Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection The game contains a common mythology with Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, although they are not directly related to each other. Motomu Toriyama, who was Director of Final Fantasy X-2 and Director and Scenario Writer of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, will direct and write the story for the game.

Battle system

The concept for Final Fantasy XIII s battle system is to maintain the strategic nature of command-based battles, while also including the excitement, intensity, and speed found in real-time battles. This system stemmed from a desire to create battles similar to those found in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Like those in Final Fantasy XII, battle sequences are fully integrated into the world environment, eliminating the need for separate battle screens. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system will return, but is expected to work very differently from its predecessors. Final Fantasy X battle director Toshiro Tsuchida will return as the battle system director for the game. He has the intent of giving individual enemies their own personalities and background stories. He did not want to comment when asked whether players will input commands for individual party members, or whether control will be limited to the current party leader.

In keeping with command-based battles, players input commands by selection through a wheel on the bottom left-hand side of the screen. Each command has an ATB cost, which reduces the total ATB bar. Selected commands are placed on a row of upcoming moves, above the bar. As characters fight, each command is used in turn, with the current command in use turning yellow. Commands can be chained together for certain effects. The environment also plays a role in battle; for instance, in released footage of the game, the main playable character Stella has been seen sending a soldier into a light, electrocuting him and multiplying the damage. Once your ATB bar has reached zero, it must replenish before you can input more commands.

A map is seen in the upper left-hand corner of the battle screen, with blue dots representing allies and red dots signifying enemies. In addition, dots emitting circles are the characters currently affected by the fighting.

The upper right-hand corner of the battle screen shows a circular-shaped gauge, representing the Overclock mode. When the gauge is full, Overclocking allows the player to induce a slow-motion effect, almost pausing time for everything other than the player. Once Overclock is activated, a rapidly decreasing number appears inside the circular gauge, signifying the duration of the Overclock status. Some believe that this system may replace the traditional Limit Break system found in Final Fantasy VII.fact: date=September 2008