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| Liz Maas |
They're the interviews that never end.
02.02.11 - 9:29 PM
To finally round out the series of lengthy interviews, this is, as you may have guessed, the extra bits from the 'extended version' of the Final Fantasy Versus XIII interview that Famitsu had recently with producer Tetsuya Nomura. (You can read the first tidbits here.)
The first thing that Nomura clarified was that most of the trailer footage shown was in-game footage, save for the beginning with Noctis and his driver. The protagonists' outfits have been redesigned, and Nomura said these were more or less the final designs - he was still deciding on their hairstyles, though. The Japanese voice actors have also been finalized and are the same ones as heard in the trailer, although he wouldn't give out any names.
Ignis (character with glasses) is the party's military tactician, something he'd been trained to do since he was young. He's the one who's often heard in the trailer as giving Noctis advice. These scenes were specifically chosen to reflect their relationship's nature. He and the scarred character (very few characters have been given names so far, as you've noticed) are both childhood friends of Noctis.
With their country being invaded by Niflheim, the game introduces an escape sequence for the protagonists, only Noctis doesn't think of it as escaping, rather as chasing down the enemy. Nomura clarified a few other things about the trailer, such as the fact that Noctis and the king (his father) are seen in different thrones, and that a first-person scene is the player controlling Noctis as a child. The castle is also said to be huge, with at least two different battles taking place in it, and areas to explore.
One last point he made was that while the Tokyo Game Show trailer was slowed down to show actions, the newer trailer showed the battles at their actual place, which appears to be quite fast. There are quite a few actions, like double jumping, and in the battle interface you can see options for summoning, magic and 'Ex-Arts.' Characters can also ride Magitek and Chocobos, and other means of transportation that are familiar to the Final Fantasy series. Magic itself, however, requires Noctis to be present, which he will be anyway. As you might have guessed, there's a story-related reason for the fact that magic is tied directly to Noctis.
While there are jobs in Final Fantasy Versus XIII, this is purely on the enemy side, not the player's. The trailer already showed the enemy female dragon knight in special armour and as mentioned there will be summoners as well. As for your party, you can control any of your characters and switch between the three possible allies even in the middle of a battle, but this is not a requirement. You need only to keep Noctis alive, otherwise it's game over.
We already mentioned Noctis' ability to equip any weapon type and has special magic abilities, as well as the blond boy's specialty with guns. As for the other characters, Ignis is proficient with magic, can throw knives and is even seen with a katana. The scarfaced character, in addition to his pile bunkers and broad swords, can also fight with his bare hands. Guns will be a major part of your weapons cache, so they have a lot of sub-types: machine guns, rifles, bazookas, shotguns and handguns, for example. By equipping Noctis with more than one weapon, he will automatically switch between said weapons. You can come up with unique combos depending on what weapons you have equipped.
The game boasts a lot of freedom and exploration. Even though you start out in Noctis' kingdom, there exist a couple of other large kingdom and several villages, which are still decent in size. On the map (or in towns) you can destroy and get around objects as needed. Finally, the type monsters you encounter depends on the in-game time of day.
If you need another look at that event trailer, it's over here. Nomura has warned not to expect any more information on Final Fantasy Versus XIII until E3 this June, so stay tuned then. In the meanwhile, we've got a (small) gallery below that's worth taking a look at.
