Posted on 23 November by Adrian Arnese – Senior Brand Manager, SQUARE ENIX
Powerful forces collide in a mysterious land, in this epic cinematic CG trailer for the forthcoming complete sequel to FINAL FANTASY XIII. Due for release on 3rd February 2012, FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 will take players beyond time, beyond fate and beyond imagination!
Posted on 22 April by Antonio Marfuggi – Brand Manager, SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
Hello, blogsters!
A while ago we promised to bring you more FINAL FANTASY XIII goodness to PlayStation Home. Well, today we’ve done it.
The long-awaited characters costume sets are now available in the Home stores, and we cannot wait to see you going around dressed like Lightning, Snow, Vanille, or sporting a fancy Chocobo Chick like our gunslinger Sazh.
Along with that, we’ve released some funky furniture pieces to bring more of Cocoon into your personal spaces.
Here’s a list of the new items:
Costumes:
Furniture:
Enjoy, and let us know what you think about it!
Posted on 9 March by Antonio Marfuggi – Brand Manager, SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
Hello, PlayStation bloggees!
It’s a big day for us at SQUARE ENIX: FINAL FANTASY XIII is in the shops at last, and I’m sure some of you are already busy following the adventures of Lightning and company.
To celebrate the game’s release on PS3, we created a set of very special items for PlayStation Home, inspired by the game’s locations and characters.
The items will be available for you from Thursday 11th March, and mark the beginning of SQUARE ENIX’s presence in Home.
Here’s a full list of items:
Personal space:
Furniture:
Check out the Home stores on Thursday, and keep an eye on these pages for more FINAL FANTASY XIII on Home news!
Posted on 9 March by Jem Alexander – Marketing Manager, Square Enix
For of a lot of you today is the end of a very long wait. Almost four years since the game’s announcement at E3 2006, FINAL FANTASY XIII is now on store shelves, available for purchase. I’m taking some time out from actually playing it to let you know that the PS3 version contains an extra special addition for fans of the series.
I know that the first temptation when opening the box for your game will be to grab the disc and stick it in your PS3 without hesitation. If you take a couple of seconds to explore the manual compartment, you’ll find a SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS card. In case you weren’t aware, SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS has gone beta in Europe and looks to be expanding in form and function over the coming months. This code will give you a free, special in-game item for SQUARE ENIX’s next title in the series, FINAL FANTASY XIV, which launches later this year.
Not only that, but inputting the code into the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS website will allow you to enter for a potential opportunity to be one of the very first to play FINAL FANTASY XIV in the PS3 closed beta. In case you don’t recall, at E3 last year we announced that the PS3 will be the only console you’ll be able to play FINAL FANTASY XIV — the series’ next MMO title — on when it launches this year. What more reason do you need to check out the new SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS EU site, and get signed up?
I thought I’d let you guys know, in case you overlooked this awesome opportunity. Keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog in the coming months for more FINAL FANTASY XIV info and if any of you are going to the London FFXIII launch event at HMV Oxford Street, I may see you there!
Posted on 12 February by Jem Alexander – Marketing Manager, Square Enix
As promised, the guys over at PlayStation.Blog US have had their own chance to talk Final Fantasy XIII with the game’s Producer, Yoshinori Kitase, and Director, Motomu Toriyama. I know that those of you eager to get your hands on the game (as I am!) will relish this opportunity for more insight from the men behind the development curtain. As well as a written interview with these gentlemen, you’ll also find a video interview between the US Blog’s Jeff Rubenstein and Yuji Abe, Final Fantasy XIII‘s Battle Director. It’s a good thing the game is out soon, or all these interviews would be little more than some sort of teasey torture.
Just a few weeks to go…
Here are the interviews, courtesy of the US Blog’s Chris Morell -
Earlier in the week, we told you we’d be meeting up with Square Enix to talk Final Fantasy XIII with Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Motomu Toriyama, along with the Battle Director Yuji Abe. So all your questions went to the former, which you can read in full form below.
But the FFXIII love fest didn’t end there. With the game less than a month away (March 9!), Jeff and I got to play a nice chunk of the game…enough to get familiar with the battle system to chat all about it with Mr. Abe. In the video, you’ll get an in-depth look into the game’s battle system, which I have to say, once you understand it, it’s quite intense.
PSB: With western RPGs becoming so popular, how were you influenced in Final Fantasy XIII to encompass all audiences?
Kitase/Toriyama: No games were a direct influence in particular, but we definitely looked at the FPS genre and other Western games to incorporate more speed and increase the pace of gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII. In terms of the FPS genre influence, the story progression of FFXIII is very similar to that (FPS) genre in the sense that different challenges and situations are presented to the character one after the other. That’s how they progress in the storyline.
Of course, there are a lot of North Americans that imported the game. What do you say to those who say the game might be too linear? Does the accusation bother you?
The earlier part of the game was intentionally created to be a linear experience because we wanted to make the experience similar to a movie or drama where players really get to know the characters and what is behind their actions.
And also, since this is a brand new system for FFXIII, we wanted to take the correct steps to make sure players can control that system at will. So it is a surprise that so many people are commenting that the game is linear, but once you get into the area of Pulse in the game , it’s much more of a free world and the battle system really comes to life. And once you have a good idea of how to control it, you can go full force and it should be a completely different experience.
Do you think that the idea of RPGs from the 80s and 90s being wide open is a dated stereotype?
There’s sort of a template to the RPG system, traditionally, where players would go to the town and find out information through text, leave town to fight monsters and then come back to town and buy health and items, etc. FFXIII didn’t really look for some sort of template to follow, but we tried to go out and create and set a new trend for RPGs. So there isn’t really a thought to stick to tradition.
How long would a play-through of the game with missions take?
As far as hours, of gameplay…if you play straight through the story it would be about 60 hours of gameplay. But if you decided to play through all the missions, it would be, well, basically eternity. It could last forever. The enemies in the Pulse area are much stronger, as well, so there’s lots of replay value there.
A collection of PlayStation news and links from around the web.
NOTE: All links are to external sites and open in a new window.
+ MikeZablo
+ jetpacksheep
+ g6t2d7a8
+ goonerrob1104
+ lhutton93