Planning to pierce your "Xbot" friends with some stinging disc count jokes when Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out? Not this time! In an interview with Dengeki PlayStation this week, XIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama says that because the game's event scenes are mostly real time this time, it's possible that the 360 version will end up having fewer discs.
Source: Andriasang
...here's some of the new Final Fantasy XIII-2 details that are leaking out from Dengeki PlayStation's interview with director Motomu Toriyama this week.
Noel, the new guy who saw his debut in the E3 demo and trailers last week, appears to have a more prominent role than FFXIII main character Lightning. Toriyama says that rather than the game having dual heroes in Noel and Lightning, in terms of time spent under your control, you advance through the story mostly with Noel and FFXIII heroine Serah.
Snow, another primary character from FFXIII, will be appearing in XIII-2. Toriyama notes that he's not the type to be worried about the relationship between Noel and Serah.
The new Mog Clock encounter system and the new cinematic action system help make battles shorter, Toriyama said. You can read details on the Mog Clock system at the FF Wiki which has a surprising amount of detail already.
You might have read something about the game having multiple endings. The game will also have an interactive conversation system called Live Trigger. Each time you play, the possible selections during dialogue will change. Toriyama says that this system is in place more for enjoying conversation rather than for the branching story.
One of the other major points learned at E3 is that the game will have towns. Toriyama says in the interview that the town residents will have individual AI.
Another major E3 surprise was that the game will have monster raising components. During battle, you can have one monster join your party. That party can consist of three party members, although there will be times when you'll have a guest character as well.
Source: Andriasang
EDIT: EXPANDED INFO
Dengeki PlayStation has an eight page feature on Final Fantasy XIII-2 this week. While most of the content was announced at E3, the magazine does have a lengthy interview with director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase.
We covered a bit from the interview earlier, but here some additional details from Sokuho's super detailed writeup.
ON CHARACTERS
Newcomer Noel knows little about Cocoon and Gran Pulse. Toriyama says that he wanted to have Noel in a similar position to a newcomer player to FFXIII -- that is, someone who doesn't know about the world and story.
As mentioned earlier, Lightning is a major character, but Noel and Serah are main in terms of characters you control. Just in case you're doubting the central role of Noel, Toriyama's closing message in the interview was something along the lines of, while the strong female character Lighting was the draw of the previous title, XIII-2 features Noel, a cool male main character.
During battle, Toriyama said to think of Noel as fighting in the front and Serah supporting from behind. Noel's job image is hunter. He hunts monsters in Gran Pulse.
I assume you've heard about Serah's Moogle weapon already...
ON THE E3 DEMO
The E3 demo was like a digest version of two chapters with most of the story sequences cut out. When playing the game, you'll see how Noel and Serah meet.
ON MUSIC
The game's main musical component is from Masashi Hamauzu, the composer from the original FFXIII. They're doing an experiment where Hamauzu will retain the same feel of the FFXIII music while a different composer (Or possibly composers? ... curse you vague Japanese language!) will work delivering a new world view. Toriyama said to look forward to the staff's announcement.
ON MONSTER RAISING
The game's new monster raising component, which lets you gather and bring monsters into your battle party, will give the game greater strategy, Toriyama said. There are Defender monsters, Attacker monsters and so-forth. There's also a growth element to the monsters.
Sokuho's writeup says that your party can consist of at most three characters, including the monsters (this is different from some of the earlier leaks). However, you will also sometimes have one guest character come in.
OTHER BITS AND PIECES
Other points mentioned in the interview include:
Your party members will move around town and get into conversations
When it rains, people in town will gather under covered areas.
The weather will have some effect on battle.
There will be search/exploration element involving Moogles.
The save system will in general be auto save.
Separate from FFXIII-2, Toriyama said that the upcoming Easy Mode patch for the PS3 version of FFXIII will be just that -- a patch, and not download content (I presume the difference is that it will be free). In case you're unfamiliar, Easy Mode was included in the Japanese Xbox 360 version of the game. Square Enix is timing the PS3 version's patch with the 7/21 release of the game's Ultimate Hits budget version.
Kitase commented briefly on Sony's new PSP Remaster program which takes PSP titles and remasters them in HD on PlayStation 3. He said that he's interested in this program, but because they're placing their full effort on Final Fantasy Type-0 and XIII-2, they currently don't have anything decided.
Source: Andriasang
My thoughts:
-Good news for Xbox users (like me), because there may be less discs for XIII-2
-As much as I don't mind less Lightning bits, there will surely be complaints from Lightning fans from this.
-Snow is "not the type to be worried about the relationship between Noel and Serah." Really? After all that "SERAHHHH" every few seconds in XIII, I can't believe this statement. Hopefully they give a good explanation as to why Snow lets them go together. But it's good to hear he is at least returning (for a potential love triangle?).
-If live trigger is more for conversation purposes, then what decide the ending branching? Percentage completion? I hope not, because I don't usually play a game for perfect completion...
-Although mentioned before, good to hear the return of towns and the improvement in NPCs
-Guest character ala FFXII? do they have paradigm roles?
-great news about weather effect in battle
-I love how party members interact with NPCs themselves, and NPCs shelter themselves when it rains.
Looking forward for more information~
Source: Andriasang
...here's some of the new Final Fantasy XIII-2 details that are leaking out from Dengeki PlayStation's interview with director Motomu Toriyama this week.
Noel, the new guy who saw his debut in the E3 demo and trailers last week, appears to have a more prominent role than FFXIII main character Lightning. Toriyama says that rather than the game having dual heroes in Noel and Lightning, in terms of time spent under your control, you advance through the story mostly with Noel and FFXIII heroine Serah.
Snow, another primary character from FFXIII, will be appearing in XIII-2. Toriyama notes that he's not the type to be worried about the relationship between Noel and Serah.
The new Mog Clock encounter system and the new cinematic action system help make battles shorter, Toriyama said. You can read details on the Mog Clock system at the FF Wiki which has a surprising amount of detail already.
You might have read something about the game having multiple endings. The game will also have an interactive conversation system called Live Trigger. Each time you play, the possible selections during dialogue will change. Toriyama says that this system is in place more for enjoying conversation rather than for the branching story.
One of the other major points learned at E3 is that the game will have towns. Toriyama says in the interview that the town residents will have individual AI.
Another major E3 surprise was that the game will have monster raising components. During battle, you can have one monster join your party. That party can consist of three party members, although there will be times when you'll have a guest character as well.
Source: Andriasang
EDIT: EXPANDED INFO
Dengeki PlayStation has an eight page feature on Final Fantasy XIII-2 this week. While most of the content was announced at E3, the magazine does have a lengthy interview with director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase.
We covered a bit from the interview earlier, but here some additional details from Sokuho's super detailed writeup.
ON CHARACTERS
Newcomer Noel knows little about Cocoon and Gran Pulse. Toriyama says that he wanted to have Noel in a similar position to a newcomer player to FFXIII -- that is, someone who doesn't know about the world and story.
As mentioned earlier, Lightning is a major character, but Noel and Serah are main in terms of characters you control. Just in case you're doubting the central role of Noel, Toriyama's closing message in the interview was something along the lines of, while the strong female character Lighting was the draw of the previous title, XIII-2 features Noel, a cool male main character.
During battle, Toriyama said to think of Noel as fighting in the front and Serah supporting from behind. Noel's job image is hunter. He hunts monsters in Gran Pulse.
I assume you've heard about Serah's Moogle weapon already...
ON THE E3 DEMO
The E3 demo was like a digest version of two chapters with most of the story sequences cut out. When playing the game, you'll see how Noel and Serah meet.
ON MUSIC
The game's main musical component is from Masashi Hamauzu, the composer from the original FFXIII. They're doing an experiment where Hamauzu will retain the same feel of the FFXIII music while a different composer (Or possibly composers? ... curse you vague Japanese language!) will work delivering a new world view. Toriyama said to look forward to the staff's announcement.
ON MONSTER RAISING
The game's new monster raising component, which lets you gather and bring monsters into your battle party, will give the game greater strategy, Toriyama said. There are Defender monsters, Attacker monsters and so-forth. There's also a growth element to the monsters.
Sokuho's writeup says that your party can consist of at most three characters, including the monsters (this is different from some of the earlier leaks). However, you will also sometimes have one guest character come in.
OTHER BITS AND PIECES
Other points mentioned in the interview include:
Your party members will move around town and get into conversations
When it rains, people in town will gather under covered areas.
The weather will have some effect on battle.
There will be search/exploration element involving Moogles.
The save system will in general be auto save.
Separate from FFXIII-2, Toriyama said that the upcoming Easy Mode patch for the PS3 version of FFXIII will be just that -- a patch, and not download content (I presume the difference is that it will be free). In case you're unfamiliar, Easy Mode was included in the Japanese Xbox 360 version of the game. Square Enix is timing the PS3 version's patch with the 7/21 release of the game's Ultimate Hits budget version.
Kitase commented briefly on Sony's new PSP Remaster program which takes PSP titles and remasters them in HD on PlayStation 3. He said that he's interested in this program, but because they're placing their full effort on Final Fantasy Type-0 and XIII-2, they currently don't have anything decided.
Source: Andriasang
My thoughts:
-Good news for Xbox users (like me), because there may be less discs for XIII-2
-As much as I don't mind less Lightning bits, there will surely be complaints from Lightning fans from this.
-Snow is "not the type to be worried about the relationship between Noel and Serah." Really? After all that "SERAHHHH" every few seconds in XIII, I can't believe this statement. Hopefully they give a good explanation as to why Snow lets them go together. But it's good to hear he is at least returning (for a potential love triangle?).
-If live trigger is more for conversation purposes, then what decide the ending branching? Percentage completion? I hope not, because I don't usually play a game for perfect completion...
-Although mentioned before, good to hear the return of towns and the improvement in NPCs
-Guest character ala FFXII? do they have paradigm roles?
-great news about weather effect in battle
-I love how party members interact with NPCs themselves, and NPCs shelter themselves when it rains.
Looking forward for more information~
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So basically the Mog clock is supposed to make battles end faster... unless you get it in the red. Not liking the Mog clock much because battles should be battles and not make anything easier for Christ sake. Lightning will be a major character in the game again... well it was to be expected. Noel and Serah... and Snow reappearing. Now that is an interesting thought.
. I can take Serah, but just having her, Noel, and random monsters in battle just wont cut it. 
