Square Enix revealed details concerning the character growth system for Final Fantasy XIII dubbed  “Crystarium.”  How they managed to keep this under wraps until now is proof of their awesome-ness.  Anyway, here is a rundown on the system as I understand it:

As the player continues in the story, different crystarium become available.  There are crystarium for certain “roles” in battle.  Roles we know about thus far are “Blaster” (pictured as Lightning’s crystarium above), “Attacker”, “Jammer”, etc.  In the screens which explain this system, Lightning is a Blaster which seems to focus on long range, while Snow is an Attacker which seems to focus on close range and endurance.

When crystarium is used in battle, it will spread out, or grow.  For example, Lightning’s crystarium is a flower that blossoms as it levels up:

Each role imbues the character with different attributes.  As the respective crystarium grows, different abilities will become available.  These abilities appear on set path dubbed “power line”.  Continuing along a power line requires CP (crystarium points).  I believe this means some abilities are inherent to the crystarium while others are earned by continuing to use the crystarium.  I assume that these can be swapped (i.e. Lightning can become an Attacker, and Snow can become a Blaster).

Continuing along the power line

Changing your role would conceivably change the inherent abilities, but I think the character would retain any abilities learned by consuming CP.  Long story short:  job-class meets the sphere-grid where you can collect multiple grids.  No details are given as to how the player can acquire more crystarium – I assume each character comes standard with one, but after that I am really not sure.  I get the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg…  I hope to learn more about this system soon.

In other exciting Final Fantasy XIII announcements, Hope’s summon has been revealed to be Alexander.  For those of you unfamiliar with Alexander, he is a big holy robot.  Only in Japan, right?  Here is his new appearance:

His Driving Mode/Gestalt mode is a real stretch of the imagination…  He becomes a fort and all of his pillar… things… attack the enemy with a variety of abilities:

Moving on, some information has been released concerning Chocobos, the mighty steed of the Final Fantasy world.  First off, they’re pretty big!  In fact I think this may be the largest representation of Chocobos in any game:

At a certain point in the game, the player has the option of riding a Chocobo on the world map.  Obviously this increases the speed the player can move around the map.  There are also some areas which cannot be reached on foot and require the wiles of a Chocobo.  Areas where Chocobos can help are marked by a yellow ring (see right screen).

Chocobos can also detect and dig for treasure hidden underground.  When traversing the map, a “!” will appear above the head of the ride-able-fowl when there is an item to be found.

The player must be cautious of enemies on the map since they will attack your Chocobo.  The three feathers at the bottom of the screen represent its HP.  After getting hit three times, you lose your ride.

A new system has been introduced which allows the player to alter the weather of certain areas of the world.  That orb Vanille is inspecting above is a kind of terminal which gives options for the desired weather.  Only fal’Cie are able to use these rare terminals.

Changing the weather in a certain area can alter the ecosystem, spawning different monsters.  Details are scarce, but I believe it is possible to spawn tougher enemies by creating a more aggressive ecosystem.  With greater challenge conceivably comes greater reward!

I am really happy that a system is in place which allows the player to customize their experience somewhat.  I think this is a mark of a forward thinking title, which is surprisingly rare in this gen.

Writing all this has really gotten me excited for Final Fantasy XIII.  Now I just need to hold on until March 9th!

Roy preview, ps3, square enix 6 comments