14 DAY TRIAL // Final Fantasy XIII is set to arrive on Western markets on March 9 on both the PlayStation 3, the traditional platform for the Japanese role playing game from Square Enix, and the Xbox 360 home console from Microsoft.
The problem with going multiplatform has been the amount of data the new Final Fantasy title comes packed with, most of them cinematics. As Final Fantasy XIII was originally thought for the Sony home console, the Blu-ray could easily contain all the needed data but the Xbox 360 edition was set to take up more than one DVD, for sure. Now, Square Enix has confirmed the number of disks that will be sold in the package.
A Square Enix representative told VG247 that “Yes the game is on three DVDs for the 360,” before clarifying that “Players will only have to swap discs twice during their entire game.” The clarification comes as various United States retailers began listing Final Fantasy XIII as weighing in at three disks. Final Fantasy XIII is the biggest JRPG release of 2010 in the West and Square Enix is certainly hoping that the game will perform well and help the company in its quest to shift its focus from the Japanese market to the Western gamer.
The title marries a plot that revolves around familiar themes like humanity, the downfall of the powerful and the redemption of those who fight for a vision to a battle system, which ditches some of the innovations of Final Fantasy XII and aims for a more fluid experience, with longer attack combos and break states being crucial to success.
Isamu Kamikokuryou, who is the art director on Final Fantasy XIII, recently said that a big amount of content was cut from the final release of the game over concerns related to game length and to player attention. He stated that the content cut could actually make a whole new game.