Post by omecronblazor on Mar 13, 2011 19:37:25 GMT -5
Since some of the mods suggested me to create a thread about Versus XIII, I might as well create one....
Final Fantasy Versus XIII Staff
Producers - Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase
Image Artwork - Yo*****aka Amano
Mechanic Concept - Takayuki Takeya
Clothes Design - Hiromu Takahara (Roen Creative Director)
Scenario Writer - Kazushige Nojima
Planning Directors - Yuuchi Kanemori and Takayoshi Nakazato
Planning Director (World) - Takeshi Endou
Planning Director (event) - Jun Akiyama
Graphic Director (Character Model) - Tomohiro Kayano
Graphic Director (Map Model) - Masahide Tanaka
Graphic Director (Visual Effects) - Shuichi Sato
Graphic Director (System Menu) - Takeshi Arakawa
Art Director (Character) - Tomohiro Hasegawa
Art Director (Map) - Takayuki Ohtachi
Movie Director - Takeshi Nozue
Music Composer - Yoko Shimomura
Director, Concept Game Design, Character Design, and Base Story - Tetsuya Nomura
Introduction to Game
Final Fantasy Versus XIII revolves around a prince named Noctis Lucis Caelum, who is the last heir to an unnamed kingdom in which the last Crystal is kept. Because of increasingly apparent modernization in contrast to neighboring nations, Noctis' kingdom has isolated itself from the outside world. The game is set as two nations battle each other for dominance and for the last Crystal held by Noctis' kingdom. The game has been said to initiate at the "clearing" of a long Cold War between warring nations that revolved around these crystals.
Main Character
Noctis Lucis Caelum
Noctis is said to be a very shy person, but he initially tries to hide it by "acting cool". According to director Tetsuya Nomura, Noctis will not have a "Cloud-like" personality like people are currently expecting. Instead, he will be a type of character that has not yet been seen in the series, one which Nomura has wanted to try out for a long time. Nomura says that Noctis will have a strong and distinctive personality, and will absolutely not be a "silent, gloomy little boy". In the Tokyo Game Show footage, Noctis has a short conversation with Stella about the two of them seeing a form of "light". Stella goes on to explain the legend of Tenebrae, that when a person is able to see the "light", they will receive the powers of the dead from the Goddess Etro. The footage was shown to give people a brief idea of what the two characters' personalities are going to be like. In the footage, Noctis is also able to speak briefly with a painting of the goddess, asking who she is.
His Companions
Prompto
Gladiolus
Ignis
Stella Nox Fleuret
A young woman with golden-blonde hair, Stella is said to be the daughter of the Fleuret family of the country Tenebrae (Latin for "darkness") and an enemy to Noctis, though her allegiances are under suspicion. Fleuret is the French name of the fencing foil, a direct reference to Stella's weapon of choice, a rapier. Like Noctis, she is able to materialize weapons from thin air, as she is shown summoning her rapier from a rune similar to one used by Noctis to summon his sword, though Stella's rune is golden while Noctis's is blue.
Like that of Noctis, a good measure of Stella's personality can be sensed during her first meeting with Noctis. For instance, in their discussion about the power they share and its connection to an old legend, Stella is very open about the matter while Noctis seems reluctant to talk about it, suggesting that they keep it a secret. Stella is described to be ladylike and extremely politebut direct in her manner — a reflection of her proper but strong upbringing. She acts according to her beliefs, and doesn't shy away from problems. Nomura states that she will be the first to stand out from other female characters in the Final Fantasy franchise, although it is not specified how.
Setting
The story, like Final Fantasy XIII, focuses around crystals. The main character, Noctis Lucis Caelum — who is part of a lineage of kings, but is not yet king himself — leads the country holding the last crystal, which is beneficial to his country's military, political, and economic standing. Because of increasingly apparent modernization in contrast to neighboring nations (making them equivalent to a First World nation), Noctis's kingdom has isolated itself from the outside world. At one time, all the other countries also possessed a crystal, yet lost them in warfare. They pooled their resources into weapons, granting them firearms in exchange for swords and magic. A long cold war has gone on about the use of the crystal. Recently, a peace treaty was talked about between the countries, but a group of marauders are beginning to break it. There also exists a mythology in the kingdom of Tenebrae, an opposing country, about a goddess of death, the Goddess Etro. She is said to greet the souls of the deceased, and open the door to the afterlife. When that door opens, the released souls burst out in a streak of light that ascends to heaven. However, very few people are able to see the light, and those who can see it are given power from the Kingdom of the Dead. During their conversation, Noctis and Stella mention they can see the light, and the former wonders if they are dying. The game's focus is to examine the characters' humanity and distinguish it from the fantasy setting in other titles in the series. Nomura is "trying to propose new vision of how a Final Fantasy game can be. The game's going to be more human than the science-fiction caricature ... and will focus around current world events - in that sense it's darker". The world Versus XIII takes place in seems similar to the real world, with modern technology such as cars and highways and also contains countries with medieval elements, such as castles and armored soldiers, marking the sense that there are nations that fit into the Seven Worlds Index. According to the developers, the locations in the game are based on real world locations. So far, the following replicas have been seen or confirmed by the developers: Saint Mark's Square and Basilica (from Venice, Italy), Manchester (England), a US gas station, and Shinjuku (an area of Tokyo, Japan).
Gameplay
Director Tetsuya Nomura has stated that Versus XIII's gameplay will be a realistic derivation of Kingdom Hearts's battle system with some elements of a third-person shooter. Nomura has also stated that the game will depart from the light and magical aesthetic of his previous directorial games (i.e. Kingdom Hearts) and opt for a darker, bleaker world that is intended to counter previous Final Fantasy installments. According to Nomura, the world of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is based on the modern Shinjuku district. In formulating a realistic world, Nomura has stated that he wants the characters to be "believable" and thus realistic. As a testament towards his desire for realism, in the PlayStation Premier trailer, in contrast to previous Final Fantasy titles, Versus XIII had a greater display of graphic violence with an instance of blood.
Battles will take place in real-time environments using all regions of the field, from up high buildings to down low streets. Nomura said that the game will feature battles that take place in areas with great differences in height, as shown in the trailer, and the players will have to fight using the full environment. This means fighting what's in front, as well as above and below (vertical battles). The battle interface consists of several aspects, mainly Magic, Item, Summons and EX-ARTS. In addition, there are highly animated character portraits on the lower right corner of the screen. The portrait will change according to the character's feelings and current movement similar to Star Ocean: The Last Hope albeit in a wider variety. The game also uses a real-time event system, allowing players to suddenly be attacked or trigger certain events while walking around. For example, when Noctis reaches a pedestrian bridge, a behemoth beast will attack. Another example is a plane crashing into the road. Implementing these kinds of real time events, which transition seamlessly into the flow of gameplay, takes a long time in terms of development, said Nomura.
The game's combat will be party-based, with each party consisting of a maximum of three characters at a time with players being able to switch between the controlled characters. At the start of the game, the party line-up will be predetermined, though players will get the ability to freely switch out members as the story progresses, similar to Final Fantasy XIII. Each character will have his or her own special attack capabilities, and all characters will be able to use magic, although the effect of the magic differs from character to character. For example, when Noctis casts magic, it emerges from his weapon, while for another party member, it may light his surroundings with fire. Noctis is the only character capable of equipping all weapon types in the game; other characters each have their own unique specialties. For example, one of the characters is a gun specialist who can switch to a third person view for precise aiming at the enemy's weak points, buildings, and other objects.
Nomura has also stated in Dengeki PlayStation that he aims to create previously unseen "tricky" battle sequences, reminiscent of the CGI film, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He has also stated that the development team have been implementing a traversable world map, used in the main Final Fantasy series up until its removal in Final Fantasy X. Nomura later commented, in an interview conducted via Twitter, that players will be able to control an airship around the world map.
The game will feature large open fields in the world map which allow players to walk through almost anything on the field apart from the mountains. Nomura has also mentioned that the fields are truly vast and that it was very far to traverse from one end to another; thus, to facilitate easy navigation, the game will feature the return of vehicles such as an airship as well as a car, allowing players to easily traverse the large fields. Players can ride cars, aircraft and Chocobos; they can also steal tanks.
One of the trailers shows Noctis selecting from a number of different weapons to defeat the enemy soldiers in front of him. The various weapons in the game will have different methods of attack, and some will even be usable as shields to go along with Noctis's crystal power. Weapons will have some sort of customization element as well. The trailer also showed Noctis warping around killing enemies. Nomura explained that players won't be able to warp freely to every spot but will be able to warp to the location where the sword is placed. This is one area that is being tested on so it's a matter of time to see if this all makes it into the final product. Summon beasts are in the game and will have to be defeated to be used. Nomura has also said that the game will have Sixaxis support but has given no specifics about it.
Trailers (So Far)
E3 2006 Trailer
DKS3713 2008 Trailer
Fabula Nova Crystallis TGS 2010 Trailer(Might get taken down)
1st Production Premiere Event Trailer for Versus XIII:
Tetsuya Nomura's The 3rd Birthday Twitter: twitter.com/3rd_birthday
Its in Japanese so if you have a translator addon, your in luck.
Some sources and reference I got the information from:
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Versus
scrawlfx.com/2010/08/final-fantasy-versus-xiii-all-the-details-so-far (Really good site to know about key points from interviews with Tetsuya Nomura and his employees)
finalfantasyversusxiii.net/
Official Site: www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/versus13/
Another good source: www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/02/01/nomura_ffxvxiii_famitsu/ (This site provides alot of information about Versus XIII from Tetsuya Nomura himself)
Anyways I will try my best to provide the recent updates =S
...... Versus XIII!!!
Final Fantasy Versus XIII Staff
Producers - Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase
Image Artwork - Yo*****aka Amano
Mechanic Concept - Takayuki Takeya
Clothes Design - Hiromu Takahara (Roen Creative Director)
Scenario Writer - Kazushige Nojima
Planning Directors - Yuuchi Kanemori and Takayoshi Nakazato
Planning Director (World) - Takeshi Endou
Planning Director (event) - Jun Akiyama
Graphic Director (Character Model) - Tomohiro Kayano
Graphic Director (Map Model) - Masahide Tanaka
Graphic Director (Visual Effects) - Shuichi Sato
Graphic Director (System Menu) - Takeshi Arakawa
Art Director (Character) - Tomohiro Hasegawa
Art Director (Map) - Takayuki Ohtachi
Movie Director - Takeshi Nozue
Music Composer - Yoko Shimomura
Director, Concept Game Design, Character Design, and Base Story - Tetsuya Nomura
Introduction to Game
Final Fantasy Versus XIII revolves around a prince named Noctis Lucis Caelum, who is the last heir to an unnamed kingdom in which the last Crystal is kept. Because of increasingly apparent modernization in contrast to neighboring nations, Noctis' kingdom has isolated itself from the outside world. The game is set as two nations battle each other for dominance and for the last Crystal held by Noctis' kingdom. The game has been said to initiate at the "clearing" of a long Cold War between warring nations that revolved around these crystals.
Main Character
Noctis Lucis Caelum
Noctis is said to be a very shy person, but he initially tries to hide it by "acting cool". According to director Tetsuya Nomura, Noctis will not have a "Cloud-like" personality like people are currently expecting. Instead, he will be a type of character that has not yet been seen in the series, one which Nomura has wanted to try out for a long time. Nomura says that Noctis will have a strong and distinctive personality, and will absolutely not be a "silent, gloomy little boy". In the Tokyo Game Show footage, Noctis has a short conversation with Stella about the two of them seeing a form of "light". Stella goes on to explain the legend of Tenebrae, that when a person is able to see the "light", they will receive the powers of the dead from the Goddess Etro. The footage was shown to give people a brief idea of what the two characters' personalities are going to be like. In the footage, Noctis is also able to speak briefly with a painting of the goddess, asking who she is.
His Companions
Prompto
Gladiolus
Ignis
Stella Nox Fleuret
A young woman with golden-blonde hair, Stella is said to be the daughter of the Fleuret family of the country Tenebrae (Latin for "darkness") and an enemy to Noctis, though her allegiances are under suspicion. Fleuret is the French name of the fencing foil, a direct reference to Stella's weapon of choice, a rapier. Like Noctis, she is able to materialize weapons from thin air, as she is shown summoning her rapier from a rune similar to one used by Noctis to summon his sword, though Stella's rune is golden while Noctis's is blue.
Like that of Noctis, a good measure of Stella's personality can be sensed during her first meeting with Noctis. For instance, in their discussion about the power they share and its connection to an old legend, Stella is very open about the matter while Noctis seems reluctant to talk about it, suggesting that they keep it a secret. Stella is described to be ladylike and extremely politebut direct in her manner — a reflection of her proper but strong upbringing. She acts according to her beliefs, and doesn't shy away from problems. Nomura states that she will be the first to stand out from other female characters in the Final Fantasy franchise, although it is not specified how.
Setting
The story, like Final Fantasy XIII, focuses around crystals. The main character, Noctis Lucis Caelum — who is part of a lineage of kings, but is not yet king himself — leads the country holding the last crystal, which is beneficial to his country's military, political, and economic standing. Because of increasingly apparent modernization in contrast to neighboring nations (making them equivalent to a First World nation), Noctis's kingdom has isolated itself from the outside world. At one time, all the other countries also possessed a crystal, yet lost them in warfare. They pooled their resources into weapons, granting them firearms in exchange for swords and magic. A long cold war has gone on about the use of the crystal. Recently, a peace treaty was talked about between the countries, but a group of marauders are beginning to break it. There also exists a mythology in the kingdom of Tenebrae, an opposing country, about a goddess of death, the Goddess Etro. She is said to greet the souls of the deceased, and open the door to the afterlife. When that door opens, the released souls burst out in a streak of light that ascends to heaven. However, very few people are able to see the light, and those who can see it are given power from the Kingdom of the Dead. During their conversation, Noctis and Stella mention they can see the light, and the former wonders if they are dying. The game's focus is to examine the characters' humanity and distinguish it from the fantasy setting in other titles in the series. Nomura is "trying to propose new vision of how a Final Fantasy game can be. The game's going to be more human than the science-fiction caricature ... and will focus around current world events - in that sense it's darker". The world Versus XIII takes place in seems similar to the real world, with modern technology such as cars and highways and also contains countries with medieval elements, such as castles and armored soldiers, marking the sense that there are nations that fit into the Seven Worlds Index. According to the developers, the locations in the game are based on real world locations. So far, the following replicas have been seen or confirmed by the developers: Saint Mark's Square and Basilica (from Venice, Italy), Manchester (England), a US gas station, and Shinjuku (an area of Tokyo, Japan).
Gameplay
Director Tetsuya Nomura has stated that Versus XIII's gameplay will be a realistic derivation of Kingdom Hearts's battle system with some elements of a third-person shooter. Nomura has also stated that the game will depart from the light and magical aesthetic of his previous directorial games (i.e. Kingdom Hearts) and opt for a darker, bleaker world that is intended to counter previous Final Fantasy installments. According to Nomura, the world of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is based on the modern Shinjuku district. In formulating a realistic world, Nomura has stated that he wants the characters to be "believable" and thus realistic. As a testament towards his desire for realism, in the PlayStation Premier trailer, in contrast to previous Final Fantasy titles, Versus XIII had a greater display of graphic violence with an instance of blood.
Battles will take place in real-time environments using all regions of the field, from up high buildings to down low streets. Nomura said that the game will feature battles that take place in areas with great differences in height, as shown in the trailer, and the players will have to fight using the full environment. This means fighting what's in front, as well as above and below (vertical battles). The battle interface consists of several aspects, mainly Magic, Item, Summons and EX-ARTS. In addition, there are highly animated character portraits on the lower right corner of the screen. The portrait will change according to the character's feelings and current movement similar to Star Ocean: The Last Hope albeit in a wider variety. The game also uses a real-time event system, allowing players to suddenly be attacked or trigger certain events while walking around. For example, when Noctis reaches a pedestrian bridge, a behemoth beast will attack. Another example is a plane crashing into the road. Implementing these kinds of real time events, which transition seamlessly into the flow of gameplay, takes a long time in terms of development, said Nomura.
The game's combat will be party-based, with each party consisting of a maximum of three characters at a time with players being able to switch between the controlled characters. At the start of the game, the party line-up will be predetermined, though players will get the ability to freely switch out members as the story progresses, similar to Final Fantasy XIII. Each character will have his or her own special attack capabilities, and all characters will be able to use magic, although the effect of the magic differs from character to character. For example, when Noctis casts magic, it emerges from his weapon, while for another party member, it may light his surroundings with fire. Noctis is the only character capable of equipping all weapon types in the game; other characters each have their own unique specialties. For example, one of the characters is a gun specialist who can switch to a third person view for precise aiming at the enemy's weak points, buildings, and other objects.
Nomura has also stated in Dengeki PlayStation that he aims to create previously unseen "tricky" battle sequences, reminiscent of the CGI film, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He has also stated that the development team have been implementing a traversable world map, used in the main Final Fantasy series up until its removal in Final Fantasy X. Nomura later commented, in an interview conducted via Twitter, that players will be able to control an airship around the world map.
The game will feature large open fields in the world map which allow players to walk through almost anything on the field apart from the mountains. Nomura has also mentioned that the fields are truly vast and that it was very far to traverse from one end to another; thus, to facilitate easy navigation, the game will feature the return of vehicles such as an airship as well as a car, allowing players to easily traverse the large fields. Players can ride cars, aircraft and Chocobos; they can also steal tanks.
One of the trailers shows Noctis selecting from a number of different weapons to defeat the enemy soldiers in front of him. The various weapons in the game will have different methods of attack, and some will even be usable as shields to go along with Noctis's crystal power. Weapons will have some sort of customization element as well. The trailer also showed Noctis warping around killing enemies. Nomura explained that players won't be able to warp freely to every spot but will be able to warp to the location where the sword is placed. This is one area that is being tested on so it's a matter of time to see if this all makes it into the final product. Summon beasts are in the game and will have to be defeated to be used. Nomura has also said that the game will have Sixaxis support but has given no specifics about it.
Trailers (So Far)
E3 2006 Trailer
DKS3713 2008 Trailer
Fabula Nova Crystallis TGS 2010 Trailer(Might get taken down)
1st Production Premiere Event Trailer for Versus XIII:
Tetsuya Nomura's The 3rd Birthday Twitter: twitter.com/3rd_birthday
Its in Japanese so if you have a translator addon, your in luck.
Some sources and reference I got the information from:
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Versus
scrawlfx.com/2010/08/final-fantasy-versus-xiii-all-the-details-so-far (Really good site to know about key points from interviews with Tetsuya Nomura and his employees)
finalfantasyversusxiii.net/
Official Site: www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/versus13/
Another good source: www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/02/01/nomura_ffxvxiii_famitsu/ (This site provides alot of information about Versus XIII from Tetsuya Nomura himself)
Anyways I will try my best to provide the recent updates =S
...... Versus XIII!!!
