New Details From Famitsu

(note that a mod can lock my other thread asking if the details have been released now that they have)

Apparently, Square released new details to Famitsu today (yesterday?) and they've just finished being translated.

• The game is currently 30% complete

• This will be Lightning’s last game and will end with a happy ending. The game has just one ending.

• The first FFXIII was story driven, meaning that the story pulled the player along. FFXIII-2 was player driven, meaning players selected the story. Lightning Returns is World Driven, meaning players have to consider how they interact with the changing world.

• The game’s in-game time works out to one day being the equivalent of one to two hours of real time. There will be increases and decreases in time.

• The game is meant to be played and cleared multiple times. The volume is not such that it will take many tens of hours to clear once.

• People from XIII-2 haven’t died. Because of the effects of the chaos (I’m not sure if this is the proper English word), people have stopped aging and don’t get old.

• The Novus world has four continents, two natural and two city-type.

• Depending on your actions, the remaining life of the world could decrease, and the game could end before the 13 day limit.

• There are some times when helping someone will decrease the life of the world.

• Defeating some enemies and clearing some quests will increase the life of the world.

• Lightning is all by herself in battle, allowing you to concentrate more than when you had to control a party.

• Lightning has become a considerably more refined person.

• You can freely move around during battle. Some elements of the battle system are timing-based.

• The battle system is close to action. There’s an ATB gauge.

• During battle, you don’t select menu commands. Instead, you select abilities which have been assigned to buttons.

• Hope will give guidance to Lightning via wireless com.

• The city has clocks everywhere showing the constant progression of time.

Source: http://gamingbolt.com/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-details-game-30-complete-happy-ending

So, what does everyone think? It seems like the first completion of the game will take at most 26 hours, which seems a bit quick for a Final Fantasy game, bot on the other hand they expect you to do the 13 days over again several times which makes me think the extras in this game are going to be HUGE. Given the effects of Chaos, pretty much anything in the last two games could be featured. That's a lot of people and monsters we've interacted with.

Also, here's to hoping we get to venture through Bhunivelze (the new Cocoon), that would be awesome. Chances are though we won't. I think it's still there because it will play in with the story.

I fixed that line for you guys, I was wondering what the hell ponies were.

I am really interested to see how the battle system is going to work out since only 1 character will be playable. I'm assuming that things will move much much faster when battling monsters and such. I also like the fact that they are focusing on replay ability and not just beating the game once to be done.

Thanks, Scott. I'm inclined to believe someone did it on purpose..since I see a MLP avatar.

I haven't played the DLC either, nor have I beat the second one yet. So I have absolutely no idea as to what they did there.

Also I failed to mention how the whole day will be 2 hours irl, that should play out nicely. Fable-type gameplay? Could incorporate alot of stuff into that.

quote Boo

I know y'all are excited about the time and replay stuff...

BUT I'M SO EXCITED THEY'VE CONFIRMED HOPE'S RETURN.
Does this mean Noel, Sazh and Snow might make an appearance?

And could we push it to see the release of Vanille and Fang?
What a wake up that would be. The world they sacrificed themselves to save... Practically dead.

It would be sorta comical to see them fly into a rage over that little detail.

Hmmm they got 30% of it done pretty quickly. I still think it will come out around September to December next year after they are finished with the game early on next year, what with translation, localization and marketing its a safe bet it will come out near the end of next year.

I'm interested on how they will get you to play it multiple times since it only has one ending. The side quests and rewards for them will have to be really good and special to make people come back to play the game and do the other sidequests. But if your choices majorly affect the world I guess it could draw you in to play it multiple times to see how the world will change each time.

Octoberish sounds like a good time to release the game, close to the holidays but not really there.

SoraCloud - That is the same thing that I was thinking, even though the game is going to have one ending I'm sure that various aspects of the game would have to change with the quests. Specially considering that the game would be over before the 13 day limit(which is odd..again considering the 1 ending idea.).

I'm actually a bit disappointed that this game is not showing at TGS. I was actually looking forward to see some of the new gameplay Square Enix is cooking up.