With all of the recent talk of "Final Fantasy XIII-2" and "Final Fantasy Type-0," you might be starting to worry that Square-Enix has forgotten about -- or worse, shelved -- the originally announced sibling game to 2009's "Final Fantasy XIII," "Final Fantasy Versus XIII." I'll give you a minute to sort through the ridiculous number of finals and fantasies referenced above. Now for the good news: "Versus XIII" is still very much in development, as revealed in a new interview with the game's director and real-world hero of the series, Tetsuya Nomura.
The big thing Nomura touched upon in the interview was the game's battle system. He said that the menu items seen in a recently revealed trailer spell out to MAGIC, ITEM, SUMMON and EX-ARTS. He didn't have much to say about each one's function, though he did say that combat revolves around parties of three, though in a return to past games team members can be swapped as the larger party of playable characters grows.
The game's central character is Noctis Lucis Caelum, a member of a royal family who possesses powers stemming from the same. Nomura confirmed that Noctis is the only character able to use all weapon types, and that he additionally is able to access a special ability that no other character has access to... though he did say anything more about what Noctis can do than that. The rest of the characters all have unique abilities of their own of course... they're just not as regal about it.
The new trailer also showed off some of the game's badass controllable vehicles, which Nomura had a bit to say on. Players will be able to take control of, even steal, mechs, tanks, cars and the like from the army. This is in keeping with what we already know about the game; while not open world, the game's various areas are said to be quite vast, and vehicles will be required to fully explore them.
The details are cool -- especially the bit about blowing up enemies while at the controls of a massive mech -- but really, this amounts to one important thing: "Final Fantasy Versus XIII" is still very much on a course for release. Nomura even dropped a little nugget in that regard, indicating a 2012 bow is a possibility.
[via CVG]