Final Fantasy XIII Battle System Unveiled

Final Fantasy XIII is certainly one of the biggest titles due for release in 2010 and there is already a huge amount of hype surrounding the game, which is set to use the full power of the PlayStation 3 in order to create a groundbreaking game. And it seems that, for the first time, the development team at Square Enix has shared some information related to the way the battle system, one of the most important elements in the game, works.

A new set of previews that appeared in Edge and in the Official PlayStation Magazine in the United Kingdom are saying that Final Fantasy XIII will borrow most of its battle mechanics from the Active Battle System used in Final Fantasy X, renouncing the somewhat controversial real time programmable encounters that appeared in Final Fantasy XII.

The main resource a player needs to watch for is “time.” Each character has a time gauge, which is divided into three parts and can be upgraded during the game. As the moves, both physical and magical, scale up in power, they use more of the gauge, which means that a player needs to choose between performing less powerful moves or more attacks with less force. There are also moves that create combos where two characters combine their power and good coordination can lead to a “Break Mode” that delivers more damage.

It's important to keep in mind that the two magazines only saw the demo of Final Fantasy XIII, which will also be shipped in Japan with the Advent Children movie. A lot of things might change until the official release, which is set to take place in late 2009 in Japan.

Another very interesting aspect is a suggestion from producer Yoshinori Kitas that the game would not focus on Lightning, but multiple characters with very different paths. He said that “This is a story that's told from multiple points of view and we have whole chapters of the game that are devoted to a single character and his or her story. In that sense, it plays out in a similar way to Dragon Quest IV, taking the perspective of multiple characters, walking with them through their adventures before seeing how these stories come together and intertwine for the climax of the game.”