Nomura says FFXIII will be the first game to use PS3's full specs...

Can't believe no one posted this yet:

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200711/N07.1120.1138.33376.htm

In a recent interview with Japanese publication Dengeki (translated by FinalFantasyXIII.net), Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura revealed a few interesting elements about the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII for the PlayStation 3. Nomura states that Final Fantasy XIII will probably be the first game to use the full specifications of the PlayStation 3, and with the help of the standard hard drive of the console, and Blu-ray disc capacity, the evolution of Final Fantasy XII to XIII will be as big of a leap as Final Fantasy VI to VII.

Players will also be able to take part in airborne assaults with the airships in Final Fantasy XIII. Finally, when Dengeki questioned him whether or not the Final Fantasy XIII games will be PlayStation 3 exclusive, Nomura said, "Of course."

"The evolution of Final Fantasy XII to XIII will be as big ofa leap as Final Fantasy VI to VII?" Very bold words.

However, FFVII was revolutionary because it was a 2D to 3D transition, AND the era of video games at that time had a lot to do with it. Think about it, games like Crysis, Bioshock, Gears of War, and Call of Duty 4 are already displaying amazing graphics, so I highly doubt FFXIII would do anything that we haven't already seen. What the series needs, IMO, is a gameplay evolution,...but since it's a Nomura/Kitase game, the same team behind FFX and er, FFVII Dirge of Cerberus, I highly doubt the gameplay would have any impact. Also to note, I expectthe storytelling may be shallow and um...weird as well, because it's the same guys who brought us the crazy Advent Children, and I mean crazy in a bad way.

So I personally think that the evolution from FFXII to FFXIII won't be as impactual.FFVII was a milestone, likethe Ocarina of JRPGs...so I can't accept Nomura's belief here.

Read it on SW yesterday... Anyways it better be good because it's why I got a ps3. FF13 looks great so far but I'm more into ff versus... dunno the theme seems more interesting. The trailer looked dark and king was careless....kinda cool and new for a ff game.

To me the battle system from ffx to ffxii was a huge leap...

Squenix is guilty of a lot things, but a failure to evolve (or at least experiment with) the gameplay of the mainline FF games isn't one of those things. FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX, FFX-2 and FF12 all play differently(though the biggest departure is that of FF12). Of course, there are people who complain when a game changes and people who complain when it stays the same.

However, due to the fact that the gameplay changes each go-round, I can't get really excited about any of the FF13s until I see some gameplay footage.

Too bad Nomura isn't working on FFXIII but Versus... :P

But I think we need to get a reality here on release date before anything else. At the rate we are going a Fall 09 Release date for US does seem like a possiblity.

Hmm while what he says sounds interesting and promising I guess we'll just have to wait for the final product.

Anyway I've always loved the Final Fantasy games so this one is high on my wish list simply by default right now. I have always enjoyed the storys in them as they gave me a feeling of grandness or an epic adventure so I'm expecting the same here as well. They've also haven't been afraid to introduce new elements to the gameplay yet they make sure not to break things. Many of the spin-offs have turned out pretty lame but when it comes to the main series they have always kept up a high level of quality.

I'd be more apt to take him at his word if he showed something other than CG cutscenes to back it up. Somehow, I really doubt that FF13 will look as good as Uncharted.

And personally speaking about changes to the franchise, I'd love to see them ditch CG. That stuff is so nineties.

They can keep adding to the hype train as much as they want - we won't be playing FFXIII until mid 2009 at the very earliest here in the U.S. so it's tough for me to get legitimately excited about it right now.

Also Square Enix is not the same company in terms of quality they were 5 years ago, let alone during the FFVI/FFVII years. I did enjoy FFXII a bunch and this is on my radar no doubt but enough hyperbole already, wake me when there's a demo out there.

What the series needs, IMO, is a gameplay evolutionASK_Story

I like this statement :)

I think every developer could benefit from these words.

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

SemiMaster

Alright, I don't want to be hatin, but thebiggest difference between Final Fantasy 7 and 6 is the presentation. It plays largely the same andhas the same kind of plot except it was in 3D.

By saying there is a huge leap from 6 to 7 and that 13 will be the same... basically he is just promised that the graphics will be better and their hair will be more gravity-defying.

[QUOTE="SemiMaster"]

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

AtomicTangerine

Alright, I don't want to be hatin, but thebiggest difference between Final Fantasy 7 and 6 is the presentation. It plays largely the same andhas the same kind of plot except it was in 3D.

By saying there is a huge leap from 6 to 7 and that 13 will be the same... basically he is just promised that the graphics will be better and their hair will be more gravity-defying.

By that line of thought, Final Fantasy has played the same since its inception for the most part withstanding the tweaks and reinventions.

7 had more mini games, more side quests, better graphics and was the first truly cinematic game ever. Also, the materia customization and combination of attacks has never been rivaled anywhere else.

[QUOTE="SemiMaster"]

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

AtomicTangerine

Alright, I don't want to be hatin, but thebiggest difference between Final Fantasy 7 and 6 is the presentation. It plays largely the same andhas the same kind of plot except it was in 3D.

By saying there is a huge leap from 6 to 7 and that 13 will be the same... basically he is just promised that the graphics will be better and their hair will be more gravity-defying.

I don't doubt that it will be a great game, or that it will be one of the best looking games out there. But having the same impact as FF7? I doubt that very much.

I also think Versus looks better so far.

[QUOTE="SemiMaster"]

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

AtomicTangerine

Alright, I don't want to be hatin, but thebiggest difference between Final Fantasy 7 and 6 is the presentation. It plays largely the same andhas the same kind of plot except it was in 3D.

By saying there is a huge leap from 6 to 7 and that 13 will be the same... basically he is just promised that the graphics will be better and their hair will be more gravity-defying.

Baseless comments, so basically, GTA is the same game with different presentation.

Terms like the one he's used have become meaningless over the years - if they actually had any meaning to begin with, of course.

I think of it this way - every console has a set number of resources, and unless we're talking a game that's ported up to the console, there is no reason why the developer is going to leave 40% of the console's CPU or memory idle. During development they're going to work on their ideal game and then tailor it towards the system in question, which (hopefully) would result in corners being cut, graphical effects lessened, and so on, so that it runs acceptably given the limitations of the hardware.

The advantage I see coming from later games in a console's life cycle isn't because some developer magically discovered a hidden processing unit or 2MB of cache that no one ever used before, it's because they've gotten familiar enough with the system that they're coding more efficiently for the hardware in question. Anyone can use the full specifications of the PS3, it comes down to whether they've coded a big sloppy mess, cached textures poorly, failed to plan out how things are loaded, how they handle hidden objects, etc. What Square has given us is a big messy wad of meaningless marketing drivel.

And with companies like Square, I think having Blu-Ray is counterproductive to good game design. We all know that the only real use they have for the extra spaceis to cram the only thing that really uses it up - full motion video. Shame-us is right - FMV went out of style when developers started having the ability to create close to FMV quality cutscenes in-engine.

In... the future.LordAndrew

2008 future? Or so-far-away-that-FFXIII-turns-into-historical-fiction future?

[QUOTE="AtomicTangerine"][QUOTE="SemiMaster"]

Games that were revolutionary or evolutionary (you choose) were Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Somehow I don't see FFXIII falling into the category of these three.

It might be an amazing game (which I don't doubt), but it's probably not going to be like those games with their major transitions in gameplay and graphical prowess.

Besides, I doubt using the RAM is that hard to do with any system now, it's how well will the utilize the Cell for physics and AI scripting and what not.

F1Lengend

Alright, I don't want to be hatin, but thebiggest difference between Final Fantasy 7 and 6 is the presentation. It plays largely the same andhas the same kind of plot except it was in 3D.

By saying there is a huge leap from 6 to 7 and that 13 will be the same... basically he is just promised that the graphics will be better and their hair will be more gravity-defying.

Baseless comments, so basically, GTA is the same game with different presentation.

Dude, if you mean the leap from GTA 2 to 3, that's totally different. GTA 3 reinvented the game in 3 dimensions, and actually added a lot to make it more than 1 or 2 ever was. You actually moveda guy through a 3D world, meaning up and down and around every corner. Final Fantasy 7 had you going around a 3D overworld that worked almost exactly the same as 6 except now there was no mode 7, it was actually 3D. Whenever you get to a town or something, you stare at pre-rendered locations and move your characters through them.

Not saying 7 was bad, just realize that the only major difference was how the game was presented, not the gameplay or plot or anything like that.

And also... The minigames in Final Fantasy 7 were terrible. Chocobo breeding was sorta fun, but actually racing them? Not so much.

Here is a link to an IGN article about the sameinterview which is a little more complete.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/837/837350p1.html

Below are some of the more interesting passages.

"On the hardware side," said Kitase, "thanks to the storage space of Blu-Ray and the inclusion of a hard drive, we're able to deal with load times.

"Compared to the move to the PS2, the move to the PS3 is more difficult. Planning and so-forth haven't changed much as far as work is concerned, but overall, the amount of graphics work has gone up considerably. You can show tiny details, so you have to make put tiny details in your illustrations."

"The other day," said Nomura, "I saw a test of an airship flying over the world map. I felt that I was seeing a Final Fantasy-like screen for the first time in a long time. However, the fact that things have become realistic made us concerned about what to do about the scale. It's the same scale as past FF games, but even then, it's so wide that you can't make out the first town."

Gameplay is key, but having a big world to explore is always nice.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/837/837350p1.html