Gaimaga Blows Out Final Fantasy XIII

By Anoop Gantayat

The latest batch of Japan's biggest monthly game magazines have made their way out following E3, and contained within are juicy new details on Final Fantasy XIII. The July issues of Hyper PlayStation and Gaimaga (the latter formerly known as Dori-Maga) provide new hints on what we can expect from the bothPS3 entries.

Motomu Toriyama, director of the main FFXIII title for the PS3, revealed to Gaimaga that scenario work for his project is 80% complete, with the game's visual engine, running on actual PS3 hardware, being nearly finished. "Now," he said, "is the time for the true start of FFXIII."

Final Fantasy Versus XIII appears to be trailing in development. "Absolutely nothing has been done on the actual scenario," director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura revealed to Gaimaga. "However, I've had the plot worked out for some time, so you could say I'm discussing the plot and concept with the staff. However, we've yet to start actual work on the scenario."

Toriyama and Versus producer Shinji Hashimoto defended the decision to release FFXIII on the PS3. According to Hashimoto, the development staff determined that one DVD would not be enough for the type of visual expression they were attempting to make. Toriyama noted that, regarding visual expression, the PS3's shader abilities are a big factor.

Series producer Yoshinori Kitase pointed out that the use of shaders has caused some difficulties with development. Making a standard texture, something that would have been done with a PS2 game, would typically require the work of just one designer. With the switch to shaders, designers and programmers have to be paired up, resulting in some logistical difficulties.

Kitase has some insight into the differences in making a game for the PS2 as opposed to the PS3. As announced at the FFXIII unveiling press conference at E3, Final Fantasy XIII development originally started on the PS2. This was approximately two to three years ago. Following their work on the Final Fantasy VII technical demonstration from last year's E3, the development staff started anew on the PS3 -- tossing everything they'd created for FFXIII up to that point. "We're truly making everything from scratch," commented Kitase in regard to the game's White Engine. "We're currently at the step where we're attempting to make an easy development environment."

Continues