Tetsuya Nomura on FF Versus XIII: A “new vision of how a Final Fantasy game can be”

It’s been previously mentioned that Final Fantasy Versus XIII, was an attempt to present something that goes against Final Fantasy, something that contradicts it, hence the title “versus.” Back then Tetsuya Nomura‘s words were: “If Final Fantasy XIII were the light, then Final Fantasy Versus XIII would be the shade. In Latin, versus means change of direction, whereas in English, that would like to say to oppose. It is the concept of this project.”

It seems that Tetsuya Nomura is really trying to go a step beyond Final Fantasy XII, and instead of just expanding or innovating, he really wants to create something that goes against the franchise. In a Eurogamer interview, he says:

Thematically speaking…What I want to do is to examine the humanity of the characters in this game. This is not going to be a fantasy world in the traditional Final Fantasy sense. Rather it’s based in the world today with all of this world’s ugly issues. There’s this mainstream tradition of Final Fantasy games and, in Versus I’m 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 we so often see. It will focus around current world events – in that sense it’s darker.

Okay, so this time around it’s going to be darker, much darker in theme. But what about gameplay?

We don’t want to create a classic menu driven RPG here… We’re moving along lines much closer to Kingdom Hearts’ action game system. The only instruction I’ve given the designers so far is to look closely at third-person perspective shooters – not in terms of game controls but rather in trying to work out how to create a similar kind of tension.

Nomura notes that with previous systems, seamless environments were what they’ve always had problems with. However, in this game their goal is to create an “unlimited field.” Basically Nomura demands from the developers that somebody from within a house be able to shoot your character, or battles should be able to move from two different areas (say inside and outside a city) fluidly.

With all this effort to go against Final Fantasy norms, it will be interesting to see how Nomura’s Final Fantasy Versus XIII belongs in the Final Fantasy “family.” For the complete Eurogamer interview, feel free to check it via our “read” link below.

It’s been previously mentioned that Final Fantasy Versus XIII, was an attempt to present something that goes against Final Fantasy, something that contradicts it, hence the title “versus.” Back then Tetsuya Nomura‘s words were: “If Final Fantasy XIII were the light, then Final Fantasy Versus XIII would be the shade. In Latin, versus means change of direction, whereas in English, that would like to say to oppose. It is the concept of this project.”

It seems that Tetsuya Nomura is really trying to go a step beyond Final Fantasy XII, and instead of just expanding or innovating, he really wants to create something that goes against the franchise. In a Eurogamer interview, he says:

Thematically speaking…What I want to do is to examine the humanity of the characters in this game. This is not going to be a fantasy world in the traditional Final Fantasy sense. Rather it’s based in the world today with all of this world’s ugly issues. There’s this mainstream tradition of Final Fantasy games and, in Versus I’m 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 we so often see. It will focus around current world events – in that sense it’s darker.

Okay, so this time around it’s going to be darker, much darker in theme. But what about gameplay?

We don’t want to create a classic menu driven RPG here… We’re moving along lines much closer to Kingdom Hearts’ action game system. The only instruction I’ve given the designers so far is to look closely at third-person perspective shooters – not in terms of game controls but rather in trying to work out how to create a similar kind of tension.

Nomura notes that with previous systems, seamless environments were what they’ve always had problems with. However, in this game their goal is to create an “unlimited field.” Basically Nomura demands from the developers that somebody from within a house be able to shoot your character, or battles should be able to move from two different areas (say inside and outside a city) fluidly.

With all this effort to go against Final Fantasy norms, it will be interesting to see how Nomura’s Final Fantasy Versus XIII belongs in the Final Fantasy “family.” For the complete Eurogamer interview, feel free to check it via our “read” link below.