208w ago - Tetsuya Nomura, famous for his work on Final Fantasy VII and head of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, was interviewed in the latest Famitsu, where we get some project updates on Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII.

First of all, Nomura is not involved much at all in production on Final Fantasy XIII, besides design, voice recording and marketing. This make sense since the game seems to be nearing completion, and more of his time can go into Versus XIII now. He actually says he's currently focusing on Versus XIII and Agito XIII.

The team working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII consists of more or less the same members of the Final Fantasy VII team and everyone is working like crazy on the game, ensuring the best quality on the game.

They're currently testing the battle system and map gimmicks as well as town lighting. Nomura says that the day and night for one of the towns made it feel like the town literally existed in front of him.

Nomura says he's preparing to show us something surprising once the time is right for Versus XIII, but we have to wait a bit longer. However, E3 will bring in new videos and images for Final Fantasy XIII.

As for Final Fantasy Agito XIII, the handheld game has a completely different battle system from the battle scenes seen in the trailer....

214w ago - Last night the Final Fantasy XIII PS3 demo was being streamed live.

Today, a trailer has been revealed of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. It comes at the end of the demo of Final Fantasy XIII.

At the end of the trailer, it states "for PLAYSTATION 3 only worldwide".

Check it out below, courtesy of GameTrailers.

Enjoy!

238w ago - IGN (linked above) has translated some new details from Famitsu about the Final Fantasy Versus XIII characters 'Noctis Lucis Caelum' and 'Stella Nox Fleuret'.

To quote: The names of the two were revealed at the Tokyo Game Show to be Noctis Lucis Caelum and Stella Nox Fleuret. Stella is described by the magazine as a princess in the Fleuret family.

She and Noctis are shown in the magazine's screens discussing their ability to "see light." This may not sound all that special at first, but in Versus XIII, it's an ability that Noctis suggests keeping quiet about. Stella appears to be more open about the matter, even asking Noctis when he gained the ability.

Wondering what the characters' names mean? Typical for the FNC series, the two names are Latin. The three parts of the hero's name mean "Night, Light, and Sky." The three parts of the heroine's name mean "Star, Darkness, and Sword." Darkness is also the meaning of Stella's country's name.

Director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura shared with the magazine a few additional details on the characters. Nomura feels that the trailer footage (which you probably haven't seen, unless you made it out to the Tokyo Game Show) tells us a lot about the personalities of the two characters.

Stella, for instance, is shown...

252w ago - HBJ5, a member on FinalFantasy-xiii.net Forums (linked above), has found a leaked version of the Final Fantasy Versus XIII Trailer shown at Jump Festa 2007 which has never seen public eyes outside of Square-Enix's evil Closed Mega Theater.

To quote: We're not sure where this video has been leaked from, but we can only thank the Photobucket user a thousand times for uploading it for us. Thank God they have a good quality camera.

From what we can tell, this isn't the complete trailer, but is a good portion of it. The music is apparently from the final boss battle in Lost Oddyssey but I don't remember it. This trailer like all the rest is 100% CG.

Video is available from idStarfleets via YouTube below:

256w ago - Reports surfaced yesterday suggesting that work on Square Enix's action RPG Final Fantasy XIII Versus had halted while members of the game's development team went to help finish up Final Fantasy XIII.

This isn't completely true, however, as Square Enix issue a statement today, clarifying that only "some" of the devs working on Versus XIII moved over and that work on the title has not been put on hiatus.

Reports that development for Final Fantasy Versus XIII is on hold are false.

To quote: The truth of the situation is that when free, some staff from the Versus team have been helping with the XIII team on development of Final Fantasy XIII. Development for both titles is continuing as originally scheduled.