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