Final Fantasy XIII: Square Enix Interview

We catch up with Square Enix Corporate Director Shinji Hashimoto and Final Fantasy series Producer Yoshinori Kitase to find out about one of 2009's biggest games.

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Kikizo: How does FFXIII relate to the other "Fabula Nova Crystallis" games?

Hashimoto: All of the FFXIII games are done by a different director. They all took the common "crystal mythology" of the game's storyline and decided to each interpret it in their own way. We gave them all their own creative freedom with the story and game style. All three games are very different experiences.

Kikizo: Is Lightning the de facto main character, or will other characters be heavily focused upon, as well?

Kitase: In terms of overall scope, Lightning - that's not her real name, by the way - will be the main character. Of course, there may be other characters that assume the main role during other portions of the game. They will be featured as the main part of the scene, but Lightning will be the main focus.

Kikizo: So why pick a female as a main character this time around?

Kitase: In the past, we've had females in a semi-lead position, like Terra/Tina in Final Fantasy VI and Yuna in FFX. They weren't quite the main role, though, so we really wanted to give a full-fledged, female lead a try - and face the challenge of creating a story around her.

Kikizo: The world of FFXIII appears to be neither pure traditional fantasy nor science fiction. What is the concept behind this world?

Kitase: Whether a title will have a more high fantasy or SF flavour is something that is up to each individual team. We decide on what we want to do fairly early on in development. For FFX, it was more of fantasy feel, while FF7 was more high-tech. The team behind FFXIII consists on many of the same staff that worked on FFX. Since FFX was a fantasy-oriented setting, we wanted to switch gears a bit and go more towards a science fiction feel for the game.

Kikizo: From what we've seen of the game so far, we've seen a lot of guns and other sci-fi-like weaponry in the game. We also have more human enemies, and not too many monsters. Is this indicative of what we're going to see in the final game?

Kitase: The trailer and screenshots were actually created at a very early stage in development, so at that point there were only humanoid enemies we could show. Same thing with the guns. In the final product, we assure you that there will be a lot more variety.

Kikizo: So - can you tell us anything about the enemies we will be encountering?

Kitase: There will be a variety of monsters depending on the location within the game. For example, as you can see in the trailer, the characters are in a city setting, and the enemies are an army of soldiers. In nature environments, you'll probably see more beast-like, "organic" type enemies.

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