EGM's May issue contains a few more details on FFXIII in their "The Big Ones" section. All the information was found in the Jump Festa issues of Famitsu, Dengeki and Gemaga but its always better to see a real English translation.
Enemies are part of ecosystems where they act independently from the player carrying out their own existence in their surroundings and interact with other enemies.
They also mention how the Versus camera system works in a different way depending on which weapon is equiped.
Thanks to our staff member Omni-Cloud for the scans.
EGM Scan One
Official Playstation Magazine has reported on the real power of our PS3's featuring a high resolution picture of Shiva. The article talks about how the Cell Processor and RSX graphics chips help make the PS3 the lead out of the next generation consoles in graphics and uses the HD Shiva image as an example. Nothing really said about XIII except the small caption saying that Square will prove the PS3's "visual prowess" with the game.
Official Playstation Magazine Scan OneOfficial Playstation Magazine Scan Twoand heres the two scans joined together to make the full Shiva image:
Full Shiva Screenshot ScanSource:
FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net
We have some new PSM scans thanks to Lonely_Leonhart from FF-XIII.net. The scans don't contain any new information about the games but instead talk about the graphical leap the series has taken to almost become "visually superior to a Hollywood movie". Interestingly a caption for one of the screenshots says that Versus hasn't been confirmed to be using the White Engine although it has.
PSM Scan OnePSM Scan TwoSource:
FF-XIII.net
Playstation Universe today reported on a rumor that the April issue of EGM contained news of an FFXIII demo hitting the Playstation Store store this month. Thanks to our staff member Omni-Cloud we have a scan of the EGM page.
EGM FFXIII ExtractFull EGM Page ScanAccording to EGM a demo for FFXIII will be released onto the Playstation Store late this year. Unfortunately there is no official source for this information. Nomura has already said that the game will not be released this year but a demo is possible if development has moved forward. According to Toriyama from E3 last year, a demo of the game was supposed to be shown at this years expo but it is unclear whether it's still set to make an appearance.
Dengeki Online has posted the schedule for the Square-Enix Party and Kotaku has translated it. They will announce a new game on stage either on May 12, 2 AM (GMT) or May 11, 7 PM (PST).
The FNC series will come up at some point, but it will be announced after the first stage event. The new game could be a part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series like the mythical Haeresis XIII, another FNC title or a new title with no connection to Final Fantasy 13 whatsoever.
Thanks to Soul for telling me.
Source:
Forever Fantasy
An interview with Motomu Toriyama has recently been scanned in by
FF13vids. According to them, the page is from a PS3 Pamphlet released at last years TGS with Toriyama expressing why the PS3 is the perfect platform for FFXIII to be developed on. Nothing really new we can pick out without a translation but it does make the likelyhood of the game being ported to the Xbox 360 aswell even less likely, not that the rumor has any real proof to support it. I'll get ready to eat my words.
PS3 Pamphlet ScanThanks to Ragnarok for finding the news.
Source:
Forever Fantasy
Today a photo of a Japanese newspaper containing a full page advertisement of the Square-Enix Party taking place on May 12th - 13th has been released to us via
FF7AC Reunion.
FF 20th Anniversary Newspaper PageFF 20th Anniversary Newspaper CutoutThe page is based on the 20th anniversary of the series taking place this year and contains each Final Fantasy title that is yet to be released. What makes the page relevant to us is the writing at the bottom of the page which says:
The evolution will never stop, the series continues [... ] and the Final Fantasy that nobody knows will enter in scene.
It's an online translation from Jeux-France but what it says is pretty clear. A new game could be announced at this years party which Square-Enix has told us will contain a lot of surprises for us. It could be another title in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation, a completly new FF game or yet another spinoff but it looks like we'll just have to wait until May to find out.
Source: QuickJump
IGN have made their own summaries of the Gemaga articles from a few days ago with some more details about FFXIII and Agito.
Final Fantasy XIII
The XIII article is mostly about the battle system being implemented in the game by it's recently announced battle director Tosirou Tsuchida, previously the FFX battle director. For FFXIII we'll be getting a "flash, speedy battle system that while as fast as an action game, still allows for players to input commands. Attacks in the game can be charged to make them more powerful and magic can be combined with standard attacks causing more damage or a status alignment to be given.
The system has been described as a party battle system by Toriyama but it's unsure whether commands are input to control your allies or if they automaticlly attack like the FFXII Gambit system. Tsuchida just replied with "no comment"
The enemies in the game have an actual background story instead of being random grunts. The soldier battalions will have thoughts and feelings and react to the habitat they're fighting in. This could mean with have enemies with morals or cowards fleeing battles.
IGN: Final Fantasy XIII Battle System DetailedFinal Fantasy Agito XIIINomura has given more specifics on how Agito will be distributed. The game is too much for current 3G phones to handle so the game will most likely be developed on next generation 4G phones which haven't been released yet. This means they won't nessecarilly be limited to releasing the game in chapters like Before Crisis but in one full game. The reason he doesn't want it to be developed on 3G is because Nomura wants it to be considered a fully fledged Final Fantasy title. He'll also be using his current mobile projected, Monotone, to test some elements for Agito.
IGN: Final Fantasy Agito XII Goes Next GenSource:
IGN
Maiki, the Live Journal member who brought us the fanart of the Blonde Haired guy before the image was released has translated the interview in the Gemaga scan we posted today. This translation should be much more reliable and gives us a lot more information I couldn't pick out beforehand. It also should correct a few small mistakes. Everyone worship her. I've added the translated FFXIII interview to the interview section.
Gemaga Translated Interview (bottom of the page)
This time, the game isn't centred around a party of people joining together to save the world.
Blonde Haired guy hasn't been defined as an enemy or an ally yet to Lightning. He also is supposed to have a funny way of fighting .
There may be a job system in FFXIII but it hasn't been confirmed. They do say they're finding ways to make the game more enjoyable though.
Summons in FFXIII will have a strong partnership with the characters in the game and won't necessarily be used in pairs like Shiva is.
Unlike FFXII, it's possible to get the upperhand on enemies in the field before attacking. Enemies will also have other traits outside of battle other than attacking.
The White Engine is also a great platform to be working on according to Kitase and it will be used for future titles as well.
Here's some extra information for Versus:
The gameplay will be a more realistic version of Kingdom Hearts with third person shooter elements similar to Dirge of Cerberus. This works by changing the players point of view depending on what weapon they have equipped.
Nomura was questioned whether there would be an Air Ship in this installment and he confirmed there definitely will be.
The Kingdom Hearts main programmer looked at the Versus concept and asked "Is this Kingdom Hearts 3?"
Source:
Maiki - Live Journal