While regular Final Fantasy fans are going to (yet again) miss out on the newest Final Fantasy XIII trailer (it was shown in the closed mega-theater), the kind people at finalfantasy-xiii.net have given us a detailed description of the trailer and the newest FFXIII characters. Go to the source for the full trailer run-down.

And to the right is an artist's interpretation of what the new characters look like. -------->
More fan interpretations of the new characters can be found here.

Discuss in the Final Fantasy XIII forum

As for the new characters..

I would not call the big new male character's hairstyle an afro, but his hair does look like somebody put a tube over his head and then his scalp exploded, permanently frying his hair up in fine DBZ fashion. It's not long and ridiculously spiky, though. Just... exploded. His hair is VERY orange, and he either has it shaved into thin zig zag shave patterns on the sides of his head or he has a lot of tiny zig zagging braids there. He appears to be wearing a frayed or fur trimmed blue vest and is pretty clearly black. He is wearing off-white to khaki colored long shorts with simple gold patterns on them. He also has a silver necklace with a rectangular, flat silver pendant, wide sides horizontal. He's present mostly in the prison break scenes, helping Snow and the other new male and female characters, although he is the only character I was able to identify for sure on the train with Lightning before she broke out.

As for the younger new male, the first thing that came to my mind upon seeing him was Gippal, probably because of his blond hair and main colors pink and black outfit. He wears goggle-like headgear on his forehead. He does not look 'shota' to me, but he does look young compared to Lightning, Snow and big black new dude. He is blond. He looks to be older than pigtails girl by a couple years. He does talk with an affect/accent. For people who know some Japanese, he tacks 'sska' onto the end of 'ja nai ka' questions to make 'ja nai sska' and 'ja nai ssu'. I don't know exactly the real life implications of the affect, whether its regional, age or culture, but it does exist in real Japanese speech. He seems to often have complaints about situations and courses of action, but help out regardless.

New female character reminds me of Yuffie a little, but her hair is at least shoulder length and appears to be tied back. She does not appear to be very patient. She has a purplish butterfly tattoo visible on her shoulder from the back. I think it's her right shoulder. Her outfit's colors are yellow, white and purple. She is wearing a very short, ruffled layered yellow skirt. She shows considerable amounts of skin compared to Lightning and Vanille. She's also wearing something like knee high fishnet socks. I believe she is shown using a gun.

As for what's happening in the actual trailer, there seems to be two separate parts being told at the same time.

Miss Razz via finalfantasy-xiii.net »