UFF Site - News: FF13 Dengeki Interview Summary

FF13 Dengeki Interview Summary

AP | March 31, 2009

Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki had a chance to sit down with Yoshinori Kitase, Producer of FF13 and Motomu Toriyama, the director. In the interview the two reveal lots of interesting new information about the game. We�ve translated and compiled all the best bits of the interview here in an easy to read format! Enjoy.

On the Advent Children: Complete Demo

The demo should be played with the understanding that this is FF13 as it was in 2008. The game has move forwards much since then, and the developers are now in the 'Final Stretch' of many aspects of development.

The demo uses around 50% of the PS3's power - the final version will use close to or the full 100%.

The demo only shows around 50% of the aspects of the battle system that will be implemented in the final game.

The story included in the demo is a very small and superficial part, but should provide a good show of what players can expect.

The demo uses an old version of the FF victory fanfare, but the final game will have an all-new arrangement.

The battle theme used in the demo is the final battle theme.

The demo is balanced to be easier. The final game will have harder battles in the area the demo shows and it will be easier to get a game over.

The demo is a part of the start of the game during a situation called 'Purge'. Most of the scenes from the latest trailer are from the demo.

Character victory poses are yet to be decided.

On the Game's Technology

There have been debates about if the game will use a single or dual layer BluRay disc, but space is not an issue.

The memory available on the PS3 has proved a struggle to work with.

The biggest change from the previous game was the graphics.

Textures are exciting - talk of 'Chocobo's plumage' and the texture of Vanille's skirt as both being impressive and surprising to Kitase.
The game features real time lighting aspects that took a lot of work and effort to get correct.

Scenes that previously would've been rendered in CGI have been done in real-time in FF13, but the game still has many CG sequences.

In battle, magical attacks will leave behind signs they've been cast, like plumes of smoke after fire and ice on the ground after blizzard.

Kitase believes it's difficult to tell the CGI and real time stuff apart.

The Battle System

In terms of speed, the battle system is based off the Final Fantasy X system.

The game's battle system is not seamless like FF12, but the transition in and out of battle is so rapid that it has a similar feel to the seamless system.

'Chains' are multiple attacks strung together. The more attacks that you can chain together, the more damage you can do. Some combinations of attacks and magic are going to be more effective than others.

Chaining a devastating amount of attacks will result in a 'Break'. A broken enemy will take more damage and can be lifted or thrown off the ground.

Monsters all have individual weight values, so a large beast is more difficult to break and lift than a small low level monster.

Mixing Chains, Breaks and Lifts will all be important, especially in boss battles.

Players will receive a rating out of stars at the end of battles based on their performance

The camera can be moved around freely in battle and some automatic camera angle changes happen when certain actions are performed too, making for a dynamic camera.

Plot & Characters

Lightning's design was difficult to perfect, as she is a swordsman so had to look threatening but also had to look like a woman and not too muscular.

With Sakamoto Maya voicing her, femininity has been bought out in Lightning that doesn't show in her 'look'.

Snow was originally more childish, shouting often. They abandoned the immature aspect of the character and gave him a more 'big brother' role in the party.

Vanille shouldn't be written off as this game's 'bubbly girl'. She is positive and upbeat but she has weight to her character. Fukui Yakari was chosen for the voice acting role because of the different sides of her character.

Sazh's design and image came quite easily. He too is a bit of comic relief and is a positive character, but he has demons of his own to face later on. The voice actor, Ehara Masashi, was free to adlib while recording.

Comments

people, ffxiii was originally a ps3 exclusive

miffy | April 1, 2009

people! well Jared and chidesd specifically, i dont think you're aware of the circumstances behind the statement [that it uses 100% of the PS3's power] - since SquareEnix started development on final fantasy xiii in 2005, it was originally intented to be a PS3 exclusive. Microsoft only nabbed it for the xbox 360 in Q2 2008 - Square Enix hasnt even begun porting it to the Xbox 360 yet - & they said that at E3 2008. development on the xbox360 port wont begin until they finish it for the PS3 - so its development on the PS3 won't suffer at all now that it's coming to the xbox. if anything, the xbox 360 port will suffer, as the white engine uses SPE code.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/finalfantasy13/news.html?sid=6195345&mode=news
I highly doubt it.

Jared | March 31, 2009

I dont mean to sound fanboyish..but honestly. could they really use %100 of the PS3's potential, and expect it to be a multiplatform game. They may want to rephrase that and say we used nearly %100 of the Blu-Ray Disc. Using nearly %100 of the PS3s potential, is putting out an epic title like MGS4, where he claims it couldnt have gone to any other platform.
Untitled

chidesd | March 31, 2009

I still think the whole 100% of ps3 power is bull. ps3 uses 100% for ff13 and 360 uses 135% for ff13 as if. devs are just bousting there game. ff13 prolly doesnt even use 50% ps3 power and prolly 75% 360 power.