Final Fantasy XIII E3 2006 trailer Square Enix announced " Final Fantasy XIII " at the E3 video games exhibition in Los Angeles in 2006 with a trailer portraying the then unnamed Lightning . Square Enix was expected to announce a new main series " Final Fantasy " title that year , and thus the announcement of " Final Fantasy XIII " was anticipated . however , it was a surprise Square Enix announced not one , but three new " Final Fantasy " games : " Final Fantasy XIII " , " Final Fantasy Versus XIII " — later renamed " Final Fantasy XV " — and " Final Fantasy Agito XIII " — later renamed " Final Fantasy Type - 0 " — all part of the series collectively known as " " . The " Final Fantasy XIII " announcement trailer shows Lightning fighting PSICOM soldiers in the Purge train using Antimatter Manipulation Principle ( AMP ) to manipulate the gravity around them . A battle demo shows Lightning battling PSICOM soldiers alone in Eden where Lightning again uses the AMP technology to manipulate her surroundings and momentarily halts the action for everyone but herself . Lightning walks through Sunleth Waterscape and the trailer ends with Lightning meeting face to face with what turned out to be the first boss of " Final Fantasy XIII " , but before the battle ensues the scene fades to black and the game ' s logo is displayed . The video shown at Square Enix ' s conference was longer than the one shown at Sony ' s later the same day ; the longer video would start with Lightning soaring through the skies of Eden and then move to the scene with the Purge train . Only the shorter version was made public . The video was reported as " entirely real - time except for a short sequence of rendered footage showing a train " . The using of in - game graphics for the trailer rather than FMVs was viewed as very impressive at the time . The press release given with the trailer described " intuitive controls " and an emphasis on real - time gameplay . The music for the trailer is " Blinded By Light " composed by Masashi Hamauzu . Hamauzu was asked to create the music for the announcement trailer , and thus " Blinded By Light " was the first track composed for " Final Fantasy XIII " and became its main battle theme . Its motif was later used for Lightning ' s musical theme . The trailer was created to depict the concept of " Final Fantasy XIII " and depicted the development team ' s aspirations for it , but the game itself wasn ' t there yet . As the trailer was shown to a global audience , the team worked to visualize what they considered as their instead of showing the early development stage of the actual game . The concept of Lightning as the protagonist and the fast - paced ATB ( Active Time Battle ) system had already been decided . Although the visuals in the trailer are similar to the final game , pretty much everything in it was redone . Lightning never visits Sunleth Waterscape in the final game , and the visual where Lightning faces off against Manasvin Warmech is different with Lightning having a more detailed character model , the colors are lighter and Lightning ' s Blazefire Saber shines in the light with a brighter spark . In the final game , Lightning never uses the AMP gravity controlling device in battle and the interface is completely different , although the idea of a scrolling ATB bar at the bottom was used for the Command Synergy Battle system developed fairly late in the game ' s development cycle . Lightning ' s name was not given for the trailer , and she was mainly known as the " female protagonist of " Final Fantasy XIII " " . Although her name appeared in the battle demo it wasn ' t explicit whether " Lightning " referred to her or if it was some sort of element to do with the battle . When making the announcement trailer of " Final Fantasy XIII " , a concept of Lightspeed was used as a battle system demo . In fact , nothing playable had yet been created for " Final Fantasy XIII " at this point , and the trailer was merely a visual demo for the feel of the game the developers wanted to portray . It appears , however , that the demo was the direct influence in developing the Overclock system for " " .