Final Fantasy XIII-2 Owes Debt To Red Dead Redemption

Square Enix has admitted that Final Fantasy XIII-2 has been influenced by Red Dead Redemption.

The open-world western went down a storm in Japan, and it's random missions and horse riding proved to be an inspiration for the linear role-playing series.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama told RPGSite: "Among the millions of games that came out last year, Red Dead Redemption was adored by a lot of Japanese developers, including ourselves.

Our game is not as open-field as that game, obviously. We did take some inspirations, however. For example, missions can happen anywhere rather than having to go to a certain shrine, or base or something, and that's from them."

He added: "In this game you see lots and lots of chocobos and you can ride them. The kind of feeling you get as you ride the chocobo, it's a bit like the way you ride a horse. It's a really refreshing feel good experience, and that's one thing we learned from the game."

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel to 2010's Final Fantasy XIII, and will be available on XBox 360 Playstation 3 early in 2012.