New Final Fantasy XIII details: CG movie-quality cut scenes, more

The upcoming demo for Final Fantasy XIII packaged with Advent Children Complete will only be 50% of what you’ll see in the final game, according to new info from the Japanese mag, Dengeki PlayStation 3. That and more after the link.

The upcoming demo for Final Fantasy XIII packaged with Advent Children Complete will only be 50% of what you’ll see in the final game, according to new info from the Japanese mag, Dengeki PlayStation 3.

Here are other details as revealed by key members of the team, character designer Tetsuya Nomura, director Motomu Toriyama and producer Kitase Yoshinori. A lot of them concern the demo, which is PS3-only as far as anyone knows, but some of them also concern the game’s final product, so Xbox 360 gamers might also be interested:

• The demo that’s coming out shortly was completed in December 2008, and Kitase states “this demo should be played with the understanding that it is “FFXIII” as it was in 2008.”
• With the PS3, expressions that could once only be done with CG movies before, can be done in real-time. Thus, the game will feature incorporated CG movie quality scenes that are drawn in realtime.
• The demo battle system’s ATB is only showing the basic aspects so only about 50% of what will be in the final game is implemented. The story that’s included is also only a very superficial part. But I think it will be a good show of what can be expected of the final product.
• This game does not have a seamless battle system like FFXII, but the change into battle is very rapid and has been designed to play with a similar sensation to a seamless system.
• In the demo, the balance is a bit on the easy side, but in the final release, specifically referring to the battle, the difficulty has been raised slightly, and may be a little more easy to end up with a Game Over than before. But there’s a retry command implemented that will take you to immediately before the battle so don’t worry.
• (in battle) You can move the camera around freely so please find a cool angle for yourself to use. During certain commands, such as lifting an enemy off the ground, the camera angle changes, so there shouldn’t be any instance that makes the action difficult to see. Also, we’ve really worked on the details of magic spell graphics. For example, a fire based spell might leave smoke at where it landed or blizzard spells might leave shards of ice scattered about for a while.

With all this attention to little details I can come to believe their claim that they’ll be using 100% of the PlayStation 3’s power. Now how the game will come out when they translate it for the Xbox 360 is something else.

• Final Fantasy XIII screenshot brawlfest: cutscenes, battle, chaining, ATB gauges, and victory music
• More details on Final Fantasy XIII’s Battle System
• Final Fantasy XIII: ATB system details
• Final Fantasy XIII still strong for 2009, demo won’t have Snow

Via Vandal via Destructoid