Hey everyone,

As many of you will know, today marked the beginning of E3 2008 in Los Angeles - the event began as scheduled with a Microsoft Press Conference, however what we didn’t expect is that Square Enix’s president, Yoichi Wada would be a guest speaker for Microsoft. As you can probably imagine, Yoichi Wada spoke about many of the Xbox 360’s upcoming titles such as Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope and The Last Remnant - however what we really didn’t expect was that Yoichi Wada was going to announce Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360!

After speaking about three of the Xbox 360’s most anticipated titles, Wada left the stage; only to run back on moments later and announce Final Fantasy XIII. The room went black, and a brand new Final Fantasy XIII trailer was shown on the screen behind the man.

During the Square Enix Press Conference Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy XIII’s Producer was interviewed during a Q&A session, one interesting question was raised regarding whether or not Final Fantasy Versus XIII would remain a PlayStation 3 exclusive; Kitase confirmed that Final Fantasy Versus XIII would not be coming out for the Xbox 360. He also confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII would still be released for the PlayStation 3, and that the predicted “wordwide release” was not set in stone.

Square Enix probably made the decision to bring the game to the Xbox 360 for a number of reasons, one been that of late it’s common knowledge that Square Enix is losing money - another reason could be that the PlayStation 3 uses asymetrical cell processor architecture, making it far more difficult to develop games for than other consoles such as the Xbox 360 and even the PlayStation 2.

Hey everyone,

Final Fantasy fansite, Final Fantasy Series recently published an article claiming that Final Fantasy VII’s Jenova may be returning in Final Fantasy XIII - unfortunately this is just a rumour, however it’s spreading like wildfire across social bookmarking websites such as N4G; so I thought it’d be appropriate to post it here on Final Fantasy Rebirth.

The image below is of Kitase’s and Nomura’s mysterious being that appeared in the Final Fantasy XIII trailer that was bundled with the CLOUD DVD.

Final Fantasy XIII’s Jenova?

According to Final Fantasy Series, Final Fantasy XIII has been described as the Final Fantasy VII of the 21^st century - because of this character designer, Tetsuya Nomura was asked to create a “Female version of Cloud Strife” to play the lead role of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII. If Nomura’s been asked to create a female version of Cloud Strife, what’s to stop him been asked to create a modern version of Jenova.

Many Final Fantasy fans have made claims saying that if Jenova was in Final Fantasy XIII, it would be making a way too bigger link between the two games. Furthermore the fans that made these accusations continue to say “that’s if it’s not a super secret remake of Final Fantasy VII“, which is an outrageous claim as Cloud Strife blatently isn’t a female!

Jenova from Final Fantasy VII

On the other hand the majority of Final Fantasy fans who’ve read the rumour have said that they wouldn’t be surprised if this entity is in fact Jenova, or something of the same species. Other rumours suggest that it could in fact be the same Jenova that crash landed in Final Fantasy VII’s world, either way it’s hard to deny that the green stuff that’s been attracted towards the supposed Jenova doesn’t look like Final Fantasy VII’s Lifestream.

Final Fantasy Series went on to say that it’s not really “too bigger link” between the two titles, as Final Fantasy titles are continuously making subtle links between one another. One example of this is a reference to Cloud in a weapon shop in Final Fantasy IX, a stronger example is probably the character named Shinra in Final Fantasy X-2. Could Final Fantasy X-2 Shinra be the Shinra from Final Fantasy VII’s ShinRa Company? Who know’s, but if that’s possible what’s to say that Final Fantasy XIII won’t feature it’s own version of Jenova?

This is definitely one of the most interesting Final Fantasy XIII rumours we’ve heard in a long time, so I’d like to hear your thoughts on this one - will Jenova be returning in Final Fantasy XIII?

Hey everyone,

Famitsu recently interviewed Tetsuya Nomura, the director of the Kingdom Hearts series and character designer for many Final Fantasy titles ranging from Final Fantasy VII to XIII. The interview mainly focused on the DKΣ3713 Party 2008 that was announced earlier this week.

Tetsuya Nomura confirmed that Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and Sigma Harmonics will all have playable demos at the event, whilst the rest of games featured will be shown in a projection room, presumabley similar to the closed mega theatres at E3 and the Tokyo Game Show.

Nomura went on to say that several of the team working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII have moved over to help work on Final Fantasy XIII, probably due to Square Enix’s known difficulties with the PLAYSTATION 3 hardware, and to speed up the production of the game. So it looks as if we won’t be seeing Final Fantasy Versus XIII until well after the released of Final Fantasy XIII. Nomura made a brief comment on Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Kingdom Hearts: Coded saying that they were still in production.

Finally, Tetsuya Nomura told Famitsu that the long delayed Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete’s release date will be confirmed at DKΣ3713 Party 2008. Considering how long it’s been delayed for, it’s safe to say that the release date will be some time in the near future.

Update: A scan of the interview, taken from Famitsu magazine has surfaced on the internet. The scan can be found below.

Hey everyone,

Over the past week the Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu have released several new tidbits of information and screenshots regarding two of the upcoming Fabula Nova Crystallis installments - Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Below you’ll find a collection of scans from the magazine, the scans reveal a new Final Fantasy XIII character, as well as four new Final Fantasy Versus XIII characters. Final Fantasy XIII introduces a new female character, we don’t know much about her yet and the only distinct feature we can see in the screenshots is her “mousey brown” hair.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII introduces three new male characters, and a female character. One of the males has longish blonde hair, and wields what looks like a sword however I can’t say for definite because he’s holding it over his shoulder. The screenshots don’t really reveal anything other than the other two male characters appearances, so we can’t say what weapons they’ll use or what role they will play as of yet. The female character is shown wielding a sword, with some sort of emblem shining behind her back. The main character who we’ve previously met is also seen having an emblem shining behind his back in a similar fashion, it’s probably safe to say that the emblem is some kind of attack so the woman is clearly fighting someone (possibly the main character) or some monsters.

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII

Hey everyone,

Earlier on today I was browsing the internet and stumbled upon a Korean website that contained several proclaimed peices of official artwork for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Whilst most of the comments below the news post agreed it was fan work, the artwork is very professionally done and there is a chance it could be official as it shows some similar traits to that of the concept art for previous Final Fantasy titles. Either way, they’re pretty good and definitely worth looking at!