Final Fantasy XIII E3 2008 Trailer Translated

The latest Final Fantasy XIII trailer released at E3 gave a few more facts about the various parties appearing in the game. Below are the translated sentences that appear on the trailer. The trailer can now be viewed via the Official Final Fantasy XIII Japanese website.

Cocoon - A paradise crafted by the inscrutable fal’Cie some thirteen centuries past
Pulse - A vast world stretching out beneath the floating shell of Cocoon, and the source of lurking menace
The summoned - Salvation of the ill-fated l’Cie.
l’Cie - Those marked by the fal’Cie for a greater destiny
The future belongs not to those who wait…

Final Fantasy VII to hit PS3?

Ever since the famous Playstation 3 technical demo, fans have been asking can a Final fantasy VII remake actually become reality?
That question arises again all due to a certain Tetsuya Nomura droping a vague hint that something big is going down at head office, with this being announced soon at DKΣ3713. You can read what else Nomura said during an interview with Dengeki by clicking here.

Unsurprisingly Final Fantasy VII loyalists have jumped to the conclusion that the surprise is to be a Final Fantasy VII remake. But why?

The Technical Demo was originally made to display the Playstation 3 power

If you were to browse gaming forum to forum you would always come across a thread asking for a Final Fantasy VII remake or reasons why or not this would happen. Even after digestion you would still have no idea whether or not a remake is the right way to go. Some arguements for and against a remake can be found here.

Kitase has previously given his views first hand on a remake. His comments can be read in full here. But Kitase didn’t rule out a remake wasn’t possible because Crisis Core was just thought up in two days. Final Fantasy VII could therefore theorectically be thought up in the same time. The question is when will it be released with Square Enix up to their eye balls in work with Final Fantasy XIII and co.

FinalFantasySeries.net believes the answer to whether a Final Fantasy VII remake is possible can only be decided via the money and time avaliable to such a big task.

A Final Fantasy VII remake will be the biggest thing since sliced bread, fans will flock in far and wide to get their hands on this title. However funds will need to be accumulated for such a big task, which is a reason why a remake cant happen intill Final Fantasy XIII and their other titles are released. Time again is sparse with money so a remake will have to wait unless Square Enix don’t want to disappoint. Then again they could have these major resources no one knows of to create the remake - which is highly unlikely.

Some fans therefore instead believe the “surprise” could infact be another sequel to VII entitled Final Fantasy VII-2.

VII’s sequels have made Final Fantasy VII the largest compilation Square Enix has to offer. Spearheads Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase’s main aim was to make the project Square Enix’s first steps toward … ‘polymorphic content’. As a result they have created well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible.

The current compilation includes games; Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and films; Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.

Why a VII-2? - The Final Fantasy VII story is far from closed off due to unclosed plot threads (such as Genesis still running around) clearly being placed down - deliberately. The fans therefore speculate that Final Fantasy VII-2 is the “surprise” and last chapter of the compilation sending off Final Fantasy VII once and for all, that of course ignoring remakes of various sequel titles and the eventual remake of Final Fantasy VII.

Jenova to return in Final Fantasy XIII?

With Final Fantasy XIII news becoming a little dry it gives Final Fantasy fans more time to focus more on the following image from XIII. Below is an image of an “unidentified being” released by Square Enix to play a part in the upcoming game Final Fantasy XIII. Unlike the “Prince” from Versus and “Lightning” from XIII, this image has so far given everyone nothing but grief in uncovering its purpose or identity. Many fans however have their suspicions of Kitase’s and Nomura’s mysterious being.

Jenova?

Final Fantasy XIII is being dubbed the Final Fantasy VII of the 21st Century. Kitase wants XIII to have the same impact VII had on fans hearts. Such so, character designer Tetsuya Nomura was asked to create a “female version of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII”. Could Nomura have been asked to create Jenova from VII to appear in XIII as well?

The image above (XIII) compared to the image below (Jenova from VII) bares a similar resemblance with slight design differences.

Jenova from VII

So far some Final Fantasy fans rubbish the claims saying its “too big” a link between VII and XIII. And in their own words; “that’s if its not a super secret remake of Final Fantasy VII”, which is even more outrageous. Isn’t it?..

Most fans however have a more liberal approach claiming they wouldn’t be surprised if it was similar to Jenova from VII, maybe even being the same species of extraterrestrial life that crashed landed and brought havoc to VII’s world.

But is it really “too big” a link?

Previously Final Fantasy titles have always had a history of leaving referances to characters and stories from the past titles ie. X-2 heavily hints that shinra is shinra of shinra corpartion from VII.

In fact, a few Final Fantasy fans believe that all the Final Fantasy’s are set on the same planet, just at very different times and places.

Whether this being is Jenova (from VII) or one of a similar species is questionable, but its certainly not worth throwing in the bin considering Final Fantasy’s referencing history.

I’ll let you decide between yourselves whether this is really Jenova.