FFXIII world for 10 years

Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto has said we'll be revelling in the world of Final Fantasy XIII for a decade.

He was speaking to Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream when he used the next-generation offering as a comparison between an evolving storyline and a completely new one, upon which multiple products could be based - much like iterations in the Star Wars series or Harry Potter saga.

"Different from something like VII, which we expanded upon afterwards, with Fabula Nova Crystallis FFXIII we thought about an expansive world setting from the start," Hashimoto said in the interview partially translated by IGN. "Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years, we're preparing a number of categories."

Until now each new Final Fantasy game had been an individual story in a larger series. And although they shared familiar aspects, pretty much all came to their own conclusion - with the exception of Final Fantasy X, which spawned Final Fantasy X-2.

"If forced to give the essential common points for [Final Fantasy], there are Chocobo-like living creatures, there are crystals, there's travel via air ships, there are items such as potions... and the genre is RPG," Hashimoto added.

"While there are some exceptions, in general there aren't 'sequels', so the games that are part of the 'numbered series' will always come to a self-contained conclusion; VII's sequel is not VIII, and VIII's sequel is not IX."

The Fabula Nova Crystallis, or "the new tale of the crystal" series is made up of two games for PlayStation 3. Final Fantasy XIII will be the first to launch followed by sequel and alternate tale Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

A demo for FFXIII is expected sometime this year. A release date for the game is yet to be confirmed.