The evolution of Final Fantasy versus XIII
I'm probably not the most qualified person to speak about this, as for a long time I didn't even know about Final Fantasy XV being based on another idea of its director Tetsuya Nomura, nor did I ever play Kingdom Hearts III. But maybe this is the reason why I can look at this topic as an outsider, without being too attached to the idea and promise of a project which never saw the sunlight in the end.
I missed out on a lot of games after moving to the UK, as my focus was on building up my new life from nothing, and pretty much it was just surviving from one day to another, after having to leave the life I've known behind and having to cut ties with or losing people I've loved. One day I wandered into CEX (for the non-UK readers: it's a shop selling second-hand games) and came across Final Fantasy XV. The last single player FF game I played was FFXII - I did own FFXIII but never actually got to play it, had to sell my limited edition PS3 and the game when I moved - so I was happy to see a new title. It was advertised as a great first step into the franchise for people who never played a Final Fantasy game before, so it was a great way for me to get back into it as well.
I loved the setting, the music, the road trip with this happy boy band.... until as usual the world was set on fire and I sat there with controller in hand, weeping, as I was rudely reminded that I'm playing a Final Fantasy game and there will be sacrifices.
I loved it.
I've been through a lot which made Noctis' story and character relatable, and to put it short FFXV was exactly what I needed in that time. I didn't even do half the side quests I was supposed to on first run, but I didn't feel like the game was incomplete. I was left with a lot of questions at the end, but I do like it when a game or movie does that, when the answers are not handed to you, instead you need to think. I played the game again when the DLCs came out, this time paying more attention to the side quests and random dialogues, which gave a lot more context to what was happening.
FFXV is a game which should have been released with all the DLC content and the accompanying movie and animated series in one package, and then maybe people would have appreciated it more. But even with this in mind I was shocked to see all the hate on social media years later. It felt as if no matter what this game did, people would hate it for no reason.
So I had to find the reason.
From Final Fantasy Versus XIII to Kingdom Hearts III: Verum Rex
Final Fantasy XIII was the first instalment of a series of games set in the world called Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy. The second title announced to it was Final Fantasy versus XIII, and if you look up trailers of the project you'll see a city very similar to FFXV's Insomnia, a hero who is the spitting image of Noctis, and the music playing is what became Somnus for FFXV.
But the original Final Fantasy versus XIII never came to be.
Here are 30 minutes of all the trailers released for the versus XIII project, you can see how it evolved into FFXV:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0SSeBcWpJc?feature=oembedAs you follow along the trailers you will see how the project changed and became Final Fantasy XV, keeping certain elements, taking inspiration from others, but in the end turned out a very different game than the original concept was supposed to be, and in short, this is the reason why so many people hate it. While I can understand the disappointment for not getting what they were promised, hating on FFXV for not being something else feels a bit excessive to me.
Looking at these trailers, the worlds, the combat, the characters and trying to follow the crumbs of story we were given I would have very much loved to see this game become a reality. But for some reason, decisions good or bad made at the time it didn't. And it would be time for us to move on from it, but how could we move on, if the creator himself can't?
Kingdom Hearts III came, and though they look different, Yozora shares a lot of similarities with Noctis, if we just state one, both their names mean "night sky". In Kingdom Hearts III: ReMind we even get the car scene from the Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer recreated with Yozora, which enkindled the hope in those who still wished to see Final Fantasy versus XIII become a reality.
So does the long wait for Kingdom Hearts IV begin, with our breaths held to see Final Fantasy versus XIII in some shape or form.
Here is a video from The Night Sky Prince explaining the connection between Final Fantasy versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bengy9_emLA?feature=oembedWhat is Final Fantasy?
If I had to guess what caused the change of the Final Fantasy versus XIII project it was the difficulties of developing for the PlayStation3. There is a reason why current consoles are not backward compatible with PS3 games, and after the long years spent on development, when the PS4 finally came, they had to bring a Final Fantasy game to it as soon as possible, but also had to deliver the long-overdue Kingdom Hearts III. So did Final Fantasy versus XIII remain something like Nomura's own fanfiction, a great idea which he never got to finish, but keeps weaving elements from it into other projects and creating alternative versions of it as he still tries to find a way to finish this work.
But what if others took inspiration from Final Fantasy versus XIII and created their own spin-offs on the idea, taking the elements and themes which resonated with them?
With Nomura trying to bring so many elements from Final Fantasy into Kingdom Hearts would it be possible to make a game which is Final Fantasy in all but name?
What is Final Fantasy to you? Is it certain characters, a certain type of world design, turn-based combat or something else entirely? To me it is what I mentioned at the beginning of this now very long article. To me Final Fantasy is how the story teaches us that every magic comes with a price and a happy ending won't come without sacrifices. And if I had to pick one gameplay element it would be the summons.
Lost Soul Aside
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0EKvNt4bijE?feature=oembedAs I was watching the PlayStation State of Play, if I ignored the studio logo I saw I would have thought I'm watching the trailer for the next Final Fantasy game. Lost Soul Aside has been about 8 years in the making by a solo Chinese developer Bing Yang and he admitted it was inspired by Final Fantasy versus XIII. The project caught the attention of PlayStation and they took it under the wings of their support program for new Asian developers, which finally brings it to us this May.
The trailer shown at the State of Play starts with one element which was a defining part of the story of Final Fantasy versus XIII, it was there even though not as prominently in FFXV, and played a core part in that one Kingdom Hearts IV trailer we got to see: dreams. Apart from this core concept, the world and characters we see have lots of elements which remind us of old Final Fantasy games mixed with new and unique scenery. There is a creature which resembles Bahamut, one of the summons of the Final Fantasy games. The combat reminds me of FFXVI, but that game took inspiration from FFXV’s combat and we know what that game was originally meant to be.
At first glance this game has everything which I’m looking for in a Final Fantasy game, and knowing that Nomura is busy with the 3rd part of the FFVII Remake series and we haven’t heard anything about Kingdom Hearts IV for a while, Lost Soul Aside might be as close as we will ever get to Final Fantasy versus XIII becoming a reality.
So instead of dwelling on the past we should be cherishing and remembering Final Fantasy versus XIII for all the inspiration it gave to other game concepts, and love those games for what they are instead of hating them for what they are not. FFXV is not perfect, but it had an important story to tell and it did tell the whole story, but as my friend Prof Noctis said, you had to earn it. Play the game fully and find the crumbs of lore scattered across the world. Random dialogues and side quests are part of a game’s story, and if you play a game for the story, then you shouldn’t forget about these elements either.
Here is the live stream from the Prof, where he analyses all the similarities between Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy versus XIII and Lost Soul Aside.
https://www.youtube.com/live/V99Cgq3U4oM?si=4nDE0Wq_irRYYeNRAnd who knows, maybe one day Nomura will get the chance to bring his great idea on Final Fantasy versus XIII to completion. I don’t know about you, but I might just know what to spend the money on if I ever won the lottery.
Until then we have our home-made Final Fantasy versus XIII in Lost Soul Aside.