New Final Fantasy XIII screens look predictably gorgeous

by Justin McElroy { Jan 6th 2009 at 6:45PM }

FinalFantasy-XIII.net has nabbed some high quality screens of Final Fantasy XIII from Famitsu, and they're lovely. But as we peruse them, we can't help but have the sensation of flipping through a really fancy coffin catalog. Yes, the rosewood casket is gorgeous, but it's not as if you're ever going to get to enjoy it, is it?

We'd find it a lot easier to get excited about Final Fantasy XIII if we knew we'd be getting our hands on the game before 2010, which already sounds like a hyper-futuristic spaceworld where super-intelligent pterodactyl-men hold sway. But maybe that's just us.

Tags: final-fantasy-xiii, square-enix

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

AwesomeTown @ Jan 6th 2009 6:49PM

Is it a dumb question to ask if that pic is supposed to be of a female? I can never tell with SquareEnix.

Snowblind @ Jan 6th 2009 6:51PM

I was about to make a joke about that, but yes, it's a female character.

And this appears to be the first Final Fantasy game with a decent lead character in quite some time.

Jacksons @ Jan 6th 2009 6:51PM

I have no idea if it's dumb, but I'd like to know the answer to that as well.

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 6:53PM

Well, she has boobs.

And, I presume, a vagina.

Aero @ Jan 6th 2009 6:54PM

She's manlier than any other lead role that SquareEnix ever had.

Lips @ Jan 6th 2009 6:55PM

I guess you guys can't tell supple women lips - that's one thing that can always tell the difference in JRPGs

Moptimus Slime @ Jan 6th 2009 6:55PM

Hyams- so did Tidus....and Squall

just sayin'

AwesomeTown @ Jan 6th 2009 6:56PM

Oh well, I'm not picky.

jimmygotsmack @ Jan 6th 2009 6:58PM

What are you people talking about, thats Cloud, http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/7/73/Nothing_alike_75.jpg

PSN: Erdie @ Jan 6th 2009 6:58PM

Okay Hyams, I know the Japanese are a little different, but I doubt someone took the time to put a vagina on her character model. Let the deviant artists do that.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Jan 6th 2009 7:01PM

Revolution!

jimmygotsmack @ Jan 6th 2009 7:03PM

@Nick

Sky Pirate!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/435574

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 7:06PM

Erdie:

Final Fantasy 13 Hentai.

You know it will happen.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:07PM

You know, never had this problem. Never, never, never. Of course I'm a realist. I'm dipped into Japanese culture and seriously, have you SEEN Gackt? So recognizing male and female has never been an issue with Square Games for me. Even with Amano's concept art.

Of course unlike most of the people who make this same lame gag time after time, I explored more than Image Comics where female characters are signified by huge fucking tits and any thing or creature that didn't have said tits was male. It's my understanding that only people who had clearly oversexualized stereotypes pounded into their skull by their popular culture are the ones who have the issue with this.

Everyone else, who actually goes out on the street and mingles with society understands that anything between the standards set by WWE is not considered androgynous, don't typically have this problem. Go fig.

Snowblind @ Jan 6th 2009 7:12PM

I never confused Tidus or Vaan with females.. The problem is that they do look very feminine, they were overly whiney, annoying and just generally hard to relate with.

They were very clearly designed with the Japanese in mind, and didn't care what anyone else thought, Basche was going to be, and SHOULD have been the main character in XII but they had to change that to give the Japanese a more relatable character, completely ruining the game.

jimmygotsmack @ Jan 6th 2009 7:13PM

On that note, why does Tifa, Rinoa, and maybe Yuna look so similar?

Kia @ Jan 6th 2009 7:14PM

Yes, yes it is a fucking stupid question. I am so sick of the stupid Square detractors acting like ANY Square hero has looked remotely female. If you really have that much trouble discerning between the sexes, I suggest you get your damn eyes checked. Christ.

BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:20PM

@sheppy

i bet you're one of those people that gets off on hearing themselves talk, aren't you? you could have summed that painfully long post up in about two sentences.

Blank-Mage @ Jan 6th 2009 7:22PM

@ Sheppy:

Actually, Gackt was the character model for the enigmatic "G" from Dirge of Cerberus. But that aside, word. (REDEEEEEMPTIOOOOOON!)

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:28PM

@Biggen

You're absolutely right. I used far too many words. Many of them had multiple syllables which could have thrown you off. And apparently text = talk now and not needing something to do whilst mine computer renders out a normal map. So allow me to shorten the above statement you you can understand it.

"Why fer all then Jap bastard characters not have huge freaky veinfilled tits like all my juvenile americanized sexual fantasies? Gets kinda hard to figure out what drawings I should to whacking in a milk cartoon to."

AwesomeTown @ Jan 6th 2009 7:30PM

Hey, don't get me wrong, I love Square-Enix.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Jan 6th 2009 7:31PM

@jimmygotsmack

Yay somebody got it!

Snowblind @ Jan 6th 2009 7:32PM

Oh please. The Japanese are far worse for protraying characters with large breasts. If you're going to attempt to argue that the Japanese are less perverse than us and prefer real looking women, then there's little point in continuing this.

Vaan and Tidus were terrible characters, they could have looked like WWE characters and that wouldn't have made a difference, but their feminine appearence most certainly didn't help matters.

BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:33PM

@sheppy
see, i knew you could do it! good for you!!

tyguy92 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:51PM

@ Sheppy

"It's my understanding that only people who had clearly oversexualized stereotypes pounded into their skull by their popular culture are the ones who have the issue with this."

I would like to refer you to one of the magazine scans. Now which culture is oversexualized again? Maybe both cultures are?

tyguy92 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:51PM

I wish, I wish, I wish there was an edit button. Anyway, this is the scan I was referring to.

http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/media/scans/famitsu/103.jpg

Blank-Mage @ Jan 6th 2009 7:54PM

How about we all agree that all cultures are, to some degree, perverted. Japanese, see 'Witchblade'. American, see FOX reality TV.

Uncontrol @ Jan 6th 2009 8:11PM

just replying to say that gackt owns and GHOST is an awesome single

Levi @ Jan 6th 2009 8:21PM

she's the first one I think is hot in a long time.

She's also the first character in FF that doesn't look like a whiny bitch.

Fx.Dr @ Jan 6th 2009 10:05PM

@ tyguy92

"I would like to refer you to one of the magazine scans. Now which culture is oversexualized again? Maybe both cultures are?"

Lack of Triple-F cups shows they're at least *trying* to tone it down.

Moptimus Slime @ Jan 6th 2009 6:53PM

This game better "reinvent" the JRPG genre what with all the hype and drama its produced over the years.

Also, Square should release this and Dragon Quest X on the same date, then sit back and watch as Japan is thrown into an endless state of anarchy. You know, for shits and giggles

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:21PM

Or..you could just enjoy this game and not let hype have effect your opinions on it.

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 7:25PM

What Vegeta said. ^_^

Levi @ Jan 6th 2009 8:20PM

Yeah it really won't reinvent everything. Or anything, probably. It will most likely be a variation of the battle engine they came up with for FF12.

Oh, and what Vegeta said x2.

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 8:56PM

Actually, it uses a form of ATB, more akin to FF9 and earlier. Main difference is that when the ATB fills, you pick a number of moves, instead of just the one.

There are no random battles though. Enemies are seen on screen, and when you approach them there's a flash, everyone gets their weapons out, and the battle HUD pops up.

It's a nice middle ground between what FF12 did and earlier games, IMO.

=Lord Negatron of the XBots= @ Jan 7th 2009 10:50AM

Im with Moptimus on that note.

IMO the release is a bit too long for an FF game even if they are making it multiplatform now. 12 was OK aside from the fact they tried to make it MMO style, with roaming monsters on the map. Then the blue and red targeting streams WTF was that about?!

12 never grabbed me the way 3,4,7, & 10 did. To this day, I still don't know why i haven't bought the soundtrack to 10.

All my rambling aside regarding the other FF's, I hope SQnix gets off the hype train, until the game is ready to ship. ie. Screenshots, etc. Keep that shat under wraps.

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 6:53PM

Looking so very good. A shame we won't get to play it until 2010 in the West. =(

PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Jan 6th 2009 7:17PM

I;m going with 2011......lol

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:23PM

I can't help but say there is an upside to waiting until 2010. Because then, according to Back to the Future, it will only be five more years until hover cars and $40million dollars being considered cheap.

*purposely avoids US dollar value joke and weeps*

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 7:24PM

Haha, I really hope not.

But the game is releasing in Japan this year, most likely towards the end, which should put the Western released sometime next year.

It's *possible* that the game could make it over to the West in time for Christmas this year, but I wouldn't pin your hopes on it.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Jan 6th 2009 7:46PM

There's no chance in hell. By SquareEnix's own admission, the PS3 version is the priority and they haven't even started on the 360 version. Since they promised day 1 multiplat for the US and Europe, that means the PS3 release outside of Japan will not only be held up by translation issues, but the port to wholly different hardware as well. It's 2010 at the earliest. BUT White Knight Chronicles is still dropping this year. And suppsedly NamcoBandai told someone that EVERY console is getting a new Tales this year.

starsforeyes(XBL) @ Jan 6th 2009 8:19PM

@sheppy

I just remembered that announcement yesterday. When Namco finally gets around to announcing those games, I'm going to start my search for a used 60 gig PS3. Can't. Wait.

Draco @ Jan 6th 2009 11:55PM

I don't know the very first scan says May 13th 2009 I believe, that's a Wednesday FYI.

I'm sure they could have their translators working on the localization on the complete parts of the story?

PSN: Erdie @ Jan 6th 2009 6:56PM

Look at that cartoony white glove cursor. Even amongst all the crazy guns and sci-fi stuff, it's just kicking back thinking "It's a me! Mario!"

DocZoid @ Jan 6th 2009 7:17PM

Several internets to you, sir. For excellence in the field of lulz.

Blank-Mage @ Jan 6th 2009 7:26PM

I thought they went with arrows now? Or was I mistaken?

sk8monroe81 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:06PM

IMO this may be the best looking game this generation even beating later released titles.
of course the cut scenes im talking about.

they have been working on this game for some time now and i feel they wont release until they feel its done.

Hyams @ Jan 6th 2009 7:13PM

The graphics during the battles are jaw droppingly good too.

Little Big PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:22PM

I think MGS 4 has the title at the moment over Gears Of War. Of course realistic graphics are an individuals preference. If I had to place a bet it would be on Heavy Rain or Wardevil having the best in-game graphics of any game this generation. I also wouldn't be surprised to see God of War 3 with something to say about that.