Heroine's name confirmed. Plus, info on where the game takes place

[Crossblades]

This info comes from the trailer, which is what I'm still looking for

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/751/751427p1.html

One of our favorite annual traditions continued this year as Square Enix hosted a closed theater presentation at this weekend's Jump Festa in Tokyo, highlighting some of the biggest games for the coming year. Included in the bunch was a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII.

This year's trailer montage started off with a few of the lower-key titles, including Wonderful World for the DS and a bunch of mobile games. The new EZ Web and Yahoo! Keitai versions of Before Crisis brought the show to the "Rebirth of Compilation" section, covering all the Final Fantasy VII products. This ended with Crisis Core, details on which we already shared in this article.

Next, it was time for the main attraction: Final Fantasy XIII. The main entry in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series of titles lead the way with an extended version of the previous trailers. This one opened up with an introduction narrated in poorly spoken English. The narrator told of a floating, mechanical city called "Cocoon." Protected by crystals, people reside peacefully in this world. The world below is known as "Pulse," and is feared by all. The girl who was shown in the original E3 trailer is known as Lightning. She has been chosen to bring an end to the world. At least I think that's what I heard.

The trailer then cut to the familiar train and battle sequences from the E3 and Tokyo Game Show trailers. This time, included in the footage were a water-based summon spell and more scenes involving Lightning facing off against large numbers of soldiers. The forest sequence from the original trailer was missing. The ending was also different. Lightning was shown in an outdoors environment, surrounded by dozens of soldiers. All hope appeared to be lost, until a blonde-haired guy sped in on a motorcycle. He's presumably another character.

Trailers for the two other FFXIII projects, Agito and Versus, came next. We mistakenly reported earlier that the Versus trailer was the same as the one from E3. That isn't the case. Like the main FFXIII trailer, the new version managed to build upon the E3 trailer with an impressive array of new footage that left us even more excited for the final product.

New scenes included an opening sequence where the main character is shown seated in the back seat of a car, listening to the radio as the car speeds through a tunnel. The impressive battle sequence shown in the E3 trailer continued here with the main character taking out a few soldiers who came repelling down a building in the backdrop.

While the new trailer, like the one from E3, was pure CG, some scenes provide possible hints at the kind of gameplay we can expect. The main character called upon a ring of around a dozen sword and sphere weapons, which almost seemed to do the fighting for him. When facing off against the repelling soldiers, he seemed to teleport up to the top of the building, then charge down at the enemy in a scene that resembled something out of Final Fantasy Advent Children.

The new trailer finished with the phrase "The true figure is still hidden in the sleep." Let's hope the sleep isn't too long, because we're starting to get real excited about seeing Versus in its "true figure."

Following the Final Fantasy XIII segment, it was time for Kingdom Hearts to take the spotlight. The latest set of trailers focused on Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, a Japan-only release that includes the English language version of Kingdom Hearts II along with, on a separate DVD, a fully 3D remake of the Game Boy Advance Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

More exciting than the actual trailers was the hint that we could be hearing about a new Kingdom Hearts game some time in 2007. For more on that, check out this news story.

Your IGN Japan staff walked away from the Square Enix Theater more anxious than ever about getting our hands on Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantsy Versus XIII. We're hoping Square Enix makes the new trailers public so that you can see for yourself what we're all hyped up about.

[Laddy]

AWESOME!!! Her name IS Lightning! Coolio!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The narrator told of a floating, mechanical city called "Cocoon." Protected by crystals, people reside peacefully in this world. The world below is known as "Pulse," and is feared by all.

Sup Xenogears?

[skillzboy4]

i cant believe her name is lightning.... this is so dissappointing

[Timerk]

i cant believe her name is lightning.... this is so dissappointing

Why? Like Cloud and Squall don't totally sound like stupid names without context?

[Takara]

i cant believe her name is lightning.... this is so dissappointing

Why? Like Cloud and Squall don't totally sound like stupid names without context?

I was kinda hoping they wouldn't repeat past mistakes like naming characters stupid names like "Squall" and "Cloud".

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

But "Lightning" sounds like the name of a racehorse. That alone puts it ahead of the rest by several orders of magnitude.

[skillzboy4]

They describing the new trailers coming out in that article???

[Laddy]

I call the blonde dude, Jimmy. I don't know why, but I think LIghtning is a good and fine name, but I hate sequel names.

[Moon Rabbits]

The Final Fantasies that have Nomura as the character designer seem to always have a main character with a weather related name... ._.

edit: Not that I care, I don't mind the names. But it would be nice if Squeenix would stop altogether with this trend eventually, instead of just taking breaks in between with FFIX and XII.

[chionos]

Whether something to be cherished or scorned, Nomura changed Final Fantasy forever. Personally, I don't know what it is, but something is making me a little timid or fearful of how this will turn out. I've usually been the first to defend anything SE does, but for the first time, I'm only tentatively anxious. Quite possibly it's because I've seen so much of Nomura's work, and it all seems to be the same, so it kind of feels like FFXIII's just going to be a rehash of everything he's done so far. It's really early to say that, but I can't let go of it. I really was hoping FFXIII would be as much a revamp of the series as FFVII was, but it doesn't look to be that way. Obviously it's going to be huge and beautiful, but...will it blow my mind...I can only hope.
OFF-TOPIC: I'm anxious to see what the next fresh upstart's going to produce. So far there's been 3 main character designers involved in the series, Amano, Nomura, and Yoshida, each with very different stylistic qualities. I still think Amano's work could be explored more, and Yoshida has barely broken into the main FF series(he also worked on Tactics, Ogre and FF, the FFIII remake, the gorgeous Vagrant Story, and the upcoming FFT) so his work can be explored too. I just wonder what the next artist will bring to the table. Amano is just an artistic genius. His characters are ethereal and are hard to translate into game characters, which I think is one of the main reasons Nomura has become the dominate artist. Nomura brought a futuristic Toriyama-esque feel to the games that translated into the actual characters rather easily. Yoshida now brings a grittier, more tangible and realistic feel to the characters, which is evidenced in FFXII(he's also got a butt fetish). So will we see anything new, or is FF destined to fade into cookie-cutter Nomura games, sputtering out its life with mediocre games and characters? Maybe there's more to Nomura than meets the eye, and if not hopefully square will continue to bring in fresh meat to revamp the series.

I don't have anything wrong with the Lightning name itself. If he follows through with the symbolism, Lightning will be a very dynamic and altogether un-emo character, which I assume we'll all agree is a nice change. The "She has been chosen to bring an end to the world." is intriguing despite its possibly stereotypical plot. At least it's a departure from the norm to an extent. A true antihero would be great.

Personal rant: I am kind of sick of Nomura and the sides of buildings. Repelling, wall-walking...it's just not fun anymore.

[croix]

whew...squall and cloud aint stupid names... squall sounds cool, and it has a fierce meaning... but Lightning? its way to awkward.. Theyre using common names... how bout using some unique ones that people can remember?

[skillzboy4]

i didnt know Yoshida was working in FXIII??? please god no... FFXII in IMO was the worse storyline in any FF ive played. The characters were so undeveloped and felt something was missing in that game. Other than that, i still have high hopes for this game since the Team from Final Fantasy X is returning.. also about Lightning being sent to end the world seems really cool.

[chionos]

You misread, Yoshida's not working on FFXIII. Nomura is. Yoshida wasn't in charge of the story for FFXII so you can't blame him.

On the name Lightning, I think I like it more than Squall or Cloud, personally, and it is actually rather memorable.

[Jessweeee♪]

Oh, get over it! It's just a stupid name. I, for one, am not going to let something so silly like that ruin the game for me....not that I'll have a ps3 to play it on anyway...

While the new trailer, like the one from E3, was pure CG, some scenes provide possible hints at the kind of gameplay we can expect. The main character called upon a ring of around a dozen sword and sphere weapons, which almost seemed to do the fighting for him. When facing off against the repelling soldiers, he seemed to teleport up to the top of the building, then charge down at the enemy in a scene that resembled something out of Final Fantasy Advent Children.

Does this mean Lightning really isn't the main character?