Final Fantasy XIII-2 arriving 2011 in Japan

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will arrive on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this year in Japan, Square Enix announced at its production department event today. According to a translation of the event by the blog Andria Sang, the game will be a direct sequel to FFXIII and will be directed by series veteran Motomu Toriyama.

FFXIII-2 will once again star Lightning, the lead protagonist from XIII. A short trailer was shown at the event, which showed her dueling with a mysterious purple-haired man. No other details were revealed, though Toriyama mentioned that the game would take on board fan feedback from the previous installment.

Rumours around the announcement of FFXIII-2 appeared last week, when Internet sleuth Superannuation discovered that the FinalFantasy13-2Game.com domain was quietly registered on January 10. A sequel to XIII was widely expected, given its critical and financial success. Square Enix's latest financials showed it had sold more than 5.5 million units worldwide.