Final Fantasy Versus XIII Development Lurches Forward

If you were wondering what happened to the increasingly elusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII, then 1UP has an interesting post detailing the latest chapter in the game's protracted development cycle. The long and short of it is that work is still underway, but Square Enix expects to have Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 out of the door before Versus XIII is anywhere near release.

There are also a few interesting morsels of information on what we can expect from Versus XIII's cut scenes, which will apparently be partly interactive. "In FF Versus XIII, we've gotten rid of [in-game] cutscenes that the player can't control," he stated. "There will either be pre-rendered movies or realtime event scenes that the player can control. These scenes are part of a new gameplay feature which, as far as I know, hasn't been done anywhere else. It's something that allows for very natural changes in the game experience, a form of expression you don't really see in games. It's not something you can explain quickly since the experience can change with each situation, but you could say it leads to the sort of storytelling you see more in FPSes than in console RPGs." Right now there's no date for when we'll get any more screenshots of the game, let alone a retail release. Right now we're probably looking at months, not years before it's out.