Eurogamer interviewer, Simon Parkin managed to catch some time with Tetsuya Nomura and ask some questions about Final Fantasy Versus XIII a few hours after the Square-Enix Party.

Interview - Final Fantasy Versus XIII // Eurogamer

The interviewer began by asking how will Versus have a darker setting than other instalments in the series and after some miscommunication Nomura answered that the game won't be set in a fantasy world but one more like ours today with "all of this world's ugly issues". He continues to say, "It will focus around current world events - in that sense it's darker." We already know from Jump Festa trailer analysis' that the protagonist's country is involved in a Cold War which is possibly one way he is relating it to this world.

Nomura said he has chosen the dark theme because he's only worked on light settings previously but he has wanted to work on a game with a bleaker setting. Eurogamer then go onto ask more about details of the game mechanics and Nomura answers with the Kingdom Hearts comparison we've heard before. He also mentions that a lot of attention is being given to the Third Person perspective which could be referring to what he mentioned in a previous interview about the camera angle changing when each independent weapon is equipped. The actual development of the game on new technology according to Nomura allows them to create a much more seamless feel with a large field area and no loading times to interrupt the flow of the game.

Thanks Desi for finding the interview.

Source: Eurogamer

New additions to old trailers have been shown at the Closed mega theater and they include a new enemy in Versus XIII and a full shot of Mr 33 cm. The new enemy is a white cloaked female or another girly guy. “She” uses magic in battle against the Versus guy and the trailer ends in a cliffhanger with his swords around “her” and a magic barrier engulfing him. We already have a fanart of Mr. 33 cm and our new nemesis from Maiki off Live Journal.

Mr. 33 cm fullshot fanart
Closeup enemy fanart
Cliffhanger ending fanart

Since you aren't allowed cameras in there you have to be thankful for a teaser display outside the theater. Clips 2:21 streamed.

Hexagon theater teaser

Source: Abyss of Obsessions

There are currently about 38,000 people at the Party with many of them taking the 120 minute wait to get into the Closed Mega Theatre. Each FFXIII game has a trailer in the theater but according to Gemaga, there isn't any new footage for any of the games since the Jump Festa trailers.

The FFXIII trailer contained the same footage of the blond guy appearing with his bike transforming into Shiva and the Versus trailer had the same footage of the fight between the protagonist and the soldiers with him teleporting to avoid rocket fire.


It's unclear from the translation but it sounds like some ingame footage of Agito was cut into the already existing trailer which was described as better graphics than the PS1. For a mobile game that would be extremely impressive so could this confirm the game going onto the next generation of 4G phones?

Source: Gemaga Yahoo Blog

The 1000 yen pamphlet at the Square-Enix Party has been uploaded by FF7AC Reunion. They're only photos of the pages but they show everything in the pamphlet clearly enough.The pamphlet has sections on all the Fabula Nova Crystallis games but there isn't any new screenshots.

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Source: FF7AC Reunion

It's 5 days to go until the Square-Enix Party and Square is showing an advert for it on Japanese TV. There's only a brief amount of FFXIII footage which we've seen before but it's creating even more suspense for the upcoming event. Let's hope they deliver. Download the advert below or watch it at the YouTube link.

Square-Enix Party 2007 Commercial (Download)
Square-Enix Party 2007 Commercial (YouTube)
Thanks to Forever Fantasy

Source: FF13 Vids

The small Versus and Agito thumbnails featured on the Square-Enix party site and in previous scans are now available in their full resolutions. Like the previous HD Lightning screenshot for FFXIII, they to have somehow worked their way onto the internet.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Screenshot
Final Fantasy Agito XIII Screenshot

Unfortunatly they've been saved at quite a low quality so they aren't in HD. Still, it's something new and we'll most likely be getting them again in full quality when the Party begins. Enjoy Photoshoping!

Source: FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net

New Game Informer pages have been scanned in by our forum member Yurian. His summary puts it best so I'll add that here.

Revealing its first articles concerning the Fabula Nova Crystalis Compilation, Game Informer elucidates upon some of the previously mentioned details about the three games. Although most of the details were already established from other media sources, GI does confirm two important aspects to the mysterious Final Fantasy (supposed) Trio: Lightning is in fact the main protagonist - the "instrumental force of change" - in Final Fantasy 13, and Square Enix has indeed filed a trademark for a "Final Fantasy Haeresis 13". Despite suggesting the possibly tipping exclusiveness of the series, GI is definitely excited about the games (and hopefully their release dates) - as we can all putatively agree.

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The Australian version of Official Playstation Magazine has a section dedicated to the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation including a new interview with Toriyama. Although the questions are pretty basic some new facts have been revealed.

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Lightning has now been confirmed as the main character in the FFXIII even though it was stated she wasn't in a Gemaga interview after E3.
The ATB system will be "sped up to it's limit", promising much faster and action packed battles.
They haven't decided whether online functionality will be included in the game but it is under discussion.
Mini-games may be included in FFXIII and could be followed up by full game releases e.g. Chocobo Racing.
Toriyama wouldn't give a release date but said it takes a long time to make a game to the same standard as the previous titles.
Other titles in the series that are yet to be announced won't just be on the PS3 or Mobile which is obvious.

Unfortunatly little mention of Versus, Agito or any other titles in the compilation were made however Toriyama is the director of FFXIII so we will have to wait for information on the other games from their developers.

Source: Reminem (via Forever Fantasy)

The president of Enterbrain, the company which owns the Japanese game magazine Famitsu has said in a lecture that FFXIII and MGS4 will be the major selling point for the PS3. The problem he says is that these titles don't have release dates yet meaning customers aren't as inclined to buy the console.

By the time the games are released though he believes the console will be selling better and cheaper thanks to the new 65nm chips being used. Although it's no big news that FFXIII and Versus are highly anticipated installments for the PS3, no release dates for the games could be affecting sales meaning Square-Enix might have to give out a vague date to assure more customers buy the console for the game according to Hamamura.

Source: Forever Fantasy

Like many other magazines in the past week, GamePro has a small extract on each of the upcoming titles for PS3.

GamePro Scan One

The scan gives us a little more background on Lightning.

"In the story an exile from the floating kingdom of Cocoon, who has been
banished to the lower world, finds herself caught up in a plot to take
the sky domain down."

The magazine has also predicted that both XIII and Versus will be released in 2008 like many others have said.

Source: FF-XIII.net