Final Fantasy XIII is close at hand, and an interesting tidbit of news has recently come to light that the title was originally in development for the PS2. The leaked screens of a cel-shaded FFXIII cost the development team a year-and-a-half says the producer Yoshinori Kitase.
“Final Fantasy XIII was originally meant to be a PS2 title, but we had to switch systems due to the arrival of the PS3,” said Kitase.”
“That cost us about one and a half years and was constantly a case of trial and error. However, because we worked so hard at the beginning, we got to a cruising speed much faster then anticipated and therefore could start on the translation and international voice recording process at an early stage of the development.”
“It’s because of this that we can release both the European as well as the American version barely three months after the Japanese release,”, certainly something we non-Japanese gamers appreciate very much!
[Source]
