"Final Fantasy XIII" was able to do a lot of things, like take up three Xbox 360 discs, ship 5 million units internationally and get its own 360 bundle. Square Enix left behind some traditional elements of the series, though, and sprawling villages where you can poke around and talk to people as you like became one of those sacrifices. Now that the game's epic development phase is is complete, however, Square Enix thinks they may be able to bring such features back in their next non-MMO installment.
"The next time you see a 'Final Fantasy,' we might be able to pack in more of those elements that existed in the past," "Final Fantasy XIII" director Motomu Toriyama told Gamasutra. "And I also think that a game doesn't need to have all of those items in the future. We can create additional downloadable content for people to add, too. It doesn't have to come with that game itself."
Toriyama discussed the demands of developing a 50-60-hour RPG like "Final Fantasy XIII" for the PS3 and 360, and said that the demands they faced without more open-air environments were sizable enough. Now that they have what he calls "base technology," completed, such things may have a better chance of showing up down the road.
If the gameplay is good enough, I can't imagine many players quibbling if they get 60 hours of engrossing sitdown time out of "FFXIII." Traditionalists will likely disagreement with me, though. My main concern when I sit down with it will be how much environment they sacrificed in favor of button-mashing minigames, which could stand to hurt Toriyama's case. We'll see what shows up.
Source: MTV
