Last month, our own editor Ethan had the privilege and honor to attend a Final Fantasy XIII-2 press event in Los Angeles. Not only did he get to play the game firsthand, but he also gathered some additional information and impressions about the game (which you can read about here. He was also able to ask producer Yoshinori Kitase and art director Isamu Kamikokuryou some questions that some of our forum members wanted to know the answers to. Now, thanks to Jeels at finalfantasy.net, a full article with the answers to these questions and many more has surfaced. Check out the answers to the questions provided by our forum members below!

What challenges has developing the sequel presented that weren’t there for its predecessor? (Question provided by: FinalFantasy-XIII.net)

The biggest challenge is to provide, especially the returning player, a new and exciting experience visually and in the game play. Reading the initial scenario for XIII-2, I noticed it was more serious, so we wanted to incorporate a darker tone versus the light that was seen in Final Fantasy XIII, so I think you will notice overall this has a darker feel.

There are a lot of new features in Final Fantasy XIII-2 that were not present in the first game. Were these features originally considered for Final Fantasy XIII but for some reason did not make it into the final cut? (Question provided by: FinalFantasy-XIII.net)

As far as the game play or scenarios are concerned, because XIII-2 was green lit after XIII was already launched, this was a whole new mission. There really was not necessarily anything missed in XIII that was not included in XIII-2. As far as graphically, there were definitely monsters and environments that we could not make possible in XIII that we were actually able to incorporate into XIII-2 that we are happy to get into the sequel.

One of the biggest features we were able to incorporate this time was a lot of the weather elements. We have much more variation. It is done in a much more detailed manner than we were able to before. Especially with the concept of traveling through time and place, these were really vital in expressing the differences in the locations you are visiting. It is important progress that we have made in XIII-2.

Another thing that was added into the game was jumping. Now, jumping was incorporated into XIII until towards the very end of the development process. It was removed because it was deceiving; it looked like you could jump over or jump on things when you could not. That had some negative feedback and we decided to remove it. This time we bought it back, and we kept in consideration while developing the maps as well, so that it actually worked for the functionality.

Another element that was not in XIII is the mini game style game play, like the Chocobo races, slot machines, and also puzzle elements that appear throughout the game. That is another new element that we were unable to incorporate into XIII but we did this time.

Again, thanks to everyone at Square Enix for taking the time and effort to send Ethan out the event, and a very big thanks in particular to Mr. Kitase and Mr. Kamikokuryou for answering our questions and those of other sites, as well!

If you want to read the full article, check it out here.