Finally we have some new news thanks to a scan from Gemaga magazine. No new images but the scan did contained an interview with Toriyama and Nomura which the people over at FF13 Vids have summarised for us. Remember it's a poor translation so some information isn't completly confirmed.

Gemaga Magazine Scan

Final Fantasy XIII

The FFXIII battle system is a completly new type of system designed to be fast paced. The new system is being developed by Toshiro Tsuchida, the battle director of FFX. There are no random encounters in the game but a field full of enemies similar to FFXII. The monsters also change according to the situation or environment. According to Tsuchida the FFXII License board had too much freedom and in FFXIII he sets out to design a system giving characters abilities based on their personalities. The summons are also supposed to work as partners (like the two Shiva sisters) so we could see more summons with brothers or sisters.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Nomura said that he doesn't want to begin work on Kingdom Hearts 3 until he has finished Versus so he can concentrate on one at a time. This also may be the last FF spin off game Nomura makes so he can work on other titles. The game itself is supposed to play like a more realistic version of Kingdom hearts with some elements of a Third Person Shooter similar to Dirge of Cerberus.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII

Currently the script for Agito is being written which is supposed to be an amazing story. The game will be released in a similar way to Before Crisis in an episodic format with one episode being released a month. It has to be released like this because of the huge scale of the game.

Source: FF13 Vids

A new screenshot of Lightning has been released in all it's HD goodness. The image has previously appeared in both Dengeki and Famitsu scans from after Jump Festa. The interview that the image came from is about Square-Enix's recent adoption of the Unreal 3 Engine for use in other games and it's mentioned that it will in turn "advance the development of FFXIII". Thanks to GHenrik for finding it.

FFXIII Lightning Screenshot

EDIT: Any mention of FFXIII has been removed from the original interview. The Unreal Engine was apparently going to help "advance the development of FFXIII" (assuming it would take pressure off people on the team working on other games) but some sites have said it was going to replace the White Engine and be used for FFXIII. This is untrue and the White Engine is still being used to develop FFXIII and Versus.

Source: FF&KH Blog

The new issue of Play UK is based around the future of the PS3. It contains a small extract on Final Fantasy XIII about the game most likely launching in Japan in 2008. It also mentions that the game is only 2% complete. If that's true look forward to a very distant English release.

Play UK Scan

One of our forum members (Pulse) has taken the time to make a fan magazine which summarises all our knowledge on the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation. It's impressive enough to deserve its own page on our site so everyone take a look! This issue focuses on FFXIII and he already has plans to make further issues.

Fabula Nova Crystallis Issue One

I've added the magazine to a gallery to make it easier to navigate through the pages. Note that the gallery does take a little while to load in Internet Explorer because all the images load at once.

Toriyama said a few days ago we would be recieveing FFXIII "as soon as possible" but it seems "soon" has a different meaning to him. In an interview with Nomura, he speaks about his current projects including KH2: Final Mix, Advent Children: Complete and his other works. They're all to be released this year (hopefully so he can get working on Versus) but according to him FFXIII isn't going to be released in 2007.

Source: FF7AC Reunion

IGN have given us their own summary of the interviews with Toriyama and Nomura printed in both Dengeki and Famitsu magazine so everyone can stop trying to learn Japanese. One of the biggest updates is FFXIII Directors Motome Toriyama's promise to get the game to us "as soon as possible" in celebration of this years 20th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series. Here's the rest of the information IGN has provided for us.

Final Fantasy XIII

According to Toriyama the opening to FFXIII will be the most intense we've seen in a Final Fantasy to date. There will be a real-time battle in the opening that is supposed to be more exciting than what we've seen in the trailers so far.

People's biggest fear in Cocoon is the people from Pulse. They believe people will try and destroy the city by making it fall from the sky. People feared to be powerful enough to do this are deported.

Nomura says our new blonde heroine is a big guy, a very big guy. He's apparently strong enough to run while carrying two people and we finally found out that the random 33cm's in the translated article is his shoe size.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Nomura says that the fighting in Versus takes full advantage of the PS3 by allowing us to fight in areas with big differences in height. It will also mean that players have to take advantage of the environment they're fighting in.

It's now confirmed you can teleport to the location of a weapon you've thrown. This ability is currently being tested by the Versus team.

The lonely hero fighting by his self apparently won't be alone throughout the game. You will be fighting in a party in a similar style to the party system in Kingdom Hearts.

Nomura also mentioned that Versus will be using the functions of the SIXAXIS controller in gameplay but he didn't go into any specifics.

Versus is also currently behind XIII in development so it will most likely be the last one released out of the compilation titles announced so far. However he does have ideas for a new trailer which will be "extremely cool".

IGN: Final Fantasy XIII Update

Source: IGN.com

Famitsu have updated their site with two new articles related to FFXIII and Versus.

FFXIII Famitsu.com Article
Versus Famitsu.com Article

The translation is pretty poor but it does give us a few more facts. This image from the scans is apparently the "foriegn material" being produced by the crystal based in Pulse which will destroy the people or the whole of Cocoon.
Another small part of the article which is hard to understand explains when Shiva is used water surrounds her and she uses this to freeze her enemies.

Famitsu mention that the scenery seen so far in Versus is quite obviously based on existing cities in Japan, most likely because it's supposed to be set in modern times however outside the protagonists country looks different.

Source: Famitsu.com

The interview in the Famitsu scans we posted a few days ago has been translated by FF-XIII.net's member Chas. The translation is available at the bottom of our interviews page.

Interviews Page

A few more facts cleared up about the story and gameplay of all the games but some of which we already knew from other translations of the articles.

The Crystal has consciousness and the power to invent both machines and life. There are different Crystals with the same power in Pulse but one decided to create an environment which is suitable for humans and that is the one which created and resides in Cocoon.

The Soldiers attacking the protagonist of Versus were after the crystal inside the pillar behind his thrown. It is supposed to have some sort of power which is beneficial to the military.

Agito will work both online and offline. Other players can join your party in online mode like an MMORPG.

Source: FF-XIII.net

Just a small update. We now have a slightly better quality video of the extended TGS footage from Youtube available for download.

TGS Extended Footage Screener

It's the original version of the Youtube video but better quality so it's slightly clearer to see whats going on. Let's hope Square release the TGS trailer or the Jump Festa trailer officially to the public soon.

Source: FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net

More Scans from FF7AC Reunion. This time it's Famitsu's turn to wow us with some FFXIII goodness and though a lot of it's similar to the Dengeki scans the images are much better. They dedicate a whole special section to the games. Not much new news out of it as Dengeki has covered most of it but we have a few new comments from our masters Toriyama and Nomura.

They seem to be keeping many aspects about Lightning a secret and only tell us "She originally had a rank in a certain organisation" which we already knew from the previous scans.

As we knew the Versus protagonist's eyes glow red when he draws his weapons but now we also know his hair shines white when he teleports to a weapon he's thrown. The crystal's have also been in plain sight of us all along. The pillars behind the characters throne are the crystals themselves and apparently their true form is still asleep though the translation is unclear. The character's other weapons appear in his hand while progressing through the game and his name was also revealed in the Jump Festa trailer. According to Nomura his name was mentioned in the radio broadcast in the limousine (which we also have an external picture of from the scans).

Not much more about the story but new features about Agito have also been revealed about it's online features. You can join other players playing it online but it isn't sure whether you can fight them or not.

Fabula Nova Crystalis Special Section

Famitsu Scan One

Final Fantasy XIII

Famitsu Scan Two
Famitsu Scan Three
Famitsu Scan Four
Famitsu Scan Five

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Famitsu Scan Six
Famitsu Scan Seven
Famitsu Scan Eight
Famitsu Scan Nine

Final Fantasy Agito XIII

Famitsu Scan Ten
Famitsu Scan Eleven

Developer's Interview

Famitsu Scan Twelve
Famitsu Scan Thirteen

Source: FF7AC Reunion and FF&KH Blog