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Template:Nihongo title is an upcoming console role-playing video game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be published by Square Enix, and it is currently being developed by the company's 1st Production Department. It is a direct sequel to the 2009 role playing game Final Fantasy XIII.

Five years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII, the protagonist Lightning has disappeared into an unknown world. Her younger sister Serah Farron, a returning character from the original title, and a young boy named Noel Kreiss attempt to find Lightning.

The game is due to be released in Japan in December 2011 and in North America and Europe in early 2012. Square Enix Europe has stated that the game "exceeds Final Fantasy XIII in every aspect" and that it has an evolved battle system of the original game.

Gameplay

The principal setting of the game will be different from the original game but the original game's world will still be in the game.

Combat System

The game's battle system will be a further evolution of the "Command Synergy Battle" (CSB) and Paradigm Shift systems first used in the original game. It will fix and address issues and make areas that were already considered good even better. There will be a feature that allows the player to control the difficulty of battles. During battles, players will be put through quick time events called "Cinematic Action" which will allow them to deal higher damage to foes and gain the upper hand in certain battles. Further more, the player can tame monsters and have them in the party for fights. Also in battle there is a "Feral Link" feature. As the player attacks, the Feral Link bar fills up, and when it's full the player can make their current tamed monster do a special attack via a quick time event.

Mog Clock

Monsters no longer roam the map like in Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII, they instead randomly appear on the field when the player gets close. Just as monsters are appearing, a red ring surrounds the player's character and dial clock is shown on the screen, which is titled the "Mog Clock". The feature grants the player various bonuses (or penalties), depending on the time it takes them to enter the battle.

Live Trigger

The player will be presented with a series of "dialogue trees" when talking to NPCs. These choices offer the player a lot of options to go about playing the game. However, what they choose will not drastically alter the game. The system is instead just options for allowing the player to have unique choices when talking to NPCs.

Anomaly System

A new feature that was shown at this year's E3. Players will be presented with a puzzle-like problem. When they completely solve the current anomaly session, they will be able to travel to a different space-time dimensions.

Plot

Setting

The world of Gran Pulse in Final Fantasy XIII returns in Final Fantasy XIII-2, but is not the main setting of the game. As seen in the E3 demo, players will be able to return to Cocoon. A re-created version of the city of Bodhum had been made on Pulse, known as New Bodhum. Many of the civillians from Bodhum live here.

Characters

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 adds two new main playable characters who will be the focus of the game: Serah Farron, the younger sister of Lightning, and Noel Kreiss, a young man from Pulse who uses multiple weapons. Serah appeared as an NPC in XIII and is given a much larger role in this game as she goes on a journey with Noel and a Moogle named Mog to find her sister.

Lightning, the main protagonist of XIII, will make brief playable appearances. Snow Villiers will also make a cameo appearance in the game. Other characters include the mysterious purple-haired man in dark purple and black clothes who was shown at end of the game's first teaser trailer, and Alyssa with short blonde hair in yellow and black clothes who works as part of a research team alongside the reformed PSICOM.

Story

The story follows from the -Episode i- novel which was released with the international version of Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy XIII-2 begins five years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII, with some survivors rebuilding on Gran Pulse. Lightning, however, is nowhere to be found and thought dead by many, but Serah believes otherwise. When her town New Bodhum is suddenly overrun by monsters, a mysterious man named Noel appears to save her. Together, the two set off to find out what has happened to Lightning.

Unlike Final Fantasy X-2, which had a more cheerful and humorous feel than Final Fantasy X, the overall tone of the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be darker and more mysterious than the original. Director Motomu Toriyama said that considering Vanille and Fang are gone and the world is in a state where Cocoon had fallen, there's no way for the new story to be totally peaceful. Yoshinori Kitase, the producer, has said the story will have the serious feel of a true numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series.

The actual story will delve deeper into the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology and this time focus on the goddess Etro. The game will once again feature Lightning as the protagonist. The personality of Lightning will be the same as it was in the original game and not experience a change like Yuna had in Final Fantasy X-2. The game's story will continue to value the refined and noble qualities of Lightning's personality. Other characters will also appear in the game, but in new and unexpected forms, and some of these returning characters will see major changes to their personalities. The game will also have a number of new characters, in addition to the mysterious man shown in the teaser trailer. The mystery man in the teaser trailer is in direct conflict with Lightning and equal to her in strength. Lightning has a new mission this time, and as she attempts to fulfill this mission, she'll end up in a confrontation with this mystery man.

The original game ended with a lingering question: "Is Lightning really happy?" The conclusion of the story in Final Fantasy XIII-2 will provide a clear answer to this question.

Development

Due to global demand and the development staff's desire to further Lightning's character, development began for a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, with input from both inside and outside of Square Enix, as well as overseas.

Talk of a sequel came as early as January 2010; the game's art director mentioned in an interview that the amount of working art assets that were cut from the final product was enough to make up an entire game. In March 2010, during an interview with Kitase, producer for the game, he was asked about the possibility of a sequel. In response, he replied: “If we could do a XIII-2, we could direct all our attention to the story and refine what we have already built.” On December 15, 2010, Tetsuya Nomura, main character designer for the original game, released a drawing of Lightning, along with the words “She must not be forgotten”. On January 11, 2011, Square Enix registered the domain name FinalFantasy13-2game.com via a proxy company that it had used to register websites for several other unannounced games at the time, including MindJack and Nier.

The game was officially announced at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier in Tokyo on January 18, 2011. The teaser trailer showed Lightning, outfitted in armor, drawing her weapon and engaging a mysterious male warrior. The teaser was officially released on January 20, 2011, and can be viewed on the game's official websites. Motomu Toriyama, who was also the director and scenario designer of the original game, returns to director the game alongside producer Yoshinori Kitase, who was the producer of the original game. Tetsuya Nomura returns as the character designer, though he will only be responsible for designing the faces of new and returning characters. The clothing of all new and returning characters is being designed by other artists. The armor worn by Lightning was designed by Isamu Kamikokuryo, the art director of the original game who returns to the role for the sequel. The clothing of the male character shown in the teaser trailer was designed by Yusuke Naora, who was the character designer of The Last Remnant.

On June 2, 2011, two in-game screenshots from the English version of the game were released in relation to E3. They showed Serah as a returning character with a new costume and a new male character named Noel. One of the screens showed Serah and Noel engaged in battle, with Serah as the playable party leader. GameSpot released an exclusive teaser trailer for the game the next day, showing more characters and a glimpse of the battle system. There were two demos presented at E3: One where Serah and Noel deal with a giant boss called Altas and other having Lightning battle a corrupted version of Fang's Eidolon called Chaos Bahamut.

References

1. ^ Adrian Arnese (January 18, 2011). "Final Fantasy XIII-2 Coming to PS3 Next Winter". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
2. ^ Johnny Cullen (January 18, 2011). "FFXIII-2 announced in Tokyo, to hit EU and US "next winter"". VG247. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
3. ^ "「Final Fantasy XIII-2」が2011年発売予定，「Agito」は「Final Fantasy 零式」と名称変更して2011年夏発売。「Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere」をTwitterで実況". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas, Inc. January 18, 2011. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
4. ^ "GAMING WORLDS COLLIDE AS SQUARE ENIX UNVEILS E3 2011 TITLES". Square Enix. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
5. Darryl Kaye (June 15, 2011). "Nojima Not Directly Involved With Final Fantasy XIII-2". GamingUnion.net. Retrieved June 15, 2011.}}
6. J. Parish's (Gamespite) Twitter, Retrieved 3 June 2011.
7. Andy Robinson (January 18, 2011). "Final Fantasy XIII-2 'exceeds FFXIII in every aspect'". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
8. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (28 January 2011). "Kitase and Toriyama Talk FFXIII-2 and Fabula Nova Crystallis". News. andriasang. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
9. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (26 January 2011). "Toriyama and Kitase Discuss Final Fantasy XIII-2". News. andriasang. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
10. "FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 E3 trailer". Square Enix. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
11. "E3 2011: Final Fantasy XIII-2". Shack News. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
12. "Direct-feed Final Fantasy XIII-2 footage". Gematsu. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
13. http://www.ff-xiii.net/index.php?page=article&article=Noel-to-have-more-Prominent-Role-then-Lightning-in-FFXIII-2--723
14. "Final Fantasy XIII-2 videos". Retrieved 13 June 2011.
15. Brian Ashcraft (January 13, 2010). "Interview: There Is Enough Discarded Final Fantasy XIII To Make Another Game". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
16. Brian Ashcraft (March 15, 2010). "Direct Sequel For Final Fantasy XIII?". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
17. Anoop Gantayat (December 15, 2010). "Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning Must Not Be Forgotten!". Andriasang. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
18. Brian Ashcraft (January 13, 2010). "Mysterious URL Hints At More Final Fantasy XIII". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
19. "FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 (Official North American website)". Square Enix. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
20. "FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 (Official Japanese website)". Square Enix. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
21. "Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Official European website)". Square Enix. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
22. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (1 February 2011). "Hey Mr. Tetsuya Nomura, Whatchu Up To?". News. andriasang. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
23. "First Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screens, E3 Details". News. Final Fantasy Network. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
24. "Final Fantasy XIII-2 - GameSpot Exclusive E3 Teaser Trailer (PlayStation 3)". Videos. GameSpot. Retrieved 5 June 2011.

External links

Template:Misplaced Pages-Books

• FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 Official Japanese website Template:Ja icon
• FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 Official North American website Template:En icon
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Official European website Template:En icon

• Upcoming video games
• Upcoming video games scheduled for 2011
• Final Fantasy games
• PlayStation 3 games
• Square Enix games
• Video game sequels
• Xbox 360 games