Direct-feed Final Fantasy XIII screens look predictably more gorgeous

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 9th 2009 at 11:11AM }

Click to embiggen.

No more magazine scans, folks. Square Enix has finally opened the official Final Fantasy XIII website and has unleashed thirty direct-feed images of the game. After years of waiting, it finally appears that the game is getting closer to (shock!) actually being done? There aren't too many real-time shots to be seen in this collection, but the few that can be seen look remarkably close to the CG renders we've been seeing for so long. With Square Enix finally revving up this game's PR, it won't be too long until we see (bigger shock!) actual gameplay footage.

Gallery: Final Fantasy XIII

Tags: final-fantasy, final-fantasy-13, final-fantasy-xiii, square-enix

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

B3astofthe3ast @ Jan 9th 2009 11:16AM

Its still weird for me to look at the "Filed under" and see "Microsoft xbox 360" there...

Anam @ Jan 9th 2009 11:19AM

You know, I might be excited about XIII if we got a little more information than "there is a female lead character who is good at posing in otherwise uninteresting scenes."

Zertoss @ Jan 9th 2009 11:20AM

Which ones are female?

Anam @ Jan 9th 2009 11:23AM

Usually the ones without blue hair.

J @ Jan 9th 2009 11:36AM

zertoss, if you've never played other jrpgs or watched anime, then there's no reason for you to be cautious. If you have, then you should know that males are never given boobs, no matter how effeminate. Except for that saxophone player in cowboy bebop. But he had drug issues. And preteen male characters sometimes dress up like girls, but of course no boobs because they're preteens.

Anam, I feel the exact opposite. I don't care too much about the info, but all these new amazing screenshots makes it so much more unbearable to wait for this game.

So far i know that this game, KZ2, U2, and Heavy Rain will look amazing from beginning to end. I'm not saying Sony has the best line up, but these are the 4 games that just stand out [FOR ME] in terms of visual quality (which i know isn't everything, so don't you dare try to remind me).

Can't wait.

Esat Dedezade @ Jan 9th 2009 11:38AM

The men in JRPGs must spend a fortune on moisturiser and exfoliators.

Zertoss @ Jan 9th 2009 12:14PM

But J, how do I KNOW the guys are guys and the gals are gals? I mean, girls in those JPEGs or whatever you called them tend to be underage and flat chested.

J @ Jan 9th 2009 12:33PM

That's true, zertoss. Let them be whatever you want them to be. Like the youngest Hanson sibling during the 90's. She was cute.

Blank-Mage @ Jan 9th 2009 4:05PM

Hey not ALL female characters have blue hair. Just the emo quiet ones, and Konata from Lucky Star. And Kaname from Full Metal Panic.

KarlW @ Jan 9th 2009 5:25PM

I usually pay hundreds of dollars to get girls called "Lightning" and "Vanille" to come to my living room.

Zertoss @ Jan 9th 2009 5:36PM

So how about that Jun Watarase?

Blank-Mage @ Jan 9th 2009 11:44PM

Sneaky, Zertoss.

Shangheli @ Jan 9th 2009 11:20AM

Why no gameplay screens? If I made a gorgeous looking game I would show the world. Then again, if I made an ugly ass game I would hide it.

J @ Jan 9th 2009 11:37AM

Earlier article here shows ingame screenshots from magazine scans. Too lazy to find the link for you though. They look amazing.

Hyams @ Jan 9th 2009 3:47PM

We've have gameplay screens since mid December.

A Japan demo is going out in March too, so expect a bunch of videos to pop up then too.

jaybcorreia @ Jan 9th 2009 11:23AM

I can't wait to get this for the 360:)and is there any speculation on when this game is published?

myabsolution @ Jan 9th 2009 11:29AM

I think its 2009 for Japan... (i think they get a demo in next few months)

and who knows for everyone else.

My Name @ Jan 9th 2009 11:35AM

Probably not until 2010 for everyone else.

=Lord Negatron of the XBots= @ Jan 9th 2009 12:12PM

Really...
Good looking or not, 2010 is a long fucking time. They better not take that long, before it gets the Duke Nukem stamp of approval.

Reason for my saying this is because, SQNIX fired off prematurely at E3 08' about its coming to the 360 etc. That news could have waited, if its 2 years down the line. As good as it is for hype, it just as lethal. (IMO)

Dirty @ Jan 9th 2009 1:00PM

I think the timing of the announcement was appropriate. They took a feather out of sony's cap before the holiday. Why give the competitor the appearance of having exclusive AAA titles coming down the road? Future games weigh more heavily on someone looking to purchase than do past games...IMO.

But yea 2010 seems like forever.

Nytemare @ Jan 9th 2009 11:26AM

Guys...there are gameplay screens over on Kotak[?]

I don't know if you've seen them yet, but they are pretty bad ass. They also go into a little detail about battles.

Archwright @ Jan 9th 2009 11:30AM

Ok, so the lead character is female... but she looks more manly than any of the recent male leads.

CJLopez @ Jan 9th 2009 11:35AM

Men, you really need to check you perception of the genres, really

J @ Jan 9th 2009 11:40AM

manly isn't the right word. they didn't make her muscular. Think of nariko from heavenly sword. Just bad ass and stoic. Then again, nariko did talk too much, but you get what i mean.

Archwright @ Jan 9th 2009 11:49AM

I suppose she reminds me of the main character from FF: Tactics. I confused her for a dude at first.

I do hope that this starts a trend away from wimpy looking leads.

Archwright @ Jan 9th 2009 11:53AM

I take it back, they put her in a stupid-looking mini skirt. Does it count as character design if the design leeches all the character out of someone?

chispito @ Jan 9th 2009 12:51PM

This doesn't seem to be breaking the mold of doll-like, wistful girls and brooding, androgenous males.

Blond, thin stubble does not make a JRPG character suddenly masculine.

DonkeyBarf @ Jan 9th 2009 11:47AM

I wonder if the game will be native 1080p? My hope is that FF XIII will be 1080p and then scaled down to 1080i or 720p for the XBox. But I guess that's a development cash sink hole.

Thief @ Jan 9th 2009 12:03PM

Why do you hope that, fanboy?

(The Award-Winning) dark_inchworm @ Jan 9th 2009 12:08PM

Just making sure: You know the 360 can support 1080p now, right?

ryan @ Jan 9th 2009 12:22PM

Well I hope it runs at 480p on PS3 with framerate issues and 360 gets a boost of 1080p, 60fps plus FFVS.13 as free preorder content.

Did I just do the fanboy shuffle or what?

Hyams @ Jan 9th 2009 3:35PM

Whatever, I just hope its awesome, no matter what system it's on.

FemaleOrca @ Jan 9th 2009 5:06PM

I hope the Gamecube version comes with a Darkwing Duck™ soup thermos and the Genesis cartridge comes with monaural sound and pizza blasted Pringles™.

KarlW @ Jan 9th 2009 5:16PM

I hope it's 1080p on the PS3 too.

Couldn't give a rat's ass what it's like on the 360. Never going to play it on one. In fact, if I predict the world as it would be if the 360 didn't get FF13, it's pretty much exactly what I predict the opposite to be like. Without the rain of fire and rivers of blood, of course.

DonkeyBarf @ Jan 9th 2009 7:48PM

Wow... everything needs to be specifically worded on the internet lest it be chopped to pieces and labeled fanboy. 'Twas not the intent of my original post to start a flame war.

@Thief: Though by the hasty labeling of Fanboy you indirectly cause yourself to look more fanboy than I.
Starting to hate posting on Joystiq now because of jackasses like you.

@The-Award (followed by long rest of name): No actually I ddin't realize they updated it to support 1080p. That's good thing actually! If it supported it way back when I bought a PS3 I might have gone that route...

It`s starting to get very difficult to post anything on Joystiq that isn`t attacked or labeled.

ryan @ Jan 9th 2009 9:00PM

Alright, I'll give you a second chance: What did you mean by saying "I hope it's 1080p on the PS3 and 720p on the 360"? Just curious.

DonkeyBarf @ Jan 9th 2009 10:29PM

@ ryan

Not initially knowing that the XBox now supports 1080p was the problem here. My point is that if a dev creates a game in 1080p and then scales it down to support another system it would be a bad business move as the extra effort and funding to get it to perform well for 1 of 2 systems. Thus, my wish was that they would still make the game in 1080p regardless of saving a little money.

Since I've been corrected however you can just truncate the damned post to "I hope the game is native 1080p!"

I can't go wiki researching what's supported by the latest firmware for each damned system before each one of my posts. So before going fanboy nuts just ask the OP to clarify!