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Viewers of last Tuesday’s Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier event in Japan have got to view a long-awaited glimpse of the upcoming Final Fantasy Versus XIII for doing things (announced back with the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo). Rather than words, director Tetsuya Nomura didn’t appear to the reveal and thought we would let seven minutes of footage speak for itself. Said footage was shown officially only on the event, but luckily GameSpot Asia was able to catch the livestream marriage ceremony itself.

Because the game continues to be in production, the tale elements were kept to the minimum. In the premiere trailer, the overall game stars a prince named Noctis (Latin for “night”–and the first main character inside the history of Final Fantasy games beyond FFVII to deviate from names based on meteorological effects). The scene begins with him conversing with another character named Stella, accompanied as to what is apparently a disagreement with his father, the existing king, about that’s next in line on the throne to rule the yet-to-be-officially-named realm of Versus XIII. Those two scenes occur in the undisclosed high-class party area, and through the visuals on show, it’s pretty sure that Square Enix isn’t holding anything within the presentation department.

Developer Tetsuya Nomura promised viewers and attendants other minutes of gameplay, that is certainly what they got. Through the remainder with the trailer’s seven minutes, Noctis grows to wander throughout the environment under the charge of you, even though the party, in classic JRPG fashion, gets crashed by giant mechanical airships and Final Fantasy’s staple behemoths. Unlike last year’s Tokyo Game Show footage, viewers get the full monty: Noctis and the unnamed party members lay the smack down instantly against the aforementioned behemoths, shock troopers that emerge from deployed airships, and manner of fantasy beasts and machines.

The battle menus and stats make their debut with this trailer. The lower left side of the screen shows a command menu which lists “Magic,” “Item,” “Summon,” and “EX-ARTS,” as you move the bottom right displays your party members’ health insurance and mana points. These options seem pretty self-explanatory if past games are any indication. Magic allows you to cast your firas and thundagas; item provides you with usage of your phoenix downs and perishables; summon enables you to cast down your big magical beast of to accomplish a strong attack; and ex-arts will be the equal of Final Fantasy VII’s limit breaks–character-specific special attacks that can turn the tide of battle.

What’s interesting is always that there isn’t another panic attack command listed alongside the menu. The attacks will either be practiced with a separate input or will likely be done automatically through the party’s set AI, a la Final Fantasy XII and Xenoblade. It should be also noted that like in those aforementioned role-playing games, there won’t be any transition screens that happen when Noctis and company approach enemies or finishes managing them.

What’s also notable is always that players can perform an iron-sights zoom-in and among the characters who focuses primarily on guns, hinting with the idea that there’d be some real-time aiming and shooting inside the heat of battle. In addition, there have been a few more clips of Noctis hijacking and piloting an opponent tank and mech (after weakening them considerably), hinting that this Final Fantasy title may have much more action elements involved when compared to a turn-based shenanigans.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII looks to become big-screen version from the PSP RPG Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, because of the real-time action elements packed with minimalistic-detailed menus for spell-casting and limit burst action. This is not a knock to the game, however; Crisis Core’s action elements were enjoyable when it made its debut in 2008.

It is difficult to express whether the game will be an antidote for gamers who weren’t enthralled by the last game. In fact, Square Enix is still mum regarding the game’s actual release date. Still, Tetsuya Nomura’s message delivered through the trailer seems to be one stuffed with some positive notion the game is still indeed under production, and we’re awaiting seeing more.

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