Final Fantasy XV

Unreleased

Final Fantasy Versus XIII (ファイナルファンタジー ヴェルサスXIII, Fainaru Fantajī Verusasu Sātīn) is a video game currently under development for the PlayStation 3 which, alongside Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, makes up the compilation Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII.

Story
The story, like Final Fantasy XIII, focuses around crystals. The main character, Noctis, who is part of a lineage of kings, but is not yet king himself, leads the country holding the last crystal, which is beneficial to the military. At one time, all the other countries also possessed a crystal yet lost them in warfare. They pooled their resources into weapons, granting them firearms in exchange for swords and magic. A long cold war has gone on about the usage of the crystal. Recently, a peace treaty was talked about between the countries, but a group of marauders are beginning to break it. The world it takes place in seems very similar to the real-world, with modern technology such as cars and highways being visible.

Characters
The protagonist of the game is named Noctis. He has a motorcycle sword. He "is a member of the royal family in a kingdom that has protected family crystals for generations." While Noctis sports normal, modern day clothing and is chauffeured in a luxury car, he works to protect the family crystals from creatures from another world. He wields many different weapons, such as swords, spears, and lances, and can control them with telekinesis. He can also teleport, during which his hair is shown to flash white. His eyes seem to change color when he wields different weapons, as his eyes glow red when carrying one sword, and also glow yellow while holding another sword. His name, which is Latin for "of the night", was revealed at the 2008 Tokyo Games Show. Nomura has stated that Noctis is a shy and timid person, and that he tries to hide his shyness by "acting cool". This is shown when Noctis first meets Stella.



Three characters have been revealed in video game magazine, Famitsu. The first character is a man with light brown hair and glasses who is seen wearing a suit and driving the protagonist's car. The second character is a man with dark brown hair and a scar on the left side of his face. The third character is a blond haired man carrying a shotgun, despite a ban on firearms in his country. These three characters are often seen with the protagonist and appear to be his friends.

A blond girl named Stella was revealed to be an antagonist of the prince. Although they have no desire to fight, they are forced to. Magazine scans draw similarities between her situation and that of Celes Chere of Final Fantasy VI, hinting that she may possibly become an ally during the story. She is also said by Nomura to be rather shy and polite. Nomura has also said that Stella is an extremely social person.

Mysterious soldiers wearing medieval-styled armor appear in the trailers as well, but also carrying assault rifles resembling modern automatic weapons.

A new character robed all in white (a possibly symbolic contrast from the protagonist's clothing) with brown hair was introduced a new trailer. The character is seen in Noctis' building near the castle as they both cast spells at each other, implying that they are enemies.

Another man, older than the protagonist and dressed in a business suit, appears sitting at the head of a long table as a chairman during a meeting with several other men. Because he has the same eyes as the protagonist, it is speculated that the two are related.

Development
Unveiled at E³ 2006, the game is "not merely a sequel, but a wholly independent story unfolding in a different world with different characters." The game will be developed by the team responsible for the hit Kingdom Hearts series. Tetsuya Nomura will be the director. 

Unlike Final Fantasy XIII, this game will be action-oriented and may be the darkest Final Fantasy. Nomura has stated that he aims to create previously unseen "tricky" battle sequences, reminiscent of Advent Children. Nomura has revealed that the game will play like a more realistic version of Kingdom Hearts with some elements of a third-person shooter similar to Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. Its release date is currently unknown, although it's been confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII will be released before it.

The development of Versus proceeds according to schedule, but whenever they have free time, the development team would help with the development of Final Fantasy XIII. The focus of the game is to examine the humanity of the characters in this game and distinguish it from the fantasy setting in other titles in the series. Nomura is "trying to propose new vision of how a Final Fantasy game can be. The game's going to be more human than the science-fiction caricature ... and will focus around current world events - in that sense it's darker".

Trivia

 * The theme song for the game is titled "Somnus - Sleeping" (「somnus - 眠り -」), a reference to the Roman god of sleep. The god is often depicted as a young man sleeping which seems to match the game's logo art.
 * Square Enix signed a contract with Japanese fashion brand ROEN to promote their clothing designs in the game through different characters.
 * Nomura has confirmed that the in-game painting is not the "Goddess Etro".

Staff

 * Director : Tetsuya Nomura
 * Character Designer : Tetsuya Nomura
 * Producer : Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase
 * Composer : Yoko Shimomura
 * Scenario Writer : Kazushige Nojima
 * Movie Director : Takeshi Nozue
 * Image illustrator, title logo designer: Yoshitaka Amano