Famitsu’s latest issue has a Final Fantasy XIII-2 feature where they reveal a few new details to tide us over. Here’s a summary of all the new information they reveal.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be appearing one disc on Xbox 360. This is in stark contrast to the original which was released on three. Toriyama claims that this is all due to the increased use of real time cutscenes but it’s quite likely the game itself being shorter, also played a large part.

Hope is aged 24 in the TGS trailer making him 10 years older than he appears in FFXIII. XIII-2 takes place 3 years after the original if you’re trying to keep up with the time travelling. He’s now the head of a scientific investigation group of some sort.

Caius (Kaias) has an evil influence over both Valhalla and the regular world which may explain why the black smoke emanating from Lightning in the trailer is called Chaos. Yeul (Yuru) is the silver haired girl travelling with Caius.

The game will never penalize you for you for missing Quick Times. Completing them however will gain you something.

Like Final Fantasy X, you will be able to switch party members on the fly. This means that the party leader dying will no longer be game over.

Noel’s memories are cloudy due to the result of a time paradox.

The game will include Easy Mode from launch this time.

Alternative costumes will also be available and will be visible in cutscenes as well as gameplay.

The Crystarium system will not be capped like it was in XIII. Instead, it will be fully unlocked from the beginning and won’t rely on story progression to let you continue.

Source: Nova Crystallis