[Kurisu]

Quote

Two new characters will be revealed soon: one is said to be a young, silver haired girl who wears a school outfit, the other will be Sazh's son (who apparently sports an afro, just like his Dad).


A new area demoed: "Lake Bilge - The Waters Stilled" was revealed


A new character play-system was revealed: "Paradigm Shift" lets you change the manner in which your party members act. Unveiled options so far include "Overwhelm", "Peacemaker", and "Aggression".


The "Odin" summon was officially revealed: Lightning rides it while wielding Odin's sword.


The English voice overs will be properly lip synced. Dual language options, however, are unlikely.

Link

I recommend that you read the rest of this. Once you get past the PS3 fanboy views, it turns out to be a good read. It seems like the new girl that is going to be announced is Serah, who was mentioned in the Japanese language / English subtitled trailer.

FFXIII is shaping up to be really good, and I quite like the change in direction that Square Enix is taking, especially with the summons. The battle system looks solid, and what I know of the story already sounds like it's going to a lot better than FFXII...of course, that's only my opinion.

How about you guys, are you liking the sound of FFXIII so far?

[Eorzea]

I haven't been following FFXIII much, but I'm sure when it comes out I will pick it up and enjoy it. Here are some new images from Famitsu which include a new character named Jill Nabato? I'm not sure, really, but here you go:

[Cavalettas]

Those shots look wicked good!

[Kurisu]

Her actual name is Jihl Nabaat. And that guy with the blue / silver hair is Yaag Rosch. Square Enix sure has some funny names going on for this game!

Anyway, I'm sure you've heard of the latest playable character, Hope Esthehim?



In the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, it states:

Quote

...his inexperience means he can be pressured into running off mid-fight, although he'll get tougher as he gains experience

This could prove quite challenging, as if he runs away then you'll have one less party member at your disposal!

Oh, and I agree with Cavalettas; those screen shots look amazing! I've seen them posted on other sites, but nowhere near as good quality as the ones you've posted there.

[Eorzea]

The way Hope may run off during a fight sounds a lot like Edward from FFIV. Whenever Edward would get low HP, he would run away from battle and hide until either you called him back or the battle ended. Interesting.

Jihl Nabaat sounds a lot bitter than Jill Nabato, so I'm happy about that.

In the last screenshot it looks as if Lightning is on some type of horse. What's that?

[Kurisu]

The horse is...

...ODIN!

That's right, Odin. You see the images just up from that one? That's Odin in his "normal" mode. However, all summons in FFXIII have a "Gestalt" mode, which transform them.

Shiva (Well, Nix and Styria in this game) both transform into a motorbike, and Odin into a horse. This "Gestalt" mode turns the game into a more action based affair. If you look at the bottom left hand side of the last image you will see that the game goes into "Driving" mode once summons have taken this form, and next to that there are a series of button combinations. It seems like they will offer different moves, but as of yet an English version of this mode has yet to be shown.