Spring Release Date for Final Fantasy XIII
Sony to Debut Anticipated Final Fantasy RPG for PlayStation 3
Oct 7, 2009
Then Squaresoft, Square Enix began solidifying itself as the name in traditional role-playing games (RPGs) as early as 1987. In that year, the first Final Fantasy was released in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It took three more years for the classic video game to hit North America. Since then, Square Enix has dominated the RPG market, releasing more than 20 Final Fantasy games, revamps, and spin-offs for various consoles and hand-held gaming devices.
Now, more than two decades after the first Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII for Sony's PlayStation 3 will hit stores in spring of 2010. The video game will be released sooner in Japan, with a release date currently set for December 17, 2009 — only nine days before Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers for the Nintendo Wii hits North American stores. 2010 looks to be a record-setting income year for Square Enix.
Final Fantasy XIII — Is the PlayStation 3 RPG Worth All the Hype?
Judging from early screen images, trailers, and details leaked online, Final Fantasy XIII warrants all the attention it is garnering. Why wouldn't it? Square Enix has delivered time and time again. With the capabilities of PlayStation 3 behind it, Final Fantasy XIII may very well be the most visually impressive game in the series. Cinematic graphics most closely resemble that seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
The gameplay for Final Fantasy XIII will be somewhat turn-based as in earlier installments, but will also feature Active Time Battle (ATB), allowing for combos and chain attacks. Like most of the more recent Final Fantasy games, it will likely take practice in order to master.
But any fan of the RPG saga knows that Final Fantasy isn't all about graphics and gameplay. Its about characters, summon creatures, weapons, battles, music, experience gaining, gil, chocobos, and everything else that makes Final Fantasy, well, Final Fantasy, Most of all, though, it is about story.
Final Fantasy XIII Will Be Another Epic RPG Filled with Challenges
Square Enix's website says little about the storyline of Final Fantasy XIII. According to FinalFantasy13.org, the world of Final Fantasy XIII "will have the most technologically advanced culture ever seen in a Final Fantasy game." Its people "have lived alongside magic for so long that it has become irreversably (sic) integrated into both their technology and their everyday lives."
At least, that is the main characters' world, a floating mega-structure called Cocoon. Cocoon floats high above Pulse, a more primitive underworld. As civilians are wrongfully banished from Cocoon, some will rise up against a repressive government, intertwined with magical crystals that control all.
Four characters are named on Square Enix's website. They are: Lightning, the female, gun-blade wielding lead and former member of Cocoon's militia; Snow Villiers, the male leader of a resistance group who fights with nothing but his fists; Oerba Dia Vanille, a conflicted female with a fishing rod-type weapon; and Sazh Katzroy, the male pistol-wielding, chocobo chick-carrying pirate look-alike.
2010 is the Year for Final Fantasy, with the Wii's Crystal Bearers and PlayStation 3's Final Fantasy XIII Leading the Way
Final Fantasy XIII will be sold in North America sometime in spring 2010. In the meantime, Square Enix will release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, an action role-playing game for the Nintendo Wii, at the close of 2009. The PlayStation Final Fantasy, however, continues the popular series and will be a more comprehensive game than Crystal Bearers, in-line with earlier, true RPG versions. However, Crystal Bearers is age-appropriate for most gamers and will incorporate, in part, the Wii's motion system. Final Fantasy XIII is intended for teens and adults. It is far too complex for young children.
Final Fantasy XIII may also require additional purchases (e.g., strategy guide). Square Enix is producing additional games based on Final Fantasy XIII concepts. The entire compilation is called Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII and will feature the action role-playing adventures, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. Agito's gameplay will be similar to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP.
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