Will FFXIII break tradition?

[Khisanth]

I'm not sure if anyone has really breached this topic or not, but is it possible that FFXIII will be a single character game, breaking the series-long tradition of multi-character parties?
I submit the following information as evidence for this argument:
Exhibit I) In Scan 4 from the foreign language expose on the front page:
(http://www.eyesonff.com/images/news/ffxiiiscan4.jpg),
at the top right is an inset table listing the number of characters allowed in a party since the first FF. For example, in FFI, four characters are allowed, while in FFXI, six characters may fight simultaneously. I believe the authors of this article then are commenting on the likliehood of FFXIII's heroine going at it alone throughout the game!
Exhibit II) On the same scan, and many of the others displaying battle scenes, the "radar" box at the top left of every scan shows the heroine's position in relation to her enemies. If there were ever to be more than one character in the party, where would their position be displayed? Unless they occupied the same exact space, it would make the radar box somewhat difficult to comprehend. Also, the heroine's position always remains in the center of the box in every shot, again supporting the fact that she may be your only playable character.
Exhibit III) The heroine's mastery of many different weapons may be another clue. Traditionally, each character had their weapon, be it sword, spear or staff; those weapons may change in appearance, but characters rarely traded in one genre of weapon for another. Yet, here we have a heroine that in the few glimpses we have wields both sword and firearm, with perhaps more options forthcoming. Granted, the gunblade has appeared before, but not in this capacity (Squall and Seifer utilized the gunblade, but I can't recall them ever taking shots with it). While my FF knowledge is not all-encompassing, I cannot recall a major playable character with the ability to switch their weapon type. Therefore, it may be that our heroine will be the only character available, with her ability to change weapons making up for the lack of other characters.
Anywayz, I'm done with the soapbox ~ if anyone else has an opinion on this subject or other conjecture...

EDIT: Since this post, I have discovered that LunarWeaver has previously proposed the possibility of a single playable character... Just wanted to give credit where it was due...

[Zeromus_X]

FF has always been about being experimental. Though if anything, FFX, XI, and XII broke many traditions, so I don't think this one will top anything.

As for this, you never know. Though I'd doubt they'd have you solo a character, I guess we won't know until we get more information on the game, won't we?

[Rostum]

I don't think enough has been revealed to come to the conclusion that there will only be one character playable. I don't see why they would make it with just one party member.

[Khisanth]

I completely agree that not enough information is known as of yet ~ my guesswork is just that... guesswork. However, as Zeromus_X aptly stated, Square has been known to break tradition before ~ could this be their next innovation?
I guess we must wait to find out...

[DeathKnight]

tradition? what tradition? FF keeps evolving and engaging their fans in NEW ways with major twists here and there. Each FF MUST be SPECIAL in some way, if not it'll get boring and bashed to death.

[Markus. D]

there is no "tradition" being broken.

I remember a past game of FF that had a single player hack and slash.

[Moon Rabbits]

Exhibit I) In Scan 4 from the foreign language expose on the front page:
(http://www.eyesonff.com/images/news/ffxiiiscan4.jpg),
at the top right is an inset table listing the number of characters allowed in a party since the first FF. For example, in FFI, four characters are allowed, while in FFXI, six characters may fight simultaneously. I believe the authors of this article then are commenting on the likliehood of FFXIII's heroine going at it alone throughout the game!

Link is broken, so I can't say anything about this.

Exhibit II) On the same scan, and many of the others displaying battle scenes, the "radar" box at the top left of every scan shows the heroine's position in relation to her enemies. If there were ever to be more than one character in the party, where would their position be displayed? Unless they occupied the same exact space, it would make the radar box somewhat difficult to comprehend. Also, the heroine's position always remains in the center of the box in every shot, again supporting the fact that she may be your only playable character.

The radar may not be centered on her, or may be centered on her only when it is just her in the party. The radar may zoom out when more than one playable character is in the party so that it has the ability to display all of their positions.

Exhibit III) The heroine's mastery of many different weapons may be another clue. Traditionally, each character had their weapon, be it sword, spear or staff; those weapons may change in appearance, but characters rarely traded in one genre of weapon for another. Yet, here we have a heroine that in the few glimpses we have wields both sword and firearm, with perhaps more options forthcoming. Granted, the gunblade has appeared before, but not in this capacity (Squall and Seifer utilized the gunblade, but I can't recall them ever taking shots with it). While my FF knowledge is not all-encompassing, I cannot recall a major playable character with the ability to switch their weapon type. Therefore, it may be that our heroine will be the only character available, with her ability to change weapons making up for the lack of other characters.

Earlier FFs had the characters use many different weapons. Job systems aside, FFVI had many different types of weapons the characters could utilize. While some used specific weapons (ie. Relm uses brushes), Lock could use daggers (and some swords I think) as well as full moons and other weapons along those lines.

[Juniper Jade]

Perhaps the screenshots are just of a specefic event in the game where she is alone. I hope there will be more than one part member. I'd still buy it/ play it if it was just one person, but i do like the variety of characters.

[Mirage]

I think they just rushed to make a character design and a setting to put the character in, so that they would give an illusion of having gotten pretty far in the development of the game :p.

[<<MiKo BaHaMuT>>]

tradition? what tradition? FF keeps evolving and engaging their fans in NEW ways with major twists here and there. Each FF MUST be SPECIAL in some way, if not it'll get boring and bashed to death.

But you see... From the previous FFs we've played, the characters are "neatly" lined up during battles (haha), but in FFX-2, they aren't...
And also there are summons in previous FFs but FFX-2 broke it...
There are a lot of changes starting from FF X...

Not sure if those changes are bad or good for the gamers..?

But if Square really break the traditions of FF, I don't think they should even call that game Final Fantasy?

[Zeromus_X]

FF started breaking whatever tradition they had with FFVI, and it got progressively more experimental from that point. (I think it's a good and bad thing.)

Anyway, we really don't know enough about the game yet, and I wouldn't think they'd eliminate having more than one person in a party.

[ljkkjlcm9]

I don't get your radar argument. In FPS games you can have teams, your character is at the center of the radar, enemies are a certain color, and teamates are another. SO in this game the main character could be at the center of the radar, your teamates in another color, and then the enemies in another.

As for multiweapons, that's great if characters can use multiple weapons. Other FF games have had that possible, but it'd be great if they truly developed it, maybe a system like FFII where you use certain weapons and become better with them, or certain characters are better with certain weapons, but it still doesn't show that there is only one character. It'd honestly be a pretty boring game if you only ever had one character in your party and you went through the whole game by yourself. It'd take the LoneWolf idea of Squall to an extreme.

THE JACKEL

[~Megalixir~]

I'm starting to hate SE now. Why? These new 'inovations' and 'ideas' dont do what there supposed to. I think it is very likely that they begin branching away from Final Fantasy, traditionally. You say theres no proof? Look at FFX-2, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerebus, and FFXI. All new, and all reasonalbly diffent. Though Before Crisis and Dirge are only pieces of the FFVII Compilation, they differ greatly. Cell Phones? Third-Person Shooters? WTF?!?

What I'm saying is that Square-Enix will suprise people, and when it does, they will rise, or they will go down in flames. Look out for games on other consoles, too.

[Zeromus_X]

They've already began being innovative a very long time ago.

[Rogue]

as long the battle are fun who cares what tradition its breakes
and as long if it as a good story to