Square Enix has announced a new game in the Final Fantasy XIII series at the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event, bringing Lightnings story to an end.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is out! With it comes a final trailer which neatly compresses all the good bits of FFXIII-2 into one minute.
The long wait is over. We've finished our review copy and had a great time, so come read our impressions of Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Just about an hour or so ago, Gametrailers.com posted the first official trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Unfortunately the trailer has since been taken down as it is most likely that this trailer was only meant to go live once Jump Festa had started. However, thanks to a quick thinking individual it has been uploaded onto YouTube.
Thoughts? Share them in our forums.
Today is a good day for all you patient Lightning Returns fans out there. The murky scan that revealed Lightning’s new look has finally gotten a higher quality and complete version, revealing several key screenshots! We can see several instances of Lightning traversing her environment, shots of the lovely city of light, even shots of the promised stealth elements! If you’re attentive, you might even spot a familiar face in the top-left screen.
On top of that, we seem to have our first official look at the game’s combat! Apparently Lightning won’t just be grappling with the new forces of Chaos, but with classic foes such as the behemoth seen in the scan. Now that we’ve had our first taste, it’s only a short while now before Jump Festa and the premiere of the Lightning Returns trailer to the general public. Stay tuned!
Thoughts on the scans? Head to the forums to discuss!
Jump has finally revealed the long-awaited new look of the titular heroine of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII! Designed by Tetsuya Nomura, the new design takes Lightning’s look in a radical new direction. While this is Lightning’s default design for the game, keep in mind that she has several customizable outfits throughout the game. Here’s our first look!
Along with these lovely scans came a few new details about the world of Lightning Returns and what we can expect from the combat. It seems Lightning’s costume isn’t the only big change we can expect; as promised the gameplay in Lightning Returns seems to be a drastically different experience from its predecessors. Lightning can reportedly traverse the world freely both on the ground and vertically, leaping on top of terrain and even using some elements of stealth. The concept of the game is “The world’s last thirteen days”. The first trailer for the game is due to drop this week, so stay tuned for more.
Love the new design? Hate it? Discuss it in the forums!
Source: ff-reunion
Square Enix have revealed their line-up for the upcoming Jump Festa, and among the few titles, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be showing as video-only. We don’t know yet if this will be the gameplay from the reveal, or something new like a Trailer of CG or Gameplay.
The other titles appearing at Jump Festa by Square-Enix are Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX, Dragon Quest VII, Dragon Quest X, and Gyrozetter: Wings of the Albatross.
Check out their webpage for the event here.
For a long time, Western fans have been left in the dark concerning a localization for Type-0, and the news only seems to get grimmer each time we hear about it. However, a recent interview with none other than Hajime Tabata himself might bring a glimmer of optimism. As “moribund” as the the localization might be, S-E has not given up hope. You can read the entire interview here, but here’s the part you’re probably most interested in.
Hajime Tabata: “Due to market reasons, we are taking a clean slate in terms of our plans. We feel strongly about bringing this title to the fans in North America and Europe, so if an opportunity arises that can become a conclusive factor, we are prepared to go into consideration right away.”
That’s less than clear, but it’s also far more than many expected. Though the future for Type-0 is nowhere near certain, at least we know that the project hasn’t flatlined. Additionally, Tabata speaks in the interview of his work with Crisis Core and S-E and about his feelings on Final Fantasy in general. As always, if you have any thoughts, comments or even just exclamations of relief, head on down to our forums.
Square Enix has released a video showcasing the development studio behind Lightning Returns on their official Youtube channel. In it you can see a lot of people sitting in a room watching Youtube videos, some blurred PCs, and about 2 seconds of Lightning Returns pre-alpha footage. When they attempted to film the Versus studio, they realised no one could remember if it actually existed.
Lightning Returns is the recently announced conclusion to the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, unveiled at the Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event. For those of you not in the know, the game will feature Lightning as the sole playable protagonist and will be the last game she stars in. Following the recent reveal of the all new title, developers spilled the beans to Famitsu about Lightning Returns. Motomu Toriyama, Yoshinori Kitase, Yuji Abe and Isamu Kamikokuryou have joined together to detail everything from gameplay to art direction to story details, so strap yourself in.
Special thanks for forum member Ramenzilla for finding this.
The continuation of the Final Fantasy XIII series has just been announced at Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event live on stage. The game entitled “Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII” is the conclusion of Lightning’s story set to be released in 2013.
The game takes place hundreds of years in the future in a world known as Novus Partus, a place consisting of four continents which are linked by a rail system. However, in this future, Novus Partus is only 13 days away from doom. Lightning’s actions need to be carefully considered without wasting time or they’ll progress time on the doomsday clock. Players will have the ability to rewind the clock to retry if their actions are wasted. Artwork of a major city known as Lexerion can be seen below.
As the only playable character, the battle system has been drastically changed giving her the ability to block in real time and drain the doomsday clock to her advantage. More customisation is a key feature now we’re limited to one character. Lightning’s looks and combat style can be changed with more control than ever before.
Unfortunately a trailer was shown to the press but not made public on the Nico Nico stream, so for now, take a look at the new artwork and images released of the upcoming title below. An official website for the game has been launched telling us to come back on September 4th for more details. Hopefully we’ll see the trailer then.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Official Site
Excited? Here’s a schedule of what’s gonna happen at September 1 and 2!
Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga: New Developments Presentation - September 1 at 11:30 JST
Square Enix Music Special/Live Stage Final Fantasy XI Presents Kumi Tanioka & Nanaa Mihgo’s Live Stage - September 1 at 14:30 JST
Final Fantasy XIV Special Talk Show - September 1 at 17:30
Final Fantasy VII 15th Anniversary Stage - September 2 at 11:30 JST
Square Enix Chan! Presents “Radio Public Recording” Future of Final Fantasy Round Table Discussion - September 2 at 14:30 JST
Square Enix Music Special/Talk Stage Father of Final Fantasy Music “Nobuo Uematsu” Talk Show - September 2 at 17:30 JST
Can’t stream the events because you don’t know where to go and can’t read Japanese? Don’t worry! Squareportal was nice to show a step by step procedure to register for a free account at NicoLive. Just go here and follow the instructions stated! (the NicoLive link on Squareportal’s page should show you the links to all Square Enix’s events, as seen in the schedule above)
Also, @aibo_ac7 of FF-Reunion from Twitter was nice enough to share some pictures from the event. Just go to his official Flickr and view the photos!
Visit our forums for discussions and updates.
Square Enix have launched a new page on the Final Fantasy XIII website, ‘A Storm Gathers’.
The page is basically just a news brief of the upcoming Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event and its XIII Saga related announcement. The event, as has been posted before, will take place on September 1st and will be livestreamed over Nico Nico Douga.
Final Fantasy XIII Japanese Commercial 1 HD
Final Final Fantasy XIII Trailer (Translated)Final Final Fantasy XIII Japanese TrailerFinal Fantasy XIII Release Date Announcement Video
Japan: December 17th 2009
NA: March 9th 2010
Europe: March 9th 2010 Japan: December 15th 2011 NA: January 31st 2012 Europe: February 3rd 2012 Japan: TBA NA: TBA Europe: TBA Japan: October 13th 2011 NA: TBA Europe: TBA
