TGS07: Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer impressions

The footage begins with a car driving by, segueing to a familiar scene of the mysterious male protagonist deflecting bullets from an opposing military force. Quickly, the trailer flashes to a girl in a school outfit that seems to be awaiting someone. Latin text is interspersed throughout, fitting to the beat of both the visuals and music. Already, there's a strong sense of style and intrigue.
A meticulously designed cathedral is the next scene in the trailer, and we see a mysterious hooded individual eerily similar to a character in Advent Children. All the while, snippets of the lead killing the opposing soldiers in a surprisingly gory way. We were shocked to see blood spurt out of the villains -- could this be the first M-rated Final Fantasy game?
Other scenes show a friend to our mysterious unnamed lead character traveling through a desert highway, only to find the highway covered in what looks to be a newly created river. Here, we get to see the duality of fantasy and reality at play: there's a clear sense of emotion conveyed through the facial animation system, and the characters do feel quite human, in spite of the clearly fantastic events that surround them. At the end of the trailer, we finally see the male and female characters meet, glad at first. But then, as red and blue auras surround them both, a sad look of despair creeps in. We'd have to guess that these two, friends at first, are destined to be mortal enemies. A familiar, but nonetheless intriguing concept.
With its stylish character designs, fantastic environmental art, a strong sense of dramatic direction, and incredibly visceral action makes Versus a game rich with potential. To evoke such a powerful response from the audience from a completely non-playable presentation means that Square Enix can have a winner on its hands: let's hope that, unlike Dirge of Cerberus, the game can deliver on such an ambitious promise.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Neptune @ Sep 20th 2007 1:38PM
Can't wait to see it.
upz @ Sep 20th 2007 1:38PM
I wish Square wasn't always so reluctant to show their trailers to the public. Here's hoping that this, and the trailer for XIII sneak onto the internet.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Sep 20th 2007 1:54PM
They will have it on youtube in less than 5 days or in gamevideos in 2 days,maybe in cellphone quality in 3 hours.
VerticalEvent @ Sep 20th 2007 5:59PM
That's the magic of SE; it gets us talking about the game, reading whatever information we can get on the trailer, scouring the internet for it, looking at YouTube or posting in forums, asking if anyone know where to watch a copy.
People call this poor Public Relations; I call it amazing hype building.
Ryuukuro @ Sep 20th 2007 7:05PM
Nope, it's poor public relations. Building hype is great but there's no need for being hyper secretive. That's just teasing and it's annoying.
SquEnix and other game companies should learn from Nintendo's S.S.B.Brawl blog. One little tidbit every day which both stimulates and satiates hunger for the new game. Every weekday morning it's like a countdown to Christmas. Even when the reveal isn't important (which is often) it's fun to see what new feature or returning favorite is coming to Brawl.
Crono (NDF - Fire Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 1:53PM
So, apparently the only thing that can one-up FF13 is more FF13.
BRILLIANT!
NaeemTHM @ Sep 20th 2007 2:10PM
It's like fighting fire with...Final Fantasy XIII
Marty @ Sep 20th 2007 1:56PM
Am I the only one who, in light of the power of the 360 and PS3, think it's absolute rubbish to continue the idiotic trend of releasing CGI trailers for games?
I mean, wouldn't a trailer rendered in the game engine, or some kind of gameplay footage be more exciting than this pre-rendered stuff? CGI just doesn't do it for me, I guess.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Sep 20th 2007 2:06PM
You are right on that one,CGI can be done anywhere even in the PSP and I believe DS so is not that impressive.I would love to see how it looks in the Ps3.
Gameplay is the new CGI.
Jason B @ Sep 20th 2007 2:08PM
Your definitely not the only one. For the life of me I can't understand why people go so crazy about a dang pre-rendered movie. Explain to me again how this shows off the supposed power of the PS3.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 2:14PM
The people going ga ga over pre-rendered footage are the same people that think the PS1 had superior hardware over the N64 because of the cutscenes in FF7.
upz @ Sep 20th 2007 2:23PM
Based on what little footage and screenshots we've seen, the previous trailers for XIII were in-engine while Versus was pre-rendered. Sounds the same this time around.
ThornedVenom @ Sep 20th 2007 3:35PM
We still have a way to go before machinima can replace CGI in quality of storytelling, cinematic direction, emotion conveying, etc...
Slaziman @ Sep 20th 2007 4:42PM
So you saw a movie and now you are excited?
Reminds me of that Halo 3 Starry Night commercial...
But to say it was the best they had to show - a nice pre-rendered movie - that show must've been BALLZ
Let's see some in-game footage before getting hyped up shall we?
Slaziman @ Sep 20th 2007 4:45PM
^that wasn't meant to be a reply
ill @ Sep 20th 2007 1:57PM
unfortunately i've never played a FF game... I have a PS3 collecting dust i may have 2 get into the series cuz no other PS3 game has really caught my attention...
umm....hello??? @ Sep 20th 2007 2:07PM
try FFVII, VIII, IX, or XII...tons of PS1/PS2 games available for cheap for your PS3, now that Sony's fixed the scaling problems. and the CGI movies are outstanding quality--better than anything that comes out of George Lucas' studios...
lessbiasedthanmost @ Sep 20th 2007 2:09PM
Allow me to enlighten you on the good parts of the series, 6, 7, 8, 10.
The bad parts 9, 11, 12, 10-2.
Anything below 5 is playable, but not necessarily great, and tactics is in a league of its own. Mystiq Quest, only on SNES is the worst of them all IMO since they allowed you to see your enemies and avoid them rarely, but it was done very badly.
In short anything that has been released on PS1 is at least a rental title and 1/3 of the PS2 titles are good. But, that's just my taste, go out play them all and see what you like.
NaeemTHM @ Sep 20th 2007 2:20PM
WHAT!
IX and XII are great.
Pfft...and you call yourself a fan. Also IV is on par, some would say better, than VI. Give that a try as well.
ill @ Sep 20th 2007 2:24PM
Thanks 4 the suggestions... My wii's shipping label just arrived and i need 2 play something on my down time... I'm done with bioshock and dont want another RRoD b4 I get into halo 3... If i start with 7 will i feel like i'm missing something...
AstroZombie @ Sep 20th 2007 3:17PM
"If i start with 7 will i feel like i'm missing something..."
No, there's no continuity between most of the games in the series, other than some of the creatures and a few character names. Each game is a stand-alone story, except X-2 (which really, really doesn't count) being a sequel to X, and XII takes place in the same world as Tactics. I'm maybe missing something, which will probably be corrected by a small legion of FF fanboys.
Fullmetal Salchemist @ Sep 20th 2007 3:18PM
Also, X sucked.
AstroZombie @ Sep 20th 2007 3:30PM
I dunno, I thought X had a really good combat system. Switching characters mid-battle helped alleviate a lot of my indecisive moments where I have to choose what characters to leave behind. I also liked that you could see what effect your actions would have on the turn order, and the way you manually level your characters on that game board thing.
bm @ Sep 20th 2007 5:42PM
"Also, X sucked."
Seconded. Yeah the battle system and level system was nice, but that doesn't help when the game itself is essentially an on-rails disneyland ride. Fuck that.
And XII was way too much of a mindnumbing dungeon crawler. With towns that had no houses, I mean WTF, ruined half the fun there for me.
I'm not getting my hopes up for FFXIII until I see proof that it doesn't repeat any of these faults.
samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Sep 20th 2007 2:05PM
Aww, is that all the Mystery Trailer from before was?
Poo.
Crono (NDF - Fire Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 2:06PM
LOL!! Nurse Outfit.
You kill me!
ThornedVenom @ Sep 20th 2007 3:37PM
@ Crono
A Peach has to do what a Peach has to do to pay her rent. ;P And her pimp, if she has any.
JodyAnthony (VGDF) @ Sep 20th 2007 2:09PM
sounds kick ass
Reuben @ Sep 20th 2007 2:10PM
Curse Square's mother-like overprotectivness. I want to get my FF on. I hope they release these trailers on the PSN....now.
Jake @ Sep 20th 2007 2:15PM
I love the pre-rendered stuff within FF games. But when a title is in the pipeline, I am more interested in the gameplay. I already know the titles will have great pre-rendered stuff. But what will I be doing the other 97% of the time with the title?
NeoAngelicPrince @ Sep 20th 2007 2:17PM
Versus is looking MIGHTY good...
Just come over to The Light Side Square Enix...I promise you all the 360 goodness will make it worth the pain and agony of listening to the sony fanboy's complaints.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 2:22PM
Not to mention double or triple the software sales.
upz @ Sep 20th 2007 2:37PM
Quit hating, Negative Nancy.
AstroZombie @ Sep 20th 2007 3:02PM
What kind of sick world of fantasy do you live in where Microsoft qualifies as "The Light Side?"
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 3:36PM
The world in which 90% of 360's are white, and 100% of PS3's are black?
upz @ Sep 20th 2007 3:52PM
That was racist!
NeoAngelicPrince @ Sep 20th 2007 2:23PM
I love these "trailers" too.
I mean yeah when it comes to the ps3 its kinda funny how they're not really showing "THE POWER" of the system but still as long as its pretty, breath taking, and awe inspiring I'm definitely down.
But gameplay ultimately is whats important here. I just really hope the game isn't too complex or anything.
VampireHunter Z @ Sep 20th 2007 2:30PM
I love pre-rendered stuff but realtime impresses me more. Every trailer of Mass Effect excited me and they are all real time. Japanese devs should go easy on the CGI. Save it for the ending.
Nicholas @ Sep 20th 2007 2:41PM
CGI is nice and sometimes exciting and all, but it never has anything to do with the gameplay. You can make the most awesome trailer ever, but if you can't translate any of that into a game, then it counts for nothing.
A CGI movie and a game are too completely different things.
telamascope @ Sep 24th 2007 1:32AM
while that is very true for most games, it can be different for rpgs. Let's face it, final fantasy has almost always been about story, music, mood, and setting. how many people would fight random battles if they didn't feel like it was part of something larger?
I like the cgi trailers because they show the characters and setting of the new FF games. I'm especially excited about FF Versus XIII because of the different kind of mood than in previous final fantasies... and because its going to be like a mature kingdom hearts minus the disney.
when it comes down to it, the because difference in the FF games is all about story and characters. Up until XI, most of the gameplay was very similar to the ones before it. sure square added the ATB, the CTB, job system and things like that, but the biggest difference was in the story and characters. and thats what makes FF so special. anyone can make an rpg and make a couple sequels for it. the fact that square-enix provides memorable plots with dynamic characters, not to mention amazing music and stunning visuals is what has kept this series alive for so long.
Dei76 @ Sep 20th 2007 2:45PM
Pre rendered is probably much easier for the studio, after all, they probably have all their animation rigging and what-not (totally knows nothing about animation) set up for this sort of thing after the films.
So quicker, cheaper, easier and looks better.
Negativecool @ Sep 20th 2007 2:46PM
So...is THIS suppose to be the game that will save the PS3 in Japan?! Disappointing. Let it be known Square Enix, the next FF game I buy will be the remake to FFVII. The rest of these can suck my balls.
khedron @ Sep 20th 2007 2:48PM
Yes, you're all right -- CGI isn't as technically impressive as what the in-engine work on this latest generation of systems should be.
But.
But, it's easier to pull off, because the games aren't finished yet. How much are you going to let the goal of creating demos drive what parts of the game get presentation-quality polish first?
bean @ Sep 20th 2007 2:51PM
sasuke?
VampireHunter Z @ Sep 20th 2007 2:55PM
Except his hair is black.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 20th 2007 3:40PM
I hate sasuke.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=243
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Kazi @ Sep 20th 2007 4:27PM
oh, no, why! I can't unsee it. You just ruined this game for me. He looks exactly like Sasuke with grey hair.
ces @ Sep 20th 2007 2:53PM
I shall buy a PS3 when the Final Fantasy XIII games come out.
zig @ Sep 20th 2007 4:19PM
So I guess my first question now would be, are XIII and Versus XIII stories in the same continueum (sp)?
My second, did it say, "PS3 Only," at the end like XIII did?
Mr Khan @ Sep 20th 2007 6:40PM
continuum