According to Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the upcoming game is the first in the Final Fantasy franchise to have been distributed to testers in Europe and North America in order to gather feedback. Kitase confirmed this apparent new step forward in finding international appeal in an interview with Germany’s PLAY3 magazine.

“One of our goals was to offer players choices in any situation during their adventure,” Kitase said after being asked about the increasing presence of Western-style story functions. “After FFXIII we collected a lot of feedback and this was one of the points the fans have asked for. You’ve just mentioned the dialogue; we call that ‘live trigger’. This enables small changes in the game. You can choose the answer to give to your opposite. This way one can get different reactions and information.”

“Of course, we respect our fans in the West,” he continued. “We at Square Enix have always contacted test players, but never before from Western countries. For FFXIII-2 we have now, for the first time, done tests in Europe and North America. We have collected opinions and points of view in order for us to really know the opinions of all players and can recreate them in the game.”

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is scheduled for release in Europe on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 3rd, and in North America on January 31st. You can read more about the game on our dedicated game page here, and check out the game’s official website at finalfantasy13-2game.com. Our review of Final Fantasy XIII can be found here.