Final Fantasy XIII-2 Announced, Upcoming Final Fantasy Games Get Surprising Status Updates

This is the first and only screenshot of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the direct sequel to Square Enix's first current gen Final Fantasy game. Probably the most shocking news about the announcement wasn't that XIII was getting a sequel (anyone who has completed the game and hunted every mark knows there is far more to the story), but that a sequel would be coming so quickly. As one can see from the screenshot, it not only looks like human life on Pulse has flourished, but is quite different from life on Cocoon. There was a short trailer (not available to the public until the 20th) that was also showcased, showing Lightning fighting a purple haired man. We also have the official logo of the game:

Obviously the figure on the right is Lightning, but it's still unknown who the woman on the left is. Another surprise came that XIII-2 is being developed on the PS3 and 360 simultaneously, hoping to avoid the lag issues the 360 version was notorious for. XIII sold over 6 million units, enough for Square Enix to greenlight a sequel. Director Motomu Toriyama has also said that SE will take into account fan's responses to make XIII-2 a more enjoyable experience. I don't know what people are bitching about, to be honest. I loved everything about XIII.

In other news, Square Enix has decided to change the name of Final Fantasy Agito XIII to Final Fantasy Type-0. Type-0 will no longer have any common mythology with XIII, dropping the fal'Cie and l'Cie entirely to focus on Type-0 hopefully getting it's own series. This is more than likely why SE trademarked Final Fantasy Type-1, Type-2, and Type-3. In some really surprising news, Type-0 was announced to have a release date of this summer and will ship with two UMDs, the first such PSP game to do so. One wonders why they even bothered to develop the game for PSP if it's going to be such a long game, but whatever, SE knows how to print money as long as the game has no online capabilities.

The biggest news other than XIII-2 was Final Fantasy Versus XIII finally got another trailer, this time with voice acting (only some though, Stella still doesn't have a VA) AND gameplay footage! I admit, I had my doubts when the first trailer for Versus XIII was released and even after the subsequent ones. This trailer has single-handedly led me to believe that Tetsuya Nomura is no longer fucking up Square Enix and may actually be improving it. Kingdom Hearts was his little dream project of making a Disney game in a Japanese style, but Final Fantasy Versus XIII is the most definitely Final Fantasy as Nomura thinks it should be. It's pretty obvious that Nomura has taken a lot of cues from western games and the Metal Gear Solid series, including combat that I've never seen in a Japanese game before. The game is still a PS3 exclusive and unfortunately, there is still no release date. At this point, all I can say is I hope they take as much time as possible to make this game perfect. I honestly can't wait to play Versus XIII.

The final news was some more character reveals on Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. Yuna's EX Burst and play style was showcased. It seems that Yuna pretty much exclusively uses her Aeons to attack, both for Bravery and HP attacks. Her EX Burst consists of a DDR type input where her Aeons all attack and she performs a Sending. At the end, Yuna performs a pose identical to her signature pose, seen on the back of the Final Fantasy X box art.

Yuna also was revealed to have 2 alternate outfits, only the third new character to have as many. Her 2nd outfit is her wedding dress and the 3rd is based on Yoshitaka Amano's artwork.

Two new characters were also revealed, Prishe from Final Fantasy XI, and Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V. Neither had gameplay footage, but Prishe was featured in CG talking to Tidus in what appeared to be the Empyreal Paradox. If FFXI doesn't get any more characters, it will be the only game other than XIII with no character on the opposing side. Gilgamesh was featured only in voice, saying, "I've finally found you Bartz." This line is a bit of a running gag ever since Gilgamesh first appeared in FFVIII when he confused Squall for Bartz and has continued to confuse the characters of FF1, FFIV, FFVI, FFIX, and FFXII for being the characters from FFV.

Square Enix claims they had to lower financial expectations for the fiscal year due to Final Fantasy XIV not selling as well as anticipated, but with XIII-2, Type-0, Dissidia 012, and 3rd Birthday all coming out this year worldwide, I seriously doubt their profits are going to be that low. Square Enix could make the Japanese gaming industry roar back if all these games succeed, but that's implying the other companies will change their methods like Square has in recent years.