In the newest LEVEL Magazine issue, there were several interviews with Final Fantasy XIII employees talking about the direction the three new games were headed in. The main thing they confirmed, was that each of the FFXIII games they're working on will be mostly independent of each other:

Motomu Toriyama: "The development of the three games was started at the same time and we gathered to try and find a common platform to stand on and try to build from. But since then, we've been working completely independently of each other. Each game is evolving in its own direction and take place in separate worlds with their own main characters. There exists basically no cooperation between the different teams. I wouldn't even want to claim that we communicate with each other."

Tetsuya Nomura: "The only similarity between the games that you can find is in the vague crystal theme."

The other thing the interview finally addressed head-on, was how far Square Enix is willing to go with the futuristic setting. In the past, every Final Fantasy game nails down a visual theme, then staples a story to the graphics. Or maybe it's vice versa. When asked how far they would take the futuristic story, Square Enix answered with "we took the futuristic theme to its limit. FFXIII will truly define the term futurism. You've never seen anything like it." Nomura even elaborated a bit more:

"There's been times when I've wanted to take FF in a completely different direction than the game's producer has wanted. I'm not saying that his or mine opinions have been right or wrong, just different. One thing I've always wanted to explore deeper is human emotions. By going in that direction, you risk to make the target group for the game narrower, and FF is appreciated by a very large audience. But with Versus XIII, it feels like the right time to take that risk. Since the script isn't done yet, I still don't know exactly how far I dare to go, but I know I want to squeeze humanity out of these characters. I want Versus to feel in the entire body."

Me too, Nomura, me too. I want to feel Versus in my pants, we're all hoping your you'll fulfill our fantasies. Since we didn't see too much of FFXIII at the Square Enix Party, hopefully more will be revealed at E3 or other approaching events. You can read the other interview exerts here.

Flame War Advance found a new interview with the FFXIII lead character designer, Tetsuya Nomura, about the game's progress, and this time he sticks to just the gameplay details. The last time this guy gave an interview he maybe kinda sorta mentioned that Final Fantasy XIII would not be coming out this year, but he does give some good insight this time around the globe.

Tetsuya describes gameplay as adopting styles from Kingdom Hearts and even Dirge of Cerberus. Depending on the type of battle you face, and which weapon you choose, the game's perspective will switch from third person to first person views to complement your combat needs. Pulling that off smoothly sounds difficult, although I like the idea of different bosses requiring completely different controller strategies. Although, adjusting the artificial intelligence of either your enemies or your teammates depending on which viewing mode you're in could be a disaster.

I still want to know more about the rumors that the main character might let you play the role of the villain in the story, but Nomura didn't offer anymore details for FFXIII. However, he did mention that Kingdom Hearts 3 is on hold until Square Enix is completely finished with Final Fantasy XIII, which is probably for the best.