Final Fantasy XIII Trailer Impressions

TOKYO--At the DK Sigma 3173 event in Tokyo, Square Enix showed off trailers for its trio of Final Fantasy XIII games. The following is a roundup, but after the end of the trailers, there were a few surprise announcements. In particular, Final Fantasy XIII for the PlayStation 3 was confirmed for a 2009 release, and a playable demo will be bundled with the first shipment of Final Fantasy VI: Advent Children Complete (Blu-ray). Final Fantasy Agito XIII has been announced for the PSP, with no word on the mobile-phone version's status.

Final Fantasy XIII

For the most part, Final Fantasy XIII's trailer consisted of CG cutscenes that were shown in previously released videos. To recap what's been revealed so far, the story of FFXIII involves a large, floating, circular city called the Cocoon that's protected by machines and monsters created by a sentient crystal. The people living in the Cocoon are afraid of the outside world, which is called the Pulse, and the Cocoon's holy government exiles anyone suspected to have been influenced by the outside world.

The new trailer shown at this event confirmed that the tall blond man and the reddish-brown-haired girl who were seen in previous trailers will be friends with the game's protagonist, Lightning. One scene in the trailer showed the three characters walking together in an icy area, at which point they suddenly found themselves surrounded by soldiers with guns. As the three members braced themselves for battle, Lightning actually showed some signs of anger on her face, which is probably the first time that she's revealed any emotion in the trailers.

In another scene, we saw the reddish-brown-haired girl being escorted by soldiers who carried a cybernetic-looking object in front of her that looked a bit like a white coffin. The girl was wearing a white robe with her hands attached together, rather than the usual savannah-like outfit from previous trailers. As she walked toward a battle plane together with the soldiers, a blond-haired lady in a military outfit came out of the plane and walked toward her. We're assuming that she's some sort of commander or general working for the Cocoon's holy government.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII

Originally announced for mobile phones, Final Fantasy Agito XIII's storyline has remained somewhat fuzzy up until now. Previous trailers hinted that the game takes place in an academy and that it involves crystals. With the PSP version now announced, we were shown a better trailer that gives us an idea of the Agito world, and as it turns out, it's more than just a school story.

The new trailer started off with a brief look over the map of Orience, which is the name of FF Agito XIII's world. According to the narration, the four main countries of Orience have been in peace, thanks to a treaty that they've been respecting. But things took a change when a country known as the Milites suddenly decided to mount an invasion. Using its latest technological weapons, the country cut off the magic powers of Peristerium Suzaku, rendering its people powerless and forcing them to give in and break contact with the crystal. (Peristerium Suzaku is apparently the name of the location that we've seen in previous trailers. From the narration, we're assuming that it protects the other countries or something along those lines.)

The trailer showed a scene that looked like a Nazi speech from World War II, in which the leader of the Milites stood on a platform and zealously gave a speech to his soldiers in the middle of a street. As he raised his hands, the buildings on the side of the street suddenly rocketed up into the air and flew away. They turned out to not be buildings, but rather flying war vessels headed out for invasion.

The screen then changed to the world map again, with arrows showing how the Milites have rapidly started to conquer various areas of the Orience. The narration then told us that, given the grave situation, Peristerium Suzaku decided to assemble a small, elite team of warriors to free its capital city.

After the map scene, the screen surprisingly changed to in-game footage from the PSP version, which looked pretty solid and of high quality. The screen layout looked very typical of the usual Final Fantasy role-playing game, with a command menu and party-status window on the bottom. A gray-haired girl in a school outfit was seen attacking an enemy, followed by another battle scene in which three characters fought as a party against giant mechs. There was also a scene that looked like a monster summons, in which the player character went off the screen and a black knight appeared on a horse (probably Odin) to attack the enemy.

The trailer ended with a scene in which teams of soldiers wearing gray robes assembled together, each one holding a different weapon. The screen went pitch black, and the words "PSP version coming" appeared.

In another piece of video footage, the developers revealed that Agito may have seemed like a school game up until now, but you'll end up controlling more than just the student characters. There wasn't any specific mention of the game's release period or how far its development is just yet, although it was mentioned that they barely completed three characters to show them off for the battle scenes in the trailer.

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