Final Fantasy Versus XIII Sounds Cool, But It's Still Not Done.

Hilariously, Nomura spent much of the update apologising for the game's long development cycle, promising more substantial updates in the future.

But there were a few snippets of interest, as reported by Final Fantasy Union. Firstly, Versus XIII will have cut-scenes inspired by popular shooters that don't break up the gameplay. We think Nomura's referring to game's like Call Of Duty and Uncharted, where you're essentially "in control" of the cut-scene. Good start. Nomura added that cut-scenes will utilise in-game assets, though hair will be spruced up for cinematics.

In other development news, legendary Final Fantasy, Takeshi Nozue, has joined the Versus XIII team to ramp up the game's visuals — specifically its lighting engine. Nomura apparently showed Famitsu three screenshots of the game, which the publication doubted were real-time. They were. Interestingly, one of the screenshots showed an arcade.

Protagonist Noctis will be able to use his in-game phone to take photos at any point during the game. Players will be able to utilise real-world photos too, but the actual message of this feature seems a bit cluttered. Lost in translation, if you will.

What's certain is that Square Enix is recording dialogue in cast sessions, hoping to capture the dynamics of real conversation rather than stilted expressions. As VG247 points out, voice recording typically occurs near the end of a project, so hopefully Versus XIII's arduous development is nearing a conclusion now.