E3 06: Final Fantasy Agito XIII First Impressions

LOS ANGELES-- One of the most surprising announcements to come from the Square Enix pre-E3 press conference was a trilogy of Final Fantasy XIII games. Two of the games are PlayStation 3 exclusives, but the third is, oddly enough, a game for "next-generation" mobile phones. Final Fantasy Agito XIII is a game that is entirely separate from the other two Final Fantasy XIII games, but it shares a similar theme and mythos. We saw a brief trailer for the game and learned more about it from director Hajime Tabata.

Agito is Latin for "to put in motion," and although the reason for that name is still unclear, it seems to be a reference to the mobile platform. The trailer opened with some bright, colorful artwork of a fantasy world and a handful of characters. The opening text revealed that the game is set, "in the hallowed halls of Akademeia." The characters all look like young mages and wear bright red school uniforms.

According to Hajime Tabata, Final Fantasy Agito XIII uses the mobile phone network that lets you select your party members via an ad hoc connection. This seems to indicate that you'll be able to link up with nearby players to form a party and play through the game cooperatively.

There's no word yet on exactly which phones the game will run on or when the game will be released. For more details, check with your service provider and stay tuned to the gamespace for more info as it's revealed.