After Square-Enix’s disappointing presentation at the Sony PS4 revel conference, many rumours have started to swirl about the infamous game in development obscurity, Final Fantasy Versus XIII (FFvsXIII). A game shown at E3 2006 (yes, nearly 7 years ago) has not yet been showcased extensively, let alone given a release date. Yet still, many gamers hold hope that FFvsXIII will show up sometime soon. That probably speaks to the strength of the FF name and more importantly, the vision shown in previous FFvsXIII trailers. With so little information though, many rumours have spread over time. The release of Noctis’ (the main protagonist) perfume recently sparked speculation that FFvsXIII was still in development, and the rumour mill went wild again. With that in mind, let’s go through the top 5 rumours about the game.
5) FFvsXII Will Be A Limited Open World Game
One of the major selling points of FFvsXIII was that it was going to offer a much more open-world experience than FFXIII. Many were hoping this would be of the level that FFXII was at, and given recent games like Skyrim, it’s not an impossible task. Early footage of the game seemed to promise this, with vast open areas and what looked like pure freedom to explore. Recent rumours however have stated that the openness has been toned down. Fans shouldn’t be expecting the scale of FFXII anymore, although the game should still be bigger and provide more freedom than FFXIII. That isn’t really saying much though now is it.
4) FFvsXIII Will Be A PS4 Game
A lot of talk in the rumour mill has been as to why FFvsXIII has remained undercover for so long in terms of information. Many fear that this could be due to stalled development on the game, which may still be true, but the rumour mill throws in the possibility that FFvsXIII will be a PS4 game. This would be a massive boast to the PS4 and could potentially rekindle interest in the game itself as new consoles tend to increase sales of games. This isn’t such a far fetched idea however, given the fact that some games seem to be taking the approach of releasing on current and next generation consoles (ie. Watch Dogs). So there still may be hope for FFvsXIII to appear on the PS3 too. It would probably be for the best.
3) FFvsXIII Will Release This Year (2013)
An astounding rumour relates to a possible release this year of FFvsXIII. Square-Enix are said to be hoping to release FFX HD, Lightning Returns: FFXIII, FFXIV Reborn and FFvsXIII in quick succession over a few months. While this does sound impractical, it seems pretty obvious that LR:FFXIII and FFXIV:Reborn will release this year. If FFvsXII has been in hidden development, it could very well be released soon too. FFX HD is a simple graphics upgrade, so that sounds plausible too. Thus, with all that to consider, it does sound believable, especially if Square-Enix wants to quickly move on to next-gen game development soon.
2) FFvsXIII Won’t Be Localised
An absolute bummer of a rumour though is that FFvsXIII might not get localised to western audiences. This wouldn’t be that big a rumour if not for the fact that Square-Enix refuses to localise FF Type-0. FF Type-0 has gotten a good deal of positive reviews from Japanese fans of the FF franchise, and so there is no wonder that western gamers want it too, but there is no sign of this happening anytime soon. Could FFvsXIII be heading in the same direction. The similarities are there too. FF Type-0 releases at the end of the PSP’s reign, and now the PS3’s reign is ending. It’s too eerily similar to simply discount the possibility.
1) FFvsXIII Is No Longer An Action RPG
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why FFvsXIII is still anticipated is because the game was going to feature an action oriented battle system akin to the Kingdom Hearts games. A few fans seem to have tired of the old turn-based system in FF games, thus FFvsXIII was seen as a breath of fresh air. I personally love that variety within FF games too. A recent rumour however has stated that the game will no longer be a full and proper action RPG. Square-Enix has reverted back to using the ATB gauge and is modifying that to provide a more action experience. Word has it that it is somewhat similar to Grandia’s battle system (which would be awesome!), but I can understand that long-time fans who were anticipating this game will be disappointed.
So what say you guys? Do any of these rumours spark your interest? Or do you not care anymore?
The only rumor I think has any proper truth in it is the one about the semi-open world. As seen in the 2011 trailer, there are wild environments and city areas that seem to showcase from impressive amounts of landscape. As to the release date, I might say Q4 2013 – Q1 2014, so that could be accurate. As to the others…well really, even Square Enix wouldn’t change platforms and battle system so late in development, and they are aiming for a worldwide release, like Lightning Returns. Honestly, the things that are banded about on those game forums!
Becoming a PS4 game is a possibility, but most of these others are pretty farfetched. Go look up the interviews in 2012 for the game and they say that the game is playstation 3 exclusive launching to the fans worldwide who have anticipated this game.
I’m fine as long as the changing battle system and localization bits are lies. They make no sense but we are talking about Square Enix so I’m a little worried. I’m a little embarrassed that I still care about this game.
Rumor #5:
For this to be true, they would have taken away some stuff that Tetsuya Nomrua himself was actually excited about, so I don’t see this happening. I don’t see him taking anything out that he feels is a triumph for the game.
Rumor #4:
Taking into consideration how backward compatibility isn’t available on the PS4 from the PS3 due to the CELL processor not being present anymore leads me to believe that Versus XIII is going to remain a PS3 exclusive. The biggest thing about Versus XIII is that it’s using the Cell Processor to the limits and it’s showing the world what it can do. Since it’s such a hard CPU to develop for, it’s taking them a VERY long time to make the game exactly how they want it, hence the extremely large amount of time the game itself is taking. We’ll be seeing a game developed solely for an advanced hardware that is being left behind just because it’s hard to work with.
Rumor #3:
Not so much a surprise, but I could believe it being released this year or next, though having it coincide with those other titles, Versus would definitely overshadow the other. I expect that if they do that, Versus would be the last of those titles to release.
Rumor #2:
First of all, the argument with Type-0 in invalid. The main reason why Type-0 hasn’t gotten anywhere besides Japan yet is because the PSP is pretty much dead anywhere else and releasing it for the PSP would result in low sales because of how easy it is to acquire PSP games illegally and play them. For Versus, it has been stated that it will be WORLDWIDE released which means it won’t be released here then there, it’ll be released everywhere for everyone. (Yet another reason why it’s taking so long to make).
Rumor #1:
This is the stupidest rumor of all. Square-Enix has been to screw things up, but not that bad. Explain how or why they would cut off a HUGELY major gameplay point of the whole game that creates what they’ve been working on for the past 7 or 8 years. The whole Kingdom Hearts teams’ work would be scrapped, they’d be thrown out of the development team after being in it since the beginning, and it would take them probably another 7 or 8 years to redo it all with a different battle system, maybe a bit shorter of time since everything else is done. Not to mention all the terrible bugs and glitches that changing something as drastic as the battle system would arise from the mess.
So the only real viable rumors are the ones that deal with when the release date is, and that’s been speculated since like 2010, lol.
I really hope your right.