We have some more information on the interview with Toriyama and Nomura in Dengeki PS3. Further parts of the interview have been posted on FF7AC Reunion revealing a few new details on Versus.

It seems the man featured in the screenshots and trailer (which is yet to be released to the public) is the protagonist. According to Nomura his eyes glow red when he has sword in hand which is hard to notice because we're yet to see him without a sword. The actual battles are going to very similar to Advent Children which is what we can expect from the Director who made it.

There has also been rumour of a trailer being announced for one of the games within the next month in an RPGFan news post translating the FF7AC Reunion article but we only see the already announced new screenshots coming out soon. If anyone can tell us anymore about this please contact us.

Source: FF7AC Reunion

Well at least we're starting to get a little more information from the producers now. Toriyama and Nomura have been taken away from their work and interviewed by Dengeki PS3 (a spin-off magazine from Dengeki for the PS3 launch in Japan). We aren't sure whether or not this is the same interview we have in the scans in the post below but we're sure glad its English.

Toriyama talks about the transition from FFXIII on the PS2 to moving development onto the PS3. Apparently there are few similarities in the game as it has been completely overhauled for the Next-Gen system with a new battle system and gameplay style. He says working on a new system will mean a lot more work similar to the change from the Playstation to the PS2.

"We're probably at the point where we could make a PS3 title. However, we're currently researching how to fully tap the specs."

Could this mean the 3% completion rumour is true? Whatever the percentage is it looks like we have a long time to wait.

On the Versus side of things it seems like real time footage is a long way off. The White Engine is still being finished off and apparently its going to be used with a lot more games than we thought. Nomura says that there will be different versions of the White Engine, "tuned" to their specifications for each game which could mean games coming out quicker in the future.

Click here for the full article

Thanks to our forum member Desi for finding this information for us.

Source: IGN

We got the interview scans of Mr. Nomura and Mr. Toriyama.
As expected, its all in japanese (d'oh),  so we hope that some good soul out there can translate it.

Electric Shock Interview FFXIII
Electric Shock Interview Versus

Mr. Toriyama (FFXIII) will give us new image(s) before the end of 2006. Perhaps during the Jump Festa. (16-17 December.)

Source: FF&KH Blog

Good News:
Some (recent?) images tell us new numbers on progress of FFXIII and Versus.
Bad News:
They are lower then the last numbers.
FFXIII progress goes from 13% to 3% and Versus goes from 1.3% to 1%.

If we find the name on the magazine it comes from, we will update this article. It could be false numbers. (heck, everything could be false)

Progress Scan Extract

Source: FF-xiii.net, FFinsider.net

The last article was about the Final Fantasy 13 interview, but now we have an update on Final Fantasy Versus XIII. And again we try to extract the important and good stuff out of the Japanese article. Please treat the following text as unconfirmed.

Mr. Nomura talks about the white engine so you can expect the same high level of graphic in Versus. They talk about White engine version 2 and 3. They are working on version 1 at the moment and keep on doing adjustments. So we could expect even better graphic then the sequences in FFXIII trailer.

They talk about the battle system and see a image of gauge similar to the one in FFXIII. (Unknown if they where shown it or if it’s in the magazine)
He hints the use of multiple weapons in battle.

The scenario of the game is not complete and will not continue before further development of white engine is done.

They mention “Online”, and then use the word "Online" with portable telephone.

Source: FF&KH Blog

After a fast online translation we can say that there are no new images and no new information. Treat everything I write as unconfirmed since the translation mess it up.

Mr.Toriyama talks about the evolution from PS2 to PS3 and compare it to the PSX to PS2 upgrade. He tells us how the PSX lacks the expressions in faces and how hard it was to create that in the first Final Fantasy for PS2. It’s the same challenge to create the new white engine for PS3.

He says some words about the theme in Final Fantasy XIII, but I’m hardly the right man to translate that. You can come to a conclusion yourself.

As for theme of the story of FF13 when “determination” and many degrees face the desperate scene the protagonist where faces truth resistance, and determination to trouble and the circumstance, this the story of FF13 the principal axis.

Source: FF&KH Blog

Well we had a little trouble with our news and we lost a few of our older articles. Unfortunately theres no way to recover them as we had no backup but we'll try and make sure we don't have the same problem in the future.

However I've scanned in a new article from Play US magazine. Same old summary of TGS explaining what a dissapointment it was. It also talks about some of the other titles Square had at TGS aswell. At least we have Jump Festa to wait for now!

Play US Scan

Kitmitsu had some psychic powers when he foresaw the upcoming of FFXIII at Jump Festa. Square put out a list of different games they will show to the public. It’s nothing about Versus in this one, so expect the trailer to be further delayed.

• Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book
• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
• Dawn of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 4)
• Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
• Final Fantasy VI Advance
• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ and RE: Chain of Memories

Jump Festa 2007 will take place December 16-17 this year.

Source: FFRepublic.com

A French site claims they have some information on progress of different game titles from Square-Enix. It comes from a Japanese magazine called Otona Fami. Good thing we now know how far they are.

• Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3): 13%
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PlayStation 3): 1.3%
• Itadaki Street DS (Nintendo DS): 50%
• Final Fantasy XII Ghost Wings (Nintendo DS): 40%
• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (PlayStation 2): 130% (2 games. KH2 + KH:CoM remix)

They got a good start with FFXIII, but poor Versus still lacks 98.7% of the game. :(

Source: Quickjump

I thought I'd add a little more to the site just to make sure we have all the information we could possibly need :P

I've added an Interview section which includes an interview from Dengeki and EGM back at E3 with the developers and a Known Issues section which reveals Square-Enix's mistakes with FFXIII so far! (like we could do any better). We'll be continuing to add to sections soon but it's hard with such little information.