Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy X HD may be completely off the radar at the moment, but Square-Enix has made no secret of the fact that they are well already underway on Final Fantasy development for the Xbox 720 and Sony PS4 consoles. The company has released further teases of their next-gen Luminous Engine, showing the latest stage of progress for the Agni’s Philosophy tech demo.

If you watched E3 2012, you would have seen the very first glimpse of the Luminous Engine in action. At the time we asked which was better between this next-gen engine and Epic’s next-gen Unreal Engine 4 demonstration, with a lot of you telling us that you liked the technology from Square-Enix better.

The developer is known for their amazing graphics, and it’s clear to see that the first Final Fantasy game to show up on next-gen consoles if going to be very special indeed. The level of detail is frankly amazing, as you’ll see in these three close up clips that we have to show you – examining some of the facial tech that Square-Enix has at their disposal.

While it’s great to see Square-Enix are already planning for next-gen, it’s hard not to think of the delays that have met previous games in the series and the potential wait until the next-gen Final Fantasy game is actually ready for release. It’s borderline ridiculous what has happened with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the same pattern appears to be happening with the FFX HD remake as well.

Take a look at their 2013 Luminous Engine update below and let us know your thoughts on progress so far. Are you a bit worried about the infamous delays that continues to plague their products?

As most of you know, Final Fantasy Type 0 was the last notable Final Fantasy game to appear on the Sony PSP, after the excellent Crisis Core game which served as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII. The problem that most gamers have with that game is that Square-Enix still hasn’t managed to bring out an Western version for everyone in Europe and US, once again underlying their reputation as a developer who really like to take their time with things.

Having said that, it is usually worth waiting for new Final Fantasy games when they do finally arrive and the thought of an all new entry in the series exclusive to PS Vita is surely worth getting excited about for fans of the series. Hajime Tabata is the director of both Crisis Core and Type 0 on the PSP, and he has recently spoke about his wishes to continue on with a new game for the Vita.

He has spoken about the Vita’s ability to render images in high definition and if a Final Fantasy game does eventually show up on Vita, it looks like touch screen functionality is going to be included as well – Final Fantasy with exclusive touch screen controls definitely sounds good to us.

If you are a Final Fantasy fan, you’ll know that Type-0 was an amazing game, even if it was completely in Japanese. Would you like Square-Enix to continue on with a sequel on the PS Vita, or make a new game completely from scratch? What about a continuation on the Final Fantasy VII universe, exclusively for the Vita?

Either way, it is looking good Vita owners. Let us know your thoughts and suggestions for Square-Enix.

We recently told you how an upcoming Versus XIII reveal was cancelled by Square-Enix without reasonable explanation, and there’s still no indication on what current stage the game is at, or if we can expect the game to release within the new few years.

Thanks to some details picked up by Andria Sang though, Nintendo 3DS owners will be able to get a taste of the upcoming game. Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy is due to be released this Summer and it has been confirmed that the game will include the official theme to Final Fantasy Versus XIII called ‘Somnus’.

If you’re not already aware, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy is a rhythm game in which players will be able to deal damage to enemies, by hitting notes from familiar Final Fantasy games at a precise moment. The beautiful music featured in the franchise is obviously one of the standout highlights for many fans, so from our point of view it is bitterly disappointing to see that this is a Nintendo 3DS title only. A Final Fantasy rhythm game needs to come to the PS Vita as well.

A new demo is currently available for 3DS users and features the tracks Sunleth Waterscape from Final Fantasy XIII and the popular Man with the Machine Gun from one of our favorites – Final Fantasy VIII. We would love to see some Black Mages tracks in there at release, as songs such as Force your way and Those who Fight Further would be a big hit with fans in our opinion.

So there we have it. What an unlikely scenario where the first official taste of Final Fantasy Versus XIII may actually end up coming via a 3DS game. If you have been keeping your eye on this adventurous rhythm game, let us know your initial impressions so far.

When you buy the Sazh: Heads or Tails DLC you will gain access to a fresh new episode of story-mode content. You will play as Sazh Katzroy and battle your way through a quest which runs parallel to the standard campaign. No further details have been divulged yet, but if you’re not clued-up in regards to Sazh you should check out his profile on the Final Fantasy Wikia. He is 43 years old, he stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and he has a distinctive afro. When playing as Sazh you’ll have access to two pistols (known as Vega 42s) and his cold blood skill, hopefully you’ll get your hands on his ultimate weapon – two pistols which are known as the Total Eclipses.

Not only will this DLC ad a new quest to the game but it will also add two new card games to the FFXIII-2 Serendipity casino, these are called Chronobind and Serendipity Poker – we don’t know the rules of these card games yet, therefore we will have to keep you posted.

The Sazh: Heads or Tails DLC costs just 400 Microsoft points when it hits Xbox Live on February 28th, it will cost £2.99/€3.59/$5 when it becomes available on the PlayStation Network on the 29th. As you can see it does come to the Xbox 360 a little earlier, we’re sue PS3 gamers will be pleased to hear that the exclusivity only lasts 24 hours compared to the months of exclusivity we’ve seen with other game DLC.

With less than two-weeks to wait for the Sazh DLC you don’t have long to wait, but we can also reveal that on February 21st new costumes will be available on Xbox Live and a day later for the PS3. There will be a Spacetime Guardian outfit for Noel and Beachwear for Serah, each will cost 240 Microsoft points on Xbox Live or £1.59/€1.99/$3 on the PSN. If you head over to EuroGamer you can see some screens etc, we’ve added an image showing the new costumes below:

Will you buy any of this DLC?

If you played Final Fantasy XIII, you’ll know that the game was in development for near-eternity it seemed and Square-Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase has been the first one to admit that the company took too long to get the game out on the PlayStation 3.

It now seems like the company want to adopt a new approach to their releases, and are keen on taking cues from the likes of Activision, EA and Ubisoft as all three companies churn out new Call of Duty, Battlefield and Assassin’s Creed titles in the space of one or two years. Here is a recent statement from Kitase, taken from an interview with GameReactor:

”When you think of Western AAA titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Assassin’s Creed, they seem to work with a lot shorter turnaround – they make a new game in one to two years. That is something we need to follow up, because that seems to be the best way to keep our fans interested and attracted to the franchise.”

While fans will probably be pleased overall with this new strategy as it means more games to play, it obviously isn’t the primary root of the problem why gamers are losing interest in the franchise in the first place, and a new Final Fantasy game every two years could spell warnings for the quality of game released.

Final Fantasy XIII had an overall development time of five years, six years if you take into account that it wasn’t released in the US until 2010 after development started in 2004. Six years is obviously a great deal of time to make a game and considering that FFXIII was heavily criticized for its linear approach, it served as a hard lesson for Square-Enix – probably a prime factor in why they want to change their strategy now.

If you have played previous titles in the franchise, how would you feel as a fan if they released a new game every two years to match Battlefield and Call of Duty – do you support this idea, or do you have concerns?

This edition of the game will cost just $80, which makes it roughly $20 more expensive than the standard version of the game, here’s what the Collector’s Editions consists of: Final Fantasy XIII-2 game disc, Premium Packaging, 4 disc original soundtrack, 20-page artbook and a manual (the same manual as what you get in the standard case).

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the Collector’s Edition is the 20-page artbook, this is said feature concept art showing weapons, landscapes and monsters. The game’s “Premium Packaging” is said be a hardcover case which features plenty of illustrations drawn by Yoshitaka Amano – this name has been associated with Final Fantasy since the late 1980s.

If you decide to pre-order yourself a copy of the Collector’s Edition we can confirm that certain online retailers have special pre-order bonuses for you. Amazon will throw in an exclusive boss battle, Best Buy will give you a hardccover novella which is said to tie “together the events of Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2″ and GameStop will throw in an alternative costume for Serah. We think Best Buy’s novella sounds like the best freebie – do you agree?

Currently we are under the impression that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is going to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive, but these days exclusivity doesn’t count for much and we wonder whether this game could also come to Xbox 360, one recent post over at OXM.com seems to suggest that it is more than likely.

OSM’s Edwin Evans-Thirlwell listed six reasons why Final Fantasy Versus XIII is coming to Xbox 360, here is a quick summary of what he had to say. Firstly as recently pointed out by Kotaku the Versus team recently posted job listings where they asked for Xbox 360 development experience. Also it has been pointed out that the game’s engine, Crystal Tools, is a multi-platform engine.

Three other reasons all revolve around money, firstly bringing one game to multiple platforms almost guarantees higher sales, in-turn more downloadable-content will sell. One other thing which points towards a 360 release is the fact that Sony won’t pay to keep the game exclusive, these days Sony and Microsoft have to put up big bucks to ensure their rivals don’t get certain games – we can’t see Sony doing this.

You can see one final reason why Final Fantasy Versus XIII should come to Xbox 360 via the OXM link in this post’s second paragraph – do you think this game will be a PS3 exclusive?

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has revealed in a recent conference in Japan that the release of Final Fantasy XIV specifically was to blame for damaging the company’s reputation, although some of you may feel that Final Fantasy XIII is more to blame then any other FF title.

Here is a quote from him when asked about Final Fantasy IV, courtesy of AndriaSang: “The Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged.” The CEO then said that the company will now “continue with our reform work” and that they ”hope to revive the FFXIV that should have been released.”

Interesting words for sure there, do you agree with his assessment? From a personal point of view, it is a real shame what has happened to the state of Final Fantasy games in recent years. My first experience of Final Fantasy I’m pleased to say was Final Fantasy VII, and obviously that game is a stark contrast to what gamers had to endure in Final Fantasy XIII. Square-Enix may pick out Final Fantasy XIV as one of their weak points, but the main problem that the company need to address is the fact that they havent really listened to their loyal fanbase since Final Fantasy X, and that’s when it all seemed to go downhill.

Combine that with the fact that the one saving grace in Final Fantasy Versus XIII continues to dwell in exile gives you an exact idea of where Square-Enix are at right now. However, we’re pleased to see that Square-Enix are trying to get back on track with a remake of the excellent Final Fantasy X game, and who knows, maybe a Final Fantasy VII remake will prove as the last step in a complete u-turn for the company.

As a fan, what state do you think the franchise is in at the moment? We’ve heard some whispers that the Final Fantasy franchise should be killed off, but it’s far too early to be thinking about that we feel. Would a Final Fantasy VII remake prove to be the only solution to fix Square-Enix’ ‘damaged brand’ or do you think the problems delve deeper?

According to a recent post over at AndriaSang.com it looks like Square Enix will be cashing in when it comes to FFXIII-2 DLC, apparently certain weapons, costumes and monsters will be purchasable – now this worries us a little as it almost suggests that players will be able to buy their way to success, rather than patiently play the game picking up treasures along the way and really earning weapons etc to use in battle.

As you probably guessed we are not too concerned about the additional costumes, but imagine it was 1997 again and you got your hands on Final Fantasy VII, however you were told that if you pay a few extra dollars / pounds you can get Cloud’s Ultima Weapon and perhaps the Knights of the Round Table summon – surely this would ruin the game? Let’s face it ignoring a few of the bosses in the latter stages of the game you would trump your enemy with just one slash of the sword – we really think Square Enix is treading a fine line.

Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy XIII-2′s producer, has said that the content on the disc will be fulfilling enough for players and the DLC will allow for longer play – but we aren’t convinced just yet, surely giving gamers additional weapons and monsters will make battles easier, which means gamers won’t get stuck quite as much and long battles will be cut short – also it will nullify the need to use tactical gameplay in some cicrumstances. Surely if Kitase wanted to give gamers longer play he could have brought extra missions / quests to the game – what do you think?

If you played FFVII religiously you would have searched the Great Glacier for the Alexander materia, bred a Gold Chocobo and searched endlessly for Knights of the Round – this is all part of the fun and we think that Square should really look back at what made Final Fantasy a success in the first place.

While we are here we will quickly mention some good news which Kitase confirmed, apparently in FFXIII-2 there will an amusement center where you can play mini games, bet in a casino and even race Chocobos – this sounds like the Gold Saucer in FFVII and we think this will bring back fond memories to hardcore fans of the Final Fantasy series.

So what are your thoughts on the DLC plans for FFXIII-2? Do you agree that selling gamers weapons and monsters will in a way ruin the Final Fantasy XIII-2 experience?

Nothing is definite at the moment, however the game’s producer, Hiromichi Tanaka, recently suggested that the game could be ported to PlayStation Vita and apparently Square Enix are currently considering this option. This would allow people to play FFXI on-the-go via a 3G connection. We think this could set a massive milestone in terms of handheld gaming, how about you?

Tanaka also suggested that there are no plans to port this game to PS3, by the looks of things there is no simple way to port the game due to the PS3′s hardware characteristics, this perhaps suggests that Square Enix were once considering a PS3 port. You can find out more about this rumor over at SiliconEra, now we will look at the game’s true potential in today’s market.

If you saw any of the PlayStation Vita demos at E3 2011 you will know that is capable of producing visuals far greater than FFXI delivered, therefore if the game does hit the Vita we would expect a graphical overhaul. Obviously visuals aren’t everything, but we think that it would be hard to sell a game with mediocre graphics (even for the PS2) in today’s market..

We think that the PlayStation Vita could in fact breath life into a game which was way before its time, in 2002 we had not heard of games like World of Warcraft, therefore it was pretty groundbreaking. Not only could the Vita be great for FFXI but FFXI could be great for the Vita when it hits AT&T, it could be the game which people want 3G connectivity for, what do you think?

One thing which we find pretty interesting is the fact that there is more talk surrounding a FFXI port than there is a FFIV port, FFIV arrived last year and it was received badly by critics, perhaps even Square Enix know that the game was a little below par for their usually high standards.

Will you buy Final Fantasy XI if it comes to the PS Vita? If so, what aspects would you like to see changed / improved?