FFXIII retail-version changes detailed

By Robert Purchese Published 23 April, 2009

So what's different about the demo?

Square Enix has explained what will be different in the retail version of Final Fantasy XIII compared with the recently-released Japanese demo.

Crucially, levels and summons will be added to FFXIII, according to a list on 1UP that is compiled from various internet destinations.

Battle difficulty will be greatly increased, too, making this "the most difficult Final Fantasy ever", if director Motomu Toriyama is to be believed. And while the demo only focuses on one player, the retail version of the JRPG lets party members be controlled and commanded during battle. We'll be able to see combat from more angles, too.

Chain attacks will be vital in the full game, and no longer will characters continue to attack thin-air if they accidentally kill an enemy at the beginning of a chain. Snow will be tooled up at launch and no longer rely on his bare fists, too.

There's to be an "item" command added for battles, and more segments will be able to be added to the Time Gauge via a new character growth system.

Incidentally, the classic Final Fantasy victory fanfare will be there at launch and Square Enix is considering adding victory poses.

There will also be command shortcuts to speed proceedings, plus we're promised dialogue subtitles and a solid frame rate.

We went hands-on with the Final Fantasy XIII demo recently and conclude that "things are looking overwhelmingly positive".

The prospect of a European demo, however, isn't. A solid release date for Final Fantasy XIII here is also unknown, with a broad 2010 estimation our only signpost so far.

Japan, on the other hand, receives Final Fantasy XIII this winter exclusively on PlayStation 3.

The game will spread to Xbox 360 as it heads West.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SuperBas #1 3 years ago

    Final Gaiden? Ninja Fantasy?

  • Inquisitor #2 3 years ago

    I'm really not sure that making it 'the most difficult FF ever' is such a good idea.

    This is a really crucial game for them, the first FF on the 360 and PS3, and the first 'real' FF on a Microsoft console ever. Putting off potential customers through difficulty is a bit of a bum move. There'll probably be a fair few who've never played a JRPG before, let alone an FF game looking to pick this up. If they find it impossible they won't stick with it.

  • ZuluHero #3 3 years ago

    i don't want it to be difficult.. i just want to enjoy the game. Why can't they do like they have in previous years, had the main story do-able by most people with insane optional fights for those that want to bother?

  • Malek86 #4 3 years ago

    Considering FF is very easy as a whole, I'm not sure what that statement may mean. It will probably be on par with other RPGs.

    That said, I like my RPGs to be difficult when they are turn based, not real time.

  • Buztafen #5 3 years ago

    Difficulty adds a bit of spice though, its fun going into a battle underpowered and scraping through using sheer grit and determination! Take the weapon fights in FFVII. Ultimate and Ruby where such utter bastards but beating the fuckers using a bit of skill and a lot of patience was an awesome experience.

    Had a lot of fun with Zeromus in FFXII too, took me around 4 hours to destroy that son-of-a-bitch when i was totally under-levelled. The satisfaction of taking him down was amazing!
    Edited by 1 at 23/04/09 @ 11:24

  • Ninja_Tino #6 3 years ago

    In many cases, a higher difficulty simply means more grinding! I'd much rather have multiple difficulties to avoid the pointless hours.

  • kinky_mong #7 3 years ago

    Putting off potential customers through difficulty is a bit of a bum move.

    Has definitely put me off. I'm not a fan of turn based combat anyway so the thought of having to constantly re-do fights to the point of frustration is a big turn off. Same reason I can't be bothered to carry on playing Chrono Trigger to see what the fuss over it is.

  • Malek86 #8 3 years ago

    Ninja_Tino: depends on the game though. In FF, grinding is always the solution to everything. But in something like Persona 4, leveling up won't do you much good if you can't plan the battle.

  • Zanuah #9 3 years ago

    "...the retail version of the JRPG lets party members be controlled and commanded during battle."

    This makes me happy! :D

  • ZuluHero #10 3 years ago

    @Buztafen

    But that’s exactly what i meant when i said "optional fights". I'm all for those being difficult. But what i don't want is the difficulty to increase so much that you keep hitting hurdles during the main story where you have to grind for a few hours in order to overpower your characters in order to pass... Because that’s just artificially extending the game for the sake of it...

    XII suffered a bit from this. And I’m not just talking those fights where you can muddle through and use a bit of skill to just make it through (those are fun). I’m talking those times where you go into a fight and getting your whole party wiped out on the first attack even though your current level was evenly-matched for the area you were in.

  • Darren #11 3 years ago

    "Battle difficulty will be greatly increased, too, making this "the most difficult Final Fantasy ever", if director Motomu Toriyama is to be believed.

    Uh-oh! Don't like the sound of that, at all. :-(

  • Rens11 #12 3 years ago

    Im glad there gonna make it harder, doesn't have to be grinding necessarily they could make enemies more varied and use different tactics depending on the status your group, even chain attacks on you! as long as they dont have a boss with 50million hp like Yiazmat I'll be happy!

  • Cid #13 3 years ago

    @ZuluHero: you should never need to grind for "a few hours" in any Final Fantasy unless you want to completely overwhelm the boss you're stuck on.

    I think it's important to have a decent challenge, since you want to actually earn the next piece of storyline. Either way I can't see it being the hardest Final Fantasy ever.

  • Widge #14 3 years ago

    Of the recent(ish) ff's, I found 9 the most challenging. enforced situations where you have no mages, little in the way of items at first and status effects that really have a dramatic impact on your team (poisoned etc in FF7? just finish the fight and its gone!).

    I'm finding Eternal Sonata quite challenging but I believe I read that they upped the difficulty level when porting that across. All of a sudden, you can find yourself right under it in a fight, plus, once again, a limited set of items and a maximum you can take into battle too.

  • Tomo #15 3 years ago

    Hmm. The difficulty thing worries me slightly too. Hopefully by difficult they don't mean you'll be required to do endless amounts of grinding. If it's more difficult than FFIII and FFIV on the DS, there's no hope of me finishing it :/

  • alimokrane #16 3 years ago

    Hurrray for more difficult!

  • retr0gamer #17 3 years ago

    No grinding please. FFX had it perfect, no grinding and boss battles you really had to use strategy for. I've beaten every FF game without grinding other than the first.

  • Inigo #18 3 years ago

    I loved FF10 but never finished the ending because it was too hard, same goes with 100s of other games. If i dont complete the game i'm unlikly to by any DLC for it.

  • a8a #19 3 years ago

    I've beaten every FF game without grinding other than the first.

    Not counting FFXI then :p

  • Feanor #20 3 years ago

    I bet it won't be that hard. SE aren't going to choose less money by making it as hard as an old SMT game.

  • shotgun44 #21 3 years ago

    Best not be too hard! The difficulty spikes in Kings Bounty were a bitch! There was also the fact that if your army got wiped out you had to go buy them again from the usually pretty limited army pools! Apart from priests which apparently ever fucker ordered 2,000 of them in! Looking forward to this. The FF FMVs are always pretty breathtaking even without HD!

  • Andrefpvs #22 3 years ago

    I remember that last dungeon in Final Fantasy IV. You breeze through the game, then you open a chest after exploring that same dungeon for items for more than an hour without saving (because you can't), then out comes a monster that somehow 1-hit KO's half of your party.

    Not fun. Still love it.

  • Widge #23 3 years ago

    I didn't grind in FF7 and came unstuck against the demon wall. Totally whumped me. Plus no ability to get out and level up. Had to re-start. Gutting! Never made that mistake.

    To get the max out of any FF, you have to grind. No way you can get 4xCut in FF7 without it, cash for chocobo training, FF8 to be strong to take on the Deep Sea Research Facility. 10 was fairly grindless, until you embark on populating the monster arena. FFX-2 was a bit different as it was a grind to play!

    FFXII's battle mechanic actually made grinding a passable way of life... almost compulsive yet strangely enjoyable.

  • butler` #24 3 years ago

    I don't see what difficulty and grinding have in common.

    Lost Odyssey, for instance, is much harder than most FFs, but has zero grind.

  • penhalion #25 3 years ago

    @Widge

    What demon wall in FF7?

    As for difficulty levels. I am so not grinding away at another FF game. I used to buy them for the story. This was a must buy for me until that idiotic "most difficult ever" statement.

    I'm now pretty sure I'll be giving this a miss. Yea it's a FF game but, lately the name hasn't meant the quality product that it used to. Playing the Jap demo simply confirmed that for me. It's all about the look now it seems. I guess the creator of FF leaving the company has hurt them in ways I didn't foresee. Story and atmosphere being one of those ways. This latest chapter is a FF7 remake in all but name and graphics as far as I can tell. Cloud being replaced, rather weakly by Lightning and Snow. Kind of like they are hedging their bets. If you don't like one you can play the other?!?

  • oupe #26 3 years ago

    This is a really crucial game for them, the first FF on the 360 and PS3, and the first 'real' FF on a Microsoft console ever. Putting off potential customers through difficulty is a bit of a bum move

    If the customer is anything like me, he or she won't buy this at all. I'm always very suspicious about games that have had a lot of releases. FF 13 sounds like ultra-über hardcore and that you should have played at least the previous 5 releases in order to get the gameplay.

    Same goes for Dynasty Warriors, Tekkens, Virtua Fighters, basicaly everything with more than four installments.

    That said, I will buy this of course. I loved FFVII.
    Edited by 2 at 24/04/09 @ 14:41