Final Fantasy Dev Comments On Console Bias, XIII-2 Over 40hrs Long

Final Fantasy XIII was hated more than it was liked. Gamers loathed the “western” tone Square-Enix inserted into the bonafide JRPG, and the results were catastrophic. Yes it sold well, but many fans have vowed not to purchase the sequel after what most deem a failed effort. Yet the publisher’s trying hard to appeal to fans by using the same engine (Crystal Engine) which powered Final Fantasy XIII in an effort to elude console bias, and have built XIII-2 around fan feedback. It’s also over 40hrs long, and that’s without side quests.

It was Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, the project leads responsible for Final Fantasy XIII-2 who shared the information with Gamestop Asia in a recent interview, making clear to fans that they’ve been heard, while finding ways to step away from console bias.

“We can’t gauge how many hours the cinematics and gameplay portions will amount to, but we can tell you that a single playthrough of the game will take players 40 hours plus. That’s about the same as FFXIII, and that’s not even factoring the multiple endings into account,” Motomu Toriyama told the site.

When asked which engine will the new game utilize, Yoshinori Kitase said they’re using the same engine as Final Fantasy XIII to step away from console bias, although said engine’s rather limited in scope.

“The first game used the Crystal Tools engine that’s not only open-ended from the development side but also makes it possible to be on multiple consoles without much compromise,” he said. “While FF XIII was initially for the PS3, we had the opportunity to make the game on the Xbox 360 too during development.

For FF XIII-2, we decided to stick to this engine so that we can be clear from the beginning that the sequel will be developed for both consoles without any hassle and console bias whatsoever.”

Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out in Japan this Christmas, and will hit store shelves in the U.S. and Europe early next year.