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Hailinel

I wrote this little thing (it's not actually a little thing): http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/hailinel/blog/lightning-returns-wha...

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The Long, Strange Road of Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Final Fantasy Versus XIII may have been a case of ability unable to match ambition.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII may have been a case of ability unable to match ambition.

Depending on your point of view, the recent rumors regarding the cancellation of Final Fantasy Versus XIII has likely elicited any number of responses. For those that were looking forward to the game a great deal, there’s disappointment, shock and dismay, or possibly even anger. For those that weren’t as heavily invested, there’s indifference, or possibly even relief, either for the fact that a seemingly tumultuous development has been brought to a merciful end, or for the fact that the people involved in its development may now be at work on other projects like the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III. And of course, for those more malicious malcontents, a sense of glee.

I myself am somewhere between the first two. If it’s true that Versus XIII is cancelled, then I’m not too disappointed because, well, not much of the game was ever shown, so I couldn’t ever judge whether it was going to turn out well or not. On the other hand, given the people involved, I could hazard a guess at least that the game would be of my taste, and there were obviously a lot of people that had spent years working on it for no apparent avail, and so I’m disappointed as well. But I can’t say I’m angry; bad things unfortunately can happen to well-intentioned projects.

Square Enix will apparently make an announcement regarding the direction of Final Fantasy XIII in the near future; most likely on how the company intends to conclude Lightning’s story, which was left with a major, dangling cliffhanger at the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII-2. If Wikipedia’s page on the game is to be believed, such an announcement will come on August 31.

Final Fantasy XIV was a major embarrassment for Square Enix, but they're trying to make amends.
Final Fantasy XIV was a major embarrassment for Square Enix, but they're trying to make amends.

This, of course, says nothing regarding the fate of Versus; sources that have leaked the news of the cancellation suggest that Square Enix will just leave the cancellation as quiet as it can in order to prevent disruptions related to stock prices and shareholders. And I can’t really blame them, if that’s their intent. Shareholders can be a fickle crowd, and if they’re invested purely for financial reasons and hear that a much-anticipated game has been canned, it can cause trouble. I doubt that such a cancellation would cause as much trouble as the launch of Final Fantasy XIV, which not only got hammered critically on release, but was so poor that Square Enix President Yoichi Wada felt it necessary to make a public apology. The game’s failure led to a financial wash, and the company is only spending more money in an effort to right the ship. They’re still in the process of overhauling the game for its 2.0 relaunch.

And in that sense, if Versus XIII was truly troubled, then it may have been better that it was cancelled. If it launched to scathing reviews, then that would be that. Unlike an MMO, there’s no way for a single-player RPG to receive a design overhaul after the fact. It’s just not the type of game that gets a mulligan.

Then again, no one outside the company knows precisely why Versus was cancelled, if the cancellation did indeed happen. The game was meant to be part of a collection of titles that revolved around the universe of Final Fantasy XIII, which the company had branded Fabula Nova Crystallis. It was supposed to comprise Final Fantasy XIII, Versus XIII, and another game called Agito XIII. For those that don’t remember, Agito XIII was a PSP title that Square Enix was mostly quiet on, until the day that it was announced that they decided to drop the FFXIII connection and turn it into its own thing called Final Fantasy Type-0.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII, one of the original projects in Fabula Nova Crystallis, is now its own thing.
Final Fantasy Agito XIII, one of the original projects in Fabula Nova Crystallis, is now its own thing.

This was at about the same time that the company also announced that they were developing the previously unannounced Final Fantasy XIII-2; a direct sequel to the original game. And it could just be that about the time that XIII-2’s development was decided upon that the company’s plans for Fabula Nova Crystallis were cracking at the seams.

So how did that happen? Well, Final Fantasy XIII was by no means a failure. It sold millions of copies around the world. Despite what some might suggest, it was far from being any sort of flop. I’d also argue that the combat system in the game was excellent and the characters and story were, while not among the best of the series, far from the worst. What shot the game in the foot, at least perception-wise, was an overly linear world design, and the mechanics were rolled out over a pace that resulted in the player not having full control over their party until around the twenty hour mark.

And so, hearing these criticisms, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was made. The game still uses the same basic concepts of the Final Fantasy XIII combat system, with a few tweaks, and it features far less linear terrain. Really, it addresses just about all of the legitimate complaints that were levied at the original game, and tied it all together with the presence of a highly memorable villain. The one major knock against the game compared to the first is that, as I said before, it ends on a major cliffhanger. It also introduced some oddball DLC choices, like Mass Effect N7 armor costume sets, which were mostly just tacky and out of place.

But all of that aside, with Agito no longer what it once was and XIII-2 produced to address fan criticism of the original game, we’re left with Versus; a game that has been shrouded in secrecy for most of its development and has only rarely been shown in any form publicly. The music track used for the game’s trailer was even released as DLC for Theatrhythm last week. A lot of fan expectation had been built around a game that Square Enix has rarely said much about, and many of those that weren’t interested in it just wanted it done so that the team could get to work on KH3.

That is a public relations nightmare of an obstacle course to traverse, if there ever was one. Yikes.

And then there’s the rumored fate of what’s actually become of Versus. Was the project entirely abandoned? Were any of its assets merged into the development of Final Fantasy XV? Did they just up and change the game’s name to Final Fantasy XV? It’s impossible to say, and depending on the truth of the matter, we might never find out.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is not averse to addressing criticism that could have been ignored.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is not averse to addressing criticism that could have been ignored.

As for my own personal take on this, if Versus XIII was canned, my sympathies go to the team behind it. The expectations for the game from some corners were just too much, and whatever led to the game’s cancellation, I hope it doesn’t impede their work going forward. It’s fun to think that, perhaps, the game is being retooled into the next main Final Fantasy game, but I suspect that’s probably not the case. And to those of you tap-dancing to this news, thinking that means that KH3 is just around the corner, shame on you.

But as for the future of Final Fantasy XIII and whatever its shattered crystallis holds, I’m ready to take it. Lightning is actually one of my favorite protagonists in the series, and I’d like to see her story brought to a proper conclusion. That, and a proper resolution to what Final Fantasy XIII-2 set in motion. XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is willing to learn from its mistakes and adapt. Whether the next phase is a DLC cap to XIII-2, or a XIII-3, I’m willing to play it. And if Versus XIII reappears down the line in some form, I’ll play that, too.

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Mindkiller

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Edited By Mindkiller

Actually, Agito or Type-0 is still part of the fabulous novacaine crystals. You see the logo when you start up the game. It's a shame though that we'll likely never see it get localised.

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FateOfNever

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Edited By FateOfNever

I think I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. But maybe that's just because if it gets repackaged as XV, then there's not much to get disappointed about, and if it just gets 'merged' with some other stuff into XV then I'll just be left wondering if Versus could have been a superior product, an inferior product, or, at the very least, what assets and key things were taken from Versus.

Either way, I'm really not surprised. With the little to no showing of the game for years, I always kind of figured something was going on behind the scenes that wasn't working well for the project (too high of ambitions, too much fear over the 13 universe "tie-in", company politics, who knows.) Though I don't think the name Versus 13 ever helped me with that. I always felt like Versus 13 sounded like a code-name for a game because it's not the kind of title that you market to anyone outside of Japan, I think. Versus inherently suggests "fighting game" to most people I feel like, and with 13 I think people would just instantly think it was a direct sequel or spin off of the core game. But it's Square Enix, so I guess even if the game had lived on under the title Versus and launched, I wouldn't be surprised either.

As for what this means for that team.. I'm curious. Honestly I don't know if I could care much less about KH3. That's not a fault so much of the KH series itself (some of it is, but that's more to do with them launching 1, then the GBA game, then 2, then doing *five* spin off/sequel games, across *three* different platforms other than what KH and KH2 even came out on) but more to do with how rabid and vocal the fan base of the game got around the time of 2. I don't hold it against the series, and some day I'd like to get over it, but listening to everyone raving about how amazing the second game is after the first one felt like such a sleeper hit just really turned me off (not just that it got praise, but I was in a situation where I was hearing about the game near daily for over a month.) Maybe now would be a good time to go and play through 1 and 2 and potentially Chain of Memories.

I do hope for the best for the guys and gals at Square Enix. Not just those involved with the game, but the company too; if this game got completely scrapped, that'll be a huge loss of investment for them I'm sure, which who knows what kind of impact that could have on them.

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Bourbon_Warrior

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Edited By Bourbon_Warrior

They are canceling FF13 versus and announcing FF15 that is really FF13 versus and good on them if they do.

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McGhee

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Edited By McGhee

That would really suck if it was true. Everything I saw from Versus looked awesome. It looked like a return to the darker industrial/modern form of VII and VIII. I love that certain mix of modern and fantasy.

The biggest reason I can think of that it might be cancelled is that perhaps it was too ambitious. Maybe too much money was being spent but too many roadblocks were run into. Wasn't there talk of it being more open world? My memory is a little fuzzy on that.

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jacksukeru

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Edited By jacksukeru

@Jazzycola said:

@Hailinel said:

@RockmanBionics said:

I was/am sorta looking forward to Versus XIII, mostly because I like the simple combat in Kingdom Hearts and would have liked to see that expanded upon in a proper, self-contained Final Fantasy, with none of the Kingdom Hearts crossover and convoluted plotline nonsense.

You didn't list a source for these rumors and I hadn't heard about it before, where is this coming from?

Here's a link to where I first read about it.

Here's the source at which that link uses. (just to save you a bit of time looking for it on Kotaku)

Thanks guys! Bit of a bummer.

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ShadyPingu

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Edited By ShadyPingu

@Hailinel: If this rumor turns out to be bullshit, and it still ends up being the most notable Versus-related news of the year, I will be moved to a single chuckle.

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Packie

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Edited By Packie

It blows my mind at how badly managed the whole project is. Why announce it 6 years ago when your main development team is not ready and spread so thin across multiple development teams. I always had an indifferent attitude towards the Square's RPGs despite enjoying few of them despite their faults (KH: BBS, FF13, FF12) but to me I thought Versus looked like the most interesting FF title I've seen.

I also wonder if it's financially viable to keep this game exclusive to one platform after how much money they sunk to this project. At this point, I bet it's delayed until the next generation or being ported across multiple platforms.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@Encephalon: I'm sure that they wanted to recreate the sort of success they had with Final Fantasy VII. They had already done similar things with FFX, XII, and even IV got a sequel, so they're obviously more open to the idea of spin-offs and sequels than they once were. And the concept behind the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse is an interesting one. All that in mind, I can't say that I blame them for wanting to expand the universe (and possible profits) with more games.

I do think, however, that despite their grand plans for FFXIII that they ended up jumping the gun far too early. But beyond that, I think it was the reception of Final Fantasy XIII and Square Enix's reaction to that criticism that really started to send the idea of Fabula Nova Crystallis reeling. It's hard to maintain confidence in the side projects when the game at the core isn't necessarily lauded enough to justify such treatment. So they tried to do right by the game's fans by making a direct sequel while distancing the PSP game from the core. I have no idea how well Type-0 sold in Japan, and Square Enix has shown no signs of releasing it in the west, which is puzzling, but the decision not to localize it is surprising to me.

As for Versus XIII, I can understand why Square Enix would want to keep that game in development, even when they're in the process of metaphorically bailing water by changing course XIII-2. It's a game being helmed by one of their biggest development names that had the clout to carry a project like this. The game was also supposed to feature a lot of classic Final Fantasy elements that weren't in XIII proper. The project sounded incredibly ambitious, but with Fabula Nova Crystallis in a state of flux, money being spent to fix FFXIV, the time it was taking to develop the game and other factors, Square Enix might simply have felt that it was no longer sustainable, at least in its current form.

So in short, I can't fault them for pursuing this idea of an expanded universe for Final Fantasy XIII. They had some really interesting ideas going, but it just didn't work out for them. I don't know if they'll try something similar for Final Fantasy XV, but my guess is after what happened to Fabula Nova Crystallis and their continued resuscitation of FFXIV, they'll probably hold back on such a plan until the game is a proven success.

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ArbitraryWater

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

I'm not going to lie: I think Versus XIII could have been the modern FF game I may have been interested in. I'm sure the story would have had some sort of bullshit involving crystals or perhaps the power of heart, but that trailer where it depicts a near future setting with fairly normal looking humans somehow excited me. Also it would've been like Kingdom Hearts, which is a game that isn't necessarily terrible from a gameplay perspective.

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ShadyPingu

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Edited By ShadyPingu

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the Fabula Nova Crysalis. From my perspective, it was Square's attempt to artificially recreate a decade-long multimedia dynasty similar to the one that sprung up, somewhat accidentally, around FFVII. However, given Agito's name change - and Versus' cancellation if true - then it would seem that this plan did not bear fruit, and I'm not quite sure yet why.

Maybe it was because they arranged it too far in advance - people had yet to fall in love with the XIII universe to the degree that they wanted to spend two more games there. Or maybe it was the divisive reception of vanilla XIII. Or maybe it was flawed from the start because each game happened in a different corner of the universe or whatever. I imagine it was a bit of all these things.

Anyway, if this Versus business is true, I at least hope Yoko Shimomura's soundtrack, or whatever exists of it, finds its way to my earholes somehow. As I believe we've discussed, I'm no fan of Kingdom Hearts, and expected Versus to strike those same sour chords, but goddamn if that lady can't write a tune.

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Jazzycola

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Edited By Jazzycola

@Hailinel said:

@RockmanBionics said:

I was/am sorta looking forward to Versus XIII, mostly because I like the simple combat in Kingdom Hearts and would have liked to see that expanded upon in a proper, self-contained Final Fantasy, with none of the Kingdom Hearts crossover and convoluted plotline nonsense.

You didn't list a source for these rumors and I hadn't heard about it before, where is this coming from?

Here's a link to where I first read about it.

Here's the source at which that link uses. (just to save you a bit of time looking for it on Kotaku)

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@RockmanBionics said:

I was/am sorta looking forward to Versus XIII, mostly because I like the simple combat in Kingdom Hearts and would have liked to see that expanded upon in a proper, self-contained Final Fantasy, with none of the Kingdom Hearts crossover and convoluted plotline nonsense.

You didn't list a source for these rumors and I hadn't heard about it before, where is this coming from?

Here's a link to where I first read about it.

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jacksukeru

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Edited By jacksukeru

I was/am sorta looking forward to Versus XIII, mostly because I like the simple combat in Kingdom Hearts and would have liked to see that expanded upon in a proper, self-contained Final Fantasy, with none of the Kingdom Hearts crossover and convoluted plotline nonsense.

You didn't list a source for these rumors and I hadn't heard about it before, where is this coming from?

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Jazzycola

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Edited By Jazzycola

If Versus is canceled it would make this generation the only generation of consoles with only 1 new true installment of Final Fantasy (I can't really count XIV or XIII-2). It's a shame, I really was looking forward to it after the whole "airships/open world is back in final fantasy" was said during an interview like 4 years ago. If Nomura and his crew are indeed off this project and onto KH3, I have to wonder where they will set KH3 story-wise. Mainly due to the fact that I'm sure there are plenty of other people like myself that haven't played a KH game since 2. I have a 3DS but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to buy and play the 10+ KH games to just be able to know what the hell is going on in that universe.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@AuthenticM said:

I might forgive them if they basically merge Versus with Agni's Philosophy. If not, then it's a goddamn shame. The game looked really cool.

I'm not even sure how that would work.

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AuthenticM

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Edited By AuthenticM

I might forgive them if they basically merge Versus with Agni's Philosophy. If not, then it's a goddamn shame. The game looked really cool.

ninja edit: it's weird, we haven't seen KaosAngel go apeshit yet.

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Hailinel

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@Karkarov said:

Well your comments are almost enough to make me want to play FF XIII-2. That said this was the only XIII game I initially cared about because it seemed to be taking a more .... "gritty" direction? At least the main character didn't wear pink or dress like a school girl anyway. Popular rumor I have seen is that some of it's assets are just being merged into FFXV. Maybe they will do as you suggest and just make it the next game in the numbered series.

Yeah, it definitely looked different from FFXIII. I don't know if I'd call Versus gritty, but it certainly had its own style. And I'd be totally fine if it became FFXV.

@C2C said:

If XIII versus really does get canned, I'm with the apathetic group. It was never enough of a game for me to care to be quite honest. Though I do have a question,

I’d also argue that the combat system in the game was excellent and the characters and story were... far from the worst.

out of curiosity, what FF game do you think had the worst characters? I agree partially agree with you in that the premises of the story and characters were fine, though I do think that the way everything actually panned out was actually the worst in the series. I do fully agree with you that the battle system was really good though.

It's kind of a hard pick. I'd argue that Final Fantasy V's characters, while colorful, fall flat largely due to a story that is also fell flat, which was all the more disappointing given that it came between two games with some of the best stories and characters in the series. It's just a weird anomaly that sticks out in my mind. There are things about the characters that I like, but then I just didn't like the story very much at all, and that trickled down on the cast. To be fair, however, the characters in Final Fantasy II are also pretty thin, and the original Famicom version of Final Fantasy III gave the party no distinct personality at all.

@Mento said:

Yeah, it would be a bummer if Versus got cancelled, but I don't know. Might be best if they moved on. See what can be done with FFXV, now that they've eliminated "crappy MMO" and "super linear RPG" from the ideas pile. Heck, Versus seemed different enough that you could easily turn it into FFXV, so if they're concerned about the XIII brand...

It really seemed cocky to me that FFXIII-2 presented that big cliffhanger the way that it did. In a game about changing the future Marty McFly style, no less. Probably could've taken a leaf from Shadow Hearts' book and had one "happy ending" that neatly wraps up the story just in case the designers (or more likely the game's potentially lacklustre sales figures) decide that they're done and one "bad ending" which leads to even more trouble that can then be retconned into being the canonical set-up for the sequel.

I don't know. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is already playing with narrative fire given that they forcibly overwrote the ending of FFXIII by invoking time travel shenanigans. Since they've already pulled a massive retcon once, it's probably better if they didn't find reason to do that again. And the game does feature a lot of crazy alternate paradox endings if you do things that would mess up the timeline.

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Mento

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Edited By Mento  Moderator

Yeah, it would be a bummer if Versus got cancelled, but I don't know. Might be best if they moved on. See what can be done with FFXV, now that they've eliminated "crappy MMO" and "super linear RPG" from the ideas pile. Heck, Versus seemed different enough that you could easily turn it into FFXV, so if they're concerned about the XIII brand...

It really seemed cocky to me that FFXIII-2 presented that big cliffhanger the way that it did. In a game about changing the future Marty McFly style, no less. Probably could've taken a leaf from Shadow Hearts' book and had one "happy ending" that neatly wraps up the story just in case the designers (or more likely the game's potentially lacklustre sales figures) decide that they're done and one "bad ending" which leads to even more trouble that can then be retconned into being the canonical set-up for the sequel.

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C2C

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Edited By C2C

If XIII versus really does get canned, I'm with the apathetic group. It was never enough of a game for me to care to be quite honest. Though I do have a question,

I’d also argue that the combat system in the game was excellent and the characters and story were... far from the worst.

out of curiosity, what FF game do you think had the worst characters? I agree partially agree with you in that the premises of the story and characters were fine, though I do think that the way everything actually panned out was actually the worst in the series. I do fully agree with you that the battle system was really good though.

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M_33

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Edited By M_33

I forgot it even existed, so I'm pretty indifferent about the whole thing. If Kingdom Hearts 3 ever comes out, I'll just play that. Versus would have just refreshed my memory of the system.

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Karkarov

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Edited By Karkarov

Well your comments are almost enough to make me want to play FF XIII-2. That said this was the only XIII game I initially cared about because it seemed to be taking a more .... "gritty" direction? At least the main character didn't wear pink or dress like a school girl anyway. Popular rumor I have seen is that some of it's assets are just being merged into FFXV. Maybe they will do as you suggest and just make it the next game in the numbered series.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@TooWalrus said:

I'm just disappointed about how everything related to XIII panned out, I was actually looking forward to the expanded universe stuff. I really liked XIII, I played through the whole thing and found myself wanting more. XIII-2 was fine, I'm glad I played it, but as much as it did right, I feel like it did more wrong. XIII did a great job of creating characters, which XIII-2 almost totally ignored, it ended poorly (actually, I'd have been fine if it ended... the way it did, but without the "to be continued" at the end of it), and that god damn moogle is one of the most annoying things I've ever come across in a game. Could you switch the voices to Japanese in that game? Because if I hear "kupo" one more time, I'm going to lose my god damn mind. Anyway, I hope all that work they did on Versus didn't go to waste, I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

EDIT: First! Just kidding, but this is written so well that it might as well be on the front page of Giantbomb.

Thanks!

I don't believe that the game has a Japanese voice option, which is a bit unfortunate. But yeah, it is disappointing about what happened to the expanded universe. It was a cool idea that sadly just went sideways somewhere along the line.

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toowalrus

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Edited By toowalrus

I'm just disappointed about how everything related to XIII panned out, I was actually looking forward to the expanded universe stuff. I really liked XIII, I played through the whole thing and found myself wanting more. XIII-2 was fine, I'm glad I played it, but as much as it did right, I feel like it did more wrong. XIII did a great job of creating characters, which XIII-2 almost totally ignored, it ended poorly (actually, I'd have been fine if it ended... the way it did, but without the "to be continued" at the end of it), and that god damn moogle is one of the most annoying things I've ever come across in a game. Could you switch the voices to Japanese in that game? Because if I hear "kupo" one more time, I'm going to lose my god damn mind. Anyway, I hope all that work they did on Versus didn't go to waste, I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

EDIT: First! Just kidding, but this is written so well that it might as well be on the front page of Giantbomb.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel
Final Fantasy Versus XIII may have been a case of ability unable to match ambition.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII may have been a case of ability unable to match ambition.

Depending on your point of view, the recent rumors regarding the cancellation of Final Fantasy Versus XIII has likely elicited any number of responses. For those that were looking forward to the game a great deal, there’s disappointment, shock and dismay, or possibly even anger. For those that weren’t as heavily invested, there’s indifference, or possibly even relief, either for the fact that a seemingly tumultuous development has been brought to a merciful end, or for the fact that the people involved in its development may now be at work on other projects like the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III. And of course, for those more malicious malcontents, a sense of glee.

I myself am somewhere between the first two. If it’s true that Versus XIII is cancelled, then I’m not too disappointed because, well, not much of the game was ever shown, so I couldn’t ever judge whether it was going to turn out well or not. On the other hand, given the people involved, I could hazard a guess at least that the game would be of my taste, and there were obviously a lot of people that had spent years working on it for no apparent avail, and so I’m disappointed as well. But I can’t say I’m angry; bad things unfortunately can happen to well-intentioned projects.

Square Enix will apparently make an announcement regarding the direction of Final Fantasy XIII in the near future; most likely on how the company intends to conclude Lightning’s story, which was left with a major, dangling cliffhanger at the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII-2. If Wikipedia’s page on the game is to be believed, such an announcement will come on August 31.

Final Fantasy XIV was a major embarrassment for Square Enix, but they're trying to make amends.
Final Fantasy XIV was a major embarrassment for Square Enix, but they're trying to make amends.

This, of course, says nothing regarding the fate of Versus; sources that have leaked the news of the cancellation suggest that Square Enix will just leave the cancellation as quiet as it can in order to prevent disruptions related to stock prices and shareholders. And I can’t really blame them, if that’s their intent. Shareholders can be a fickle crowd, and if they’re invested purely for financial reasons and hear that a much-anticipated game has been canned, it can cause trouble. I doubt that such a cancellation would cause as much trouble as the launch of Final Fantasy XIV, which not only got hammered critically on release, but was so poor that Square Enix President Yoichi Wada felt it necessary to make a public apology. The game’s failure led to a financial wash, and the company is only spending more money in an effort to right the ship. They’re still in the process of overhauling the game for its 2.0 relaunch.

And in that sense, if Versus XIII was truly troubled, then it may have been better that it was cancelled. If it launched to scathing reviews, then that would be that. Unlike an MMO, there’s no way for a single-player RPG to receive a design overhaul after the fact. It’s just not the type of game that gets a mulligan.

Then again, no one outside the company knows precisely why Versus was cancelled, if the cancellation did indeed happen. The game was meant to be part of a collection of titles that revolved around the universe of Final Fantasy XIII, which the company had branded Fabula Nova Crystallis. It was supposed to comprise Final Fantasy XIII, Versus XIII, and another game called Agito XIII. For those that don’t remember, Agito XIII was a PSP title that Square Enix was mostly quiet on, until the day that it was announced that they decided to drop the FFXIII connection and turn it into its own thing called Final Fantasy Type-0.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII, one of the original projects in Fabula Nova Crystallis, is now its own thing.
Final Fantasy Agito XIII, one of the original projects in Fabula Nova Crystallis, is now its own thing.

This was at about the same time that the company also announced that they were developing the previously unannounced Final Fantasy XIII-2; a direct sequel to the original game. And it could just be that about the time that XIII-2’s development was decided upon that the company’s plans for Fabula Nova Crystallis were cracking at the seams.

So how did that happen? Well, Final Fantasy XIII was by no means a failure. It sold millions of copies around the world. Despite what some might suggest, it was far from being any sort of flop. I’d also argue that the combat system in the game was excellent and the characters and story were, while not among the best of the series, far from the worst. What shot the game in the foot, at least perception-wise, was an overly linear world design, and the mechanics were rolled out over a pace that resulted in the player not having full control over their party until around the twenty hour mark.

And so, hearing these criticisms, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was made. The game still uses the same basic concepts of the Final Fantasy XIII combat system, with a few tweaks, and it features far less linear terrain. Really, it addresses just about all of the legitimate complaints that were levied at the original game, and tied it all together with the presence of a highly memorable villain. The one major knock against the game compared to the first is that, as I said before, it ends on a major cliffhanger. It also introduced some oddball DLC choices, like Mass Effect N7 armor costume sets, which were mostly just tacky and out of place.

But all of that aside, with Agito no longer what it once was and XIII-2 produced to address fan criticism of the original game, we’re left with Versus; a game that has been shrouded in secrecy for most of its development and has only rarely been shown in any form publicly. The music track used for the game’s trailer was even released as DLC for Theatrhythm last week. A lot of fan expectation had been built around a game that Square Enix has rarely said much about, and many of those that weren’t interested in it just wanted it done so that the team could get to work on KH3.

That is a public relations nightmare of an obstacle course to traverse, if there ever was one. Yikes.

And then there’s the rumored fate of what’s actually become of Versus. Was the project entirely abandoned? Were any of its assets merged into the development of Final Fantasy XV? Did they just up and change the game’s name to Final Fantasy XV? It’s impossible to say, and depending on the truth of the matter, we might never find out.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is not averse to addressing criticism that could have been ignored.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is not averse to addressing criticism that could have been ignored.

As for my own personal take on this, if Versus XIII was canned, my sympathies go to the team behind it. The expectations for the game from some corners were just too much, and whatever led to the game’s cancellation, I hope it doesn’t impede their work going forward. It’s fun to think that, perhaps, the game is being retooled into the next main Final Fantasy game, but I suspect that’s probably not the case. And to those of you tap-dancing to this news, thinking that means that KH3 is just around the corner, shame on you.

But as for the future of Final Fantasy XIII and whatever its shattered crystallis holds, I’m ready to take it. Lightning is actually one of my favorite protagonists in the series, and I’d like to see her story brought to a proper conclusion. That, and a proper resolution to what Final Fantasy XIII-2 set in motion. XIII-2 showed that Square Enix is willing to learn from its mistakes and adapt. Whether the next phase is a DLC cap to XIII-2, or a XIII-3, I’m willing to play it. And if Versus XIII reappears down the line in some form, I’ll play that, too.