In a recent interview, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase, talks on some of the specifics for the command systems of the three games that comprise Final Fantasy XIII. Now if you've been following news on the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, then most of what Kitase says will already be familiar to you, but let this serve as a refresher course. Fabula Nova Crystallis 101.

Well, it's confirmed. If any of you guys have a convenient ticket going to Japan, now would be a good time to book it so you can catch the Jump Festa 2008 event. That's where Square Enix will be previewing the closed door trailer of its upcoming Final Fantasy Fabula Nova Crystallis games, as well as its other highly anticipated titles for next year.

For more information, read more it in the full article!

  

TGS is right around the corner, and it's no surprise that the big boys of the videogame industry are packing their biggest guns for the event. Such is the case with Square Enix, having recently announced that it will be showing new, exclusive trailers of its highly-anticipated titles in two separate Mega Theaters at TGS. Talk about jumping into the fray armed!

So what titles are going to get the special trailer treatment from Squeenix? In no particular order, they're Dragon Quest IX (DS), The Last Remnant (Xbox 360), Final Fantasy XI (Xbox 360, PC), Final Fantasy Dissidia (PSP) and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII (PS3). That's five titles we haven't been hearing much of lately, with emphasis on the highly-anticipated sequel to one of the greatest RPG series ever made.

There's a catch, though. Final Fantasy Dissidia and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII will have their trailers shown in Squeenix's Closed Mega Theater, while the others will be airing at the Open Mega Theater. So it's going to be pretty tough for anyone who'd want to watch what's the latest with the Final Fantasy character-packed fighting game for the PSP, as well as the first ever main female lead of a Final Fantasy game (second if you count Yuna).

An individual who goes by the handle "Ceb" posted several supposed interview excerpts from the latest issue of LEVEL magazine on NeoGAF. Most of the series of quotes were about Square-Enix's plans for their upcoming Final Fantasy titles (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and FFVII: Crisis Core). Below are several of the more interesting details.

When asked to clarify about Versus XIII's similarity to Fabula Nova Crystallis, Nomura said that "The only similarity between the games that you can find is in the vague crystal theme." Motomu Toriyama adds that each game is evolving in their own direction and each "take place in separate worlds with their own main characters."

Toriyama even says that there isn't any cooperation or communication (to some extent) between the development teams of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

As for Nomura's previous mention that Versus XIII is his attempt at making the darkest FF ever, Tetsuya Nomura noted that when he was producing Kingdom Hearts he was "in a world so bright" that he "almost got blinded." He notes that Versus XIII will contain "less fantasy than usual' and will focus more on humanity and more believable experiences.

As for cameos of known characters in the PlayStation Portable title, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Game Director, Hajime Tabata had this to say:

All I can say is that you encounter characters from the original game in Crisis Core. But you have to have in mind that this is a game about Zack and the Soldier organization. So even if the fans' opinions are important, I won't risk to destroy the central theme by throwing in loved characters who would disrupt the balance in the game.

For all the excerpts feel free to head to Ceb's original post using our "read' link below.

Shinji Hashimoto of Square Enix gave quite a meaty lump of information to Japanese magazine "Nintendo Dream". The whole interview focused much on the whole concept of the Final Fantasy franchise. We know that the epic RPGs stand alone with each installment, but how come there are other spin-offs for certain games?

In a nutshell, you can basically subdivide the FF franchise into four different developing groups: a) Fabula Nova Crystallis (FFXIII), b) the Ivalice Alliance (Tactics, FFXII, Revenant Wings), c) Crystal Chronicles (Nintendo-exlusives), and d) FFXI. Each of these major groups develop their own sub-installments. Like how the FFVII team further developed other spin-offs like Crisis Core for the PSP, the Advent Children movie, etc.

But as for specifics on the more current games being developed, Hashimoto had quite a bold (albeit reassuring) statement about how they created FFXIII:

Different from something like VII, which we expanded upon afterwards, with Fabula Nova Crystallis FFXIII, we've thought about an expansive world setting from the start. Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years, we're preparing a number of categories.

So they have further plans eh? After giving that statement, he even compared FFXIII to other series like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or LOTR. Seems like there's nothing that'll stop Final Fantasy from being final. Or is there? On the subject of bringing the early FF games onto services such as Virtual Console, it seems as if that idea is being set aside to the back burner:

We feel that the Japanese game market still requires [physical] media. Also, FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems.

Physical media huh? In short, they won't make the previous games available as downloads, but something physical. Like... The UMD. Final Fantasy I & II are being released for the PSP, after all, and not ported onto an online service.

There's lots of big stuff in the full interview, which IGN had kindly translated for everyone. More talk about chocobos, potions, Dragon Quest, Square Enix parties, and "a Final Fantasy not known by anyone." Take a look, just right behind the Read link below!