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[Motomu Toriyama] Primarily, the features of this new game revolve around
allowing players to customise Lightning in order to create
your own favourite costume load-out.
The battles will be quite heavily action-based
and you actually move Lightning around during the fight by using the left stick.
Also you can switch around between different abilities during the battle as well.
The big concept behind this game is something we call "World Driven".
We're going to create a gaming environment
where time ticks on as normal, as it does in our own world.
In this particular world the people are living their own lives.
They get up in the morning, go to work, have lunch, and come back in the evening.
So whatever Lightning is doing in the world,
other people are carrying on with their own lives, regardless. So it's going
to be a very realistic world that you can enjoying being a part of.
We're not ready to disclose everything right now, but what we can say is that
you're going to see Hope - he's going to be Lightning's assistant.
He's not next to her physically -- he's somewhere else
but using a transmission system he'll be able to offer his support.
Also making a return appearance is Noel.
As you've probably heard, the world in Lightning Returns is doomed,
and you've got only 13 days to save it.
In this world Noel has by now lived several hundred years with a real
darkness in his heart, and because of that he ends up in a situation where he's
standing against Lightning -- they even have to fight at one stage.
There are many other familiar faces so keep your hopes high!
Well, one of the new characters is called Lumina
she's a girl who resembles Serah a little bit.
She appears here and there, a bit unexpectedly
she's got quite a mysterious air to her
so you'll have to play the game to find out who she really is.
Well, looking back in the first instalment of FINAL FANTASY XIII, we saw two gods;
one is called Pulse and the other one is Lindzei.
In FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 we touched upon a goddess of death called Etro.
Now, in the third and last instalment we'll be meeting a god called Bhunivelze
who actually has the highest rank among all the gods in the Lightning saga.
With that in mind, one of the four main areas in this game is called Luxerion
this is a region ruled by a religious group that follow Bhunivelze.
Obviously they share the same universe and concept so we wanted to ask
the same composers to provide the music -- both so that we have some consistency
but also because they understand this universe.
I wanted them to carry the same atmosphere in their composition this time around.
In Lightning Returns there are four continents
so we wanted each one of them to be depicted in various ways.
We asked one of the composers to provide music for each of those four continents.
For example there is a desert continent, which you haven't seen very often
in the FINAL FANTASY franchise before,
so one of the composers is creating some great themes
which have more of a Middle Eastern tone to them.
Yes, let's talk about Luxerion -- it appears to be quite European.
It's got quite a Western look to it,
it could be almost be somewhere like Paris.
European gamers might find it has a familiar feel.
We call it a particular style: 'Mech-Goth', or 'Mechanical Gothic',
because within the game world people realise they're going to come to an end,
they're going die - so mentally they're quite upset,
and you can almost feel the madness in the air as you explore the city.
[Yoshinori Kitase] So from day one we always wanted to make
a game that anyone can enjoy -
even if you haven't played XIII or XIII-2 yet
you'll find this game totally enjoyable.
When it comes to the battle system mechanics
it's quite different from the previous instalments.
Even though we're trying to achieve some really great
improvements on the previous games,
the experience we're going offer this time around
is something completely new.
I would urge all the gamers
to take a close look.
For FINAL FANTASY XIII
Tetsuya Nomura actually provided costume designs.
Obviously as this is going to be the third and last instalment,
we wanted him to provide the default costume
which he kindly did.
We wanted to depict
Lightning in a specifically powerful light
so we think his default costume design did that.
When he gave us the design,
he'd actually drawn it on a piece of paper, in pencil, so it was obviously 2D.
But because he's an incredibly talented artist as well as designer,
what he's very good at is not just providing a great design on paper;
it's more like what's on the paper
is his expectation of how it's going to look in 3D,
or how that costume is going to look
when it is in motion.
He's able to anticipate these aspects very accurately.
That's what makes him such a phenomenal artist.
In addition to as Nomura-san,
some of the famous FINAL FANTASY artists from past works
have also contributed.
For example the Art Director from the XIII series, Isamu Kamikokuryo,
also designed some of the costumes.
Plus another very talented artist,
Toshiyuki Itahana, who worked on FFCC: Crystal Bearers
and other previous SQUARE ENIX titles,
also designed a few costumes.
Your mission is obviously to save the world in the given time of only 13 days.
It's of course possible you may actually fail to achieve that goal.
If that happens, the game is over and you have to start again from scratch.
However, you will actually be able to carry over some of the data from
your first attempt, so you're not going to lose everything.
Because in this world the clock still ticks on,
the actions you make, and the time you make them, are going to affect the rest of the story.
So it's like a live experience.
One of the things we wanted to achieve with this game,
because it's the last instalment of a trilogy,
is to give it a full-stop, in a very nice way;
to end on a very high note.
We want our loyal fans who have been kind enough to
play FINAL FANTASY XIII and FINAL FANTASY XIII-2
to be able to complete their journey with this trilogy
in a very refreshing and satisfying manner.
We're very glad to see that fans are attached to
Lightning as one of their favourite characters,
so once they complete this game we sincerely hope that
she'll be engraved on their memory with even more intensity.
Another thing is regarding the game experience itself.
Normally when you make a new numbered FINAL FANTASY title,
you have to start from scratch
you have to set up everything from zero.
But with Lightning Returns,
there are number of things that we have only been able to achieve
because it is part of a trilogy.
You create a foundation, and that gives you the freedom
to improve upon the game and add new dimensions.
Since we released the first of the three titles back in 2009
which was very story-driven,
we've been exploring other possibilities, and this has enabled us to improve
the freedom in the gameplay, plus other aspects as well.
So we have achieved a real height throughout these three games
rather than with just one, and that's something we're very happy about.
We hope that all the gamers look at this as the newest and also the best
FINAL FANTASY game we have created.
Hello FINAL FANTASY fans of Europe.
It's good to be here and we're doing our very best to create a fantastic game.
Please wait just a bit longer, and you'll be able to play it.
Hello to fans in Europe.
At the moment we are working *** the third and last instalment
of the Lightning saga which is going to complete the long story.
It's going to take a little more time but we're going to deliver it to you soon;
so thank you for your patience.