With Final Fantasy XIII overshadowing Versus XIII in the news over the past few months, it might be reassuring to hear that Versus manages to benefit from the focus being put into FFXIII. Yoshinori Kitase of Square Enix says that the time being put into the development of FF Versus XIII has become "comparatively faster" thanks to the development progress on the the main title.

Sick of looking at these same Final Fantasy Versus XIII screen shots? Yeah. Me too. Well, the good news is that development on Final Fantasy XIII is doing wonders for that other Fabula Nova Crystallis entry, according to the developer.

Square Enix's Yoshinori Kitase told us at Gamescom this week that development time on Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be "comparatively faster" than that of the core entry, Final Fantasy XIII. That reassuring update to the more action-oriented entry in the Fabula Nova Crystallis project came after Kitase said that the time to model characters and enemies in FFXIII was taking about one-third the time it did at the beginning of the project.

We knew that some Versus team members had been pulled off that project to work on XIII, and Kitase said that the team's "knowledge and experience" gained from their work will help ensure Versus is out faster.

If Kitase's "comparatively faster" estimate is accurate, we'll hopefully see Versus XIII by 2011, give or take, since the game and Final Fantasy XIII have been in development for at least five years, maybe more. Still a long way out, but at least Final Fantasy XIV should be out by then, giving fans something to do in the in-between.

McClubbin via kotaku.com »