New game details for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix has revealed some interesting new details of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII in the latest issue of Famitsu Magazine in Japan:

• FFXIII is story drive, FFXIII-2 is player driven, and Lightning Returns is World Driven, players need to decide how they will interact with the changing world
• In the game one day equals to approximately 1 – 2 hours of real time
• Time can be extended or shortened depending on player’s action (riding the train cuts time down faster)
• The game is designed to allow players to replay multiple times, and each iteration would not require tens of hours to clear
• It is possible to carry over items when you replay the game
• The people from XIII-2 are alive, due to the effects of Chaos, people have stopped aging and they don’t get old
• The world Novus Partus has four continents, two with urban cities and two natural terrain
• The remaining days before the world ends can decrease and end before 13 days, it all depends on your choices and action( and helping a certain character may decrease the remaining days left for the world)
• Defeating certain enemies or completing certain quests can increase the remaining days on the time clock
• Lightning will be solo in battle, which allows more singular concentration rather than controlling a party of 3
• Lightning’s character has become more refined and considerate
• There will be serial killers in a city, you can take up the task to catch them
• The battle system is more action oriented, but there will be a modified Active Time Battle gauge
• As it is currently announced there is no battle menu, you will actually have to assign abilities to the controller buttons and use them in battle
• During battles you can move freely in the field, certain elements in the battle system require timing
• Hope Estheim will once again return in the game, he will give advices to Lightning using a wireless communication
• You can find different types of clock everywhere in the game, shwoing the progression of time
• This will be Lightning’s last game and the end to her story. It is stated that the game will only have one ending and will be a happy ending.
• As of right now, the game is currently 30% complete

With this news now making its way onto the Internet, fans are now eagerly waiting seeing how this game will play, and mainly, if the game is only 30% complete, how Square Enix is expecting to complete it by its open release window sometime next year.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is set to release 2013