In a recent interview with Japan’s Dengeki magazine group, FFXII director Yoshinori Kitase and character designer Tetsuya Nomura discussed the company’s upcoming Final Fantasy XIII as well as some new info on Versus.
When asked about the changes of development styles and concepts from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3, Kitase commented, "thanks to the storage space of Blu-Ray and the inclusion of a hard drive, we’re able to deal with load times."
"Regarding the production side of things, because it’s a next generation machine, any and all sections require multiple times more work, so it’s difficult. With FFVII, we advanced over previous games in all areas, but aiming for the same thing with the PS3 is difficult. For FFXIII, we’re looking at what specific areas we should focus on improving."
Nomura, the Director of Versus XIII said, "Compared to the move to the PS2, the move to the PS3 is more difficult. Planning and so-forth haven’t changed much as far as work is concerned, but overall, the amount of graphics work has gone up considerably. You can show tiny details, so you have to make put tiny details in your illustrations."
As obvious, the jump from PS2 to PS3 is a difficult one, but something that Square-Enix seems to be handling quite well. But continuing on with Versus XIII, Nomura added, "It seems that the Versus team was, from the start, trying to get the full specifications out of the PS3, and that takes time. Just the other day, during a Versus meeting, a programmer asked, ‘Is it okay to program with PS3 exclusivity in mind?’” I asked why, and he said, ‘If we port it to other hardware, we have to program with that in mind.’ I responded, ‘Of course, Versus is PS3 exclusive.’"
It is always good to be assured that one of the biggest PS3 titles still remains a PS3 exclusive and has not jumped ship, like Assassin’s Creed for an example. Getting a bit too comfortable in the conversation regarding Versus XIII, Normura gave away some gameplay details such as an airship and world map.
"The other day," said Nomura, "I saw a test of an airship flying over the world map. I felt that I was seeing a Final Fantasy-like screen for the first time in a long time. However, the fact that things have become realistic made us concerned about what to do about the scale. It’s the same scale as past FF games, but even then, it’s so wide that you can’t make out the first town."
To close it all out, Nomura assured the fans that Versus will indeed be a great product and will possibly serve as great competition to FFXIII.
"We still haven’t announced the Versus team, but there are some well-known members in there, so it will become a good product. Also, we’re getting advice from the team working on FFXIII, which is being developed first, so we’re progressing well."
PlayStation Universe will keep you updated on all the latest regarding Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
Source: IGN