14 DAY TRIAL // Square Enix, in his role of publisher, has officially confirmed the existence of Final Fantasy XIII-2, a new Japanese role-playing game that is being build on the foundation of the 2010 release and will offer a brand new story set in the same universe with an evolved battle system and with a cast of returning characters.
The publisher says that the new game will be arriving on both the PlayStation 3 from Sony and on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, keeping the same release platforms linked to the original Final Fantasy XIII.
Square Enix says that the twin game worlds of Cocoon and Pulse will be the setting for the new story, with the fal'Cie and the l'Cie again the focus of the story.
The publisher is keeping most of the information on the new game under wraps, promising that future information will come soon, but it chooses to emphasize that the new game will be superior to the original both in term of mechanics and in term of story told.
The original Final Fantasy XIII has managed to move more than 5.75 million units since it was released and Square Enix is probably hoping that XIII-2 will push the number of copies sold for the franchise over the 100 million mark (current internal estimates from September 2010 say 87 million).
A lot of analysts have seen the first Final Fantasy XIII as a bit of a disappointment and gamers have complained that the game is slow to start, with about 20 hours of play needed before the hand holding stops and the player gets to the meat of the game.
If Square Enix manages to integrate Final Fantasy XIII-2 well with the original and delivers a new story set in the same space that uses some of the elements of the first game it could spark sales and maybe create a series within a series for Final Fantasy, delivering more experiences linked to Pulse and Cocoon.