Following a countdown on the official Japanese site for the game, Square-Enix have released a fancy new trailer for the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII.

The clip runs about 2 and a half minutes with a combination of Japanese language cinematic cut-scene footage and some battle-action gameplay. We're not sure exactly what's supposed to be going on, but it does look pretty cool. See for yourself right here on AusGamers.

Although expected on PlayStation 3 in Japan later this year, Australian gamers will have to hold out until Q2 2010 for the English PS3/Xbox 360 release.

I only ever played VII (and by played I mean got addicted too), are the rest of them as good?
I would buy this just to have a crack at it, see if I can spend a few more hundred hours leveling up each character etc

Each story is different but the core mechanics of each game remain the same. It's there to tell a story with RPG turn based/ATB combat.

Top notch trailer (as always), although not knowing what's going on makes it just a couple minutes of eye candy. Must grab the HD version when I get home...

Be interesting to see if the battle engine is similar to FFXII, eg no change to battle screen and you can freely run around in battle.

Looks turn-based to me.

Nah, almost looks like it handles like Kingdom Hearts.

This is the reason I got my PS3, much like Gears of War was the reason I bought my Xbox 360. I can't wait for this to be released

DM its coming out on 360 though .

DM its coming out on 360 though .

Please insert the CD labeled "Disk 23"

Please exercise more if you have trouble inserting a disc after 10 hours of gameplay.

yeah so can't be f***ed getting off the couch every 5 hours.

edit: oh lols beaten.

last edited by d0mino at 17:41:11 29/Jan/09

At least the English version of Dissidia comes out on PSP before FF13 hits, so we can get an FF hit beforehand..

Please insert the CD labeled "Disk 23"

Ahahaha so true. Anyway even though i'm not a huge fan of the FF series, I still consider it heresy that it's coming to the 360 at all. Also my 360 just got the ring of death a few days ago and i'm not going to replace it or get it fixed.

I still consider it heresy that it's coming to the 360 at all

why?

yeah, why?

Square have already said it's easier coding for the 360 than ps3.

why?

Because he thinks of it as a Playstation game, even though they've always been on the most popular console.

A lot of people/things have guns in that trailer, has final fantasy in general shifted to a more modern warfare fantasy recently? I haven't really tried playing one properly since 9 (tried 10 but got pretty confused/bored in the first ocean-type area and gave it back).

I guess Final Fantasy's never been all about sword and board, but that trailer seems to indicate it's more gun-oriented than its past. Either that or the gun scenes just looked the prettiest to the guy directing the trailer.

Those machine-humanoid looking dudes remind me of the mechagnomes in WoW for some reason, though I'm assuming there's somewhere else I've seen that type of helmet displayed prominently. The Spirits Within movie?

i hope the ps3 is cheaper once this comes out because ill have to buy one.

the combat looks awsome. similar to ff12 where the combat takes place in the world instead of going to a different screen like previous games. it also looks like the bar fills up and then when you do a move it takes a bit of the bar away. so you can probably string a few moves together before you need to fill your bar again. i hope they dont include that system from ff12 where you just assign your teammates to do things when certain criteria is met. it made the game so easy.

DM its coming out on 360 though .

not until well after the ps3 release. they arent going to start porting it to 360 until the game is on the shelves.

A lot of people/things have guns in that trailer, has final fantasy in general shifted to a more modern warfare fantasy recently?

they all have different settings though quite a few of them have had medieval/fantasy settings. ff7 and ff8 were more of a science fictiony setting.

Because he thinks of it as a Playstation game, even though they've always been on the most popular console

Pretty much it. I know there have been other FF games on other systems, and that they started on the Nes and Snes, but the ones i'm talking about are from #7 onward, which is arguably when the franchise got insanely popular, they have stuck with with the playstation for the main series. 11 doesn't count either because its an MMO. Having a game on anything else just seems... wierd, to me. In the end though it comes down to how well it runs on the consoles and what you prefer. If 1 console runs it better, and looks better than the other it wont matter which it is, i'll get that one. I'll always think of FF as a playstation game though.

While it's true that FF is shifting into the high tech world, that isn't something new. After all that setting has been around since #7 at least. The move isn't really a bad thing, provided they give some incetive for using good old swords and such, besides looking cool. A system like in advent children movie where you can deflect bullets with your sword if you know when to time your block/slash attacks (no quick time bulls***) would be rather awesome i'd think.

last edited by DM at 20:15:13 29/Jan/09

Square have already said it's easier coding for the 360 than ps3.

And the xbox was a crapload easier to code for than the ps2 was. That being said, they will definitely release it for the 360 in the states and europe purely because of the market share, it would be silly not to.

i think in the main chicks case the gun is actually a gunsword. its like squalls gunsword in ff8 but it transforms from a gun into a sword and vice versa.

Yeah that looks to be the case Rav. Lightning's weapon must be a gunsword of some new kind. Sure she was using what seemed to be a fully auto rifle in the beginning but soon as the combat starts up from in game she has her trusty sword out so at least they seem to be keeping firearms at a minimum. But then again that is only looking from about 1 min of gameplay.

Now as for Final Fantasy Versus XIII who knows what will happen. Though at least the FF series has a record of not going fully modern with its usable weaponry so i'd be willing to bet guns will be kept to, at most, the bad guy side of things.

Side Note - Oh and for those who are even kinda interested and if you didn't already know, Square Enix are making an MMO using the Crystal Tools, which is the same engine being used in FF13 and FFvs13. I remember seeing a video floating around somewhere of it and it looks pretty damn impressive.

The 360 port isn't even being started until the PS3 version is out the door though, so there will probably be a bit of a gap between the two (and a sweet little exclusivity period for the PS3 version).