Final Fantasy XIII-2 News Roundup

As promised, here is the metric ton of FFXIII-2 news that has come up between now and E3!

First off, we have some new insights into event scenes. The player will be able to control the camera during plot event scenes. In addition, it appears that there will be cinematic action sequences during key battles.

A bit more character knowledge is available as well. We know that two of the central characters will be Serah, Lightning's sister, and Noel/Noal, whom we know essentially nothing about. There will also be a moogle named Mog. In keeping with the transformers theme of FFXIII, he will be capable of changing into Serah's swordbow. The characters from the original game will make appearances as well, though we cannot tell yet how significant their presence will be.

The battle system appears to be the same as its predecessor's at heart, but with a few tweaks. When approaching enemies, a small on-screen clock will appear. Depending on how quickly you attack (reflected by the color of the clock), you may either enter the battle with an advantage, an even playing field or a disadvantage. While the standard three-character limit in battles will once again be observed, FFXIII-2 will mix up the cards a bit; characters can more or less capture enemies and harness them to fight alongside the party in battle. Though there are still many unanswered questions relating to this new feature, it has been stated that over 100 enemies will be available for use by the game's heroes and that up to two monsters can be employed in battle at once.

Apparently, there will be considerably less story linearity, if not location linearity. Players will be able to choose their own tactics in certain situations which will alter how the events that follow play out. Furthermore, Square Enix has confirmed that there will be multiple endings, and that these endings hinge on certain choices available to the player throughout the game.

A few plot elements have been revealed as well, though these are characteristically vague. Isamu Kamikokuryo, art director for FFXIII-2, gave a recent interview in which he shared that the sequel will take a much darker direction. "[t]he civilization of Cocoon has met its end, and we're depicting the recovery process that follows. It's not a bright future, it's a time of hardship." Kamikokuryo said that the game's art style will reflect this mood. He also emphasized the importance of an afterlife-world in the entire Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. In FFXIII-2, this afterlife-world will be especially important to the plot, and the player will even be able to visit it. Lightning is somehow connected to this world in an important way (this is where her armor comes from as well). Perhaps this piece of information will help explain the dialogue at the end of the E3 trailer: "Get ahold of yourself! Lightning is dead!"

Kamikokuryo also alluded to some type of gate that players could use to travel to new locations that were not seen in the previous title. Location seems to be one thing the team is interested in doing well this time around; old locations will be given new depth, and many new ones will be added. The main setting of the game will be Gran Pulse, according to Kamikokuryo, but there will also be high-tech cities, and the team is striving to make all areas complex and detailed both in layout and scenery. He mentioned that his greatest regret from FFXIII was that many locations had to be rushed through by the player; in this new title, one of the team's goals is to allow the player to "explore that reality, the lives of the people living there... the feeling of being able to touch another world."

The final bit of news concerning FFXIII-2 is that the release date, originally projected to fall during late 2011, has now been pushed back to early 2012. It's worth checking out the FFXIII-2 E3 trailer on the official webpage, where several of these new developments can be seen in action.

Source: IGN, IGN, Andriasang