Final Fantasy XIII Comments by Keza MacDonald

"Final Fantasy XIII is due out for PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter."

Wrong.

You wasted a perfect "First" opportunity for that statement?

euhm... shouldn't that be "is out for PS3 in Japan this winter, and the work on the euro versions and Xbox port will start then"

holy shit, me wants badly lol

I'm really glad they negotiated for an XBox version of this game. Looking forward to it.

I really hope that the characters are more interesting and likable, and the plot less... boring, than FFXII

FFX was my favourite

So playing a publically available demo counts as 'hands on' now.

Due out this Winter ONLY in Japan and ONLY on PS3!


X360 and PS3.... USA and European 2010... though may be possible for Europe to get our hands on it even later!

What's the deal with this on the 360, is it being ported after the PS3 version is released?

"So playing a publically available demo counts as 'hands on' now."

As much as playing a publicly available game counts as a review, yes. I don't have access to the demo but am most certainly interested in this.

The 360 build will begin after the PS3 build is finished, but they will be released at the same time.

But building/porting for the 360 is pretty easy so say devs, so the wait shouldn't be too long.

720P DEMO VIDEOS

Cappy, you're a twat. Would you prefer EG hadn't done this writeup? I don't have access to this demo - not having a PS3 or being in Japan or speaking Japanese - so I'm very interested to read about it.

Sounds awesome, by the way! I loved FF6, 7, 8 and 10 with a passion, but then I got a bit burnt out on JRPGs and took a long break from them over the last few years. Sounds like this could bring me back to the fold. : )

@GamesConnoisseur

Sadly I'm betting its going to be region locked.

Do they region lock PS3 games at all? I didn't think they did. I assume they'll just release a Japanese voice/text only version for Japan. So only the lucky few westerners who know Japanese can import. There may be an Asian version with English text, but knowing Square, I doubt it. FromSoftware are good for that though. :)

When it does get released over here, it would be nice if we can keep the Japanese voices though, especially if there are children characters involved, I hate the whiny American kiddy voice-acting that usually gets done...

shouldnt it be "Lightning" not "Lightening"?

I've not encountered region locked PS3 games, though DLC can be region specific, as can online servers.
For stuff where I'm expecting a DLC avalanche or a lot of online play, I go UK (LBP, KZ2), if it sounds like a solo purchase and thats no more then I'm happy to go US/Canada (Oblivion GOTY, Eternal Sonata).

"an oppressive regime, a resistance fighting against it and a character with mysterious powers brought to aid them in a twist of fate."

They spend years making the game and 10 minutes coming up with the plot?

Jon

@berelain

The girl's name written in katakana on some of the screenshots linked to by 20charactersmax is "raitoningu", which indeed is lightning in Japanese.

Lightening is defined here: http://www.wordreference.com/definition/... Not quite the same thing.

Disclaimer: I'm not a native English speaker, so I admit the possibility that "lightning" may, indeed, be spelled "lightening" in the UK or parts thereof.

I've got a keyboard warrior calling me names on the internet. Oh no.

One with a rather tiny brain to be precise. There is a world of difference between a preview and a short demo anybody could pick up on eBay.

Actually Cappy... there isn't. You know that Red Faction G hands on? Demo is available for THQ subs. And will be freely available next week. And it's the same for a lot of games. No doubt the Batman AA demo rooms will become downloads closer to release.

Are you basically implying that no site should post something that another site has access to? And no person should be interested to read anothers opinion based on something they cannot access themselves because, at some point, maybe they could?

I like the sentence "Things are looking overwhelmingly positive", really looking forward to it

hp recharge after every battle? sold!

Please correct the spelling mistake!

Only problem with the spelling mistake unfortunately is, is that it would have read as perfectly acceptable on spell-check. I knew that paperclip was evil...

@evilfoxhound: Hopefully with the new XBox install to HDD option, you'll be able to dump all 40 DVDs onto your HDD, and then just validate from disc 1 throughout the entire game. Hopefully.

I still think there should be an option to have ownership verified over XBox live, so I can play installed games without hunting for their discs at all. Then I might actually bother to use the feature.

Err . .that's why this wasn't called a 'preview' at all - it was labeled a hands on, which is entirely accurate. Admittedly, a write up of a demo is not as press-exclusive as, say, Tom's recent Batman hands-ons, but in this case it's still absolutely newsworthy none the less. This game is hugely anticipated and the demo is in another country, in another language ffs.

Also, my first point of advice is simply this: Stop posting, pithy, snide and unconstructive comments like "So playing a publically available demo counts as 'hands on' now." onto the interwebs, and far fewer people will point out that you're being a dick.

Aaah, what the hell - Cappy, I'm very sorry I called you a twat. Please accept my apologies so we can both let the healing begin.

Meh.

@jonbwfc

Do you really think that will be the whole plot? It sound kinda FFVII-ish plot wise so far.

I am not reading any of this article

FFXIII will be all new to me! Surprises galore!!

Yes. Surprises galore. It'll be galorific-ish!

So this is what happened to that FF VII tech demo for the PS3, eh. :D

I can't wait for this game, it's going to be awesome ^ ^

damnn, I could end up getting this.

So, we have:

- oppressive city, sealed of from the outside world ruled by gigantic unlikeable organisation
- an intro involving a train in said city
- a scorpion-bot enemy in the very first part of the game
- a mysterious protagonists, who's motives are not exactly clear
- a much more vocal and out in the open resistance group trying to take the gigantic unlikeable organisation down
- ...

FF VII much, yes?

Not at all, note these new elements:

- a black sidekick, only this time absurdly cowardly and incompetent
- a general mashup of steampunk-fantasy for a setting
- a lifestream-thingie substance, presumably containing the essence of the planet. Turquoise too, it seems.
- nondescript soldiers as basic enemies in the first part of the game
...

After a couple of turgid and bland JRPGs on the Xbox 360 which used the creaky Unreal Engine 3, namely The Last Remnant and Lost Odyssey, I'd almost lost interest in the genre until I watched 20 minutes of footage from this game on Gamersyde. It looks awesome quite frankly and I'm happy to wait as long as it takes to get hold of the PS3 version. With the high-quality FMV I'd imagine the PS3's BD format will come in very handy for this game (goodness only knows how many DVDs the 360 version is going to require just for the video sequences). The Final Fantasy series are *the* premier JRPGs, everything else seems like a pale imitation in comparison, including those aforementioned Xbox 360 games.

Coin-Op

You, sir, are an idiot.

I'll second that.

Also... Sazh?

Pronounced how exactly?

Can't wait till I have children: baby brothers Squall and Cloud, and oh look- there goes Aerith.

I kid.

I don't really mind that it resembles FFVII so much in it's setting and basic, initial plot. In fact, as far I'm concerned, that's a good thing :)

I really can't want for FFXIII :D

IT HAS BEGUN!

berelain:

"shouldnt it be "Lightning" not "Lightening"?"

Yes. Keza was translating from the katakana, as someone suggested. And I did change it, but then somehow I published the version without the change. So please blame me for being an idiot and not Keza.

Cappy:

"So playing a publically available demo counts as 'hands on' now."

I understand the argument, but, as others have pointed out, this isn't a demo that everyone who reads Eurogamer and owns a PS3 has access to, and it is a demo that most of the people who do will want to read about.

the ps3 graphic whore in me says buyyyyy movis lolol!

the western rpg loving person in me says: oh god, another grindfest of shemale barbies with huge swords, pretentious dialogue, completely boring battles and linear and predictacble popcorn 5-year-old plotlines and a formulae that was already tired after FF7.

I still wonder how they will port this to X360. Either it will have no movies or X360 users will have sd movies compared to the blu ray awesomeness.... Or 30 discs:P

shining biomechs and fighter spacecraft, emphatically is not.

What?

I noticed SCREEN TEARING! OMIGODZ!

Xbox 360 version it is then, with cleaner textures and no screen tearing.

This may be a wind-up.

OR IS IT.

(it is)

(maybe)

HA!

Only 46 comments on my screen. I bet their's a load of trolling going on here of which I'm blissfully unawares. Gotta love that ignore button.

***serious question -- not a troll attempt***

The overwhelmingly positive reaction this is getting here and on other sites baffles me. As notmyrealname said, this looks utterly cookie-cutter to me. I've never been a FF fan, so I have no inherent love of the series. Even accepting that there's far more to this than shown in the demo videos, there's a stereotypical plot, characters (oooh look, the saucy girl poses provocatively with her gun! how saucy!), and what looks like pretty stereotypical combat (FF+KOTOR, both systems years old).

Cutscene, walk/run down hallway/traintrack, intersect enemy, enter "battle mode", issue commands, watch trancedance fighters resolve fight, happydance/pose for battle score, return to running down wallway/traintrack, cutscene, repeat repeat repeat
.
My general rule of thumb is when 20 million people like something and I don't, usually its a pretty good guess that I'm the one who's wrong.

So to the FF faithful . . . what am I missing? If I understand the FF series, there's no continuity of story between the games (except for the idea of "magic planetary lifeforce" that's been used in the last several), so what about this series gets people so excited?

Like I said, this is a serious question, not a FF slam. Y'all love it, and good for you -- it's good to have a game coming that you like. I would like to be as excited as everybody else, but I just can't. Only FFs I've played are 7 and 10, and both staggeringly underwhelmed me. What am I missing?

*side-not to Squnix -- if Japanese developers are trying to avoid "racist" accusations after RE5, one suggestion: having a FUCKING BIRD NESTING IN A BROTHER'S AFRO might not be the best idea.

busboy.
Racist = "brother's afro"

Don't care when it comes out, it will hit these shores eventually...and when it does....it's mine !

Wouldn't it be neat if, coinciding with the release of this, Microsoft revealed a Blu-Ray add-on for the Xbox 360?

Just got this yesterday. Its the same feel as when I played the FFX demo waaay back.

Come on Winter 2009