A Decade of Final Fantasy Versus XIII

We made it! We’ve actually made it to the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s announcement before the title now known as Final Fantasy XV released, which is quite an achievement. In case you don’t remember, the game was originally announced alongside Final Fantasy XIII on this day at E3 2006, as part of Square Enix’s grandiose plan for the future of the Final Fantasy franchise on PlayStation 3. Its purpose was to serve as somewhat of a complementary game to FFXIII, its “Versus” name implying how its design principles would go against the concepts established in its sister title. But at the time, who could have guessed it would be in development for so long that Square Enix would have time to release an entire FFXIII trilogy, and more?

That we reached this day simply shows how deep it’s been entrenched within the deepest layer of development hell over the years, and a plethora of drama undoubtedly ensued behind the scenes (which we’ll hopefully learn of in its entirety one day). To put its development back on track, Square Enix had to nigh-completely reshuffle its development team in 2012, in the hopes that the replacement staff would speed up the completion process. While that was part of what led to its name being changed to Final Fantasy XV, that was also because the team made so many changes to the story and characters that it was no longer the game the previous team worked on. They also needed to separate it from FFXIII and its progeny, which garnered a mostly-poor reception from longtime fans.

You don’t have to completely take my word for it, because you can see how much it’s changed over the years through videos. During its development, it’s had two different directors at the helm in Tetsuya Nomura and Hajime Tabata, and it’s clear both had different visions for what the final experience should be. And to a lesser-but-still-important extent, that also applies to other members of the team, as its gameplay, story, and characters have seen significant changes. For the best visual comparison, take a look at the still-popular Versus XIII trailer from January 2011 (which I’m surprised is still active on Square Enix’s YouTube account), and compare it to the most recent trailer for XV. The game retains a similar art style despite the visual facelift, but it’s easy to spot the differences even among those two trailers.

The appearance of King Regis is among them, who went from being vaguely reminiscent of the late Alan Rickman to resembling a classic fantasy king in a modern-esque environment. But the bigger point of contention is how Stella Nox Fleuret was completely replaced with Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, and while both are slightly similar in appearance, they’ll have very different character arcs. The confirmation of her replacement led to certain fans screaming the former’s name, and there are still heated debates over which character is preferred to this day. I don’t recommend reading too many comments surrounding it, unless you want to cringe.

But the biggest differences lie in the gameplay, as its battle system nearly received a complete overhaul. Versus XIII’s combat was planned to take inspiration from the action-based system seen in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, though the demonstration in the aforementioned trailer made it look more like the first game’s (i.e. undercooked). And as I’ve mentioned (and lamented about) in many previous FFXV posts, it would also have allowed for players to switch between characters and fully control them. The current version’s combat is clearly its own thing, though it retains some elements like the dodging and warping mechanics. But jury’s out on whether it will be an improvement on Versus XIII’s attempt, but they’ve assuredly been working on the combat heavily since the Episode Duscae demos, and even the Platinum Demo.

It’s nice that Nomura and his team didn’t have to discard every concept, since Final Fantasy VII Remake is inheriting some of them, like the real-time character switching aspect. And I wouldn’t be surprised if other elements originally planned for Versus XIII make their way into that project. Let’s just hope that project’s development goes according to plan.

What makes this post different from others I’ve made in “celebration” of Versus XIII’s announcement date is we’ll actually be playing this game soon. At a show Square Enix held at the end of March, it was confirmed that FFXV will release worldwide on September 30th. That was announced alongside the cross-media tie-ins that will help the company make most of the cash sunk into this project over last decade back, including a series of anime shorts (the first episode of which is currently available) and a CG movie. Given that Tabata has no intention of making sequels (which he reiterated in last month’s Game Informer feature) despite Nomura’s original plans, look forward to it having a self-contained story outside the aforementioned tie-ins.

That said, we should also hope that it’s a quality product, considering the tendency for development hell games to turn out messy in the end. Hopefully they’re not putting this game out before it’s actually finished just to end this long nightmare, like others of its ilk. See Duke Nukem Forever for the biggest recent example of this.

But hopefully Final Fantasy XV doesn’t fit within that spectrum. Square Enix’s corporate arm undoubtedly realizes how much is riding on this game’s success, critically and commercially. They’ll have to meet the lofty expectations that fans expect from a game with “Final Fantasy” in its title, and we’ll see if they at least come close to meeting both in less than five months.

Related posts:

Final Fantasy Versus XIII: Nine Years Later Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Final Fantasy XV at Gamescom Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae 2.0 — Buckle Up, Boys Final Fantasy XV: Rise from (Development) Hell