Final Fantasy XIII without a doubt looks like a great game so far, but will it really be able to live up to its name? Final Fantasy was once a name that stood for a brand in the RPG universe, today Final Fantasy more or less has already become a synonym for the term RPG (Role Playing Game). Most fans of the series know about the fact that Final Fantasy was supposed to be the last game made by Squaresoft, as they were out of money. Final Fantasy saved their revenue and so they kept on making the games.
At some point Square realised that Final Fantasy just generally sells and started exploiting the series’ name. Now we have all sorts of Final Fantasies that are only loosely affiliated with the original concept of the franchise. There are card games, racers, action adventures and loads of other weird things. Of course, not all of it is bad – great games such as the Tactics series were also born through this decision.
So far, we know that both games are to be set in the same universe – that of two divided worlds, Cocoon and Pulse. Cocoon is set as a floating paradise filled with technology, while Pulse is a darker world where the people are being enslaved by crystals. The protagonist of FFXIII, a redheaded woman, has been given the codename ‘Lightning’ and is said to be a female version of Cloud from FFVII. She appears in the trailers with a blonde male and a girl with pigtails, who are assumed to be leading characters in the game. As for Versus XIII, very little is known about the protagonist, except that he is male with dark hair and colour-changing eyes and possesses extraordinary fighting abilities. Game director and designer Tetsuya Nomura has suggested that there will be also be a female character to parallel the male.
It has been tentatively hinted at that Final Fantasy XIII may be out in the US towards the end of 2008. No word yet on Versus XIII, but we here at Shinohan will keep you updated as news rolls in.
Sascha Zaman