Final Fantasy XIII -- ATB revamped?
It seems the people over at Square-Enix are having a little mercy on their fans. You remember the FFXIII trailer, don't you? With that weird slidey-bar thing at the bottom that looked like a menu slapped on to fool people into believing that what they were looking at was real-time? Motomu Toriyama sat down with Famitsu magazine and delivered some details on the gameplay and the story. We won't talk about the story, but you can read up on what was discussed if you don't mind learning a little about the world of Final Fantasy XIII.
The battle system is said to be the most intense yet and different from what fans are used to. First off, the battles are going to be seamless -- they'll take place where you run into enemies (just like Chrono Trigger... I bring that up because I had a discussion with a friend as to why no game emulated the SBS, Seamless Battle System, outside of CT... not even its sequel). That's an awesome first step. But, presentation is important, too, said Toriyama. "since it's on the Playstation 3 we've got our eye on new presentation. The foundation is based on active-time battles, but the waiting time until you choose a command is gone for the most part. The image we presented to the public -- rushing into a real time battle with that kind of force -- we want to continue that overflowing feeling of tension that RPGs up to now haven't had."
Summons are also a big deal. They're not really giant monster-creatures that come on screen and do a single massive attack then fade away. They're mechas, in a sense, with two forms. For example, Shiva can transform into a motorcycle and Toriyama said that it "may be the case" that you can ride your hog into battle. Intense, indeed. What this all sounds like is that RPG's will no longer be the genre that allow you to continuously pound X (or circle) during fights whilst your secondary claw grabs some potato chips or whips up some brownies (hey, it could be done). What do you guys think? Is FFXIII headed in a good direction, or are you worried it might turn into an Action-RPG?
[thanks to 1UP.com for the image]
