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[The Last One]

Don't know where to post, so...

Tetsuya Nomura Talks Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts in Famitsu


When Tetsuya Nomura said there wouldn't be any Final Fantasy Versus XIII at Tokyo Game Show, he meant it. The long awaited companion project to Final Fantasy XIII (or maybe Final Fantasy XIII-2?) was nowhere to be found at the show, not even in sneak trailer form.

It seems that Nomura was saving an update on the game for Famitsu. The magazine has an interview with Nomura this week, revealing a few intriguing details.

Here's some of what's surfaced from the magazine so far:

Nomura says that he recently did a walkthrough of the full world map. He also did a check on the game's dungeons and the side paths in the game's towns. He was impressed with how expansive everything is.

When Square Enix announced the development of its "Luminous" next generation engine, some very cruel people joked that maybe Versus would be updated to use it. Actually, the game does use the lightning technology from Luminous, Nomura reveals. However, the game also uses a game specific engine that's specialized for action.

With Versus, Nomura promises a Final Fantasy like you've never seen before.

Nomura also commented on Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, saying the game is 60 to 70 percent complete and due out in Spring 2012.

We'll hopefully get more details from Nomura's interview once the usual suspects get their copies of Famitsu in a few hours. Check back later in the day!

http://andriasang.com/comy9v/

 

[Chiave]

Do we know how big the fields in Versus is going to be?

 

[Kagari]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

 

[ULTROS!]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

So I'm guessing FFXIII-2 either has:

- a smaller scope
- CG cutscenes are compressed as hell
- related to the previous one, but there are like 2-3 CG cutscenes.

 

[Synless]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

Game must be short, incredibly compressed, or both. I don't like the sound of that.

*Beaten*

 

[Kyon]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

It's gonna be short isn't it? -________-

 

[MooMoo]

So I'm guessing FFXIII-2 either has:

- a smaller scope
- CG cutscenes are compressed as hell
- related to the previous one, but there are like 2-3 CG cutscenes.

Didn't they say they were using less CG and more in-game cutscenes (or whatever they're called. damn terminology!)? Also wasn't the actual size of FF13 like 6-7GB with the rest being the CG, which is why it took up such an enormous amount of space in the first place (i.e. 3X GB on PS3, 3 discs for 360)?

 

[Averon]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

Eh. Short game, then? 20-30 hours.

 

[jackdoe]

Didn't they say they were using less CG and more in-game cutscenes (or whatever they're called. damn terminology!)?

They'd have to use less FMV (rendered in engine). Just don't have a repeat of FFXII and its terribly compressed audio (assuming the game isn't short and lite on content).

 

[Kagari]

Does this mean that Square Enix has rushed the game out with little content? In an interview with the magazine, director Motomu Toriyama says that the game actually has the same amount of volume as the original. The reason they're able to fit the game in less space this time is that the event scenes are real time. In addition to saving Xbox 360 players a trip from the couch to the entertainment center (horrors!), this has the added bonus of event scenes showing your armor changes.

Other points mentioned in Famitsu this week include:

HOPE

The version of Hope shown in the Tokyo Game Show trailer is from 10 years after FFXIII, when the character is 24 years old. He's head of a scientific investigation group of some form.

KAIAS

The TGS trailer introduced us to Kaias, the mysterious character from the first FFXIII-2 trailer way back in January. Did you get an evil villain vibe from him? Then your evil villain detector is working! Kaias is a villain who's having a bad influence on both Valhalla, the place where Lightning spends her time nowadays, and Serah's world.

CHAOS

In the TGS trailers, did you spot the black smoke that looked like it was coming from Lightning? It's called "Chaos."

VIOLENCE

The game will have some extreme scenes, although not at the level of Final Fantasy Type-0. (I believe this means scenes of extreme violence and war-like depictions, which is something that Type-0 is said to have a lot of).

QTEs

Not fond of QTEs? While XIII-2 will have quick timer events, there won't be much of a demerit if you fail at them. There will be some merits to clearing them, but only subtle.

PARTIES

In XIII-2, you can now switch your currently controlled character during battle. Also, different from XIII, the battle does not end when your leader dies.

andriasang

 

[Shamdeo]

I don't think this will necessarily mean a shorter game.

The team had remarked on the fact that the game has a lot less FMV sequences. If you've ever looked at the game files for the original FFXIII, this takes up an enormous amount of space. In fact, you could fit the entirety of FFXIII on one 360 DVD minus the FMVs.

 

[jackdoe]

So, finally, outfit changes appear in cutscenes for a mainline Final Fantasy game? Sounds great. Just hope the framerate isn't complete shit for the cutscenes.

-edit-
And also hope the loading isn't complete shit (FMV hid background loading).

 

[Toth]

In XIII-2, you can now switch your currently controlled character during battle. Also, different from XIII, the battle does not end when your leader dies.

This should finally please a lot of people.

 

[Reveirg]

"In XIII-2, you can now switch your currently controlled character during battle. Also, different from XIII, the battle does not end when your leader dies."

Definitely a huge plus over the original!!

 

[jiggle]

a lot of reusing of environments for different timeline probably

good to hear about visible armor changes
although non of the released screens/videos even hinted at this
i guess they are taking a page from Namco and releasing a bunch, if not most, of them through DLC

but :< on less FMVs
the one thing they are still great at!

 

[jackdoe]

but :< on less FMVs
the one thing they are still great at!

They're mostly talking about FMVs rendered in-engine (I think). I assume there should still be your standard opening and ending pre-rendered FMVs.

 

[Kagari]

Yes, I think they're talking about the pre-recorded in-engine scenes. Probably means we won't get the HQ poly models though.

 

[StuBurns]

Famitsu says the 360 version of FFXIII-2 will be on 1 disc this time.

Excellent news.

 

[jackdoe]

Yes, I think they're talking about the pre-recorded in-engine scenes. Probably means we won't get the HQ poly models though.

I don't know. A lot of the trailers show the higher poly models (I assume that they are instantly identifiable by the number of polys in their fingers). Unless they're a complete fabrication, or the PS3 version still uses the in-engine FMV.

 

[jiggle]

hope you guys are right
the FMVs are still the highlights in their games no matter how good their ingame engine looks
will be a big disappointment if they were to cut down the amount in any way

 

[jackdoe]

hope you guys are right
the FMVs are still the highlights in their games no matter how good their ingame engine looks
will be a big disappointment if they were to cut down the amount in any way

They'd have to cut them down though due to the shortened development time and to reduce the cost of producing the game.

 

[jimmypython]

- unlike 13-1 where the crystarium system is gradually unlocked along with the story progress, the growth system will be fully open from the beginning this time~~~~


NICE!!!!

 

[Mr.Fresh]

- unlike 13-1 where the crystarium system is gradually unlocked along with the story progress, the growth system will be fully open from the beginning this time~~~~


NICE!!!!

Where'd you see that? not that i dont believe you.

 

[Kagari]

Where'd you see that? not that i dont believe you.

Famitsu, same article.

 

[Reveirg]

- unlike 13-1 where the crystarium system is gradually unlocked along with the story progress, the growth system will be fully open from the beginning this time~~~~


NICE!!!!

And ANOTHER big plus for XIII-2. This is looking better and better with every bit of news coming out.

I hope the game's environments are as carefully crafter and detailed as the first one. This, along with the soundtrack, were the best elements from XIII in my opinion.

 

[jiggle]

that's good to know
now it'll really be like sphere grid!

They'd have to cut them down though due to the shortened development time and to reduce the cost of producing the game.

i don't think that'd affect it since they have a separate team doing the FMVs?
so yeah, probably budget related

 

[The Praiseworthy]

Everything is perfect till now.... But only 1 disc on 360?!

They better not cutting the cut scenes short... I like my cut scenes in FF games long and many of them being there.

 

[Kagari]

Everything is perfect till now.... But only 1 disc on 360?!

They better not cutting the cut scenes short... I like my cut scenes in FF games long and many of them being there.

Last Remnant and SO4 were multi disc and had majority real time cutscenes... so I wonder how much content XIII-2 actually has in relation to those.

 

[Reveirg]

One Famitsu translation mentions "changeable costumes", I wonder if we're talking accessories/weapons only, or full on costumes ala Tales of or Resonance of Fate?

 

[Reveirg]

Last Remnant and SO4 were multi disc and had majority real time cutscenes... so I wonder how much content XIII-2 actually has in relation to those.

Chances are the 360 version will see its audio content (voices mostly) heavily compressed compared to the PS3 version, as has been seen in many, many HD multi-platform games.

 

[xion4360]

I don't know. A lot of the trailers show the higher poly models (I assume that they are instantly identifiable by the number of polys in their fingers). Unless they're a complete fabrication, or the PS3 version still uses the in-engine FMV.

The models are not as finely detailed as the pre-recorded cutscene models in XIII, but better than the standard ones.

I'm all for it. As much as I like how they looked, I always prefer cutscenes to be rendered in real time unless they are CG. It makes it look more cohesive, and cuts down all that bloated disc size. Just hope the loading is still good.

 

[Kagari]

Chances are the 360 version will see its audio content (voices mostly) heavily compressed compared to the PS3 version, as has been seen in many, many HD multi-platform games.

As long as it remains uncompressed, and videos as clear as they were in FFXIII on PS3 for the PS3 version I suppose.

 

[greyshark]

- unlike 13-1 where the crystarium system is gradually unlocked along with the story progress, the growth system will be fully open from the beginning this time~~~~


NICE!!!!

That's too bad - I liked how the game difficulty was kept at a reasonable level by limiting how powerful your party became. The final boss of XIII was at least somewhat of a threat when you first fight him - after maxing out your characters he became a joke.

 

[Dark Schala]

- unlike 13-1 where the crystarium system is gradually unlocked along with the story progress, the growth system will be fully open from the beginning this time~~~~


NICE!!!!

Eff yeah! They'd better let me freely grind now. I really hated those level caps in FFXIII.

But it brings me back to this: "It will be possible to wind back time in each of the areas you visit and replay them. Character levels and equipment etc will be carried over so it will be possible to play the game as if doing a “New Game+” for each of the areas at different times. It will be possible to play through from the start using your levelled up characters, once you have completed the game. We have taken care to put a number of elements into the game system to make replays more exciting and user-friendly." from that Square-Enix Members interview.

It's a little unfortunate that you can't play through the game with characters back at "level 1 but retain their abilities" like FFX-2. But I guess to experience different decision-making paths or something, it's done to make the gameplay quicker. I don't really like that (I didn't like it in Chrono Trigger), but I guess I'll accept it. I'm more glad they removed the level cap.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

Every thing on one disc must mean less story cutscenes , less CG and to cut down on budget .
Along with the audio being heavily compressed , once it don't effect the PS3 version like FFXIII don't really care .

 

[The Praiseworthy]

I'm afraid when they said that ( FFXIII were story driven but XIII-2 is gameplay driven ) that they mean cutting the story more than a half or something and making it waaay less than the original :/

Which I will really haaaaTeeeee -.-"

 

[Styles]

Well if it means cutting down on the story instead of content, I'm okay. Many seem to have the opinion that the story will be shit so they might as well cut that out and leave the content in.

 

[AlphaDragoon]

XIII-2 sounds like it fixes almost everything that XIII fucked up, except for the story in all likelihood because it's Toriyama.

- Hated the old cast? They're on the backburner and Noel looks like he's far removed from Light in personality (read: not an asshole).

- Linear gameplay? FFX-2 style, go wherever you want whenever you want, in whatever order you want.

- Growth system locked? Open from the beginning.

- No towns and sidequests? Towns and sidequests all up in this mofo, AND New Game+.

- Can't switch leaders mid-fight? Well now you can, and you don't get instant "Game Over" if the leader dies either.

Sounds so awesome.

 

[duckroll]

Last Remnant and SO4 were multi disc and had majority real time cutscenes... so I wonder how much content XIII-2 actually has in relation to those.

On the other hand you have games like Oblivion and New Vegas which fits on a single disc. Also, Resonance of Fate fits on a single disc too, and is a longer game than SO4.

I don't think disc space and actual game content can ever be measured proportionally. It really depends on how stuff is done, and who is doing it.

 

[Perfo]

So I'm guessing FFXIII-2 either has:

- a smaller scope
- CG cutscenes are compressed as hell
- related to the previous one, but there are like 2-3 CG cutscenes.

Nothing like that, apparently the game doesn't have anymore pre-recorded cutscenes, and that's ALOT of space saved. If you look into FFXIII's data, you'll see that the game was rather small and the majority of the space was taken by pre-recorded cutscenes.

"In XIII-2, you can now switch your currently controlled character during battle. Also, different from XIII, the battle does not end when your leader dies."

That's really a welcome addition.

 

[duckroll]

Nothing like that, apparently the game doesn't have anymore pre-rendered cutscenes, and that's ALOT of space saved. If look into FFXIII's datas, you'll see that the game was rather small and the majority of the space was taken by pre-rendered cutscenes.

It definitely uses some FMV at least. We've seen it in the trailers. Probably opening -> major mid-game scene -> ending.

 

[Perfo]

It definitely uses some FMV at least. We've seen it in the trailers. Probably opening -> major mid-game scene -> ending.

Yes, yes. I was speaking just of pre-recorded stuff aside from FMVs. For now I haven't seen a single pre-recorded cutscene in the trailers release so far, while FFXIII was literary full of it.

Last Remnant

I don't know about Star Ocean 4, but Last Remnant was full of pre-recorded cutscenes for every important moment in the story

 

[duckroll]

Yes, yes. I was speaking just of pre-rendered stuff aside from FMVs. For now I haven't seen a single pre-rendered cutscene in the trailers release so far, while FFXIII was literary full of it.

I think the word you want to use is "pre-recorded", because pre-rendering = CG FMV.

 

[Perfo]

I think the word you want to use is "pre-recorded", because pre-rendering = CG FMV.

Oh really? I didn't know. I'm sorry. Pre-recorded then
I'll edit past replies too.

Some new info from andriasang I think not mentioned before:

CRYSTARIUM
In the original FFXIII, your characters had limits on how far they could advance in their Crystarium growth chart. The limits were increased as the story progressed. In XIII-2, there are no level limits. If you work at it, you can make yourself super powerful from the start.

PARTIES
In XIII-2, you can now switch your currently controlled character during battle. Also, different from XIII, the battle does not end when your leader dies.

In-game cutscenes that are video files are per-rendered.

Then who's right here? :\

edit. actually even eurogamer referred to that with "pre-rendered":

http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/9/5/6/2/2/4/Lightning_PreRendered.jpg.jpg

Anyway, no problem here... I was referring to this type of stuff anyway, regarding the name I used

 

[StuBurns]

In-game cutscenes that are video files are per-rendered.

 

[duckroll]

In-game cutscenes that are video files are per-rendered.

You know full well what everyone is talking about, and you're just being a jerk for the sake of it now to confuse people more. The term "pre-rendered" is used by both people in the industry and on this forum to generally refer to CG sequences which are rendered with no consideration for any in-engine or in-game assets.

All "in-game cutscenes" are intended to be presented to the player as a realtime scene, regardless of whether it is actually rendered in-game or saved as a movie file to save on loading time or to add more effects. Hence to make discussion clearer, such scenes are referred to as "pre-recorded" cutscenes.

I -know- that you know this, and I -know- that you're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Stop it because it's annoying and does not help anyone.

 

[StuBurns]

You know full well what everyone is talking about, and you're just being a jerk for the sake of it now to confuse people more. The term "pre-rendered" is used by both people in the industry and on this forum to generally refer to CG sequences which are rendered with no consideration for any in-engine or in-game assets.

All "in-game cutscenes" are intended to be presented to the player as a realtime scene, regardless of whether it is actually rendered in-game or saved as a movie file to save on loading time or to add more effects. Hence to make discussion clearer, such scenes are referred to as "pre-recorded" cutscenes.

I -know- that you know this, and I -know- that you're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Stop it because it's annoying and does not help anyone.

I was just stating that your post was wrong. If you don't want me to correct your mistakes, ban me.

 

[duckroll]

I was just stating that your post was wrong. If you don't want me to correct your mistakes, ban me.

Are you asking me to ban you?

 

[ULTROS!]

I don't know about Star Ocean 4, but Last Remnant was full of pre-recorded cutscenes for every important moment in the story

If I remember correctly, Last Remnant was poorly developed (like the UE wasn't optimized), maybe that's what attributed to the bigger size?

 

[StuBurns]

Are you asking me to ban you?

I'm saying if you're going to get upset when you 'correct' someone inaccurately, and I correct you in return, maybe you should.

Pre-rendered has a specific meaning, and Perfo was right. I don't even agree that people separate them that way at all. I always read them being called pre-rendered, and the fancy stuff being called CG.

I guess it's technically all CG though.