Nomura talks FF Versus XIII exclusivity, airships, Cloud Strife

Final Fantasy series character designer Tetsuya Nomura and FFXII director Yoshimori Kitase recently had a chat with Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki in the aftermath of the publication’s “Den-Play Awards.” The two were quizzed on subjects such as Final Fantasy Versus XIII,  exclusivity and Cloud Strife. Read the full article to find out how they answered the questions.

Final Fantasy series character designer Tetsuya Nomura and FFXII director Yoshimori Kitase recently had a chat with Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki in the aftermath of the publication’s “Den-Play Awards.” The two industry luminaries were quizzed on future projects and they dropped some interesting hints.

One of those is some reassurance that upcoming RPG Final Fantasy Versus XIII will stay exclusive to the Sony PlayStation 3. “Just the other day, during a Versus meeting, a programmer asked, ‘Is it okay to program with PS3 exclusivity in mind?’,” recounts Nomura.

He continues “I asked why, and he said, ‘If we port it to other hardware, we have to program with that in mind.’ I responded, “Of course, Versus is PS3 exclusive.'”

Nomura also gave some hints on what the world map will look like and how transportation will be conducted in FF Versus XIII. “The other day,” he says “I saw a test of an airship flying over the world map. I felt that I was seeing a Final Fantasy-like screen for the first time in a long time. However, the fact that things have become realistic made us concerned about what to do about the scale. It’s the same scale as past FF games, but even then, it’s so wide that you can’t make out the first town.”

Nomura was also asked about his experience in developing for the Sony PlayStation 3 compared to developing for the Sony PlayStation 2 for the first time. “Compared to the move to the PS2, the move to the PS3 is more difficult,” the character designer replies. Planning and so-forth haven’t changed much as far as work is concerned, but overall, the amount of graphics work has gone up considerably. You can show tiny details, so you have to make put tiny details in your illustrations.”

And of FFVII main man Cloud Strife? Nomura says he’s busy with FFXIII but “Nojima (Kazushige), says he doesn’t want to part from Cloud yet, so there will surely be something.”

We certainly hope that Nojima’s “something makes an appearance soon as fans await to see Cloud and his friends in full next-gen form.