In celebration of Final Fantasy’s recently passed 25th anniversary, more than 40 contributors from countries worldwide banded together to create an unofficial one-off digital magazine.
Spanning 129 pages, the downloadable publication includes photos, retrospectives, profiles, interviews and more on the entire Final Fantasy series. Sites such as EyesOnFinalFantasy, GamerEscape, KHInsider, NeoGAF and many more partnered together to create the project.
The magazine is available as a PDF, HTML5 Gallery, JPG and Flash SWF download. You can also view it in your browser.
High quality screens of gameplay from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Lightning Returns marks a radical departure from the traditional turn-based gameplay of the main series, opting instead for an action RPG experience with the ability to freely roam terrain and engage in real-time battles. During battle, the player has the freedom to assign commands and abilities to the controller’s buttons, as opposed to selecting them from a list as has been the main series’ formula.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. More screens can be seen at Siliconera.
The official trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII that debuted Saturday at Jump Festa in Tokyo. It is an alternate version of the trailer that leaked days before, featuring crisper graphics and more footage of in-game exploration.
Featured is a vocalized version of “Blinded By Light” performed by IMERUAT, composer Masashi Hamauzu’s side-project band. Vocals are provided by MINA, who performed on the original Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack on the songs “Will to Fight,” “The Gapra Whitewood,” and “Sulyya Springs.”
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will release worldwide in 2013 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
It seems the trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was leaked days before it was to debut at Jump Festa in Tokyo.
The trailer shows in-game footage of the new battle and overclock systems, as actual gameplay of Lightning freely traversing over the environment. Everything in the game runs in real-time depending on the time of day based on the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360’s clock.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is set for a worldwide release in 2013.
Today in Japan, December 18, marks the 25th anniversary of the first Final Fantasy’s release on the Nintendo Famicom by what was then Square (now Square Enix) in 1987.
Twenty-five years later, Final Fantasy has evolved into a franchise that includes among its credits: fourteen main numbered games and four direct sequels; various branching game spiritual subseries including those under the Tactics and Crystal Chronicles brands; two full-length CGI films and a number of animated features; novellas, manga and radio dramas; and a line of concerts dedicated to the series’ music conducted by Grammy Award winning conductor Arnie Roth.
Final Fantasy is currently Square Enix’s most successful brands: its collective game library totals over 100 million units sold worldwide, making it among the best selling video game series ever.
To Square Enix and Final Fantasy, happy 25th anniversary.
