An article from the Official PlayStation Magazine:

Remember the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? Four releases, all centred on the lore of FFVII? The last piece of that collection finally arrives next year (Core Crisis), so Square Enix thought it would do a similar compilation for the next Final Fantasy title, Final Fantasy XIII. We have no idea of the meaning behind the compilation’s name, “Fabula Nova Crystallis” (other than it being Latin for “the new tale of the crystal”), but we can confirm that it comprises at least three titles: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII (both for the PlayStation 3) and Final Fantasy Agita XIII (for cell phones, which are apparently way popular in Japan). Since FFVII’s compilation has four titles, we’re assuming that a fourth FFXIII title will be announced later.

Think of Square Enix’s two biggest PlayStation 2 games in the States. We’re talking Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy X. Well, those two teams are each working on a respective FFXIII title. Yoshinori Kitase and his boys from the FFX team are tackling FFXIII; they apparently started basic work on the game after wrapping FFX and started full-on production after creating (and then shelving) the FFVII PlayStation 3 footage shown at last year’s E3. Tetsuya Nomura and his teams from both FFVII: Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II are working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Er, the fact that the PlayStation 3 is getting not just one, but [at least] two Final Fantasy titles right off the bat. So far, Square Enix seems to be emphasizing FFXIII itself, as the company has shown the most of that one. Understandable, since it’s probably in a more complete state (since the team’s been working on it since FFX, as opposed to Nomura’s team, which probably started work on Final Fantasy Versus XIII after the recently released KH2). Not much has been shown of either game, but we can pick up a few details. FFXIII’s trailer featured a very sci-fi look with futuristic monorails and armour-clad soldiers wielding guns, as opposed to the more medieval-fantasy style of [many of the] previous games. Also, FFXIII seems to feature a female main character; most of the footage featured her taking down several soldiers with stylish gunshots and combo attacks. This footage looks like a typical high-quality Square Enix CG cut-scene until you notice the slight jaggies on her skin and the preponderance of numbers and onscreen icons, indicating that the battle is taken from real-time gameplay.

Other than showing a woman taking down dudes and wandering around some nice-looking environments, the trailer gave no details. Even less was shown of Nomura’s game, which only had a dude with black clothes (and a haircut suspiciously resembling Nomura’s) challenging a whole bunch of soldiers and then conjuring up magical swords to circle around him. Oh, and Nomura hinted that his title will feature “extreme-action gameplay.”

The obvious thing to be concerned about is that Square Enix didn’t give any real details about either game. That, and the fact that the company still hasn’t finished the FFVII compilation. So who knows how long it’ll take to finish FFXIII? Or, as we see it, FFXIII, FFXIII-2, FFXIII-3, and so on…

Source: Official PlayStation Magazine, via Final Fantasy Net