Final Fantasy XIII Preview

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The action-game mood extends to only giving you control of one character at a time, with any party members seemingly completely autonomous. Well - for now. Toriyama has something in the works for wider party control, but isn't talking about it yet.

"Basically, you only get to control one character at a time, the leader of the party," he says. "In the initial stages of the game, the story will dictate which character will be the lead, but as you progress, you'll be able to make the decision on which character you want to chose in battle.

"As for giving the party members commands, there's going to be a system where you'll be able to give them commands during battle on how they should act, but the details on that will be coming out around fall." Could this be a return for FFXII's system of programmable party Gambits by the back door? It might be too much to hope for (or dread, depending on your view). Only time will tell.

Does Toriyama have any more departures he'd like to slip past us? Well, there's Lightning, the series' first ever female lead, for one, unless you count the director's girl-group excursion with FFX-2. "We wanted to go a different route there. Also, there's Final Fantasy Versus XIII that's in the works as well, and we wanted to keep a male lead for that. We were very interested in creating a strong female character, that would be something new to the series."

As popular as Final Fantasy is outside Japan, there's always a large and vocal part of the Western gaming audience that finds its adherence to mainstream JRPG convention outmoded, long-winded and inflexible. Clever as they were, the formal innovations of XII didn't do much to convince the doubters. As FFXIII nears release, even devotees of the Japanese RPG are admitting that the genre seems stuck in a rut after a long string of underwhelming releases, like recent Square Enix efforts Star Ocean: The Last Hope and The Last Remnant.

Lightning is the series' first strong female, according to director Toriyama.

I ask the two developers what they're doing to modernise things, and Kitase stirs himself to answer. "The battle system is a good example of how we're trying to bring Final Fantasy XIII up to speed with the demands of the current generation," he argues. "Instead of the really traditional, kind of stand-still turn-based command style, there are a lot more action elements that we've put in, like the Gestalt mode that you just saw, and also the way that the AI interacts with the lead character as well. The current generation of gamers are a lot more action-oriented, and they like to directly control the character. We definitely wanted to create something that would be enjoyed by everyone."

But, as we initially guessed, the veteran producer is also here to remind us that at Square Enix, when it comes to Final Fantasy, things are done a certain way. Above all else, that means careful craftsmanship and honest, old-fashioned attention to detail.

"We can't necessarily differentiate ourselves just by using the hardware specs [of the current machines] to the fullest," he says. "So the challenge has been, how do we bring in traditional means of development into the current-generation consoles in order to really polish the look and the experience of the game? Some specific examples are... there's a character, Sazh, with an afro. We actually went into the really old-school way of creating each hair by itself, almost like putting grass on a field, to create a realistic afro." He nods, satisfied with the dedication.

It's Final Fantasy, alright. Painstakingly modelled hairstyles, strangely-applied Germanic terminology, wildly over-the-top summons, inappropriate motorbikes, butterfly monsters and ravishing beauty; a clash of hide-bound tradition and bold futurism that ought to be uncomfortable, but just works, somehow. FFXIII will be sumptuous and it will please millions, but can it really save the JRPG by bridging the gap to the action game? Can it convert any of XII's pioneer spirit for the masses without dumbing it down, or losing the hardcore for good? It's a tall order, but in this crowded, noisy back room at E3, Kitase's quiet smile is a confident one.