for any of these games has been released. But really, it won't matter. Some people have already decided they'll hate or adore the game, and FFXII hasn't even been released outside of Japan yet.
Silverlance	Comment 7: 2006-05-20 05:54
	I'm VERY pleased with the non-online bit. Online games are just terrible. The whole "episode" thing feels stupid to me though. I'm not very keen on that. First it was online. Then X-2. And now they're throwing in random latin words. "Ooooh, it means 'against'! And this one means 'stimulus!' And this next one? 'excrement'! It's awesome because it's latin!." Come on Square... just call it 13 and move on to other things. :/ I look forward to more info though. This one seems MUCH more promising than its predecessor.
SilverFork	Comment 8: 2006-05-20 07:05
	Quote (Zeromus_X @ 20th May 2006 00:48) The girl's name is 'Lightning', not 'Lighting'. Figured just as much if that's indeed confirmed, but different sources have been using either one (mis)translation or the other, hence my pseudo-disclaimer above. Personally, I haven't been able to view a single one o' these screenshots (and thus the name[s]) for myself; clunky ol' computer has refused to load most images for the past three days now. Still, there's always hope SE will make a few changes to some things, including that "name". So far I'm barely impressed. I have yet to conjur up any interest at all in FFXII within myself, and the way things look from here the same thing'll eventually be said for FFXIII. But I suppose it's rather petty to base a negative opinion on what li'l info there is right now - then again, I originally said the same thing 'bout XII...
Del S	Comment 9: 2006-05-20 07:38
	Oh, well, Lightning, that's different. Shocking, absolutely shocking. Not a bolt from the blue though, an UK mag once though FF8 had a character called Kistic Tulip... Wot no crystals copout by having them exist solely in the form of large objects to focus lasers into a devastating blast in some sort of orbital weapons platform or something? Seriously, Squenix, use the Orbital Weapons Platform idea... You know you want to! It rather sounds to me like they've realised three games at once means they can milk the ~~suckers~~ fans for all the have, and even hop the spinoffs onto other consoles to make more dough... Edit It's not a conclusion, it's an early outlook. A conclusion means it can't change, and I can't reach a conclusion when I barely have the first few parts of the puzzle. In fact, I find it hard to see how I can be seen to be reaching any conclusion at all.
Zeromus_X	Comment 10: 2006-05-20 21:14
	Well, it could be a mistranslation as well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Glenn Magus Harvey	Comment 11: 2006-05-20 21:40
	Quote (NeoEx-Death @ 19th May 2006 14:32) Dear God, they're still making more numbered ones?.. Then I hope they make 17 more of these so I could play Final Fantasy XXX! It will be a Final Fantasy game ported for both the PS2 and the GBA as a Dating Sims!! All of the hot sexy women from FF7 up to FF29 will be featured in there and with each pretty boy male main protagonist from each of these games to be featured aswell. For the GBA is the remakes of FF1, FF2, FF4, FF5, and FF6! Same condition as the PSX version. What about the hot sexy women from FF1-FF6? On topic, I suddenly have an urge to implement a time-cost-per-ability system into the RPG I'm designing. Maybe I just won't, because sooner or later it'll evolve too much (I was tempted earlier to turn it into a tactical game, too). Interesting how they can finally force the player to take more time to cast crap like Ultima (which shouldn't even exist anyway, and should be replaced by "Meteo", without the final "r"). Also, time differences could also be applied to physical attacks: the weapons of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow showed just how important speed of attack can be. And I seriously hope the character's name isn't "Lightning" or (even worse) "Lighting". I mean, I'd rather have someone named "Bob".
laszlow	Comment 12: 2006-05-20 21:49
	Well, this time-cost-per-ability thing is exactly the same thing from FF X. Every single attack in the game had a hardcoded "recoil" value that gave speed boosts or speed penalties to their count meter after every attack. Does it seem like the new FF battle systems are trying to implement this in an action battle system without having attacks act faster or slower within the engine itself? Whatever, I try not to make judgements like that until I experience it. We'll have to wait and see as usual, and try not to come to an early conclusion the way Del seems prone to doing.
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