Final Fantasy Versus XIII update - cutscenes, lighting, and voice recording details

This week's Famitsu has offered up director Tetsuya Nomura's promised update on the impatiently anticipated Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

As reported by Final Fantasy Union,Nomura apologised for taking so long with the game and again promised further, more substantial updates.

The game is said to sport cutscenes inspired by successful shooters, in that the cinematics don't break up gameplay. Cutscenes will be player-controlled in some fashion, and will largely utilise the same assets as real-time events, although hair will be prettified for cinematics.

Long-time Final fantasy developer Takeshi Nozue has joined the Versus XIII team to ramp up the graphics, and particularly the lighting engine, which Nomura seems proud of. Famitsu was shown three screenshots, and apparently found them so beautiful they doubted they were real-time screen-grabs. Two showed Noctis in a cityscape at different times of day, and another showed an arcade - so plenty of scope to show off that fancy-pants lighting.

Nomura said the game will allow players to take photos at any time using Noctis's phone, and they will somehow be able to use real world photos as well. It's not clear if that's a discrete mobile game, but if so, it's unlikely to appear outside Japan.

Square Enix is recording some dialogue in cast sessions, to get the feel of conversation rather than disjointed exclamations.

No release date has been suggested for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. It is one third of the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection which includes Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy XIII.