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Unable to sleep due to excitement about Square Enix's big Friday Final Fantasy XIII announcement? Well here's a bit of info to get you even more hyped about the upcoming RPG epic. Famitsu provided an update on the game today, filling in some glaring blanks in the full FFXIII picture.
Square Enix hasn't mentioned them much, but FFXIII has that staple of every Final Fantasy, the Chocobo. It actually has two types of them: Cocoon-type and Pulse-type. Cocoon Chocobos are the cute, traditional farm-raised Chocobos that you've seen in past FF games. Pulse Chocobos are wild, massive beasts that one really wouldn't describe as "cute."
We're not sure what you do with the Cocoon Chocobos, but the Pulse Chocobos can serve as a means of transportation when you're exploring the vast fields of the FFXIII lower world. When being ridden, the Chocobos have an HP meter (actually just a set of feathers) that depletes each time you run into an enemy. Once this reaches zero, the Chocobo will flee.
In addition to a high running speed and jumping ability that can get to you new areas, the Chocobos have a special sense which lets them identify the location of buried treasure. As you run about, an exclamation mark will occasionally pop up above the Chcobo's head. This means that there's treasure in the vicinity, and you should probably stop to dig. We're not totally sure about this, but it seems that the Chocobo will do the digging for you.
Joining the massive Pulse Chocobos in this week's Famitsu is a massive summon spell. Lightning had Odin. Snow had Shiva. Square Enix has paired Hope with Alexander.
FFXIII's Alexander is a true giant. While we haven't seen him in direct comparison to other summons, we imagine he'd dwarf them all.
In standard bipedal form, Alexander punches at enemies with his powerful fists. His Gestalt form turns him into a fortress which surrounds enemies on the battle field and pummels them with cannon fire.
With Hope's summon partner out of the way, we're left with Vanille. Who will be paired up with pigtail girl?
Joining these two areas, Famitsu at long last gives us a look at FFXIII's character growth system. Yes, it's hard to believe, but Square Enix has kept us in the dark all this time about how we'll build up those characters.
In FFXIII, Lightning, Snow and the rest of your band of troublemaking l'Cie lack some common traits of the characters in other RPGs, including experience and levels. Growth in FFXIII is handled through the all new Crystarium system, which resembles Final Fantasy X's Sphere system.
You build up your characters in specific roles, roles being the FFXIII equivalent of the series' job paradigm. Following battle, you collect CP (Crystal Points). The CP can be spent to unlock new skills and parameter changers on a multi-pathed graphical chart. Each character a unique chart for each role.
CP can be considered the FFXIII equivalent of experience, as you earn more CP based off the type and number of enemies you defeat in battle. While your character himself doesn't level up, you can make the roles level up by traversing the skill chart all the way to a central point. You'll then be rewarded with a more advanced chart.
The game also has the concept of a "Crystarium Level," which appears to be somewhat like an overall character level. This level rises automatically as you progress through the game. It serves as a cap on how far you can make your character roles power up.
It sounds like FFXIII's growth system is gong to offer plenty of depth, especially for those who choose to experiment with switching their characters between different roles and trying out multiple paths on the Crystarium chart.
more here
FF 9 had the best looking Alexander summon, and I doubt any other FF will top it.
Square Enix hasn't mentioned them much, but FFXIII has that staple of every Final Fantasy, the Chocobo. It actually has two types of them: Cocoon-type and Pulse-type. Cocoon Chocobos are the cute, traditional farm-raised Chocobos that you've seen in past FF games. Pulse Chocobos are wild, massive beasts that one really wouldn't describe as "cute."
We're not sure what you do with the Cocoon Chocobos, but the Pulse Chocobos can serve as a means of transportation when you're exploring the vast fields of the FFXIII lower world. When being ridden, the Chocobos have an HP meter (actually just a set of feathers) that depletes each time you run into an enemy. Once this reaches zero, the Chocobo will flee.
In addition to a high running speed and jumping ability that can get to you new areas, the Chocobos have a special sense which lets them identify the location of buried treasure. As you run about, an exclamation mark will occasionally pop up above the Chcobo's head. This means that there's treasure in the vicinity, and you should probably stop to dig. We're not totally sure about this, but it seems that the Chocobo will do the digging for you.
Joining the massive Pulse Chocobos in this week's Famitsu is a massive summon spell. Lightning had Odin. Snow had Shiva. Square Enix has paired Hope with Alexander.
FFXIII's Alexander is a true giant. While we haven't seen him in direct comparison to other summons, we imagine he'd dwarf them all.
In standard bipedal form, Alexander punches at enemies with his powerful fists. His Gestalt form turns him into a fortress which surrounds enemies on the battle field and pummels them with cannon fire.
With Hope's summon partner out of the way, we're left with Vanille. Who will be paired up with pigtail girl?
Joining these two areas, Famitsu at long last gives us a look at FFXIII's character growth system. Yes, it's hard to believe, but Square Enix has kept us in the dark all this time about how we'll build up those characters.
In FFXIII, Lightning, Snow and the rest of your band of troublemaking l'Cie lack some common traits of the characters in other RPGs, including experience and levels. Growth in FFXIII is handled through the all new Crystarium system, which resembles Final Fantasy X's Sphere system.
You build up your characters in specific roles, roles being the FFXIII equivalent of the series' job paradigm. Following battle, you collect CP (Crystal Points). The CP can be spent to unlock new skills and parameter changers on a multi-pathed graphical chart. Each character a unique chart for each role.
CP can be considered the FFXIII equivalent of experience, as you earn more CP based off the type and number of enemies you defeat in battle. While your character himself doesn't level up, you can make the roles level up by traversing the skill chart all the way to a central point. You'll then be rewarded with a more advanced chart.
The game also has the concept of a "Crystarium Level," which appears to be somewhat like an overall character level. This level rises automatically as you progress through the game. It serves as a cap on how far you can make your character roles power up.
It sounds like FFXIII's growth system is gong to offer plenty of depth, especially for those who choose to experiment with switching their characters between different roles and trying out multiple paths on the Crystarium chart.
more here
FF 9 had the best looking Alexander summon, and I doubt any other FF will top it.