Final Fantasy 13 to Use "Nearly 100%" of PS3

Square Enix producer says that Final Fantasy XIII push the PlayStation 3 to its limits.

With all the supposed challenges presented by the complex PlayStation 3 hardware, it could be surprising to hear that the first Final Fantasy game to hit the system will nearly max out the console’s potential -- at least that’s what Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase said in a recent interview with Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation 3.

According to Kotaku’s translation, Kitase responded to a question regarding the how much the PS3’s power will be tapped by FF XIII by saying, "Doesn't the demo use about 50 percent of its power? Of course, I think the retail version will make use of nearly 100 percent."

Kitase added that FF XIII will push the PlayStation 3 just like previous games FF VII pushed the PSone and FF X pushed the PS2.

His remarks are somewhat interesting in that FF XIII will be a multi-platform title outside of Japan, as the game will also hit the Xbox 360. Given the differences in strengths and architectures between the PS3 and Xbox 360, one can’t help but ponder what it could mean if FF XIII really does use “nearly 100 percent” of the PS3’s power. Could it mean that some concessions would have to be made to the Xbox 360 version, or on the flip side, could it mean that the Microsoft console is the one with more head room?

Kitase did point out, perhaps in reference to the ‘other’ FF XIII version, that the PlayStation 3 version wouldn’t have any ‘disc swap issues’ thanks to Blu-ray and a presumed hard drive install.