RPGSite: The battles seem much more dynamic with set pieces going on… could you talk about this approach?
Kitase: We actually didn’t take any inspiration from any western RPGs. Not cautiously anyway. On the other hand, the Paradigm Shift system from Final Fantasy XIII was quite popular but most people liked it so we actually carried it over to make it a different version—not completely the same. Two examples, in XIII-2, you can actually recruit monsters and make them work for you, and there are more than 150 types of monsters there for you to capture, and they can help you. They progress the same as characters do in any RPG. Second, you’ve got one called Cinematic Action, so like in a big battle against a boss character the Cinematic Action element is put in so it’s more dynamic. And in every single way we want to make sure the player has some kind of interaction with the gameplay.
RPGSite: Do you feel that fans were disappointed with the original Final Fantasy XIII? Are there any features in Final Fantasy XIII-2 that were direct actions based on fan feedback and fans of the original?
Kitase: I think that XIII was criticized by other people we think because it was meant to be story-driven. But it was so much so, that people thought it was quite linear, which people didn’t like. So before we started making XIII-2, we decided that we were determined to take all the negative comments seriously, and rectify every single one of them fairly and properly. So this new game is more player driven, than story driven, so that the player will have very active involvement. There’s a lot more things you can do and explore, like towns and other things, and also you can choose what you want to say to a NPC.
RPGSite: One of the deepest criticisms that has been made was the lack of the traditional Final Fantasy town. In response in interviews, it was said by someone in the development team that making towns on a high definition system is actually quite difficult. So is that something that has finally gotten easier now? Have they developed ways to make it a quicker process? To make it a more painless process? Or can we still expect the towns to be smaller than what you would have found in games like Final Fantasy VII-IX.
Toriyama: Like Kitase said earlier, we did take it seriously that there was a huge criticism over no towns—we know people didn’t like it and so we took that and have towns in the new one. And you can explore the town and you can talk to all the people, and that will lead to other situations. Shops, as well now in XIII-2 you can find certain characters you can talk to and they can sell things to you and you can make purchases. I think if we created towns in the same way as we did for Final Fantasy VII-IX, it would be quite boring, and so it is very difficult. So with that we put an AI in every single person living in the town so they can do their own things. They may sit down and chat, or they may talk to their family members, or somebody they want to talk to, so they do their own actions. In that sense, it’s a quite different type of town you would find in a Final Fantasy [game].
RPGSite: At point did you decide to make Final Fantasy XIII-2, and what was the reason behind it?
Kitase: We actually made the decision to make a sequel right after the worldwide launch of Final Fantasy XIII. Around the time we were visiting the United States and other European countries on the promotion tour, we actually got a lot of positive reactions from the fans, and also obviously Final Fantasy XIII was luckily a commercial success with 5 millions units sold around the world—over 6 million. But we just felt generally that people wanted a sequel anyway, and while making Final Fantasy XIII we thought that the characters and the universe had more potential, not just squeezed into one title.
RPGSite: Will Final Fantasy XIII-2 be using a chapter based system, as far as story progression goes, because that was in Final Fantasy XIII, people thought that system made it too linear… will XIII-2 similar in that sense?
Toriyama: There isn’t an awful lot I can tell you on this subject, but we have changed that structure, because obviously people didn’t like it—there is a new one. For details on that, we’ll have to wait until TGS, but one thing I can tell you is that for the first time in the Final Fantasy series, XIII-2 will have multiple endings.
RPGSite: Could you explain why you went back to the Paradigm System for the battling? Was it because it’s a direct follow up from Final Fantasy XIII? Or do you guys feel like you’ve found the perfect balance in a battle system for the series?
Kitase: We decided to carry it over into the new game for of course the reason you just mentioned. Because it’s a sequel, it just seems, you know, the right thing to do, so we stuck to the same system. Also, it was quite popular in XIII, so we thought it was the best battle system to incorporate it into this game as well.
Having said that, it’s not just that we’re implementing the same battle system, but actually like I told you a bit earlier, you can capture and recruit over 150 different types of monsters, so that is a great addition and also more acutely strategic gameplay you can enjoy It compared to XIII.
RPGSite: Is there a common theme between XIII-2 and XIII? For instance, I noticed that in XIII-2 we have rap music going on when you’re exploring areas in town, and the whole introduction was this J-pop spectacle, so can you elaborate on this? Difference similar like those between X and X-2?
Kitase: It’s a different case than X to X-2 was, than in XIII to XIII-2. When we made X-2 we wanted to change absolutely everything, including music and the taste. X was more of an asian atmosphere, while X-2 was more pop style, so it was a total departure. Opposed to that, XIII to XIII-2, the seriousness of their universe and the way the story unfolds will remain unchanged. We just wanted to add some new elements, but the basic ideas have not changed much. It’s not like X to X-2 were it was a completely different thing. XIII to XIII-2 is an actual sequel. When it comes to music, in XIII Masashi Hamauzu did the music and he was quite popular which had an orchestral feel to it and that will actually be maintained as well, but with new elements.
What do you think of the music in XIII-2?
RPGSite: Unexpected. It reminded me of Persona… which that stuff can be brilliant depending on the situation.
Kitase: Obviously we want to make adjustments, because, like you say, if we stick the same kind of music all the way through, it might sound a bit out of place, or be a bit strange. We made it so every thing has an appropriate tune.
RPGSite: My proper question is about side quests, and the end game. One problem that a lot of people had with the original XIII and some of the other recent Final Fantasy titles is that once you finish them, there really isn’t that much to do. In XIII there were side quests, but they were all these monster hunt quests—there was nothing else. So I’m wondering if they’re looking at post game content stuff to do after the game is over, and if they’re looking at more variety of side quests during the game as well.
Toriyama: We mentioned the multi endings earlier, so it’s in relation to that so we can’t tell you very much about it. For people who have already cleared the game once, from the second playthrough on there are replay values attached to it. It’s a lot like New Game+, it’s the same system, so there are items and features than can entice you to keep playing. As far as side missions, there are more side missions a bit like in Red Dead Redemption. So it’s not just the hunts, it’s the other types of missions as well. One of the criticisms we received about Final Fantasy XIII was there was not enough mini games, and people want to see more of them, so that’s some of the things we added as well.
RPGSite: I had some questions about some of the new elements you’re throwing into the battle sequences. For example, you mentioned monster collecting earlier on… how do you exactly collect monsters in battle, and on a side note, what specific thing triggers the Cinematic Actions? Are they automatic? Or do you have to fill certain conditions for them to play out?
Kitase: Firstly, how to collect monsters. At first you have to defeat the monster, and when you meet certain conditions, at some certain rate obviously, it will enter you party and start working for you. You can mix them like if you play a card game and make a deck—it’s a bit like that. When it comes to the Cinematic Actions, there are two types: first is the one you saw in the demo against Atlas. When you take on a really big boss, when a certain level of damage has been inflicted on the boss, then it happens. Another thing with the Cinematic Action is, with some of the monsters you can collect, capture and make work for you, some of them can trigger those Actions.
RPGSite: You talked a little about Red Dead Redemption. Can you explain how that influenced you?
Toriyama: Among the millions of games that came out last year, Red Dead Redemption was adored by a lot of Japanese developers, including ourselves. Our game is not as open-field as that game, obviously. We did take some inspirations, however. For example, missions can happen anywhere rather than having to go to a certain shrine, or base or something, and that’s from them. In this game you see lots and lots of chocobos and you can ride them. The kind of feeling you get as you ride the chocobo, it’s a bit like the way you ride a horse. It’s a really refreshing feel good experience, and that’s one thing we learned from the game.
RPGSite: With Final Fantasy XIII, a lot of people felt that the Xbox 360 version was not as good as the PlayStation 3 version. What are you going to do to make sure the 360 version of XIII-2 is at least as close as it can be to the PlayStation 3 version?
Kitase: What we believe is even with Final Fantasy XIII there wasn’t an awful lot of difference when it comes to real time graphics. It’s about the same. When it comes to actual movie files, which was very heavy, the compression capacity of the two consoles was quite visible. In the meantime, we are now capable of event scenes/drama scenes as real time graphics rather than movies. The real problem that was causing so much difference between two versions, is a relatively small amount… it only makes up a small percentage of the entire graphical elements in XIII-2, so it’s not going to be a very big issue anyway.
RPGSite: Thank you for your time.
15 Dec 2011
31 Jan 2012
3 Feb 2012
i know right and look closely the ptiruce that they used for the WHITE ELITE is actually the one they used for the pro also i hate when people do this PEOPLE AN ELITE IS JUST A WHITE PRO EXCEPT FOR HDMI harddrive dosnt matte because its not like A PART of the actually system
Replyecpiman117 on June 13, 2011 @CutThroatKid123 I didn't know the exact price, I only knew it was someonthing REDICULOUS, especially for a hat .. and the last time I played was like 6-8 months ago.
ReplyClear, informative, silpme. Could I send you some e-hugs?
Replypoke'mon got to catch them all
Replyone word: GRINDING
Replyis game is gonna be just as worthless as FF13 as long as plot sucks and gameplay still require grinding.
I'd like to see Toriyama try to survive his ass out of this one.
Yes there should realize the opportunity to RSS commentary, quite simply, CMS is another on the blog.
Reply"...and there are more than 150 types of monsters there for you to capture, and they can help you." Hmm. Wonder where I've heard that before...
ReplyAnswer: pokemon and FFVIII
ReplyI giggle when people say that FFXIII is a game of mashing buttons. Look at any Final Fantasy game. Every one involves pretty much just mashing the X button until you win. Maybe some ups and downs in-between. I just thought that was funny. Hypocrites.
ReplyANYWAY. Back on topic. XIII-2 looks awesome. Can't wait. Good read, RPGSite. Got some good information here. Also... 3-4 discs on Xbox? Damn. I'm going to buy it on Xbox. I don't know about all of you, but there's something nostalgic about swapping discs. I'm excited.
Hmm, i can see why there keeping the Paradigm shift. But personally i wasn't a fan as stated earlier, it put me off wanting to play as low HP characters like Hope, and again the AI would often mess up his buffing, or do it in an order i didn't like which i thought took strategy out the game, or rather placed in an irritating one, sicne you'd have to plan for him to do the wrong buffs first. As a whole XIII i still played and completed, but its my least favourite FF of the main series. XII was heavily criticised but in my opinion it had the best towns of an FF to date. XIII does look amazing, but graphics are simply wall paper, i felt it lacked a certain depth. Noel looks quite bland but i'll give him a chance, its a good chance to develop serah. i was hoping for lebreau and gadot to join permenantly though. The monster capture thing i cant say im a fan of because thats one less person in the party who could be beign developed in the story. what would really make the paradigm shift itnerested would be if all 6 people were in the party haha because you only have 6 paradigms, how crazy would that be?
ReplySeriously though i think they got summons wrong too, which doesnt appear to of changed. XIII more than any other FF you have to perpare for bosses for in response to earlier i might add because of the TP bar. I'll give the game a chance, but thus far I'm not like hyping for it. we'll see what time tells
The only fear I have is all the new characters. I really hope they focus a lot of the story on our old characters and not just include them like final fantasy x-2 did. Although I feel sazh's character recieved an ending that worked, all of the other characters deserved more. Does anyone remember Vanille and Fang?
ReplyI'm almost positive they will be freed in some way. They may or may not be playable characters (I think playable), but I will be shocked if they don't play a decently sized roll in the new game. They could easily exist somewhere in Lightning's world... I would actually put money on that. I just beat FFXIII again and noticed something:
Reply****SPOILER ALERT****
When the party are transformed to and from cie'th, Hope comments about them being in a dark place. I wonder if their souls existed in that other world while they were cie'th. Maybe unlikely, but possible.
The thing about towns is that the NPCs stand there doing nothing, that's why he said it would be boring. In this game they'll be doing sth, like talking to their families, working, etc. That's what he meant by boring, he just wanted to change that up a bit and make different, more elaborated towns than before.
ReplyAw man no one asked about Dual-Audio lol.
ReplyAnyways, thanks for the info. Super excited.
Square Enix need to fire Yoichi Wada, otherwise somone should cut his head of. Yoichi Wada should do Seppuku/Harakiri.
ReplyYoichi Wada has abused the FF brand, and has no decency to call FF14 and FF11, simply FF Online.
You foopl me once, and shame on you. But fool me twice then shame on me. Fans should not give their money to SE, after all. They always abuse us.
Square Enix does not care for Final Fantasy fans, they care for Call of Duty fans.
ReplySquare Enix has gone down to the Levels of a sewer. Bring back turn based atb (where you can think before making a choice, unlike FF13, which is to fast)
We want the same battle system and winning Formulas as FF6-FF10.
IF IT ISNT BROKEN. DONT FIX IT
It was not too fast, and if the use the same formula 10 times in a row it does get boring, especially if there are amazing graphics not being used to their true potential.
ReplyReally think about how FF battles use to be. Sure it was fun, but how often did you use anything besides attack and maybe steal or other non-MP actions? Paradigms allow all abilities to be used effectively. You are not hoarding MP for a potential boss just so you can find you were greatly over-prepared. There is some fun in that too, but I would argue most abilities were superfluous and now you get to experience everything and use more abilities strategically. It is a wonderful step forward for the franchise.
ReplyDefend SE all you want, but u will see. year after year they will make SHIT games. We can see why FF is going downhill. Bring back Sakaguchi, and fire Yoichi Wada, throw him off a cliff or down a well for all i care.
ReplyI correct my statement about x-2 it had a possible 5 "different" endings.
ReplyThis actually isn't the first final fantasy title to have multiple endings... x-2 had 3 different endings based on what all you did and decisions you made in the game. So in fact, this is the second final fantasy sequel to have multiple endings, and no sequential numbered FF has had them yet.
ReplyWhat I think he means byy multiple endings....could be character endings. x-2 had only one true ending,
ReplyGreat interview. You got some really good information out of them. Congratulations.
ReplyAlso yeah they didn't say HD towns were boring - they said doing them in the same -style- of FFVII - FFIX would be boring i.e like those towns that were -not- in HD and that had static/undeveloped townspeoples compared to games like these days. Reading comprehension much? Just another case of people blinding hating without even looking properly. I personally wish Square Enix would stop babysitting and spoiling these spoiled whiners because they are too selfish to appreciate it. Everybody would be better off if they just took themselves and their hate elsewhere especially since not matter what SE does they'll just cry for more.
ReplySettle down. The issue is that, if you play the demo, you will notice that the towns are still very sparsely populated, so giving characters their own AI isn't a big deal if you only have given it to a dozen people. Besides, is it really necessary? I mean, it seems strange to me he is talking about PS1 games as if he is ignoring the fact that the PS2 games had these huge towns overflowing with people, especially in XII. I don't think people would mind at all having towns like that on the PS3, and I do not think it is as impressive as you are attempting to make it out to be, speaking as someone who played the demo.
ReplySparse, but he indeed has a point. And I think its a bit unfair to judge just from the demo. It was the first look at the game, we've been promised that it'll have a lot of NPC's and we don't know how other locales even look yet.
Replyi agree.wtf?towns too boring?were the towns boring in Red Dead Redemption?personally i used up almost an 80% of my time with the game just fooling around in towns and having fun in there.also paradigm system.AGAIN???it was a total FLOP in FFXIII purely for the use by new players but that means that you push the older ones away.i have been playing since final fantasy IX and since played each and every one of them from 1-13 apart from 11.never has a battle and upgrades system felt more unrewarding than this one.ffXII' system was GREAT!different perspective from thge traditional forms of final fantasy games,very solid.paradigm system?all i can remember from the game is how i continuously button mashed L1 then X then L1 again then X,X,X,X,X then L1 and some more X's.also "rap music for the towns"???what the hell?where are the beautifull soundtracks of Uematsu that make my skin crawl each and every time i pop ffIX on?where is the feeling that you are doing something different damnit?i would trade freaking chocobo rides for anything if it were to bring back some of the old glory...
ReplyDid you even read the article? he never said towns are boring. He said you will have towns filled with people, only with better AI.
ReplyReally excited now. Wow.
ReplyThis interview has made my hype level shoot up. So excited now. sounds like they're changing things up in great ways. thanks guys.
ReplyHD towns too boring now? this is so stupid. You don't know how to make good games anymore, FU square.
Replydo u know that they made this sequel for the likes of you ? and u still say F U them ?? F U man -.-
ReplySpoiled, whiny brats who will never change. To the one at the top hitting constantly hitting L1 and X - which even if that was all there was to it, which it isn't because you can prioritise your own skills once you've switched to a different role by using MANUAL and selecting for example a better healing spell, the best buff spell ASAP, elemental spells to hit elemental weaknesses, to get debuffs like Imperil and Poison on enemies ASAP, which the AI/Auto will NOT always do (for example once when I had only 30 HP left against the 10'000 needles spamming Giant Cactuar and I accidentally hit Auto in the SENTINEL role forgetting how bad SEN auto really is and instead of selecting something like Mediguard/SteelGuard/Entrench so my character could starting regening and guarding so they could perhaps heal/turtle through the next enemy attack it automatically picked Provoke instead - PROVOKE to provoke the enemy to attack my character when they had only 30 HP left, and since Giant Cactuar's 10'000 needle spam comes out so fast without much time for reaction in between naturally I got a wipe -_- - even if L1/X spam was all there was to it then it's still waay more button use than in any other FF which if we are going to exaggarate like people like you could also be simplified down to we don't do anything but press X on Attack over and over to win with our overpowered physicals! Don't you people realise we can choose to play this game too? That we could blindly rage at earlier FFs and choose not to manually select other skills and just hammer X over and other like you -choose- to do in FFXIII? I can guarantee you I can get through the earlier FFs more or less hammering nothing but X on Attack too. It works.
ReplyI am glad Square Enix choose not to listen to these selfish individuals and instead went from the overall positive reception the Paradigm System received and the fact that most people liked it. Which unfortunately for those unfortunatels unable to adapt/work with/master the system is true otherwise they would have changed it =-)
WTF was that wall text? Anyway, I would like some more control over my characters, like the ability of changing leader in the battle, because, like you said, the AI of the FFXIII allies sucks balls. Also, they should remove that "Leader down, Game Over" thing, it makes me not want to play as the characters that have low HP, like Hope on XIII, but I need to play with him to buff properly.And some paradigm shifts in XIII took forever, some were instant, on XIII-2 they are all instant, thanks god.
ReplyTheses little inconsistences with the battle system on XIII ticked me off a bit, but I liked the game overall and I really appreciate all the changes in the sequel.
Spoiled? How so?
ReplyIn any event, what difference does what button is pushed make anyway?
If button "spamming" was a real arguement, why doesnt anyone complain the fact that we spam up on the D-pad/Analog to move up in 100% of games?
Just a thought
My only problem with them using the Paradigm Shift is the fact that they are all former L'Cie who have fulfilled their purpose and were released from their L'Cie status. I know Lightning ought to retain her powers because she is somehow connected to the goddess Etro but I don't know exactly how Serah and Noel could Paradigm Shift without actually being a L'Cie anymore ( or in Noel's case; never being one in the first place).
ReplyThen again, I'm almost positive that question will be answered and resolved once the game is actually out so I'm not too worried, only a bit concerned that they ignored their own rule until more information on why they can change jobs comes out.