Director Tetsuya Nomura has stated that the gameplay will be a realistic derivation of Kingdom Hearts's battle system with some elements of a third-person shooter. Nomura has also stated that the game will depart from the light and magical aesthetic of his previous directorial games (i.e. Kingdom Hearts) and opt for a world based on reality.[10] According to Nomura, the world of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is based on the real world and will have actual real world global crisis situations happening in it.[11] In further pursuit of this theme, Nomura has stated that he wants the characters to be "believable as real people" and thus realistic in body movement and facial expressions. As a testament towards his desire for realistic characters, he appointed Jun Akiyama to be the event director due to his experience directing cut-scenes with characters that felt like real people in Final Fantasy XII.
Nomura stated in July 2011 that most of the cut-scenes in the game will be real-time and the player will still be in control of the main character while the cut-scene is happening.[12] The player will be able to run around and perform various actions during the cut-scenes such as in Heavy Rain. Nomura has called these new types of cut-scenes "Real-Time Events" and they will make up all the cut-scenes in the game.[12] However, he has also stated that the game will also have some pre-rendered CGI scenes.[12] The real-time events will be triggered by the player unexpectedly and with no forewarning unlike Final Fantasy XIII. Players should expect to suddenly be attacked or trigger certain real-time events while just walking around. For example, when Noctis reaches a pedestrian bridge, a behemoth suddenly appears and attacks. Another example is a plane crashing into the road in front of Noctis while he is running down it. Nomura states that implementing these kinds of real-time events, which transition seamlessly into the flow of gameplay, takes a long time in terms of development.[13] There will also be a new real-time lighting system in place for a day/night cycle. The player also has the ability to take photos whenever they want with Noctis' cell phone.
Battles will take place in real-time environments using all regions of the field, from the tops of buildings down to street level. Nomura said that the game will feature battles that take place in areas with great differences in height, as shown in the trailer, and the players will have to fight using the full environment. This means fighting what's in front, as well as above and below (vertical battles).[14] The battle interface consists of several aspects, mainly Magic, Item, Summons and EX-ARTS. In addition, there are highly animated character portraits on the lower right corner of the screen. The portrait will change according to the character's feelings and current movement similar to Star Ocean: The Last Hope albeit in a wider variety.
