Final Fantasy XIII Hands-on Preview

Big, epic and gorgeous: we go hands-on with Square's thirteenth fantasy.

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    It's incredible to think it's been almost 20 years since the very first Final Fantasy hit American shores. I know I'm not the first person who has wondered when or if Square was going to run out of steam with the Final Fantasy brand, but with such a long and storied history creating the RPG series and all its offshoots, it's pretty clear that the series is here to stay.

    Final Fantasy XIII Hands-on Preview

    Breaking into the futuristic world of Cocoon is an awe-inspiring moment.

    Lucky Thirteen

    Though it's been a long time since fans first heard whispers of Final Fantasy XIII, the timeline is slowly winding down to its release later this year in Japan. Although western audiences will have to wait until early 2010 to get their hands on the game, Square Enix allowed for a select few journalists to visit Tokyo to play a Japan-only demo that will be packaged with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. As a longtime Final Fantasy fan, I have high hopes for every release, and Final Fantasy XIII looks set to meet my wishes.

    The opening sequence to our demo finds the mysterious protagonist Lightning on a giant train-like transit system that's running through a lush forest valley filled with strange animals and vivid wildlife. This world is known as Pulse, far removed from the isolated, futuristic world of Cocoon where much of humanity lies. As the train bursts through a tunnel into Cocoon, carrying many armed soldiers, Lightning and the afro-tastic goofball Suds (previously known as Sazch) sabotage the train and attack the soldiers, narrowly making an escape. Upon finding safe ground, Lightning and Suds converse while getting a handle on their exact location in the expansive cityscape they've entered in Cocoon. Eventually the pair finds themselves staring into the eyes of a giant mechanized scorpion-like creature who's not too happy they crashed the party. The whole CG sequence left me awestruck at how detailed and rich the characters and environments were. It goes without saying that Square Enix are masters of creating CG sequences in their games that rival the best animated feature films out there, but to make a winning game you must have winning gameplay . Lucky enough we soon found out Final Fantasy XIII has this in spades.

    Comments [20]

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    Toneman

    Sweet... It's lookin pretty damn good! Now, we just gotta wait about a year!

    DJKennethA

    Lets hope it lives up to the hype! I'm pretty excited, 12 was sorta boring, but this looks, well amazing. Don't let me down SE!

    UltimateAlien

    While I am a huge fan of the FF series (namely 5,6,7 and 10), I don't really know if JRPGs are really my thing anymore.

    While the plot in JRPGs tends to be more complex and evokes more emotion, I've found myself preferring Western- RPGs.

    I prefer having the freedom to choose my own path through the story, and seeing the different effects of my good (or preferably evil) deeds.

    Maybe I've lost interest in JRPGs because its been so long since the last FF.

    xxvortexxx

    this game is going to be amazing. just like every other console final fantasy and some of the handheld ones. i wasnt too into the handheld games

    JDizzleNO1

    Existential_11 wrote:

    Finally, the PS3 has only a handful RPGs.

    well...who needs a whole shit load of rpgs when ps3 and 360 owners get this?? i can't wait for the ps3 version. its going to be great!

    AlexVt3

    I really don't understand why this game is so "epic" in everyones opinion. Even though I'm not a fan of this franchise I think it sucks that they keep telling 360 owners that they have to buy a PS3 to truly enjoy this game, which really isn't fair to everyone that can't afford it. But even if I had a PS3 I wouldn't buy this game anyway I'd rather get Modern Warfare 2, now thats a game that I consider epic.

    aquajolt52

    I just thought of something, usually they release international versions of final fantasy in japan only, if they plan to do this again it might come out as worldwide downloadable content... that would be awesome

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