You know, its funny how even a year ago, we could go months without any news on
Final Fantasy XIII, and yet now in the last couple of months we can't move without bumping into some. I'm still worried to a certain extent that development on the game has been rushed somewhat in the last year to get a quick release, but...well we'll see. Either way, I have quite a few more things to discuss today, even taking into account the recent post I only did
a week ago.
Lets start with something nice and easy, there's a rather large batch of English screenshots, which we've already mostly seen in Japanese, but now with English text. There's a couple of interesting bits of information that comes from the screenshots however, such as ability lists for
Brynhildr (Sazh's Eidolon) and
Bahamut (Fang's Eidolon), which I will list below the screenshots. We can also see that like some of the other "traditional" weapons revealed so far (Lightning's sword turning into a gun, Vanille's staff having weird fish-hook things coming from it), Fang's lance/spear has something of a gimmick to it, in that it can split into a three-way segmented staff (which I keep on wanting to call a nunchuck).
So as promised up above, here are the ability lists for Brynhildr and Bahamut's Gestalt Modes, for those who are too lazy to click images (or who, for some reason can't actually see images).
| Input | Brynhildr | Bahamut |
Up + O
| Rotor Spin
| Hunter's Dive
|
Down + O
| Caltrop Bomb
| Aerial Loop
|
Left/Right + O
| Sweeping Turn
| Baneful Breath
|
| X | Hot Rod
| Pulsar Burst
|
| Triangle | Múspell Flame | Megaflare |
Following this batch of images, Japanese magazine Shonen Jump got the chance to post the first pictures of the game's growth system, named the
Crystalium System (although the
Tokyo Game Show demo wrote it as Crystarium, we can assume its meant to be an "l", not an "r"). As already hinted at, and assumed by the community at large, the game features no levelling, and all the character's development and growth is done on what appears to be something extremely similar to
Final Fantasy X's
Sphere Grid or
Final Fantasy X-2's
Garment Grids.
From what we can see, you can take the character through a series of gateway loops along which are nodes of stat increases such as
HP+70 or even abilities. The magazine scan does state that unlike the relative freedom of the
Sphere Grid, where, as long as you were on the node, you could "buy" its ability, on the
Crystalium System, you must have certain preceeding nodes activated. We assume this is so that you have to buy spells like Fire or Blizzard before you're allowed to progress to the more powerful spells like Fira or Blizzara. Hopefully we'll learn more about this in the coming weeks.
The same scan also shows an interesting scene in the
Nautilus Park section of the town of
Palumpolom (one can't help but notice the similarity to a certain set of
Final Fantasy IV twin names there) on the left-hand side of the scan, on the lower picture. In what makes me think of a shopping mall, there is a screen projecting an image of the scene we'd seen in trailers of
Siren. With a recent scan showing us that
Hope is receiving
Alexander as a summon (see further below), coupled with the fact that we don't believe there are any more playable characters to be revealed, and that the trailer shown at the
Tokyo Game Show talks about
Carbuncle as a relatively known "creature", of whom a child wants a plushy, we can assume that the organic looking creatures we've seen (assumed to be Siren, Carbuncle, and
Ifrit - Eidolons in other words) are potentially something else altogether. Again, hopefully we'll learn more about this in the future, I seem to be just leaving questions open today don't I?
So, before a return to scan-related business, time for a little breather in the style of merchandise, or just general
Final Fantasy XIII-related products. First of all, the game's official cover (for Japan obviously) has been revealed, and as you'd expect its the traditional plain white background with the logo on it. There were some concerns as another cover has been shown in recent times, which includes Lightning riding Odin on it. We're now assuming that that particular cover is going to be exclusive to the
PlayStation 3 Slim -Lightning Edition- bundle.
So, now onto other assorted merchandise. Deep breath time. First of all there's the relatively standard postcard book (do I really need to explain that?), the
Final Fantasy XIII edition of which will contain 24 character-illustrated postcards, and then a further 8 pages of general illustrations. Unusually, it seems there will actually be English dialog on some of these in order to try and tempt even more import sales than usual. The postcard book is due out on December 17th, thus on the day of the game's release.
Another book (if you count the postcard collection as a book) to be produced is the
Final Fantasy XIII World Preview book. There's a huge market for guides in Japan, especially as they tend to contain more than just guides within them. This pre-game release guide, due for release a week before the game itself, will be made up of 160 pages detailing character introductions, background on the game's universe, details on the battle system, developer interviews, a slurry of imagery, and a hard-copy of (some? all? a new chapter altogether?) of
Final Fantasy XIII -Episode Zero-. We assume that all the usual high-quality books and guides (such as the famed
Ultimania series) by
Studio Bent Stuff will follow the game rather quickly.
Already mentioned on the short-lived
Final Fantasy Insight Twitter (its a shame that I couldn't find a nicer way to integrate it) back during the
Final Fantasy XIII Premiere Party,
Suntory (who have so far made special
Potions for release with
Final Fantasy XII,
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, and
Dissidia -Final Fantasy-) have made up yet another recipe for release with
Final Fantasy XIII - the
Final Fantasy XIII Elixir. This new drink comes with a very potent lemon flavour, and is rich in vitamins B1 and B6. There will be two releases of the
Elixir, the first to be launched on December 8th, and will come in one of 16 can designs. The second release will start on December 22nd, and will come in one of the same cans, but then packaged in a special box with a
Final Fantasy XIII Trading Art Mini designed after playable characters in the game.
As if that weren't enough,
Square Enix are cashing in thanks to various apparel thats been announced over the last few months such as zippo lighters, jewelry, and most recently even tshirts featuring designs of
Shiva and
Odin. The majority of
Square Enix apparel merchandise is usually only available at the official
Square Enix Shop (except for the cheaper bits that is), so you'd have to check that out (and be lucky enough to live in Japan, unless they eventually come over to the North American and European stores) in order to get them.
So, finally, back onto scans. The latest issue of
Shonen Jump magazine features a few new bits of information concerning the game. Firstly we have the official announcement of Hope's Eidolon Alexander. This obviously means that its looking less and less likely that the creatures we saw in trailers (that looked like this game's incarnation of Siren, Ifrit, and Carbuncle (the latter of which we saw interacting with
Vanille)) are going to be used by our playable party. It'll be interesting to see what exactly their purpose is to be in the final game. Obviously we're waiting on much better qualities of the pages shown below, but from the computer generated render available (which usually shows the summon in its
Gestalt Mode), Alexander retains something of his classic appearance, though in shades of gold, and from the battle pictures seemingly spread around Hope like a giant fortress.
The second half of the article concerns the return of
chocobos, of which we already knew thanks to one of the random musics available on the game's
Japanese website. Chocobos have been slightly redesigned, and seem to come with a punk-like crest, and dangling on either side of their heads are a collection of feathers that resemble bunny-ears. According to the article, chocobos can be ridden around some of the locations of the main-world of
Pulse, and come equipped with health meters, which runs down as you are attacked by monsters. No longer are chocobos a nice method of avoiding battle...well they are, in a way, its just that they take damage from the encounters. Once their health reaches 0, they will throw off the rider, and run away, leaving you to fend for yourself.
Now for a little tidbit concerning the releases of the game in North America and Europe. First of all, the European versions of the game will feature English voices, but with subtitles and text in one of the five major languages of Europe, depending on country (English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish). Now for the more interesting news; president and CEO of Square Enix,
Yoichi Wada (a man who's pure interest in profit annoys me somewhat) announced yesterday that its very likely, should things continue as they are, that
Final Fantasy XIII will see its release outside of Japan before the end of the current financial year. For those who don't know what that entails, it means we
could get
Final Fantasy XIII released world-wide before March 31st, thus within 3 months of its Japanese release (much less than the predictions of 6 months given by the development team). Hopefully we can take the man at his word, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much.
Final Fantasy XIII is due for a Japanese release date of December 17th, with the rest of the world planned for Spring 2010.
You can buy products advertised in this post via Final Fantasy Insight:
Final Fantasy XIII Game
Final Fantasy XIII (Japanese, via Play-Asia)
Final Fantasy XIII & PS3 Slim "Lightning Edition" Bundle (Japanese, via Play-Asia)
Please note that all PlayStation 3 goods are unavailable for European import at Play-AsiaFinal Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack [Regular Edition] (via Play-Asia)
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack [Regular Edition] (via CD Japan)
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack [Limited Edition] (via Play-Asia)
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack [Limited Edition] (via CD Japan)
Final Fantasy XIII "Kimi ga Iru Kara" Vocal Single by Sayuri Sugawara
Kimi ga Iru Kara [regular CD edition] (via Play-Asia)
Kimi ga Iru Kara [regular CD edition] (via CD Japan)
Kimi ga Iru Kara [CD and DVD edition] (via Play-Asia)
Kimi ga Iru Kara [CD and DVD edition] (via CD Japan)
(I will try and get a special merchandise page up as quickly as possible to advertise other products, because otherwise these news posts could get ridiculously big).
Source:
Square Enix,
FF-Reunion,
Final Fantasy World
