OPM details FFXIII battle system

via Computer and Video Games


Official PlayStation Magazine UK has published its thoughts on the new active battle system from Final Fantasy XIII.

The mag compares it to FFXII "in that the battles take place in real time (with characters operating on a timer), but you can now input three commands at once."

Lightning, the main female character, has four techniques which appear on the menu along with the number of attack points needed to use them. Attack points, says the mag, correspond to a timer bar made up of three segments, each segment correlating to an attack point.

So you can either chain up three attacks with a technique that only takes one attack point, or you can deal a single blow with a technique that requires three attack points.

"Lift is a new command that launches foes onto the air and often leads to spectacular deaths," says OPM. It likens this to the mid-air battle scenes of the FFVII: advent Children movie.

Some enemies can't be lifted but the move still does damage. You're rated at the end of fights based on your largest attack chains and other stats, which will effect gameplay in an as yet unspecified way.

Also interesting is that director Motomu Toriyama says: "Unlike other FF titles the story is told from different viewpoints and characters, not just Lightening", as the mag takes control of another character called Snow, using his guns and white magic.

The full preview is in OPM issue 31 on sale from April 14, which also features a huge 10-page preview on BioShock 2.

Note: OPM has issued a statement as to why there is a page missing from the FFXIII preview. "We're really sorry, but due to an issue with an advert that had been printed on the other side we had to remove the last page of the Final Fantasy XIII feature."