Final Fantasy XIII Trailer: 7 minutes of FF heaven

One of the most anticipated games to be shown off at this year’s Tokyo Game Show had to be Final Fantasy XIII.  Luckily for those of us who salivate at the mouth each time a new video or batch of screenshots is released, Square Enix did not disappoint at TGS.  The publisher unveiled a 7-minute video revealing aspects of gameplay and the storyline yet to be seen.

This video first hit the interwebs yesterday, but now some versions with English subtitles are popping up, like this one below.

What do we learn from this video?  First off some light is shed on the relationship between characters Snow and Serah, who are seen celebrating their engagement at the beginning of the clip.  Flash forward to some incredible graphics and more looks at the different characters of this Final Fantasy installment.  What I personally found most interesting was the gameplay.  This video gives some long glimpses into the combat system – one which looks fluid, fast-paced, and dynamic.  The camera moves, zooms, pans, and sweeps during combat.  This gives FF combat a fresh look and feel.

Another exciting aspect of the clip is the quick view of open world travel.  For a few seconds we see one character, the young boy-looking one whose name escapes me, running across a giant field.  Assuming that this represents traveling by foot on the open world map – it looked amazing.  Those fans of the series tired with random encounters with unseen enemies will be happy to see the way in which the world is populated with beasts large and small wandering the surroundings as well.

Final Fantasy XIII drops in Japan on December 17th for the Playstation 3.  A stateside release date has yet to be confirmed.  Also yet to be confirmed is a release date for the XBOX 360 port of the title, announced at this year’s E3.  Stay tuned to MMOMFG.com for Final Fantasy news and developments, this is one we’re certainly keeping our eyes on.

*Images and video courtesy of Square Enix and Joystick Division

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