Square Enix's long in the making Japanese RPG epic Final Fantasy XIII is... well, epic. It's going to be huge, expanding beyond the confines of your standard Xbox 360 game disc. Possibly on three (possibly more) DVDs when it ships.
Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama said during our Q&A session today that, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be identical in content, Xbox 360 owners will at some point have to get up off the couch. He said to expect "about" three discs' worth of content, when all is said and done.
Toriyama says that we should expect about 40 to 50 hours worth of gameplay for the main quest, so a minute or two dedicated to ejecting, swapping and reloading probably won't mean much in the long run. Perhaps a sandwich could be made during this time period?
What won't be on the disc(s) for either version will be the native Japanese language track, unless you're buying the Japanese version. Anyone hoping for a dual-language voice over option will be sorely disappointed.
Toriyama also indicated that the team is still working on compressing the game's data—and that the game isn't yet complete—so plans may change.
We'll have more from our sit-down with Final Fantasy XIII's producer and director soon.