New Info on Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X will return to the style of Final Fantasy VIII, with more modern settings and character design by Tetsuya Nomura. Further cementing the similarity between Final Fantasy VIII and X, Nobuo Uematsu will again provide the music, complete with a vocal pop theme song. Originally intended to be the first testing ground for Square’s PlayOnline network, Final Fantasy X has since become an entirely offline game. Players were originally to be able to connect to PlayOnline to receive game hints and information, but delays in building the PlayOnline service forced this feature to be canned. Final Fantasy X will, though, make the move into full 3-D, abandoning the pre-rendered backgrounds of the past three FFs for a polygon-based world viewable from any perspective. For the first time in any Final Fantasy game, the characters will have audible voices. Akira Ishida (Kaworu in Neon Genesis Evangelion) will provide the voice of hero Tide; other voice actors have yet to be announced. The game is scheduled to ship sometime in March.

Source: Gaming Intelligence Agency