Suntory and Square Enix have finally announced the planned release date for the Final Fantasy XIII Elixir soft drink and released a bunch of images and information on the drink to celebrate including information on a special, limited edition version of the drink that includes an extra for FF13 fans.
The kind folks over at IGN went over the latest issue of Famitsu and revealed that FFXIII on the PS3 won't require an install. They also made a comment on loading times, and how the only time you will see them is when the transition from town to field occurs. The devs commented on how they did this because they wanted to create seamless environments with no loading.
"The latest issue of Famitsu magazine comes jam-packed with fresh new information on Final Fantasy XIII as well as the other two Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Agito XIII titles."
SCRAWL: "A new couple of Final Fantasy XIII scans have hit the net today, detailing the new character revealed in the Tokyo Game Show trailer. Wolba Yun Fang, as she's called, is an L'Cie who aids Sanctum and fights with a spear. Her summon is Bahamut."
2 FFXIII scans leaked today finally revealed the name of the mysterious woman who was first seen at the end of the TGS09 trailer. Her name is Oerba Yun Fang. Strangely Vanille's name is Oerba Dia Vanille. Could this mean Fang's a sister of Vanille? More details are currently unknown but I'll update this post when I find more. The scans also features an artwork, and two CGI images: Sazh with his summon and Fang with a … lance/rod (?)
Anoop Gantayat: How much would you be willing to pay for a chance at pre-ordering that sexy Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Edition hardware bundle?
Anoop Gantayat: Another special message popped up at the Final Fantasy XIII official site today. Doing the honors this time is Background Technical Director Ota Yoshihiko.
Final Fantasy XIII, Four Warriors of Light -Final Fantasy Gaiden-, and FFCC: The Crystal Bearers were not only the sights from the Square Enix booth, but also the sounds at TGS 2009. Square Enix released the Square Enix Music Sampler Vol. 4 at the show, featuring music from all three games as well as tracks from a Kingdom Hearts piano arrangement CD and The World Ends With You. It was available to fans who stopped by the SQEX music booth and made a purchase, and is the 4th entry into this special sneak-peek series of CDs that SQEX releases at TGS each year.
SCRAWL: "Looks like they're doing a good job advertising Final Fantasy XIII, which Square Enix has announced will launch on December 17, 2009 in Japan. Already, magazine's are being plastered with advertisements of the highly anticipated RPG, if not the most anticipated."
Anoop Gantayat: With Dragon Quest IX out of the way, Final Fantasy XIII is Square Enix's biggest game in the pipeline. The company apparently has high hopes for the title.
Part one of the story depicting the 12 days leading up to the opening of the game are now online for public consumption.
Split-screen: "Not that Square-Enix actually put up a big banner saying so, but any one who even slightly cringed at the whiny shenanigans of Final Fantasy XIII's voice cast will doubtless agree: This game would have been better with just a Japanese VO (voice over) and subtitles rather than the team going the whole hog with an English localization."
TGS has a bunch of Final Fantasy XIII stuff on display, including the all-new Final Fantasy XIII "Lightning Edition" white and pink PS3 Slim.
Square-Enix have updated their Final Fantasy XIII official website to reveal that the trailer shown recently at TGS will be available online in 3 days.
From Gameswire: "Square has unveiled a limited edition Final Fantasy XIII PS3, due to go on sale later this year.
IGN: "With Kaz Hirai's Keynote speech behind us, we've moved on to the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Conference. We'll be live blogging the event starting at 9:30PM Pacific Standard Time or 12:30 AM Eastern Standard time in the United States."
FinalFantasy-XIII.net: The Final Fantasy XIII demo from the Premiere Party is at TGS for the public to play and thankfully, someone has sneaked a camera into Square's booth bringing us a preview of a new FMV and some gameplay including Lightning and Hope.
Square-Enix is keeping a good lock on Final Fantasy XIII. With the release hitting later this winter, Square-Enix still won't share all the details about the game.