Work yet to start on FFXIII for Xbox 360 Comments by Robert Purchese

First etc.

Well they probably just need to click the "build" button to make it work ;)

Haha, not only does the 360 finally get a FF game, but it makes PS3 users wait for it too!

@Eraysor

read the story?

"Furthermore, Final Fantasy is CGI Heavy - no doubt the 360 version will come on multiple disks. They better offer a instal-to-HD option."

I believe this is called the New Xbox Experience.

# make -d "the_best_version" FF13.c

"I'd rather they not think of this as a 'betrayal' or disappointment"
He really doesn't understand fanboyism...

This will make a grand total of 3 multiplatform games that run better on PS3.

vorlon_man....theres a phone call for you.....apparently 2006 wants you back!

"Haha, not only does the 360 finally get a FF game, but it makes PS3 users wait for it too! "

The 360 already has a FF title.

"Final Fantasy is CGI Heavy"

Not only that, but even outside cutscenes the whole game is very content-driven, so the dev time I would expect is 85% or more generating assets and probably another 5-10% language translation.

Will mean the development of the 360 engine should have very little impact on the Euro PS3 release.


" no doubt the 360 version will come on multiple disks. They better offer a instal-to-HD option."

No need, multiple disc JRPGs already work perfectly and are actually less hassle than having to do a large install. Still, the install option is there if you want it anyway via the NXE.


So, no platform differences at all. the bigger issue is whether Final Fantasy is still worth playing. The last few main entries in the FF series indicate we may have a turkey incoming.

If Microsoft where to be very very clever, they would release the version on the 360 as region free ;-) just in case some people don't want to have to buy a PS3 just to play FF game.

man im not sure about FF13, they didn't get last remnant right technically and the most recent final fantasy 12 was only ff i didnt care to complete - i really want to believe but im skeptical right now.

Are they using UE3 for this too? *shudder*

It's not like we won't get screwed with a release date in Europe anyway...

@DrDamn - They are using their own engine for the FF games, I think it's the White Engine?

keyboardmonkey: Not MS's decision.

I think the real bitterness comes from Square favoring Xbox this generation with more releases, and timed exclusives. If they had announced Star Ocean 4 and the other RPGs for simultaneous release on PS3 nobody would really have had any excuse for fanboy tears.

@Fubdub
It's not exactly "Square favouring the 360" - it's a case of money hats and economics.

Yes they are using their own engine and yes I believe it is called the white engine.

Thank God, I think ALL the JRPG's on the 360 look terrible with that shiny plastic toy look they have.

This is old however with Square not starting development until the PS3 Japan version leads me to believe there will be at least one hiccup when Square decide to click on the magical copy and paste button onto Xbox 360.

Not that any of that matters because it won't hit Europe till 2010 making this "disadvantage" moot.

After square's last two games I don't have high hopes for FF13, and I also don't believe there won't be a compromise by making the game multiplatform.
Unfortunately it seems money talks, more than producing a decent game.

Only time will tell I suppose...

Still in therapy for buying Last Remnant on release... soon I will be able to look at a RPG again, with help the Doctor says 'I should make a full recovery'.

"I think ALL the JRPG's on the 360 look terrible with that shiny plastic toy look they have."

You've not seen many JRPG's on the 360 then.

Before you reply: NO you have not, or you are lying, as your statement is very very wrong.

"I think ALL the JRPG's on the 360 look terrible with that shiny plastic toy look they have. "

Have you even seen the best JPRPG on the 360? Eternal Sonata, Lost Odysse or Tales of Visperia. No shiny plastic toy look anywhere.

LR is not disappointing,the only disappointing thing is the total ignorance and stupidity of western reviewers.

"Completely untrue. Final Fantasy may not be everybody's cup-of-tea, but I honestly don't think there Square has ever put out a main sequence Final Fantasy that was anything less than good."

Personal opinion, of course.

I played the hell out of FFX and loved every minute, but FFX-2 was truly awful. It had an unengaging story and a terrible costume system. There's no way anyone can say FFX-2 was a good game, especially when compared to FFX.

What I played of FFXII bored me senseless.

So I stand by my statement. The last 2 main FF titles have been decidedly substandard. Sqaures recent offering have come nowhere near the FF glory days standard so I hold little hope for FFXIII being worthwhile.

If pathetic people still bother with that "first" shit - at least have something to say. Dilbert!!!

"It's not exactly "Square favouring the 360" - it's a case of money hats and economics. "

That's always the case with every exclusive on every platform.

Quote ""I'd rather they not think of this as a 'betrayal' or disappointment"
He really doesn't understand fanboyism... " unquote

Well good!! Cos its really pathetic! Fanboyism is just another word for blind ignorant pillock. Just becasue you have one thing doesnt mean everything else is crap. And if you think so, then you are lacking a few brain cells. I have most of the consoles, but same with music - just cos I dont like something I can still say if its well written etc. Fanboys all need shooting.

^^^"Fanboys all need shooting."

Maybe it's just me but... isn't that too harsh a punishment? ;)

Can't see why they don't just release the PS3 version first. What benefit is there to SE?

nope (@yaz)

"Can't see why they don't just release the PS3 version first. What benefit is there to SE?"

MS money innit!

The White Engine has been re-named to Crystal Tools. The reason why The Last Remnant had technical issues, is that UE3 doesn't do outside worlds very well. It can do them to an extent, but as you see in The Last Remnant, it has some Ridiculous detail in the view distance it has.. Also, the FF team didn't work on that game, the FF team are the best team at Squenix.

Be prepared for a 50GB install, since we now it's using "a Blu-Ray disc" if it is a 50GB dual layer or not, remains to be seen.

*whispers to Rob* I think you'll find that Final Fantasy XII has already been released on the PS2, and is not due for release next year.

@ Farticus: "No need, multiple disc JRPGs already work perfectly and are actually less hassle than having to do a large install. Still, the install option is there if you want it anyway via the NXE. // So, no platform differences at all. "

I disagree - the best thing that the NXE has brought to the 360 is the HD install because it reduces the bloody horrendous volume of the CD drive. It really interferes with my gaming. Unfortunately, many people (such as myself) also bought the early version of the 360 so only have a 20GB HD and so wouldn't be able to instal four discs of game (c.25GB I'd guess) onto their machine. Even many 60GB 360 owners might think twice before putting the whole game on there. I still haven't decided if I want to spend more money just to get an improvement in the system's volume - it's still pretty noisy even with only the HD running!

There's no denying it's got great (and arguably the best) games, but the 360's actual design in terms of engineering really is piss poor, so given the choice I'll be getting this game on the PS3.

Oh, and from a developer's point of view, porting from the PS3 to the 360 isn't always that easy. The PS3 is a real bitch to get things going nicely on, but the way it uses its internal memory is fairly flexible so that can give some good tricks to coders when they need them. The 360 doesn't have that leeway, so if Square use the PS3's memory that way then the conversion could be pretty hard going for a while.

UE3 outside is fine in GoW2. 50Gb install for what? Either console that has 60Gb option only has 55Gb space free for a start, not allowing for any other mandatory installs PS3 games have. Most 360's are 20Gb, most PS3s are 40Gb. At least PS3 allows any old (pretty much) HDD to be swapped in. Plus blu-ray read speed is so slow devs have to duplicate data across the disc to improve loading times.

I agree with the multiple discs comment, the first RPG I played was Final Fantasy VII and that was on 3 discs so for me RPGs and multiple discs are standard.

So now this is for 360 its yet another reason why I regret getting a PS3. At least MGS4 was absolutely incredible, otherwise I'd have been more upset

Eternal Sonata looks gorgeous, although not stuck that in the PS3 since I got Valkyria Chronicles... which dare I say it, looks even better!

I see what he means by generic jRPGs though, Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery look kinda unremarkable... note though, I slate this at screens I've seen of White Knight Story too (although I hope to be proven wrong).

My question: what news of FFXIIIversus? the minor nuggets about this point to it being a straight up jRPG, dungeons, summons, party mechanics. Something that we might all be quite keen on!

"I strongly suspect the Ps3 version will come out on top for the simple reason most of the video will easily be 1080p, whereas to reduce the number of disks on the 360, I expect it to be 720p."

Is there a game on PS3 which has the video in 1080p? Seeing as it's a bitch to get the thing to upscale anything, I image a lot of people would get annoyed with their TVs blanking for a second or two (well, mine does, YMMV etc.) when the resolution changes, and then back again.

I know that 'advantage' was touted for BR but I've yet to actually see it myself.

@Doctor_What

The noise issue aside (as there are only a vocal minority that are actually bothered by it), multiple disc RPG's are tried, tested and not a problem.

As for the memory issue, you have it the wrong way round. The PS3 has segregated memory for the GPU and CPU, the 360 has unified memory. The PS3's OS also has a larger footprint than the 360, so in actualt fact the PS3 has slightly less memory to work with. (Not that it should make any difference in this case)

JRPG's dont have demanding engines though, so code porting should be fast and easy as long as they dont have to force middleware to do things it doesnt want to do.

Does the PS3 have 1080p upscaling on games as standard now? As we know, Wipeout HD is quite happy to fluctuate the resolution if necessary, no blanking out there.

The only time I've seen blanking out was on MGS4 when it uses the PSOne emulator to do the Shadow Moses flashback.

@Doctor_What
You only have to install one disc at a time y'know :).

FFXII was liked by a lot of people, and had lots of nice stuff in it, I just didn't like the realtime, MMORPG-like combat. JRPG's are about controlling parties and therefore should be turn based combat - simple as that. It's a fundamental part of the genre for me.

I didn't mind the combat, it was the sheer lack of involvement with the storyline that did it for me.

Give that the crystal tools engine (FFXIII engine) has been coded to be multi platform, I'm sure Square can tweak the game for the 360 while they are doing the localization. The real question is how many disk will the game be on the 360.

@ optimus

If it is using a Full 50GB for ONE blu-ray dual layer drive, unless they use amazing compression for the 360 version, I would think the install would be around 15 - 20GB maybe..

and yes, Outside in GOW2 is fine, because it is inclosed, it hasn't got actual backdrops like Last Remnant has, but it uses 3D sky boxes which are actually 1/16th the size they are in game. Last Remnant has actual buildings that the level editor has made and not a 3D skybox. Plus, Epic being the Devs of the engine itself know what works best within it. I'd have thought you working where you do, would know this.. O well.

'Still, Final Fantasy XIII looks to be the role-playing hit Square Enix sorely needs after disappointing stop-gaps Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery.'

Dragon Quest IX.

No idea. I reckon they were pushed for space on 1 DVD on FFX. I bunged it on the PS3 the other day and you can really notice the compression on the FMV sections. I'm guessing this is to save space. FFXII didn't even get the FMV up to full screen!

Completely untrue. Final Fantasy may not be everybody's cup-of-tea, but I honestly don't think there Square has ever put out a main sequence Final Fantasy that was anything less than good.

FFXII was okay, but the storyline was completely uninteresting that FFXII is the first FF i've ever said "fuck it" and just stopped playing, there is absolutely no motivation for me to complete the game at all, not to mention that Square by their own standards have been pooh, add onto the 2 year hiatus since they bloody announced FFXIII remixing the same E3 05 trailer behind closed doors at every TGS, this is the least hyped I've ever been about a new mainline FF since the dawn of time.

Wow trailed off topic to post my woes about Squares shenanigans... but to the point, FFXII wasn't as good as it was hyped to be, it's just one of those Eurogamers 10/10 seal of approval games, if you know what I mean.

FFX-2 was both terrible and amazing at the same time. Amazing for having one of the best turn based combat engines of the series to date, terrible story and missing the vital part of any FF which is the exploration of new and fresh locations. Churning out the same old Spira with minimal changes. Pfff.

ANYWAY, Farcry2 triple format face off to arrive today I believe. We can all bitch at each other in there too!