Realtime Screens of Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy vs 13

Normally not a big deal to get realtime screens for a game, but I think these are pretty much the first (official?) ones for both games...and they do look really nice. Screens are from IGN.

FF13 Screens (I'll post FFvs13 screens in another post):

Spoiler

 

Versus 13:

Spoiler

 

To be fair, I don't think these are nearly as bad some of their previous male characters (EX: Vaan, Kuja, Tidus, etc). All joking aside, it was pretty difficult to tell whether they were male or female sometimes. At least in these screens, that doesn't seem to be the case (the protagonist for Versus could possibly use some more tweaks although it is better than the original). If it is, you might have a problem.

Of course, these screens only have 2 guys from both games, so who knows what we'll get (although technically we've already seen a few other guys from Versus...they do seem a bit boy-bandish if that makes sense).

BTW, I forgot that these were technically released by Famitsu a few weeks ago I think, although IGN has HD screens (the Famitsu screens were pretty low-res). I think there was also some additional info, which I'll post here (from duckroll at NeoGAF):

 

Yeah, I am a little interested in these settings because of that (more so with Versus). Don't normally see skyscrapers, people in suits (or other "modern" clothes), cars/highways in FF games these days. FF7 and FF8 had a bit of that I guess, but it would be nice to see Square-Enix tackle this sort of setting with the power that these consoles are able to provide.

 

Of course they're cutscenes. They're done in-engine (or seem that way, at least for most of the shots), so gameplay will probably look roughly the same. Basically just with a different camera angle and...um...stuff depending on how exactly the gameplay works.

I'm too lazy to search for the CG screens, but these do look really close to those IMO (at least from what I can remember). There will probably be a gap between in-game cutscene graphics and gameplay, but it will probably be pretty small. The gap between CG and in-game cutscenes will probably be much bigger, and it seems like it is hard enough to tell the difference between those to a degree.

 

Nobuo Uematsu is pretty much a freelancer now. He left Square-Enix in 2004 since they were moving offices and he didn't want to move IIRC. He still does work for them though along with other companies (worked on SSBB, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, etc.). His last contribution to Square-Enix that I can recall was the main theme for FF12 (Kiss Me Good-Bye), although it seems like he will do the same for FF13 (provide the main theme while someone else works on the rest of the score). I didn't really like the music in FF12 overall, but the few tracks I've heard from FF13 sound good (although maybe they're from Uematsu). I'm not very familiar with the work of Masashi Hamauzu (the composer for FF13), but hopefully it will be pretty good.

The composer for Versus is Yoku Shimomura. She's mostly known for her work in Parasite Eve and the Kingdom Hearts games...though she is doing a lot of work recently I believe. I generally like her work (really liked the Parasite Eve soundtrack), and I thought the one track we've heard from Versus is pretty good (Somnus I think is the name). So while I didn't like the only FF game released that didn't have a lot of contributions from Uematsu, I don't think we'll have the same problem with these two games...especially since, to be honest, I preferred Uematsu's previous work more so than his recent stuff.

As for Square-Enix as a whole, I think they're still capable of putting out great RPGs, at least when their A-teams are working on them. I guess you can debate whether their recent games compare to the ones they made in previous generations, but I think they're still one of a few companies (if not the only one) that you can count on to produce these epic RPGs with innovative gameplay, interesting storylines, amazing production values, mainstream appeal, etc. This is probably especially true when it comes to jRPGs.

I guess you could say I have lost some faith in the management over at Square-Enix though. I've touched on this before, but they seriously seem to be having some problems completing projects in a timely matter. From what I can recall in the PS2 generation, we had 4-5 AAA games from their best (Square) studios (depends on if you call X-2 AAA I guess), and it would have probably been more if development on FF12 wasn't so crazy (FF13 was supposed to be a PS2 game). We may only see 2 AAA games this generation, and those will come 4-5 years after the generation began (FFX and KH were both released within ~2 years of the PS2's release IIRC). Both will be FF games too and not new IPs. Perhaps The Last Remnant could be good, but I can't say I have high expectations. Granted, I know it isn't easy making an epic RPG for these consoles, but I expected a little more than what we've gotten.

It doesn't help that they are so secretive and don't really seem to let their fans have any idea what is going on with their major games, which is in sharp contrast to what other developers are doing (even other Japanese studios). It has been over 2 years since they announced both games, and we still don't know that much about them (we're barely getting realtime cutscene screens). I think they still have a lot of great talent there (the screens should show that), but this kind of stuff (along with other things) does make me question the way they run things over there.

So I guess even if they are putting out amazing games still, it might be difficult for some to still think as highly of them as they once did given the circumstances. I'm certainly more likely to play and become a big fan of other franchises (got to get my jRPG fix somewhere). In fact, to be honest, I'm probably more interested in P4 and any projects Atlus has for the current generation of consoles than these FF games, although perhaps that will change once we get closer to the release of the games (as much as I like the games from Atlus, Square-Enix can definitely put some things in a RPG that Atlus can't).

It would be nice if they brought back the BoF franchise. That, or maybe they could collaborate with Atlus on their next RPG like they did with Nocturne. Well, I guess that wasn't really a major collaboration, but it was kind of cool.

 

I'm pretty sure he meant recently. I suppose you could even exclude the PS2 era since they did have Kingdom Hearts, although they didn't have much else besides that...not to mention that this new IP did rely on other popular IPs (namely those from Disney and previous SE games). Granted, a new FF game is basically a new IP since they do make so many changes (not unusual to get radically different gameplay, brand new stories, new worlds, new themes, etc.), but I would agree that they haven't really branched out into new IPs like they used to which is disappointing IMO. Of course, they did put out The World Ends With You for the DS which seems like a nice new IP (although I haven't played it), but I'm sure some fans would like to see similar offerings on the consoles.

I guess losing tens of millions of dollars on a risky new idea made Square more hesitant when it comes to taking risks...that and I guess the merger with Enix. Can't blame them, but it does make me sad.

I'd definitely suggest playing X and XII. They've both received their fair share of criticism, but I think they're both AAA RPGs.

X-2 is a little different. It isn't necessarily bad IMO. In fact, it is actually pretty fun, probably one of the better FF games when it comes to the fun factor. But it isn't all that special to me, especially seeing as how it was Square's first time revisiting a FF game. I would suggest playing FFX, and if you really like the world of Spira and would like to revisit it with a more lighthearted perspective, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check out X-2.