Final Fantasy XIII: More Chocobo Details

FFXIII's Chocobos aren't the cute kind of Chocobo.

Leaks from Jump last week brought us a few vague details on Final Fantasy XIII, including the role played by Chocobos, Hope's summon, a new area of the world, and a tie-up promotion with FFXIV. Now that the magazine is actually out, a few additional details have surfaced.

First up, regarding the Chocobos. As reported last week, you'll encounter the classic Final Fantasy mascot in the wilderness of the Pulse underworld. Pulse is said to be vast, but FFXIII's Chocobos are no slouch when it comes to size either. I think you'll be surprised when you see how large they are. It looks like Vanille could actually fit inside an FFXIII Chocobo's beak!

The FFXIII Chocobos have some helpful abilities. In addition to providing high speed movement through the fields of Pulse, they can jump high, taking you to places you might otherwise be unable to reach. They also have the ability to seek out treasure. When they sense the presence of treasure, you'll see an exclamation point above their head. The magazine says that this means "it's your chance" -- presumably to dig for treasure, although I don't think Square Enix has shared details on any sort of treasure digging system.

Your Chocobo has a life gauge, indicated by what looks like a set of feathers on the lower left of the screen. Strike an enemy, and you lose a bit of this life. When the life gauge reaches zero, the Chocobo flees.

There's unfortunately little additional information to share on Hope's summon, Alexander. In standard mode, Alexander has range with his punches and can strike slightly distant foes. Alexander's Driving Mode is a fortress which can blast away at enemies with multiple cannons.

The screens in Jump make it a bit hard to figure out the exact nature of Alexander's Driving Mode form. The accompanying text says that in Driving Mode, Alexander spreads out to left and right and looks like a castle wall. The battle scenes in the Jump screens show what I initially thought was a set of golden towers in the distance. I have a feeling that that those towers may actually be a part of Alexander!

Famitsu will hopefully provide clarification in this week's issue (with the screens posted a few days later to Famitsu.com -- the Japanese game industry publishing schedule has gotten so predictable).

Finally, just one tiny additional detail about Sanless, the new area that I wrote about last week. (As I said then, my Romanization of the name is probably incorrect. Famitsu usually has Roman text next to its names, so we may get something official this week.) This natural area of Cocoon has some sort of weather control terminal, which may actually be under the control of the fal'Cie. The common residents of Cocoon are not allowed in here because it's a natural preservation area. The magazine notes that it has beautiful flowers and looks like something out of Pulse.