We already got a peek at some of the characters from the franchise that will be re-debuting in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, especially Fang who joins with Lightning in battle at some point.
According to game design director Yuji Abe in an interview with Famitsu, it seems that there will be other characters who can join the player in battle, with a new character expected to be revealed at TGS 2013. These additional characters will be AI-controlled, however.
Also, despite initial estimates that the game would take 20 hours to complete, it seems that some changes were made to the Japanese version. As such, time’s flow can be interrupted in the game, and it may now take close to 50 hours to complete the first time around. Abe also confirmed that the Heart Stealer outfit was inspired by Final Fantasy VI’s Locke and costume designer Toshiyuki Itahana took shapes and colours from Yoshitaka Amano’s style to create the design.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII releases on Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 11th in North America and February 14th in Europe.
