As seen here.
For those of you too lazy to click on a link basically the confirmed roster has been expanded to a total of 12 since the last update and now includes the main heroes and villains from FF’s I, II, & VII-X.
There’s also a brief description of how the combat is suppose to work in this fighting game. With two separate stats measuring the current condition of each combatant HP (i.e. how long the character has left to stay in the fight) and Brave (i.e. determines how much damage the next attack does but is drained in the process of using said attack) which of course separates attacks and abilities into two different categories for dealing with either brave or hp. As for my two cents on this system, while not a regular fighting connoisseur, frankly doesn’t grip me as efficient or effective, and seems to me that it simply bogs down what is otherwise a tried and true formula. But to try is to know, and given the whole epicness the series proper is known for this might actually work in this case.
There is also a third Ex Gauge (which I failed to notice the first time reading through) which builds up during battle which allows transformation and the use of special moves.
Information regurgitation and thoughts aside, I still have a few questions left unanswered that I’d like to turn into points of discussion.
My biggest one is whether or not anyone from FF’s XI and XII will be showing up for this smackdown? Which frankly I think they could go either way with this one since if they include a hero/villain from FF’s III-VI will leave the game with a roster of 20 fighters (which is alot by fighting standards) and could make things messy. On the other hand though I have yet to see footage of either two heroes or villains fighting it out yet which brings up yet another question I have of this game.
Which is whether or not two heroes/villains can duke it out in this game? Which in my opinion they should since I would assume that one of the biggest draws would be to see Cloud pitted against Squall or Kefka vs. everyone (since he’s just that awesomely insane). Frankly though I feel as if they might (more in line with character alignment logically speaking plus movepools may have been aligned with that in mind) which means that a cast of 20 would limit the choice of opponents down to a given 10 which is a rather scant number.
And does that Transformation afflict all of the characters or only those heroes/villains who’ve displayed that ability in the past? My guess is that it may come down to something like a limitbreak mode or something unless it really does include a character changing forms which I doubt since even though most of the villains changed their form at least once in the past not all of the heroes have (especially a character like Squall who’s only ever changed his weapon unless they’re counting those Laguna sequences but that’s just silly).
And for good measure I might as well throw in my two cents on the matter of remaining character speculation:
FF III: Onion Kid/Luneth vs. Xande/Cloud of Darkness. If that bit about character transformation is true then on the hero side it’s going to be Luneth who can change into an Onion Knight though this doesn’t help either of the villains, but if it came down to it I’d rather have CoD for some added variety.
FF IV: Cecil vs. Golbez/Zemus/Zeromus. Thanks to Kuja (for being a story relevant penultimate villain) and Ultimeica (for being a relatively irrelevant ultimate villain seriously between her, Seifer, and Adel they had to choose her hell even Edea would’ve been better) Golbez’s chances aren’t looking to good since even though he is Cecil’s brother (half-brother?) and the primary antagonist he wasn’t the final villain plus there’s that transformation thing again (it also doesn’t help that he’s almost virtually identical to X-Death in his human form).
FF V: Butz vs. X-Death/Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is only up there in case Golbez does make it into the game since it doesn’t seem very likely that X-Death’s tree form will work very well in a fighting game (or Neo X-Death’s oversized montage of forms for that matter). Also Gilgamesh does meet the transformation qualification so he’s got at least that going for him.
FF VI: Terra/Celes/Locke/Leo vs. Kefka. Frankly, I would be surprised if Terra wasn’t chosen for this game since not only does she add some badly needed variety to this game but she fits into that transformation technicality as well. But due to the lack of a definite main character (i.e. one you are forced to have for the entire game) I wouldn’t be surprised if Celes was chosen (even though Runic couldn’t hold a candle to transforming into a glowingly nude magical beast) though I would be pissed if Locke (between the three of them he wasn’t even required to beat the game with) or Leo (regardless of how awesome it would be for him to get his revenge on Kefka without hacking). Nobody else has any business in this game not even Ultros.
FF XI: Never played it.
FF XII: Vaan/Ashe/Balthier vs. Vayne. Since none of them qualify under that transformation technicality I guess it would come down to story relevance which makes Ashe the most likely candidate though Balthier, even though he wasn’t as relevant as Ashe, at least makes for a good runner up (plus he too adds some desperately needed variety to this lineup).
I guess I am looking forward to this game (or at least until I find out how badly it bombed for which I can only hope will never happen).