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Final Fantasy XIII due March 9

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Nov 13, 2009 7:32 am PT

Square Enix's latest J-RPG headed to North America and Europe in early 2010, Leona Lewis' "My Hands" named as theme song; new trailer inside.

Japanese gamers have known since early September that they'd be able to wade into Square Enix's highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII on December 17. However, Square Enix has continued to string along North American and European gamers, saying only that the game would debut on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the West, hopefully, within three months of the game's Japanese debut, sometime in spring 2010.

Lightning is about ready to strike.

Today, Square Enix ended the mystery, announcing that Final Fantasy XIII will be available in North America and Europe on March 9. The publisher also said today that "My Hands" from Leona Lewis' upcoming album Echo has been chosen as the game's theme song.

Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the PlayStation 3 alone alongside Final Fantasy Versus XIII as part of the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, Square Enix caused a stir at E3 2008 when it announced during Microsoft's press conference that the Japanese role-playing game would arrive in tandem on the Xbox 360. All said, Square Enix expects Final Fantasy XIII to shift some 6 million units worldwide across the two platforms.

Set in the futuristic city of Cocoon, Final Fantasy XIII follows the plight of female protagonist Lightning, as well as myriad supporting characters. Though Square Enix has released limited information about the game's plot, it will apparently see Lightning and her cohorts fighting against their "destiny" to destroy a separate locale known as "Pulse," and the denizens of that place.

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Final Fantasy XIII, as well as the brand-new trailer, below.

748 Comments

  • gorillaboy058

    Posted Dec 8, 2009 3:03 pm PT

    @ VOTGKota, hells yeah, sony has always been the way to go. Raw POWER, Blu-ray, tons of BAD A$$ games coming out, new low price, If you don't own one get one. You'll be crying when you have to buy three new xbox's like I did just to play a couple of not so awesome xbox exclusives. I'm not a fanboy, I just want everyone to admit that microsoft has kicked off the new century as the most flawed hardware. If they wanted the toilet bowl trophie, They got it.

  • VOTGKota

    Posted Dec 8, 2009 2:41 pm PT

    @ luffy11234, the xbox kept us PS users from playing it because of the extra development to the xbox. Us final fantasy fans know where the real gaming power is at. And where our loyalties stand-- PS3. If there facing economic difficulties, we can let it slide this time. Final Fantasy VS XIII is ours @ a much quicker pace once XIII's development is done.

  • luffy11234

    Posted Dec 4, 2009 5:51 pm PT

    just reserved my copy, man i could be playing this now but my little friend the xbox kept me from playing it. -_-" aaahhhhh joy

  • birdgang_1

    Posted Dec 3, 2009 3:19 am PT

    Square Enix was nice enough to make this one for the 360, but what sucks for them is that Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be all ours.

  • Quietpower09

    Posted Dec 2, 2009 12:41 pm PT

    @ron2k9
    Final Fantasy I-VI had been on the SNES! All the other FF games had been on Sony's platform since then. I personally am disappointed that Final Fantasy XIII is releasing for the Xbox 360 too but, like everyone else, Square Enix is facing some economic issues themselves.

  • ron2k9

    Posted Nov 30, 2009 10:53 am PT

    at last a release date for the most amazing game series in history,no matter what anyone says final fantasy rules all .but why bring it out on the xbox 360,all these years its been on a sony console,if they didnt bring it out on the xbox aswell us final fantasy fans will be enjoying it.

  • Baelex

    Posted Nov 22, 2009 2:48 pm PT

    Unbelievably poor choice for them to change the main theme of the game to a crappy pop song that does not channel the spirit of Final Fantasy AT ALL. They only did it so that the game could make a few headlines in the U.S. because they got a semi-famous singer on board. Basically, they're sacrificing the quality of the game in order to (maybe) sell a couple more copies. Disgusting. There's no need to hide the fact that the game is Japanese. History of videogames has shown us that attempts to adjust the content in Japanese games for localization purposes have turned out AWFUL.... I just thought they would learn.

  • anger021780

    Posted Nov 21, 2009 6:12 am PT

    Finally a concrete date! And yeah wtf at the song lol... Oh well I can live with some crappy pop song...

  • Gammet25

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 9:53 pm PT

    Its been so long since i heard that final fantasy 13 is coming out, *sigh*

  • KillerWabbit23

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 3:43 pm PT

    RELEASE DATE FINALLY! YESH
    but i'm worried about that song... ugh.

  • X-Remnant

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:45 pm PT

    Oh God... that song is awful.

  • HerbalVideogame

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:32 pm PT

    Still tho... It's all about Versus XIII baby. Oh yeah.

  • HerbalVideogame

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:29 pm PT

    @texasgoldrush I'm sorry but Jenova, was really the main villian of FFVII. Sephiroth doesn't want to "take care of the planet" as you say, there is no theme of that with him. He wants to be one with his mother, Jenova. Jenova is an alien super being that consumes all energy and planets in it's path, and be the ultimate ruler of the universe. Cloud is a representation of the detached people of the planet who wanted ultimate strength and desire, but lose themselves along the way, thus the inner struggle of who he really is. And you could really go on and on about it all, which is why the story in that is pretty good. The game was fairly easy, but I'd have to say that beating the weapons, in any stretch of the imagination is not easy, not normal, not hard, but incredibly difficult. Still, I prefer VIII to all, call me crazy, but the style just calls my name for some reason.

  • BaLLz_ON_FiRE

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:08 pm PT

    more milk please

  • LynnJynh9315

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 9:25 am PT

    "Bet you'd like to know the North American release date, ya? Well... they didn't tell me"

    What a frickin jerk! what the frickin heck was he thin... ... oh... :-) Lol.

  • telmobarbosa

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 5:17 am PT

    Please dont make us suffer anymore, just release this already... That battle system and graphics seems amazing, reminds me of FFX wich was the title that i relate to the most.

  • flyingteddy

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 4:43 am PT

    really enjoyed FFVII due to the materia system, probably my favourite system of all the series.

  • neno2480

    Posted Nov 17, 2009 9:31 pm PT

    @Space_Lion.

    You need to read what I said again, man. Not trying to be rude but here: "You read it because of the story and FF7 had a great one. Could have been better, could have had more originality to it, could have been explained better on key elements, coulda coulda coulda. Come on...just stop with the "could have" crap."

    "Again, don't get me wrong, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Legend of Dragoon, Alundra, FF4, Tales series, Grandia, etc. are alllll fantastic games(and better) but none of them had as big of an impact on the gaming industry than FF7 and for THAT, the game should get SOME respect because it paved the way for the USA to get more and more JRPGs." With all of this, I am saying that FF7 should be respected for it's impact but as you can see, I DID mention plenty of games that are BETTER. Before you lecture someone, please pay attention to what they say.

  • Space_Lion posted Nov 17, 2009 8:16 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Space_Lion

    Posted Nov 17, 2009 8:16 pm PT (hide)

    The point being, saying that something is good because: it was the first to do this, that, or that. Or that it was a break through for it's time is a stupid argument. We should judge a work by itself independent of impact. If something is poorly written but was a break through, does it mean that it's better than something that is well written but doesn't break "new" grounds. In otherwords is the song "I want to hold your hand" better than say Radioheads "paranoid Agent" simply by the merits which you use to declare VII as great.

    Now I'm not saying that VII is a bad game, but I'm saying that to say that it's better than VI just because it's more popular and it was many people's first RPG is quite asinine.

  • Space_Lion

    Posted Nov 17, 2009 8:16 pm PT

    @ neno2480, you shouldn't judge quality based on it's impact, but based simply on its quality. Shakespeare is still popular today because his works are actually genius, regardless of their impact. It's why years later things that were once popular or had large impact on their respective industry sometimes fade to obscurity, but obscure things become popular with time because people realize they're good. This is a common theme in the literary world. William Blake died poor and hardly anyone read his poems, now he's one of the most famous Romantic era poets, while many that were popular at the time are no longer remembered. The same goes for Herman Melville. Moby dick went out of print shortly after it was published and faded into obscurity, now no one will say that it's not one of the greatest American novels of all time.

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