Final Fantasy XII: Details & Screens
Square Enix officially unveils Final Fantasy XII in Tokyo, after the first leaked images last week. Details, new screens and artwork inside.
Square Enix rounded up drooling members of the press in Tokyo's Roppongi district yesterday, to officially unveil the newest in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy XII. Echoing the firm's TGS Kingdom Hearts 2 conference, it was a slick event with a video speech from Ken Kutaragi, who praised the series for the 50 million units sold globally, followed by FF creator Hironobu Sakaguchi making a rare appearance to express his joy in seeing what the FFXII team, led by Yasumi Matsuno, is achieving.
FFXII takes place in the world of Ivalice, with two brand new teenage characters - blonde dude Vaan, and sexy girl Ashe. According the presentation that followed the three-minute video unveiling, the story goes something like this - the evil forces of the Arcadia Empire have taken over Vaan's homeland of the Damaska Kingdom, and the poor guy's family dies as a result. It seems the only way Vaan can escape the Empire is by realising his ambition to get his own air ship as part of a resistance to the Empire.
Ashe is the princess of the same homeland, and like Vaan, also has a score to settle with the Empire since it also took the life of her father, the King, leaving her heir to the throne - but only if she can beat the Empire. Ashe and Vaan meet as part of the resistance to the Empire.
FFXII also sees the return of the Judges, a group that punishes those who break the rules, effectively policing the society. Old FF favourite characters are expected to make an appearance.
From the video unveiled at the event, it's clear that the visual style of FFXII has evolved considerably since the last traditional episode of the series, FFX. A more mature, detailed look is apparent on the characters, who animate much more smoothly than before. According to the team, around half the number of polys are used on the characters, leaving more resources for more detailed textures and shading.
The CG cinema sequences, which develop the story through the game, are also astounding - but the emphasis in FFXII is most definitely on real-time. Speaking about the artistic style of FFXII, Matsuno pointed to the mix of European and Arabic styles, and revealed that the team ventured to Turkey to conduct research for the title.
It is apparent that Matsuno and his team have created an astounding fictional world with FFXII. Not only does it look beautiful, but also the emotive story is guaranteed to exhilarate, presenting a world with a society and politics that forces its audience to ask questions. The series has always been known for its beauty on a number of levels and FFXII will perhaps be the greatest realisation of the Final Fantasy vision ever created.
FFXII is expected to hit Japanese stores summer next year - expect more information, screens and videos to surface before then. Stay tuned.
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