Thanks to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, I’ve found myself experiencing a JRPG fever of sorts in recent weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been obsessed with the Square Enix franchise for as long as I’ve been playing games, but there are certain entries that hold an extra special place in my heart. And one of those never even saw the light of day. Well, not in its original form anyway.
Final Fantasy Versus 13 was first announced back at E3 2006 before the release of the PlayStation 3, and was intended as the first chapter in a new series of games known as Fabula Nova Crystallis as well as being a companion to the upcoming Final Fantasy 13. None of these ambitions came to fruition, and while the game was shown a number of times over the next several years, it was ultimately rebranded into Final Fantasy 15 in 2013.
So many resources and so much money had been poured into what was originally planned as a side project that the only way to recoup investment was to rebrand things entirely. It was the right decision in hindsight, but I remember mourning this game I had spent years mythologizing in my head as a kid as something that was going to redefine Final Fantasy to such a drastic extent. And in some ways, it did, despite never coming out at all.
What Happened To Final Fantasy Versus 13?
There are 30 minutes worth of trailers for Final Fantasy Versus 13 available to view on YouTube that feature cinematics, gameplay, and so much more. Tetsuya Nomura and company clearly worked on this project for a long time, with the initial ambition being to create a Final Fantasy whose world and characters felt like they could’ve also been part of our own reality.
A world filled with magic and monsters, but also towering skyscrapers and ordinary working people simply trying to make ends meet amidst wild circumstances. I’d argue that Final Fantasy 15 would eventually succeed in this mission, especially when you’re on the road with Noctis and friends; you can find the extraordinary within the originary.
From the very beginning, you could see that the character design of Noctis and his range of ethereal floating weapons were intact, as were certain buildings and other designs within the sprawling city of Insomnia. But you also spot a number of things that were either reimagined or changed entirely, such as the original heroine, Stella Nox Fleuret, being changed to Lunafreya.
It seemed she once played a far more active role in the narrative too — she appears next to Noctis not just in battle, but also at luscious parties set amidst the skyline of Insomnia. Final Fantasy 15 criminally underused Lunafreya, so it’s a crying shame this original concept never came to pass.
Characters like Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis can also be spotted hanging out and fighting with our hero in the trailer, with a number of animations and weapons looking quite similar to what would eventually reside in Final Fantasy 15. Except this time we see them doing battle on the streets of Insomnia with all manner of giant monsters, so perhaps there was a time in which this city could have been more comprehensively explored instead of simply acting as a pretty backdrop for cutscenes and the occasional boss encounter.
Much of Final Fantasy Versus 13 can be glimpsed within the game it would eventually become, but I still can’t help but to mourn what could have been.
Despite Never Coming Out, The Spirit Of Final Fantasy Versus 13 Lives On
When Final Fantasy Versus 13 was rebranded as Final Fantasy 15, Hajime Tabata took over as director from original creator Tetsuya Nomura, who had since moved on to work on Kingdom Hearts 3 and the then-secret Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The bold vision he had for this reimagined world was either too ambitious or bumped into too many production obstacles along the way, and thus it was changed completely and arguably simplified in the process.
At launch, Final Fantasy 15 was not only a smidge buggy, but its narrative also felt unfinished; as if it was pieced together into a patchwork of incomplete narrative arcs from years and years being known as something entirely different. Major updates and expansions helped smooth things over, but even today, it’s a controversial entry in the series that never quite reached its full potential. But what if things were different, and what if Final Fantasy Versus 13 actually came out back then? Well, I think the next best thing might come in the form of Kingdom Hearts 4. Wait, hear me out.
The secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3’s ReMind expansion sees Sora lose his battle to Yozora on the rooftops of Shibuya and suddenly be crystallised. He awakens within what appears to be the city of Quadratum, which Sora can be seen exploring within the reveal trailer of Kingdom Hearts 4. Regardless of the ending, though, Yozora will then wake up inside a car in a manner almost identical to one of the very first trailers for Final Fantasy Versus 13. Yozora is meant to be the protagonist of a fictional video game called Verum Rex, but his identical seeming goes a lot deeper than that.
If anything, it seems that Tetsuya Nomura is using Kingdom Hearts as a surrogate to explore the many characters and themes of Versus 13 that were left on the cutting room floor so long ago. This game might never emerge in its original form, but it was obviously influential to the people responsible for bringing it to life all those years ago, and there’s something about that world well worth holding onto. The form it will inevitably take in Kingdom Hearts 4 is bound to be incredibly different and drowning in layers of Nomura melodrama, but that only makes the fact it’s being reimagined in such a way all the more fascinating.
I’ve never played Final Fantasy Versus 13, nor will I ever get a chance to, but its influence on the series it calls home and beyond is clear to see.
Kingdom Hearts 4
- ESRB
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e
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
