Ge-maga, IGN reports, in addition to the interview about Final Fantasy XIII's battle system, has another interview, this one with Tetsuya Nomura, which gives us new information on another PlayStation 3 RPG, Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
Of course, the details are fairly vague, but Nomura shed a little light on the game's setting. Even though the game is part of the Final Fantasy XIII mythology, this game takes place in modern times, which explains the modern cityscape and settings that were seen in previously released trailers. For those that saw the modified E3 trailer that was shown at last year's Jump Festa in Japan, the main character is in the backseat of a car which goes down a highway and then comes out of a tunnel. The highway itself is based on Tokyo's own "Shutoko" expressway system, and the tunnel is taken from a certain tunnel that's near Tokyo's Ginza area. Nomura said his development staff drove down through this area many times to do their research. In the game, that area pretty much resembles the highway and tunnel down to the smallest detail, aside from the real street signs, which Nomura joked and said that something like that would be slightly out of place in the game's setting.
The game's cityscape takes much influence from the Tokyo area. It's mainly supposed to be a reflection of the Shinjuku area, which is where Square-Enix's corporate headquarters are located. Nomura said he likes how the area looks, so he chose to use it as material.
Nomura, in addition to the setting, talked about some of the game's background story. The cityscape is a part of the home country of the main character. The world around it, however, isn't as advanced as this area. An area that surrounds this city-like country is a world that is stuck in the past, rather like the middle ages. The main character's country is the sole area that's reached modern times.
The reason for this big difference between this country and all the others was referenced in the trailer shown at Jump Festa. When the main character's car goes down the highway, you can hear a radio broadcast that talks about a cold war ending. This war was over crystals, which the main character's country has. In addition to that fact, the character is in a royal family whose job is to protect the crystals, and they have done so for generations. The world outside of the country had crystals, but lost them over time due to the war. They mostly focus their resources on weapons instead of cultural development, which leaves them in their middle ages-esque state.
Nomura tried to explain the main character's family by relating it to a sort of modern day mafia. In the first trailer released, there were people in black suits that collapsed outside of the palace, and those people were part of the royal army.
The trailer that was all-CG showed some interesting combat visuals where the character easily dealt with hundreds of enemies outside the palace. As far as the game's actual battle system, Nomura said it'd be best for people to try and imagine a realistic Kingdom Hearts. In addition to this, the game will have elements of something called a "TPS," which means third person shooter. The player's view of the action will be different depending on the weapon in use, to give the opportunity for the controls not to be confusing.
The game's world will also be quite expansive. Nomura said he would like to make the character's entire country into one huge battlefield. But then he would also have to deal with the world around the country, which concerns him since he thinks he might make the game world too large. Luckily, to get around, players will have direct control over air ships to travel to different areas.
More info about Versus XIII(It's about the game's the setting and background story)
Originally Posted by Crossblades
