The latest issue of Famitsu magazine comes jam-packed with fresh new information on Final Fantasy XIII as well as the other two Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Agito XIII titles.
Oerba Yun Fang, who we revealed to you was playing for the government, originally started out as a male character. However, game director Tetsuya Nomura revealed that the team made the decision to create a female instead, following a few sexy qualities. They actually took some of that sexy quality out of Lightning in order to balance out both her and Fang.
Sazh, the ridiculous character that he is, was originally planned to be even more ridiculous. Sazh already has a baby Chocobo living in his puffy afro, but how about adding a hat on top of that? They decided to go hatless, as you can see today.
Toriyama also mentioned that a familiar character will have a big role in Final Fantasy XIII. We’re guessing it’s going to be another Cid, considering there’s been one in nearly every Final Fantasy game.
As for your hard-drive, since this is Famitsu and it publishes in Japan, Toriyama only shared details on the PlayStation 3. Save data will use 500KB of your precious hard-drive space while trophy data will use 3,080KB (3MB). No hard-drive installation will be required.
Load times will be almost nonexistant, Toriyama revealed, only seeing them when you go from a town to field. On the field, it’s seamless gameplay, no interruptions.
Nomura shared brand new information on Final Fantasy Versus XIII as well, mainly regarding the footage shown at the Tokyo Game Show. Nomura tells the magazine that it was just test footage.
The video highlighted Noctis running through a town full of citizens before entering a huge open field full of giant dinosaur-like creatures. Nomura said none of the citizens shown in the footage will be in the actual game, considering they were ripped from Final Fantasy XIII to show the footage.
Nomura says that Final Fantasy Versus XIII‘s gameplay will play out like Kingdom Hearts, this time with the “newness” and “nostalgic feel” of the Final Fantasy franchise.
A parnter system be in the game, Nomura tells the magazine. They will move throughout the game independently, however always be connected at the same time. In the TGS footage, a window can be seen at the lower right of the screen displaying the position of your partner characters. Nomura says this probably won’t make it in as it gets in the way of making players feel like they’re really in the game.
The first real Final Fantasy Versus XIII footage should arrive next year, E3 being the earliest.
As for those interested in Agito XIII, Nomura said that the battle footage shown at the Tokyo Game Show is close to the final battle system. The game’s pretty difficult at the moment as well.
Thanks, IGN.