FFXIII-2 Gets a Big Reveal at E3

Square decided to bring forth some new information on Final Fantasy XIII-2 to light this year at E3. Continuing from the the first ambiguous teaser trailer they released, the added another ambiguous teaser showing short clips of the different things going on in the game, each revolving around Serah and this new guy called Noel. Things varied from them walking around with a moogle to them fighting a giant arm. No dialogue, hardly any music, and all of it ending with the game's title logo at the end. Very informative, Square, very informative. I was beginning to think that that was all that they were going to show at E3, because I've known Square to pull silly tricks like that often, but then they released the trailer I have here a couple of days ago, along with a full set of interviews. From what I've gathered, this sequel is going to be a billion times better than the original. I think that this game was going to be the true Final Fantasy XIII, and the original was really just something to set the stage for this sequel. For the first time, it seems that Square might just actually release a sequel to a numbered game that is actually good. This is something I have to see. Also, they said that there would be multiple endings in this game. It seems to me that this game is going to be a historical turning point for Square and it's Final Fantasy series, if they decide to follow up from this game. I doubt it, though; each time they release a game, you never know what the gameplay might be like save for the fact that it's an RPG. There's apparently a video interview with someone representing Square Enix, NA, and it's supposed to cover some information regarding the gameplay, so let's check that out first.

Okay, so for the most part, it's basically stuff I already read in the interview with Kitase. Let me open that up real quick so that I could cite some information. You can hire monsters to fight for you in this game, weirdly enough. It doesn't seem like something I would use. Also in battle is a little something called Cinematic Action, which basically looks like reaction commands from Kingdom Hearts 2. You can see them in action in the video above, where you see something like a cutscene come up during the battle with that weird arm thing, and you'll see something on screen indicating a button you need to press. While it doesn't entirely live up to the original battle design that they were going to implement on in Final Fantasy XIII, it looks cool enough to switch up the battles a little bit and to give the player a more active role in the game. It's about damn time. They also say that they are going to make the world an open and exlporational world with towns and shops and NPCs of which you could speak to and decide what to say. Sounds very reminiscent of Fallout and Elder Scrolls. As with all traditional towns, each town will have shops in them. They also said that they are implementing an AI in each individual NPC, so they will be doing a variety of their own things like walking with their families and such. There will be actual side missions for once, and they said it will be like in Red Dead Redemption where you would go up to some other NPC who is offering a special mission that doesn't have to do with the main storyline or something of the sort. I think this is a fantastic improvement to the game. I can't wait to see what that would be like.

There's not much else to say other than that. They also spoke of the music in the game and how Red Dead Redemption inspired them, somehow. They also talked about how the game was going to run on the Xbox and how many discs will be needed and all sorts of other shit I don't care about because I'm getting the game for the PS3. This really looks amazing, and they said it will be out sometime early 2012, not Winter 2012 that Final Fantasy Wikia said. I can't wait for it!