The upcoming issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu has an interview with Final Fantasy XIII director and scenario writer Motomu Toriyama.
According to Toriyama, the in-development game is currently running at a resolution of 720p with a frame rate of 30fps. Square Enix is doing its best to make sure as many people as possible can enjoy the game — thus, developers are being very careful that all onscreen words and letters can be read on analog TVs.
This hopefully avoids tiny text issues that arose when Capcom's Dead Rising and Rare's Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts were played on standard televisions. Considerate considering how not everyone who will play FFXIII will do so on a HD TV, and smart because this means Square Enix won't have to rush out a patch after people freak about tiny text.
Another piece of good news: cut scenes can be paused or skipped.
Square Enix sounds like it's hitting the home stretch with the game. "We've almost finished all the parts of the game," says Toriyama. "From now on, it's a matter of putting them together." Square will give the battle system a revision before final release, but the actual battle design work is nearly finished.
About the demo, Famitsu reports that it clocks in at one hour and twenty from the onset of gameplay. Toriyama says the demo is "about an hour" of gameplay. What's more, according to Famitsu, "there's almost no load time" and "the background music is so so cool."