These Really Are Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 Screenshots

Hraesvelgr

Noticeable, but not as much of a difference as I was expecting from early reports.

Tokyo Guy

Well now we can see some differences. And we will also see all the rabid fanboys start to officially go wild now. Honestly speaking, does it really matter which version looks better though? It seems to me that the main reason FF13 is releasing on both platforms overseas is that SE wants to maximize its profit possibilities. Not everyone owns both consoles and thus it’s not a choice for them, it would either be “I have a PS3 and can play it” or “I can’t play it”. But now all the 360 owners can play it as well.

I’ve never understood the whole console wars thing personally, as it seems to me the purpose of gaming is to have fun rather than to be an immature child who resorts to the “my X is better than your Y”. Though it seems to me that most of the people who do this are individuals who only have one console and for whatever reason, don’t have the capacity to get another, thus they have this inferority complex such that they need to constantly prove their only console is the best.

As far as those who have both consoles and are thus on the fence, obviously this will be a strong push for the PS3. Though I’ve read comments about people still opting for the 360 because of online talking while playing.

Aoshi00

There you go, fanboys just got too excited… I think they wanted the 360 port to be as bad as possible since this was supposed to be a proud PS3 exclusive you know.. but yea, more people get to play it the better. Of course I’d be getting the PS3 ver since I have both systems, otherwise I actually prefer achievement, since I alrdy got the trophies from the Jpn ver.

BTW, Snow says hi “Those People need HEROES” lol :)
- thebanditking
  
  Eh neither side of the console war is particularly enticing to join. The PS3 people wanted this to be trash on 360 as “revenge” against Wada for “selling out” and the 360 ones did little to help the situation by gloating about it (even though most of them did not even care about FF), heck even MS plays into the fanboy scene too much with their “Stealing PlayStation exclusives” tag line.
  
  Heck they still are not shutting up, now the PS3 ones are gloating and the 360 folks are damning the game and canceling pre-orders and either denying the PS3 version looks better(saying S-E compressed the screens) or claiming that there is something wrong with S-E capture tools.
  
  The best is some are demanding a written appology from S-E for not making the 360 version better then the PS3. Blah, Blah, blah.
  I wonder if S-E imagined it all turning out this way…….
  - Tokyo Guy
    
    In all honesty I don’t think SquareEnix has the slightest clue what foreign markets like on the whole. As I’ve said in other topics, all of the foreigners I know who work for SEJapan comment about the company’s strict conservatism and total apathy towards any criticism or advice from foreigners. It’s a sad situation really, as you have this company that claims to want to appeal to more foreign gamers and yet doesn’t have the sensibility to actually LISTEN to them. It’s more like “We Japanese know what’s best for you foreigners.”
    
    Also as mentioned before, Capcom and to an extent Konami, have been far more successful as they are (by comparison) far less conservative.
    - http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty
      
      Funny how you brought that up, Motomu Toriyama commented earlier in the week with “We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view” (http://kotaku.com/5472712/square-enix-attempts-to-explain-low-western-reviews via Xbox World 360).
      
      Yeah, in that context, there seems to be a gap there, but with many of their games being such a success in the West …I don’t know, how many windows are they able to look through, you know? They publish games like MW2 and Batman in Japan, so maybe they take games like that into consideration.
    - Aoshi00
      
      Hm.. what the heck is Toriyama talking about, all these excuses, come back to reality man, he just wrote a bad story, nothing Japanese or Western about that.. even half (or more than half) of the Jpn gamers didn’t like XIII and they’ve played all the previous FFs. No one is comparing Mass Effect 2 to FFXIII, people knew what they are getting into.For me, the negatives of this game unfortunately far outweighed the positive. It’s not a matter of linear (even though it is, much more so than X), it’s just that the world and narrative have to be rich in order to be interesting, and they were sorely lacking, what did people expect, no towns and no NPCs…Still, I’m trying my best to convince myself to like this, it’s like “okay, the story is rather weak just have to accept it, but I’ll read the novel and listen to the soundtrack to supplement my enjoyment..” As I said before, this guy has to be taken off the main FF team.. While I enjoyed X-2 to an extent, the writing was certainly not the game’s forte, I just liked it because it was a continuation of X.
  - malek86
    
    It might seem like Squenix is the one losing the most here. With some PS3 fanboys rageing that they won’t buy the game because it’s not exclusive anymore, and some 360 fanboys rageing that they won’t buy the game because it looks worse than the opposing counterpart. However, Squenix is profiting more from this, because PS3 and 360 fanboys rageing are only a small part, and porting the game to both platforms will lead to many more sales than keeping it on just one, and the great majority of customers doesn’t even know about one version looking better or worse.
    
    To sum up: on the internetz, the awesomeness of a game is directly correlated to its exclusiveness, or its multiplatform parity. In the real world, nobody cares.
    
    Not that I don’t agree Squenix is handling this worse than they could. They probably need a couple PR lessons.
- Tokyo Guy
  
  Yes, I’ll never understand that, nor the way in which the fanboys will defend “their” companies and “their” consoles as if they had a vested financial interest in their success. I mean you find some of them who actually deify people like Fils-Aime and Nintendo, and it’s just plain absurd. The sad part is that it’s not limited to videogames by any means. It’s sadly ironic that with all the information provided by the internet, people have still managed to be just as close minded and immature as they were prior to its commercial advent.
  - daizyujin
    
    Hum, Fils-Amie comes off as a total ass to me but then again so did Peter Moore.
Moriken

Wait…running around and whining “my X is better than your Y” is NOT fun? *shocked*
I’m not for an X360 because of too much region locking though…I tend to import JRPGs and domestically buy other genres, but it’s not possible on that machine.

Kris

360 version definitely looks worse, but it’s such a pretty game that it doesn’t even matter.

MrMee

Why are people such whores to graphics? I can barely tell the difference between the two. On a standard def, which most people have still, I’m sure the difference will be nonexistent. Obviously, I’d get the PS3 version of the two (if I had a PS3) because I hate disc swapping. Overall, not a big deal. Hell, the 360 version still looks better than most 360 games as it is so why complain? Also, I never thought that such a topic would even cater to this level of discussion and criticism.
MrMee

btw this comment wasn’t made for you, it somehow ended up replying to your post.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

The only noticeable difference I first caught was that Snow’s highlights on his hair looked blurry in one screen shot and the other made it look like he hadn’t washed it in days.

Tokyo Guy

It’s also worth mentioning that unless you have HDMI the game won’t look like the screenshots period. Before its release, a number of magazines and FF13-related books had small features about the image quality and its direct correlation to the video input method. Even if you have Component the game will take a major hit. So anyone without an HDTV and HDMI input will have a poorer looking game irrespective of the console they buy it on.

malek86

“Before its release, a number of magazines and FF13-related books had small features about the image quality and its direct correlation to the video input method.”

It doesn’t sound like it would be possible, unless they were trying to fool you, or unless Squenix purposely scaled down the image quality when connected through Component, but that would be a low blow. You got any links with more info? I’m kind of weirded out now.
- Tokyo Guy
  
  Ah, perhaps I’m remembering incorrectly then and the comparison was between an analogue TV and an HDTV. I did a quick web search and this came up
  
  http://www.i-mezzo.net/log/2009/04/19020801.html
  
  That was the same type of comparisons from the magazine (though not quite as noticable as in these pics) so perhaps I am just remembering incorrectly. Sorry about that. I will try to find the magazine though and doublecheck.
Strike_Man

Care to follow up with a direct source that claims there is a “major hit” between using a component and an HDMI connection for this title?

I agree that type of connection does matter a lot, but in many setups, the difference between those two specific cables is negligible, if not entirely imperceptible.
- Aoshi00
  
  I’m not sure if the difference btwn HDMI and component would be substantial, but on the Jpn FFXIII official site, there’s a page that gives detailed instruction on how to achieve “optimum results”, buy a Bravia and connect your PS3 by HDMI or the Jpn D-terminal or something.. of course Sony wants people to buy HDTVs since many might not have upgraded yet.
  - malek86
    
    Yeah well, of course. That’s like asking MS what’s better between Windows and Linux.
    - Aoshi00
      
      Also, you really need a “big” HDTV to read the small text and appreciate the true beautiful details of this game anyway, I imagine many Jpn gamers have a smaller 20-some inch LCDs in their apartments. They’re saying SD just won’t do, especially for this game.
  - http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully
    
    also theres another thing no one is mentioning …. those who own Ps3 have it running at Full RGB Range? , It makes A huge diferrence especialy in big FullHD screens , but some people dont even bother to configure their Ps3 «« …..
    Also this game was made to be played on a big screen …
    - Aoshi00
      
      yeah, I tried turning on full RGB before and the color is more vibrant and added more depth. But I usually have it off by default, I’m confused if it’s better to have it on or off, I’ve heard both sides of the stories..
    - http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully
      
      ohhhh :/ hum well i have no complaints XD ! i also noticed star ocean colors are better when in full rgb , so ill stick to it .it did make a big diference in uncharted for me wich was the first game i tried … but ofc everything as its prons and cons…in end it all comes about on chosing what suits you best XD
- Tokyo Guy
  
  Hmm, I can’t find where I put the book at the moment unfortunately. It was that Square Enix magazine released just before the game, World Navigator or something like that. It had a giant picture of Lightning on the cover. The feature was towards the end of the book.
  
  Perhaps I overstated the quality issue, but it was such that with component cables (or D-Input) the image quality was softened, such that (for example) in one of the pictures they compared the title screen logo with HDMI and without it, or the main menu screen character portraits with and without it. The HDMI shots looked much clearer and finely detailed, whereas the non-HDMI looked softened and more “blurry” so to speak. I was rather surprised myself really, though I have only used HDMI with the PS3.
  - daizyujin
    
    The difference in general between HDMI and Component is negligible. Besides HDMI’s main gain of 1080p is a fabrication since Component has more than enough bandwidth. It is just the industry wants to shove the “secure” HDMI format down your throat so it is blocked by default on most HD TVs.
- Tokyo Guy
  
  Ok I found it. It’s the Final Fantasy 13 World Preview magazine. Pages 130-131. The writers note that all the screen shots were taken with the same HDTV, however one set was with HDMI and the other with “Video” Input. I believe the Video input was S-Video, thus it’s really comparing S-Video with HDMI. Though its odd how they don’t mention D-Input.
  - malek86
    
    Actually, I think “video” is the standard cables included with the console. So they were comparing the HDMI input with S-Video/RCA to show that it was better? Awesome. That’s like a company saying that their game has the best graphics ever because they were comparing it to a SNES game.
    
    For a proper comparison, they should have used D-Terminal. Because the difference between HDMi and D-Terminal mostly depends on the TV, and at times can be pretty much negligible.

MrRobbyM

the biggest difference is that the 360 version is 576p natively and some of the textures are worse. So it’s just not as sharp, including the FMVs.

Aoshi00

Every time I go to the menu, I wish they wouldn’t use the full blown CG faces and use the Nomura illustration instead for the char portraits like 7,8,&10 (why do people make a big deal on SO4 but not here?) Also Fang just looks off in this particular shot.. Of course, no actual Nomura drawings of the characters have been made public other than preliminary sketches… what a pity…

MrRobbyM

I agree. I would appreciate the Nomura character art much more than the CG faces. Much better looking anyways.
- Masengan
  
  I am also a fan of his art style, very stylish.
http://terracannon876.livejournal.com Laura

Seconded (thirded?) on you there =)
- Aoshi00
  
  You know what makes me say that, it was because of how nice Ventus, Terra, and Aqua look in KH BBS :) I thought why can’t Lightning and gang be presented in Nomura drawing, that’s like the only place we ever see their original design (Amano or Nomura) in FF games anyway, the mugshots.
  
  Or XII, would be good if they use Yoshida’s, look like Tactics but w/ noses.
  
  http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/57/XIIrassler.jpg
  
  http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/2/26/FFXII-RaslerArt.jpg

malek86

Of, finally some proper screens. Yes, it does look a bit worse indeed. Uncompressed audio (my amplifier only goes up to DTS anyway) and cutscenes (I’m skipping them) I don’t care about, but better graphics and no disc-swapping is appreciated, so it will be the PS3 version for me.

Well, it WOULD be, that is, if I can understand what the heck is going on with the drive in my console. For some reason, it just stopped reading discs altogether… CD, DVD or BD, it won’t react to anything. No yellow light or anything, it just doesn’t read them. If I send it to repair now, will it be back in time for FF13?

mach

If you’re going to skip cutscenes, wouldn’t it just be better to skip the game entirely? This is a Final Fantasy game after all. The story is like the biggest part of this game.
- malek86
  
  My 120 hours of grinding Arena monsters in FFX say otherwise. The biggest part of FF, or any JRPG for that matter, is when you are fighting.
  
  Besides, I’m not skipping all of the cutscenes. If there’s a scene that explains some battle mechanics, I’ll have to watch it.
Vanilla

Wait, you’re playing a Final Fantasy…for the gameplay?
- MrMee
  
  I played XII for it’s great gameplay AND decent story
  - cowcow
    
    LOL
    - MrMee
      
      not a fan of XII?
    - cowcow
      
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      Subject: [siliconera] Re: These Really Are Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 Screenshots
  - http://www.facebook.com/mateo.barahona Mateo Barahona
    
    LOL
  - dr000d
    
    ROFL
  - Hraesvelgr
    
    Despite the silly responses, I actually agree with this. XII was the first FF game that I thought was at least decent in ages. It wasn’t amazing, but I thought it was much better than the more popular numbers, such as VII or X.
    - MrMee
      
      I really never understood the opposition to XII (minus the lame treasure chest quest for Zodiac Spear). The game was very addicting and I’ll tell ya, I was so glad to have a FF without the cliched phase in for battles. What’s more, people don’t realize that FFXIII’s battle system was partially influenced by XII’s.
    - Aoshi00
      
      Yea, XIII’s battle system was a mix of X-2, Xenosaga (breaking enemies by hitting their weakness), and XIII, except you don’t need to do all the gambit micromanaging. The Optima chance/Paradigm shift pretty much takes care of your teammates’ action, if he/she’s a healer or attacker, etc. But still, they’re rather different, XII was entirely too MMO-like and XIII is a fast paced real time turnbased game, but there’s a preset AI that makes the best (relatively) automated choices if you don’t have enough time to input your commands. There are many other differences of course, like how to continue from gameovers and restoring HP, etc… what bugged me about XII the most was the stupid license board for both skills and weapons, and gils were very hard to come by if you don’t know how to chain kill certain enemies.. the story was pretty good, but again it’s too MMO-like for me. so I have a love hate relationship w/ XII.Personally XII ranked pretty low on my FF favorite ladder. It looked good sounded good, certainly ambitious w/ its scope, however I didn’t like XI Online and the story/chars ultimately were not memorable (I don’t mind dramas in the other ones), except for a few which were really good. I think Western audience liked XII better too since Jpn gamers usually prefer traditional JRPGs instead of open world MMO-like RPGs.But yea, it’s a more mature and subtle RPG, definitely would’ve been even better if Matsuno handled the whole thing instead of leaving midway.
      
      XIII, on the other hand, has a so-so story that was presented rather weakly. One would appreciate the story and characters much more if you have read the prologue novel on the FFXIII official site (I just ordered the book), so that itself alrdy says something about the main game not being good, we shouldn’t need to go to read something extra to feel for the characters, they should do that w/in the 50-60 hrs in the game.

zhemos

Looks like these screen shots are taken in 720p, You won’t be able to tell much of a difference when the games running in 1080p. That said, I wanted to get FF13 on my 360 because I like achievements more than trophies. :P But I can’t stand multi disc games so I’ll be getting it on my PS3.

Aoshi00

same here, I much prefer achievements, but knowing that I would go back to watch the countless cutscenes spread across the game later, 3 discs is too much of a hassle, not to mention I always do installs, that’s like 21Gb right there.. Like I want to access the cutscenes in Lost Odyssey in end game w/ the memory lamb, “put in disc 1″, what the hell >,>..

thebanditking

I goes without saying that the 360 version looks worse, also according to one of the guys from Digital Foundry the 360 game is running at 1024x576p where the PS3 is 1280x720p. For a multi console owner the compairing screens make the PS3 version a no brainer.

The only other problem that could present itself is in the FMV’s as FF13 uses pre-recorded movies for the regular cut scenes as well as the GC (which could be why that 1st pic of snow prob looks like it does), so that could lead to some nasty compression artefacts for anything not being done directly from the games engine.

Still everyone knew there would be differences, so at least those wondering have the real screens this time. Personally I still stick by what I said before, seeing the differences in official shots is bad for press hense why S-E tried to pass off those bullshots before.

http://twitter.com/My_Decemberling Corey Taylor

I am a wee bit disappointed in this…I don’t have the money two buy two consoles. I bought my 360 when the PS3 first came out at 600 bucks, and was not willing to pay that. Getting rid of FF was a sacrifice I was willing to make for other games. But when FF XIII was announced for the 360 I was ecstatic. I’m still excited, but this is disappointing, especially considering the fact that Infinite Undiscovery and the Last Remnant look better then these screens…and Lost Odyssey blows this completely out of the water….

Hraesvelgr

I’m not so sure about that…

FatmanStephens

Oh well. It’s still Final Fantasy XIII. I’m still going to buy it for 360.

Loveless973

They have a video of the 360 version on ign.com you can see how the game looks in action. why bother with screen shots when you can see it in action?

http://honorless.net honorless

I don’t really care about the differences (or this game lololol)—I’m just surprised and delighted that someone was actually willing to step up and admit that “YES, our cross-platform game does not look exactly the same on both platforms” rather than patronizing everyone with bullshots. Bravo, S-E.

My fiancé, however, is delighted that the platform he wanted to buy this game for is also the best-looking.

http://soundcloud.com/tet-chan TetsuyaHikari

Well, nice to finally see some real XBOX 360 screenshots. Just as I figured, there are some differences, but honestly, it’s not bad. It’s nothing 360 fans could complain about anyway.

I’ve already finished the Japanese version for PS3, so I certainly don’t have to worry about this whole, “switch disc” madness, but meh.

thebanditking

” It’s nothing 360 fans could complain about anyway.”

Most of them sure don’t feel that way, as in my earlier post I have seen and talked to a number of people online who are no longer picking this up, most are either waiting for it to hit bargin bin or have switched their pre-order to another game, the extreme “fanboys” are demanding a written appology from Square-Enix. Which I find hilarious as this is still nowhere near as bad as Bayo on PS3. Like I said most 360 fanboys don’t even care about this game they just wanted pairity between versions to rub it in PS3 fanboys faces.
Hraesvelgr

It’s nothing 360 fans should complain about, but let’s be realistic, we’re talking about gamers. Gamers that are going to buy/rent/pirate a Japanese game. Doesn’t get much worse than that.
- thebanditking
  
  You know I specifically left that out, because quite franklly its the most depressing aspect of the 360 for me. MS can block and brick all the 360′s they want but piracy on that system is huge (though poor PSP seems worse). Frankly I think that could possibly impact FF13 on 360 more then user demographics. The 360 version looks worse and thus more people could decide to pirate it to “check it out” first also given the review complaints that could also cause for an influx of downloads. Ugh, now im depressed….
  - malek86
    
    I doubt piracy is that much of a concern, really. Sales numbers for 360 software seem healthy enough, actually more than hardware numbers, which are kinda on the low side.
    - thebanditking
      
      Too true.
      
      Though it seems sales are only healthy for western games on 360, and thats my concern. Knowing piracy is a problem (check the download data the ESA collects and some “other” sources) I just worry the 360 version of FF13 is going to hit the net any day now and considering what I said before I can imagine quite a few people downloading it rather then pay for it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcadeInfinity scott

I think as far as the north american market goes, whichever console has the better install base will garner better ff13 sales (unless your household has both). You think that Bayonetta for the ps3 got any less sales because the xbox version was superior in japan?

oh yeah 576p for xbox http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/02/18/final-fantasy-xiii-xbox-360-version-is-not-hd-576p-confirmed/
for those that were interested in reading on it further…

http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully

ok ……… 576p ….. thats duh XD …. so much for equal versions XD and i was even going for that FF13 360 console pack …. but no way i rather wait for an exclusive…. My japanese FF13 runs at 1080 P fors games sake ….. and i tested it on my 2 Full HD tvs …… also im trying to figure if the japanese version is a 50 Gb dual layer bluray «« cause i heard european version is gonna be 25gb on Ps3….
- thebanditking
  
  Yes FF13 on PS3 runs in 1080p but its only true HD for the CG movies. In game FF13 runs in a native 720p, but if your TV supports 1080p the game has a built in upscaler that converts it to 1080p so there is no resolution switching during gameplay. I still think the big loss here is going to be on the recorded cutscenes and the CG movies which have a higher bit rate then Bink (FF13 on 360 choice for compression) can handle. There are ways around it but I hate pixelation in movies.
  - http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully
    
    yeah , so much i had figured ,its still preety cool after all the treat in FF is always the CG movies at least for me,but evne if it ran only at 720p if a very good one i wouldnt mind , i mean uncharted2 runs a perfect 720p and i dont feel the need for more XD!
    
    (There are ways around it but I hate pixelation in movies.)
    
    wich reminds me ……. i just tried running FF12 in my HD tv with component and lets just say its very bad …. ALOT of pixels in the CG movies T__T , on the contrary FFX is awsome ! *___* why didnt they just released 2 dvds of FF12 sigh ««….
    - malek86
      
      Try turning on/off the flicker filter.
thebanditking

Using Japan as a point of reference for North American sales is not a good analysis, the Japanese market is vastly different and also tends to support domestic products over foreign, so Bayo could have been 360 exclusive and still would have sold poorly in JP. Where NA tends to support whatever we want. Though the basic statement of

More consoles sold = more sales
is simply not true, the correct wat to put that is
More consoles sold = more potential sales

There are plenty of examples I could use but a recent one (this gen) is Batman Arkyum Asylum. The PS3 has less units sold then 360 but Batman on PS3 outsold Batman on 360.

It all comes down to console demographics. Final Fantasy is associated with the PlayStation brand so recognition will play a role but there is also the simple fact that the 360 user base does not support JRPG’s very well. Its not like you have 2 million Lost Odyssey fans (though why not is beyond me) in NA waiting for FF13, but its a safe bet to say there are 1 million NA PS3 owners waiting for FF13 (going off FF 10 through 12 PS2 data and assuming most upgraded to PS3 or will).

This is not an action game, nor is it Grand Theft Auto, and RPG wise its not from Bioware and its nothing like Elder Scrolls or Fable. To which I will add that even the western RPGs that do well on 360 still fall quite short of selling like Halo, Gears of War, or Modern Warfare, or any other FPS. Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean are good test examples of how the 360 userbase will respond to FF13. As one is an exclusive, and the others are big name JRPGs.

Going off just a quick look at VGchatz (usually overly generous data)
Lost Odyssey – 460K US
Tales – 220K US
Star Ocean – 230K US

Looking at that LO is the most successful title and I would say its a safe bet that at least 40% of Tales and Star Oceans number are the same Lost Odyssey owners buying more RPG’s. Given that I think its safe to say that the 360 (with some room allowed for error) has a potential JRPG market in the US of about 600K.

Now factor in the bad press over this, the lack of a male lead (which all the other JRPGs had and yes more some narrow minded people it matters) and its not hard to see FF13 doing good on 360 but not Mass Effect 2 good. Of course I could be wrong, and perhaps people will buy a 360 for FF13 to increase its sales and potential JRPG user base, but given the current users I don’t see this being a huge seller, especially with Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 being such recent releases and Splinter Cell being so close.

*eek* wall of text sorry, I go t carried away ;p
- Hraesvelgr
  
  Arkham Asylum also had some PS3 exclusive content, didn’t it? Don’t know what it was, since I didn’t play the game, but I think people care about pointless stuff like that. Unless the 360 version of the game has some sort of exclusive content, I doubt that it will do better. Plus, it’s better looking on the PS3.
  - thebanditking
    
    Yes it had Joker as a playable character in mission mode, a bigger deal for PR then actual gameplay. Its a fantastic game though you should try it sometime.
  - kupomogli
    
    Yeah. Arkham Asylum is great. If you ask me, the Joker exclusive content isn’t what people make it out to be. First off it’s DLC only(which I hate,) but second, the challenge modes aren’t really as fun as going through the game normally.
    
    Whether you pick it up on the PS3 or 360, it doesn’t matter. Infact this is one game that is almost unnoticeable in differences.

daizyujin

Well it looks like the 360 port is just “sloppy.” It probably could have been done right if they were given enough time but whatever. After the rather hohum reviews I am not sure I care either way anymore.

Ich_Dietrich

I’m slightly skeptical but why is it at a lower resolution than 720p? The 360 can handle that and above but you know what I’m not even gonna bother, after hearing Production Team 1 recent interviews I wouldn’t be surprised that they didn’t bother getting FFX HD to that resolution on the 360.

thebanditking

It has noting to do with being able to “handle it”. Plenty of 360 games (and PS3) run in sub HD resolutions, Halo 3 runs at 576p, Star Ocean TLH runs even lower (though I can’t remember the exect numbers). In this case it comes down to the engine and the time put in. Crystal Tools was originally developed as the White Engine and was made with PS3 in mind. Also Kitase recently said that the 360 version does not even run on Crystal Tools but rather a seperate engine. Also since both the engine and the code were optimised to take advantage of PS3′s strengths and then factor in they did the port in about 12 months and its not hard to see this as the outcome.
- Ich_Dietrich
  
  Oh no I understand that, my issue was why they didn’t take the time out to make it so. They keep talking about deadlines but as someone who has waited 5 years for games like FFXII I’m used to delays to get things running right even on one console. It was intended solely for the PS3 but if your going to port it and know it will take longer than a year, take the time to make the effort or don’t port. Probably not ideal for them or any company to do but I personally like seeing it.
  
  At the end of the day though it running at a lower native resolution won’t ruin the game or the experience especially not for me because I’m not a fan of the games Production team 1 makes. I’m waiting for the hopefully being made Fortress and XIV.
  
  Side note: That remix was nice.
  - thebanditking
    
    I agree, I feel the dev team did the best they could with such a short time frame. I would rather a dev take the extra time necessary to make it properly or not make it at all, though that was not the case with FF13. Microsoft petitioned S-E to do this port very late in the development cycle and part of the contract signed between them was that the 360 version had to ship day and date with the PS3 one, no exceptions. S-E was also facing pressure from fans to get this game out, and with the PS3 version being finished in Japan, I doubt S-E wanted to delay the game another year to release in the west.
    
    Glad you liked the remix, I thought it was very well done.
malek86

Both consoles will probably run games on lower than sub-HD (though lately, companies seem to have finally learned how to make proper 720p games, even if sometimes they have to disable antialiasing to do so), and at the same time, both can actually handle more than 720p (though there are only a handful of games running on 1080p). Problem is, while people often put the two consoles together as if they were basically the same, they actually both have very different strengths and weaknesses. So, a game made to push one console will probably not work well on the other.

Aside from that, it also goes down to where the game started and how long it took to be ported. Vesperia started on 360, and was ported to PS3 relatively quickly. As a result, the PS3 version runs in sub-HD resolution, while the 360 was proper 720p. In the case of FF13, the 360 version was started late in the development cycle. Result: it looks worse. Wanting platform parity at all costs, would only serve to delay too much the release of a game. The obvious solution is when a game is announced being multiplatform from the start and they have a team working on each version, so that both can be made on a timely manner.

Otherwise, the other solution is to make what Dante’s Inferno did, and make a graphic engine that is so lightweight (and indeed, the game looks like it could almost run on the Wii) that both consoles can handle it exactly the same. As far as I know, DI is the first multiplatform game in this gen to look absolutely the same on both platforms. Heck, they didn’t even use the larger BR to improve CG quality on the PS3. That’s how identical they are.
- Ich_Dietrich
  
  The PS3 is “supposed” to run at 720p while the 360 version is “supposed” to run at 576p and Dante’s Inferno looks great to me on PS3 but I digress, I simply don’t like downgraded ports or games due to arbitrary deadlines and lack of effort. That’s all but honestly I don’t care for the game, I just wanted to see if the team was more than what I thought they were. Misplaced hope for them is what I had.
  
  People will still buy the game in droves though and blab about how beautiful/wonderful it is like when that anime cesspool X came out. That’s all that matters to S-E now, repeating success.
- thebanditking
  
  Problem is Im not sure I support this type of development. Making something so simplistic (especially in this case) would have only fed into the newly founded stereotype that Japanese game designers just can’t keep up with the western ones from a graphical (among other things) stand point.
  
  Not factoring in different development regions (east vs west) I still don’t know if I would support an industry where people dont try and push the limits, games like Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 need to be made if for no other reason then to further competition and encourage learning between developers.
  
  In this case FF13 will push Japanese developers to shoot for higher standards and ultimately move the industry forward. Its worth saying that Western developers would not be where they are now if the Japanese devs were not busy pushing the standards higher in the previous two generations.
  - malek86
    
    I’m not really justifying what Dante’s Inferno did (although I appreciate the rock-solid 60fps), but in today’s industry, where multiplatform development is the only way to make a profit, you have to work with the lowest denominator… which means, basically, that you can’t work on the strengths of either consoles, and in the meantime you have to consider the weaknesses of both.

Shadesblade

Wow, I actually don’t see much of a problem in the difference. All xbox 360 games have a more “rigid” texture style. Let me shed a little light on how the graphics don’t make this a “whole lot worse looking game.”
Because the game was originally designed for the PS3 it isn’t that great of a shock to see the “better and smoother graphics” on the PS3 version of the game. Although the xbox 360 graphics seem to be choppier and have more rigid textures this doesn’t actually mean a fault in gameplay. I would like everyone to look at this comparison of xbox 360 and ps3 graphics.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6191251/index.html

In these comparisons although the xbox 360 has more rigid textures it still might look like the “better graphic” choice. So as far as gameplay goes I don’t think there will be any problem with the xbox 360 version. Only that there are multiple discs and that the ps3 has more “fluid” looking graphics which is better for square enix games because of the characters animated looks. All in all you’d be an idiot to get the xbox 360 version if you own a ps3. But for people, like me, who only have an xbox 360, don’t let these pictures let you down.

thebanditking

As a side note for anyone who likes the FF13 OST, I found a fan made remix of the battle theme (electronic/Trance style) which I think is quite good and I dont usually like this style of music. Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyIcz7vLTw&feature=PlayList&p=3947740D614FBA79&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

dylanlee123

Anyone else notice that the stance they’re in and the text is diffrent in each picture? lol try putting them in 2 diffrent tabs and switch back and forth you’ll see it…..

These Really Are Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 Screenshots

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