(Part III) The closer we get to the release date of Final Fantasy XIII, the more exciting hype comes our way! I hope you all liked my series so far, that summarizes all the new and up to date news about this awesome RPG, as I’m continuing on with a 3rd entry here.

New Screens
Along with the descriptions of what new things are revealed about XIII below, new screens have been revealed from Square to entice us to not only want the game, but to LUST after it.

Crystarium Growth system
What’s a good RPG without growth to your character? Of course in this game there will be plenty of that. With the common theme uniting all Final Fantasy’s is the crystal, which is the source of all life and power.The growth of the character has to do with the Crystarium system, in which you’ll see a connection of crystals by paths of power lines. Grouping together actions is called “Optima Change”.

Steve Harvey?
It is has been presumed that Sazh, the comic relief of the XIII party, is based off of a young version of celebrity Steve Harvey. Just take a look at this video and screen cap you’ll see what I mean. The hair, the grin and the funky sense of humor, I’d say this guy might be on to something. Fans haven’t been to off about this type of thing actually, as many Final Fantasy characters have been based off of real people, especially celebrities. Please watch the whole video, its such a barrel of laughs! But if you’re a lazy punk, and I know you are, skip to 4:12

Novel
Square will print a Japanese novel to explain the prologue leading up to all the events in XIII, it will go for about 1470Y at Amazon.com and should well hype up fans next month.

Pringles what?
Alexander is the largest summon in the game, and is commanded by the smallest character, Hope. As soon as he was revealed, jokes have been going around, in gamer cafe’s due to his face having similar features to the Pringles mascot. (American snack chips). It’s all good and fun, since Alexander is amongst a fan favorite. I’m sure the classic mustache was to reference him being an old timer, but it just seemed to come out wrong and remind Americans of chips.

Sales and promotion outlook
Excellent. Square sealed the deal and decided to promote Call of Duty 2 MW in Japan, most likely because Activision will hopefully agree to help promote their own game in the states. You scratch my back, I scratch yours? The sales of just the pre orders alone are already outpaced of its last game, FF XII and numbers have been climbing, this puts it in a top 10 projection. All great news!

New upcoming trailer!
Be prepared for a brand new never-before-seen trailer coming on Thanksgiving. There’s a special countdown on Square’s site to remind you. The thing that I know about countdowns is that, it usually ends up with something really big, like an explosion.

Til next time guys! Installment 4 on the way.
Thanks to andria sang, lowyat, and frologic.