Part one of developer diary Inside the Square shows the team’s love for Lightning and their approach to storytelling.
Square Enix is letting fans get a small inside look at the production for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. In the first video of the series, the developer diary features commentary from Ali Hillis, voice of Lightning, and the Square Enix Visual Works teams. The video reiterates multiple times that the Final Fantasy series has changed over the years across a wide range of consoles, setting each game in a separate setting.
“This continual sense of reinvention is really unique to Final Fantasy,” Square Enix director Motomu Toriyama said. “A big part of my job is figuring out how we can do the new things we want to while still delivering on what our fans have come to expect.”
Despite the game being the third in the trilogy for Final Fantasy XIII, producer Yoshinori Kitase said the game can be played and understood even by players who have not played the first two. Lightning Returns is “world-driven” and “an easy story to get into.”
Besides commentary on the direction of the game, also included are shots of artists working on sceneries, characters, and the amount of detail needed to make the game immersive. People struggling to get by in the game live on different islands, and therefore have different customs. While there isn’t much to go on, there are brief shots of Lightning walking through towns, interacting with how people survive in a crumbling world.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII comes out on Feb. 14, 2014.
Source: YouTube
