Noel joins the Final Fantasy XIII cast as the main character of Final Fantasy XIII-2. But he won't be the only major new character in the game.
In an interview in this week's Famitsu, art director Isamu Kamikokuryo reveals that there will be other new "main characters" besides Noel.
It's unclear what Kamikokuryo means by "main" characters, as the game's producer and director have said that the story will center on Noel and Serah, the two characters who were playable in the E3 demo. At the very least, it looks like we can expect some additional major additions to the cast.
Characters from the original FFXIII will be returning as well, of course. Kamikokuryo said that players will be able to see slightly grown up versions of the past characters, and how they're now living.
Kamikokuryo's discussion also shed a few additional details on who's working on FFXIII-2, along with some additional hints about the game:
- The staff remains mostly the same from the original.
- Tetsuya Nomura handled designs for the characters' faces while the bodies and clothing were handled by other FF series art directors.
- The character shown standing back-to-back with Lightning in the game's original January trailer was designed by Yusuke Naora.
- The enemies that appear in the Neo Bodham area are a new category of enemy that are neither from Cocoon nor Pulse. They're designed by lead art designer Toshitaka Matsuda.
- There is a common pattern that appears on Lightning's shield and Serah's clothing. When playing the game, you'll find out why the pattern is the same.
- A number of people submitted Moogle designs, but in the end they went with Matsuda's design. Matsuda also designed Lightning's sword, NPCs, new monsters, backgrounds, and the summons which appear in a different form from the original.
- Similar to the original, Lightning's sword can transform between gun and sword.
- The game's maps weren't finalized from the start this time. Instead, they're letting the staff fill the maps with ideas for things like short-cuts and so-forth. They're letting the staff be free to do trial and error in this area.
- Because of the tight production schedule, they didn't have much time for pre production. They didn't even have enough time to do much in the way of setting drawings. In some cases, they used photographs and other resources to explain things. Looking at the bright side, Kamikokuryo said that this actually made it easier to get the point across, and allowed them to change their approach to direction.
