14 DAY TRIAL // Final Fantasy XIII is coming along nicely and Japanese gamers should get a chance to play the new role playing game before Christmas this year on the PlayStation 3, if all goes according to plan. And the creators of the videogame are now talking more about it and about what players will be up against in this fresh sprawling adventure.
In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu, Nao Ikeda, who is in charge of creating some of the characters in Final Fantasy XIII, has talked about the two main villains that Lightning and her ragtag band of militia will need to confront and defeat. Jihl Nabaat is the commander of PSICOM, the secretive and extremely powerful intelligence arm of the theocratic government featured in the videogame.
Ikeda has said that “After graduating first in her class, Nabaat exercised her skills effortlessly within PSICOM and advanced steadily through the ranks. She handles daily policy and takes strategic command of the military when called for, so PSICOM's soldiers are generally always following her orders.” She also looks great in the game and appears to view most of her enemies as something below human, thereby explaining her ruthlessness.
Her second in command is a cold man named Yagg Rosch, with silver hair and prominent scars. He is more of a traditionalist, viewing all the resistance fighters as threats to the peace of his country and his mission as taking them out. Rosch is more of a front line leader who likes to experience fighting on his own and views the skills of his opponents as a challenge to be overcome.
It's not clear how the player will actually defeat Rosch and Ikeda in Final Fantasy XIII but the game will likely take the time to deliver more information on their personalities and motives, creating that sense of place that good JRPGs are known for. Final Fantasy XIII is arriving on both the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony in 2010.