Final Fantasy XIII intro movie

Bobby Miller 21 Dec, 2009 at 1:44pm ET Article published in Gaming

Final Fantasy fans will be happy to learn that the full intro cinematic to the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII was recently made available on Gametrailer’s website.

Final Fantasy has been a series that–at least since the dawn of the PlayStation era–contained groundbreaking FMV sequences that awed players with incredible visuals and intense storytelling. The intro cinematic to FFXIII continues that legacy and, as you might expect, the CGI and game world are gorgeously vibrant and imaginative.

Final Fantasy XIII was released on December 17th in Japan, but American fans will have to wait until March 9th, 2010 to get their hands on the game.

The cinematic may help hold you over for the wait, but if you’re anything like us, it’ll only make you thirsty for more.

Comments

21 Dec 2009 ~ 3:15pm chrisWhite Gorgeous CG there! The hair still bothers me, can hair be an indicator of the uncanny valley? Strand based simulations look nice but something's still off about it, too thin and wispy I think.

I've never actually played a Final Fantasy game, though I'm starting to play FF1 and maybe I'll work my way up.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 3:37pm AlexDeGruven Yeah. Hair, fur, and skin translucency have been the last real hurdles.

AVATAR did it fantastically, but as I stated in one of my replies about it, using non-human characters really helped to bridge that.

The valley is getting much smaller, though, for sure.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 4:01pm Thrax I think people are misunderstanding that the art style clearly isn't <i>meant</i> to be photo-realistic; Squeenix prefers organics heavily influenced by anime.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 4:51pm _k Wasn't this whole trailer on the web early this year?
21 Dec 2009 ~ 5:21pm Thrax No.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 5:26pm _k Then part of it was because I have seen for sure the first half of it.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 5:27pm chrisWhite Thrax, I agree with you that they are going for a stylized look, but I don't think it's stylized enough to escape the uncanny valley completely.

_k_, they had released an earlier trailer but I don't think it had (much) overlap between them, I could be wrong though.
21 Dec 2009 ~ 6:13pm Grimnoc Sweet. I wouldn't mind giving it a play through.

It's funny though, I always look forward to playing each Final Fantasy release even when nearly every single one has disappointed with it's bad writing, characterization, and usually (though not quite as much as the first two) storyline.
22 Dec 2009 ~ 12:39am UPSLynx K, segments of the intro were in the first teaser trailer. This is the first time the video has been published with proper music, credits, ect.

I agree with you Chris. Hair plays a massive roll (needs to 'stick' more) Even with a stylized look, that stuff still factors in.
22 Dec 2009 ~ 2:24am QuadWhore I was impressed at 1:01 with the hair because her hair is sort of clumping together, and each clump of strands has its own shading and physics.