Before Tetsuya Nomura went full steam ahead onKingdom Hearts 3, there was another very important project he was working on for several years prior. All the way back in 2006, five years beforeFinal Fantasy 13-2, another spin-off in the Fabula Nova Crystallis sub-series was in the works with Nomura as director. TitledFinal Fantasy Versus 13, this additional spin-off was a completely new game that was very different compared to a traditionalFinal Fantasygame.
Over the next several years, the originalFinal Fantasy Versus 13would effectively be cancelled as Nomura is moved on toKingdom Hearts 3full time and new game director Hajime Tabata took over the project. What fans eventually received in 2016 was the amalgamation of ideas that becameFinal Fantasy 15, butVersus 13ended up being very impactful for the game’s development. In fact,Versus 13ended up being tangentially impactful on the future ofKingdom Heartsand to some extentFinal Fantasy 7 Remake.
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Final Fantasy Versus 13, Before Final Fantasy 15
Originally,Final Fantasy Versus 13was planned to be a spin-off title in the same Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. The game was planned for release on PS3 and had its debut trailer as far back as 2006 alongsideFinal Fantasy 13’s first trailer. While the game’s general tone remained the same, a lot changed inFinal Fantasy Versus 13’s development cycle. Over time, eventually the project was shifted intoFinal Fantasy 15as Nomura moved on toKingdom Hearts 3’s development full time. Both games had been in “development hell” for numerous years, so it finally came time to ramp up development and begin production.
Everyone would’ve assumed thatFinal Fantasy Versus 13transferred entirely intoFinal Fantasy 15, but that’s not entirely true. After Hajime Tabata took over for Tetsuya Nomura on what wasVersus 13, Tabata changed course for the game to a mainline entry instead. With that course correction, the game changed drastically from its origins as Nomura’s brainchild project. Main characters, major story beats, locations, and a whole bunch of Nomura’s ideas had to be streamlined or changed entirely (like the missing “Stella” character) to fit the new ramped-up development.
What fans received in 2016 wasFinal Fantasy 15, but was very much an aggregation of Nomura’s concepts and ideas fleshed out by new narrative leadership. The original concepts ofFinal Fantasy Versus 13would be collectively distributed as inspiration on Nomura’s other notableFinal Fantasyprojects, especially a certainFinal Fantasy-adjacent Disney property.
How Kingdom Hearts is Re-Introducing Versus 13
While at first it seemed like a cheeky Nomura easter egg, it turns outKingdom Heartsis fully incorporating a version of theVersus 13storyline directly intoKingdom Heartslore. Yozora’s story in futureKingdom Heartsprojects is very strongly inferred to be aVersus 13re-use, even down to a shot-for-shotremake of aVersus 13promotional trailer inKingdom Hearts 3 ReMind. Not to mention, Yozora’s physical appearance is very much a reference to Noctis fromVersus 13/Final Fantasy 15. Considering several of the original concepts fromVersus 13never really made it inFinal Fantasy 15, Nomura is seemingly reincorporating those concepts intoKingdom Heartsinstead.
Rather than serve as an inspiration,Versus 13could quite literally be remade into aKingdom Heartsproject. It helps thatVersus 13was an original project from Nomura, because adapting it intoKingdom Heartslore will undoubtedly be quite the task.Kingdom Heartsis already a series known for having a convoluted overarching timeline full of unanswered questions and an elaborated narrative. How anFinal Fantasyplot conceived by the same creator is incorporated intoKingdom Heartsremains to be seen, butYozora’s storyline is a direct injection ofVersus 13intoKingdom Hearts.
The Residual Inspirations in Final Fantasy 7 Remake
As forFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, the inspirations are a bit more nuanced compared toKingdom Hearts. While the story inFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeis almost beat-for-beat accurate, the miniscule changes throughout end up blasting into unknown territory at the end of the game. Originally, Cloud and the crew escaped Shinra’s forces and the world ofFinal Fantasy 7opened up to players. However, there’s someserious timeline dimensional rifting going onFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’s ending. One place in particular that’s a huge inspiration from Fabula Nova Crystallis, and to some extentFinal Fantasy Versus 13, is the Singularity at the end.
BothFinal Fantasy 15andKingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mindhave toyed with Nomura’s concept of a singularity: a rip in the time-space continuum, generally leading to different timelines in different dimensions.Final Fantasy 7 Remakeis clearly hinting at this with Zack Fair’s survival being teased in the game’s ending. The Whisper Harbinger’s death is a direct symbolization of the breaking ofFinal Fantasy 7’s original timeline, which is going to haveserious after-effects on the remainder ofFinal Fantasy 7’s story. Considering most of the Fabula Nova Crystallis projects (includingVersus 13) were all about changing fate and differing timelines, the same could soon apply toRemake.
One day,Final Fantasy Versus 13may blatantly return in aKingdom Heartsgame, but the original foundation has served as inspiration to a lot of other Square Enix titles. Whether it’s all a total brainchild of Tetsuya Nomura remains to be seen, but it’s definitely no coincidence.
Final Fantasy 7 Remakeis out now.
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