Final Fantasy Agito Producer Talks All About The Game And Its Story

Hajime Tabata, who has directed several of Square Enix’s high profile PSP titles in Final Fantasy Type-0, The 3rd Birthday, and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, will be busy this year, as he will be co-directing Final Fantasy XV and producing Final Fantasy Agito.

In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Tabata discusses the upcoming mobile game. Tabata begins the interview by talking about how work on Final Fantasy Agito began.

“I wanted to write a story that depicted different fates for the main characters of Final Fantasy Type-0,” starts Tabata. “Those who played Final Fantasy Type-0 were very vocal in that regard, and there were also many staff members who said ‘I want to do that,’ as well.”

He continues, “Final Fantasy Type-0 was originally going to be for mobile phones, and we were fond of the title ‘Agito,’ so with that in mind, we began production of the project. Since then, some time has gone by, and we decided that if we were going to release it, it should be for smartphones, and have it be different from Final Fantasy Type-0, by allowing users to experience to story in a live fashion.”

Famitsu asks if the game has an actual ending, to which Tabata replies that it does, and it is actually similar to Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, except that once you complete the story, it starts over from the beginning, as history repeats itself in the game.

“The ‘Decision’ system we wanted to use while working on the original mobile version, which allows players to decide on the story’s direction, will also be in it, so the story should gradually change over time,” says Tabata. “This will appear in the form of turning point choices in the story, where players can pick their choices, which will change the story, accordingly. On your second play-through, you might make different choices, or the number of choices you can make may increase altogether. That is the type of live-feeling you’ll have in this game.”

While Final Fantasy Agito will be similar to Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, it won’t be completely the same, especially when it comes to the game’s pace.

“Unlike Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII that had 24 chapters that were delivered in the span of two years, I am thinking of having something shorter, that is repeatable-yet-enjoyable, as the base,” explains Tabata. “We’re currently reviewing how many chapters will constitute an entire cycle, but we’re expecting to have a chapter delivered once every two weeks.”

As seen in our earlier report, Final Fantasy Agito will offer various abilities, including some that are exclusive to job classes.

“Yes, jobs will have exclusive abilities, for example if you’re a Knight, they specialize in the ‘Cover’ ability that lowers all allies’ chances of being hit,” explains Tabata. “During the Solo Play Phase, you’ll accumulate job points, which can be used to acquire abilities. These job abilities can then be used during the Team Play Phase’s boss fights, by tapping the ‘Squad’ button to activate it, and the entire team will benefit from its effect.”

Famitsu asks whether you’ll be required to be on top of the game and make sure your character’s level is always high enough to do their job right.

“Even if you slack or don’t level up much, we made a system that still allows you to play along your allies with ease,” replies Tabata. “I wanted to make something that allows you to contribute, no matter what your play-style is.”

In addition to wanting the game to show off a school life, along with the decision making system, Famitsu asks if there was anything else that Tabata wanted to do and accomplished in Final Fantasy Agito.

“Being able to get to the end of the game with just free-to-play,” replies the producer. “I actually never spend money on those,” he adds with a laugh.

Final Fantasy Agito is slated for release this winter for Android and iOS devices.

Read more stories about Android & Final Fantasy Agito & iPhone on Siliconera.

How Forza Motorsport 5 Handles Griefer Drivatars

Forza Motorsport 5 records how you race and translates that information into a Drivatar. It's kind of like Tekken's Ghost Battle system, but for cars and Drivatars will replace AI racers in Forza Motorsport 5. It's an interesting idea to have more realistic racers, but what happens if other players just aren't competitive racers or players make Griefatars? Siliconera asked the Forza 5 team while we were checking out the game.

'

"It's funny that you say that because we recognize that there are people out there who are – there are two different problems there. One is that some people aren't that good. The way we solve that is the game is always learning. As your skills improve, the Drivatar's skills improve, as well. Inevitably the more you play the better you are going to get. It's not like if you have a bum race here and there your Drivatar is going to be a terrible driver. It's almost like a rubber band, your skills will stretch out, expand and contract as you go and so too will your Dirvatar's ability," answered Brian Ekberg, Forza Motorsport community manager.

'

Eckberg continued, "For people who just want to get online and grief people, if you were to turn around and drive against traffic the Drivatar would stop paying attention to that. It does not record that kind of griefing behavior. That's how we get around that because we recognize that there are people that do that, people that like to get online and grief"

'

"The Drivatars you will go up against are a huge range of skill levels. If you're a beginner and you don't want to go up against expert Drivatars you can select that difficulty range you are comfortable with. Just like previous Forza games, the more you challenge yourself the more you'll be rewarded at the end of the race."

'

Since announcing the game, Microsoft shifted gears and dropped requirements to always connect Xbox One online. Drivatars are still a part of Forza Motorsport 5 and in the beginning of the game you will race against Drivatars that were shipped on disc trained by the Forza team and certain members of the community. The game will ask players to connect to Xbox Live to download a fresh set of player created Drivatars. A representative from Microsoft said this won't be a lot of data and the initial download should cover all difficulty settings.

'

Also, if you upload your Drivatar and then play offline for a few weeks Forza Motorsport 5 continues to record how you play and will synchronize Drivatar data whenever you log online again.

'

Forza Motorsport 5 is a launch title for Xbox One.

Read more stories about Forza Motorsport 5 & Xbox One on Siliconera.

Dragon Ball Z Battle Of Z Adds Super Saiyan Vegeta, Android 18, Dr. Gero, And Gohan

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is a team based fighting game developed by Artdink. Unlike other Dragon Ball Z fighting games there are no transformations so Trunks and Super Saiyan Trunks are different characters. Each character is a different type too like fighting type or ki blast type. The game's producer explained how the four character types work to Siliconera.

'

Super Saiyan Vegeta – Ki Blast Type

''

'

Trunks (Sword) – Fighting & Support Type

'

Super Saiyan Trunks (Sword) – Fighting Type

'

Super Saiyan Trunks (Combat Suit) – Ki Blast Type

'

Super Trunks – Fighting Type

'

Kid Gohan – Support Type

'

Super Saiyan Kid Gohan – Fighting & Support Type

'

Super Saiyan 2 Kid Gohan – Fighting Type

'

Android 16 – Fighting Type

'

Android 17 – Fighting & Support Type

'

Android 18 – Support Type

'

Android 19 – Interference Type

'

Dr. Gero – Interference Type

'

Great Ape Vegeta

'

Goku, Raditz, Frieza, and Super Saiyan God Goku are also confirmed for Dragon Ball: Battle of Z. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is slated for release in early 2014 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita (download only in North America).

Read more stories about Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z & PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Vita & Screenshots & Xbox 360 on Siliconera.

Capcom's Plan Is To Make Every Character In Ultra Street Fighter IV A Threat

Most of the discussion about Ultra Street Fighter IV has been about the enigmatic fifth character; however, Capcom are also putting effort into rebalancing the fighting game and we asked how they are going about that process.

'Our philosophy this time around has been to make everybody a threat,' said Matt Dahlgren, fighting game manager at Capcom. We don't want to say these characters are the best in the game and nerf them—that isn't fair to the players that put a lot of time and effort in learning those tactics. The super powerful characters will have slight modifications, but our real intent is to take the lesser used characters and make them an equal threat as the top tier characters.'

I followed up and asked which characters will be more of a threat in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

'T-Hawk was considered [one of the] bottom five in the game. Some of the requests were to make him faster and give him more tools so he didn't necessarily have to rely on his command throw,' explained Peter Rosas, Assistant Battle Director on Ultra Street Fighter IV. 'We gave people what they were requesting in terms of giving him more focus cancel options, giving him stronger attacks, and things like that. All in an effort to give him a better fighting chance against characters you usually see at the end of a fighting tournament in the top eight.'

Capcom listened to suggestions from fans when rebalancing Street Fighter IV. There was a priority in addressing feedback that was requested more often, but not all feedback could be used.

'What we found was sometimes there was a mob mentality where some guy would request something radical and then everybody would jump in on that and that would make the character a little too strong, so we couldn't go with those. Things that did made sense that people latched on to such as make Ken walk faster so he has a difference between him and Ryu. Because he's supposed to have more flair, more speed, more kicks, and things like that. We took that in account. Ken walks faster and his Ultra 1 does a little more damage so it is more of a threat because if you get hit with it now, nobody cares, but they will care in the future,' detailed Rosas.

Rosas continued, 'For Cammy, people wanted to nerf her Cannon Spike, but in doing that we would take away the flair of the character, so we couldn't do that. We did reduce other things that gave her momentum like the heavy attacks that gave her stun and the damage on that because those are instrumental in her combos so she will have to work a little harder to get the same effect she gets now.'

'Another common theme has been unblockables and we are looking at a way of addressing that as well,' Dahlgren chimed in.

Meanwhile, on the new characters front, why were Rolento, Poison, Hugo, and Elena added to Ultra Street Fighter IV instead of other characters from the series?

'When we did open up for suggestions a lot of fans did request to have the characters from Street Fighter X Tekken into Ultra Street Fighter IV. That was one of the big deciding factors as to why they are making an appearance,' said Dahlgren.

'As for the new character, this is a character that I don't think is on anyone's radar. It was just something R&D was really passionate about and wanted to put in the game.'

Read more stories about Interviews & PC & PlayStation 3 & Ultra Street Fighter IV & Xbox 360 on Siliconera.

Injustice Gods Among Us Rated For PlayStation Vita

It appears Warner Bros. is planning to port the D.C. Universe fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us to PlayStation Vita. Siliconera spotted a rating for the Vita version in Germany's USK rating board.

'

NetherRealm Studios is still supporting Injustice: Gods Among Us and just released a balance patch.

Read more stories about Injustice: Gods Among Us & PlayStation Vita on Siliconera.

Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40

An upgrade to Windows 8 won’t set anyone back, and if a person carpools for a couple days he will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

In addition to wooing consumers to upgrade with a relatively reasonable promotional price tag, Microsoft is also tagging on Windows Media Center for free through the “add features” after an upgrade is purchased.

The Windows 8 upgrading process is very similar to previous versions of Windows. Users are notified that the upgrade may cause incompatibilities among the users’ current hardware, and then they will be given the options to keep all, some, and none of the current Window’s files and settings. Also, depending on the version of Windows a user is upgrading from, he may not be able to keep all settings and or files.

The next step will be downloading the upgrade, and how fast the download finishes varies on network conditions on both sides.

Once the upgrade finishes downloading, users will be given the options to install the upgrade now or later via various methods which include USB drive or ISO-to-DVD.

If people prefer to purchase the physical backup DVD it will cost an extra $15, and a complete retail upgrade version will also be available for $69.99. The promotions of both retail and downloadable upgrades end January 31, 2013.

Source: windowsteamblog.com

Sapphire FireGL V7700 Card w DisplayPort

Sapphire Technology today announced it is advancing application performancewith stunning imagery through the introduction of the first commerciallyavailable 3D workstation graphics card with DisplayPort support. The ATI FireGL™V7700 professional graphics accelerator provides superior rendering speed, 3Dperformance and color fidelity for Computer Aided Design (CAD), Digital ContentCreation (DCC) and Medical Imaging professionals. ATI FireGL V7700 delivers thetop-quality image quality needed to create photorealistic visualizations ofreal-world objects and environments —like the design concept for a new aircraftor a home remodel—by providing designers with The Ultimate Visual Experience™.

“Imaging and 3D professionals require innovative, high-performance solutionsand are increasingly turning to AMD to meet their real-world needs. The ATIFireGL™ family of workstation graphics accelerators is designed to delivervisible advantages and performance leadership at every price point, from entrylevel to ultra-high end,” said Janet Matsuda, senior director of ProfessionalGraphics at AMD. “This accelerator with DisplayPort support is the latestexample of AMD’s leadership in delivering new graphics technologies ahead of thecompetition.”

“The balanced power of the ATI FireGL product line has the accuracy and speedneeded for medical imaging applications like mammography screening,” said AlbertXthona, product manager for Digital Mammography at Barco. “For example,Mammography viewing uses 10-bit precision to help deliver the most informationto the eye of the radiologist, and increasingly other medical applications willrely on 10-bit gray and 30-bit color rendering. With the additional speedoffered by the PCI Express 2.0 interface, very large data sets are handledsmoothly, saving time for busy medical staff.”
The new ATI FireGL V7700 workstation graphics accelerator with DisplayPortsupport brings The Ultimate Visual Experience to life. The card features a10-bit display engine that can produce more than one billion colors at any giventime, delivering unprecedented image fidelity at a lower cost.
“Our customers are eager to adopt the latest standards like DisplayPort and PCIExpress 2.0 that make their environments more productive while deliveringnext-generation display capabilities today,” said Peter Chen, president, ExxactCorporation. “As an exceptional innovator and promoter of industry standards, itcomes as no surprise to learn that AMD is the first to deliver a graphics cardwith DisplayPort support. Like most AMD innovations, we plan to implement thesolution in earnest.”

Price Performance Leadership

The ATI FireGL V7700 supports emerging technologies while being optimized towork with today’s existing technologies. ATI FireGL accelerators are engineeredto deliver continued innovation and reliability for a wide range of professionaloperating environments, including Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista® andLinux®. The unified driver, which supports all ATI FireGL workstation products,helps reduce the total cost of ownership by simplifying installation, deploymentand maintenance. Additional noteworthy features include:

• 512MB of memory: Enabling effortless real-time interaction with largedatasets and complex models and scenes.
• Dual Link DVI Output: The combination of DisplayPort output and a Dual Linkenabled DVI output, generates a multi-monitor desktop over 5000 pixels wide froma single accelerator. With native multi-card support, users can see more and domore using four displays driven by two ATI FireGL products in the sameworkstation.
• Application Certification: The ATI FireGL workstation graphics acceleratorsare thoroughly tested and certified with major CAD and DCC applications, helpingensure reliability and stability.
• AutoDetect: Based on a new generation GPU with 320 unified shader units, theATI FireGL V7700 maximizes throughput by automatically directing graphicshorsepower where it’s needed most. Intelligent management of computationalresources enables enhanced utilization of the GPU delivering real-time renderingof complex models and scenes while increasing frame rates.

The ATI FireGL V7700 3D workstation graphics accelerator card is expected tobegin shipping in April 2008.

Samsung PL90 Digital Camera Features Built-in USB Connector

Samsung hasannouncedits 12.2-megapixel PL90 digital camera that features a built-in USB connector, which allowsconsumers to connect totheir PCwithout the need for cables.

With the camera’s plug and play capabilities, as well asAuto-install intelli-studio software,you can share yourcontent with friends and family quickly and easily. In addition, users will never have to worry about running out of power with the PL90, as the USB connector also allows consumers to charge the battery without a separate power cord.

Smart Features

Featuring Samsung’s new Smart Auto (Stilland Movie) technology, you can capturesuperb picture inalmost anyconditions. The intelligent Smart Auto function automatically adjusts the camera’s mode to match the situation.

The PL90 also features Perfect Portrait Systemwith several modes to help users take better photos. The Self Portrait function tracks the subject’s face and alerts the user with an audible noise when the subject is in frame, while the Face Detection feature automatically detects and recognizes up to twelve different faces simultaneously.

Source: Korea Newswire

Serial ATA Rev. 2.6 Spec Finalized

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), theconsortium dedicated tosustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of SATA technology, todayannounced the availability of the Serial ATA Revision 2.6 specification. Thisupdated specification combines the previously published SATA Revision 2.5material with new feature definitions and enhancements that will enabledevelopers to integrate the technology into new applications.

Benefits include:

• Internal Slimline cable and connector – enables SATA optical drives to beincluded in smaller form factors
• Internal Micro SATA connector for 1.8" HDD – facilitates SATA hard drives inUltra Mobile PC applications
• Mini SATA Internal/ External Multilane cable and connector – provides accessfor internal use in high bandwidth backplane designs, and also external uses ineSATA or xSATA protocols for high bandwidth external storage enclosures
• Native Command Queuing (NCQ) Priority enhancement – adds priority to data incomplex workload environments
• NCQ Unload enhancement – permits robust use in laptop environments where thedrive may be dropped

Windows 8 screen resolution recommendations suggest 2560x1440 tablets

Microsoft has apparently decided that Apples retina display on the new iPad just doesnt cut it, as the company has released details covering common screen sizes for Windows 8 which points towards tablets – or slates as per the diagram – with resolutions of up to 2560x1440 pixels which equates to 291 DPI on a 10.1-inch device.

Apples 9.7-inch iPad manages 264 DPI, or slightly higher pixel density than 11.6-inch Windows 8 tablets which will offer a pixel density of 253 DPI with a 2560x1440 display. These appear to be for high-end devices only, so dont expect this to be the standard for Windows 8 tablets when they arrive, as Microsoft is also listing 1920x1080 and 1366x768 as supported screen resolutions.

More importantly though, if you have a device with a resolution of 1024x600 or 1280x720, which in the first case is just about every single netbook – apart from the slightly worse 1024x576 resolution – you wont be able to run the Metro UI. We cant think of a single notebook or screen with 1280x720 resolution though, albeit there were a few TVs with this resolution in the early days of LCD TVs. That said, Windows 8 will support any display with a height of at least 768 pixels, so even old 1024x768 displays will work with the Metro UI.

Microsoft has also worked out what it thinks is the ideal sweet spots for pixel density on various resolution displays, as well as the ideal touch target size, i.e. how big the object youre touching will be on the screen at any given pixel density. As such, a touch target size of around 9mm is apparently ideal on an 11.6-inch display at either 1366x768, 1920x1080 or 2560x1440 resolution.

Another interesting aspect of Microsofts blog post on the subject of displays and resolution for Windows 8 is that the company is asking developers to build apps suitable for higher resolutions and as such wants developers to use scalable vector graphics rather than traditional bitmaps. This is due to the fact that scalable vector graphics will look good at any resolution, whereas bitmaps generally look terrible at non-native resolution. This wasnt done as a direct response to the new iPad, as Microsoft is offering tools to developers that allow them to preview what their Metro apps will look like at various screen sizes and resolutions, something that should hopefully improve the look of Metro apps when Windows 8 launches later this year.

Source: Building Windows 8 blog