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[Bladenic]

Wow that versus 13 plot make so much sense. Match up with all the promotional videos we've got before 2014.
Isn't there a trailer that features a radio host saying Stella was died in the invasion. I think it was an exclusive trailer that came with another SE game.

That was the Duscae stinger where the radio announces the deaths of Luna and Noctis over an image (just art) of a battered Luna walking away from a war-torn landscape (presumably Insomnia).

That, of course, isn't in the game. In any form. And this demo was from March 2015 lmao. Also lends credence to the leak about the script being a mess and rewritten. I feel like they had a lot of shit that just didn't get used at all. Like they supposedly had all these Luna and Noctis flashbacks that they didn't know what to do with (paraphrased). So they cut them.

 

[JeffZero]

Vagrant Story is an essential gaming experience. Bar none.


Power-leveling isn't necessary. Just understand the gameplay fundamentals and you'll be fine.

Cool. I love me some Matsuno, anyway. FFT and Tactics Ogre are phenom bombs. FFXII is checkered and bruised but a brilliant experience despite it all.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

.

Don't worry about (killing) me. Live your own life.
—Stella to Noctis in the E3 2013 trailer

Fixed it for you.

That was the Duscae stinger where the radio announces the deaths of Luna and Noctis over an image (just art) of a battered Luna walking away from a war-torn landscape (presumably Insomnia).

That, of course, isn't in the game. In any form. And this demo was from March 2015 lmao. Also lends credence to the leak about the script being a mess and rewritten. I feel like they had a lot of shit that just didn't get used at all. Like they supposedly had all these Luna and Noctis flashbacks that they didn't know what to do with (paraphrased). So they cut them.

The Duscae part is in Kingsglaive though?

And if you paid attention in the game, the radio does mention Noctis is claimed to be dead and so does Luna. It pretty much matches with the ending of Duscae.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

"Hey let's remake XV shortly after the original came out but get the original director when the game was in development hell."

Why do you people keep buying this shit?

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

"Hey let's remake XV shortly after the original came out but get the original director when the game was in development hell."

Why do you people keep buying this shit?

This is NeoGAF. BELIEVE.

 

[JeffZero]

"Hey let's remake XV shortly after the original came out but get the original director when the game was in development hell."

Why do you people keep buying this shit?

Very, very few people in this topic believe that one.

EDIT:

 

[Slater]

According to staff comments Stella would have been an integral part of the story of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and would have had a strong link to the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos, though she ultimately had little screentime. Stella would have first met Noctis at the signing ceremony between Lucis and Niflheim, where a great deal of their connection would have been revealed. She was shown to reluctantly fight Noctis in a trailer, but it has been said the first trailers were conceptual and some elements, like the opposition of Stella and Noctis the streets Insomnia were no longer in Final Fantasy Versus XIII as of 2011.

I KNEW IT I knew there showdown was gone by 2011, Inou was soooo wrong on that

 

[LowParry]

"Hey let's remake XV shortly after the original came out but get the original director when the game was in development hell."

Why do you people keep buying this shit?

Isn't there some other rumor of a FF collection on one disc?

 

[Death Penalty]

Very, very few people in this topic believe that one.

What this guy said. I love it, but it reads like fanfiction.

 

[Ray Down]

This is NeoGAF. BALEE.

Fixed .

 

[ULTROS!]

Don't worry about (killing) me. Live your own life.
—Stella to Noctis in the E3 2013 trailer
—Stella to Square Enix Business Division Team 2 in 2014

Fixed

 

[Trojita]

What this guy said. I love it, but it reads like fanfiction.

Nomura working on FF7:Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and retrying Versus XIII would be the dumbest shit ever, but if anyone could accomplish trying something so dumb it would be Squenix of the last ten years. I hope they learned from their mistakes because what they dealt with in the last 5 years makes me think this isn't even on their radar to even think about.

 

[Gemeanie]

Never, just imagine if XV had come out and Noctis had killed Luna before it started and she was just a ghost. Pure shitstorm. You think people would try to spin it like they would for Nomura? Lol it's never going to end.

To be fair though, one thing for sure is Stella would have longer screentime than Luna.

While I now prefer Luna's design I'm more confused why Tabata felt the need to scrap Stella.

 

[vainglorious]

I still think cutting the Fabula Nova Crystalis mythology was a mistake. It would've minimally anchored FFXV's hot mess storytelling.

And you know, I understand things needing to be removed due to development issues/deadlines, it happens to every game. But I really wish I was a fly on the wall when they deciding to fundamentally shift the narrative from Versus into what we have now. Why? I know Nomura's initial concept involved more than one game and a movie. But instead of new interpretations of those concepts and themes we instead have carried over character designs with different narrative purposes entirely.

If Stella was in fact meant to die by Noctis' hand, the fundamental motivation of Ravus' character is immediately justified and sympathetic. It works. But what we instead have in FFXV just doesn't. What makes this even more head scratching is that if Luna's fate was ultimately the same as Stella's (i.e. they needed to die for narrative purposes) then what was the fucking point of these fundamental changes to Nomura's ideas and creating Luna in the fucking first place?

I don't get it.

 

[Death Penalty]

Nomura working on FF7:Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and retrying Versus XIII would be the dumbest shit ever, but if anyone could accomplish trying something so dumb it would be Squenix of the last ten years. I hope they learned from their mistakes because what they dealt with in the last 5 years makes me think this isn't even on their radar to even think about.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Nomura has shown a distressing tendency to take on way too many projects and I don't think this is the way to go now. Versus XIII was my dream game and I'd love to see it realized, but it's dead now and that's alright. Dude's got enough on his plate, keep his projects manageable!

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

Isn't there some other rumor of a FF collection on one disc?

Yeah, it's bullshit and makes no sense for a number of reasons.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Nomura working on FF7:Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and retrying Versus XIII would be the dumbest shit ever, but if anyone could accomplish trying something so dumb it would be Squenix of the last ten years. I hope they learned from their mistakes because what they dealt with in the last 5 years makes me think this isn't even on their radar to even think about.

I agree. Give Nomura a third project to manage and we'll never see any of these games ever.

 

[Bladenic]

Fixed it for you.


The Duscae part is in Kingsglaive though?

And if you paid attention in the game, the radio does mention Noctis is claimed to be dead and so does Luna. It pretty much matches with the ending of Duscae.

Sorry, meant to put the radio bit was in the game. And frankly I don't recall that scene from Kingglsive cuz I hated the movie and besides some nice visuals recall little about it. So if that art piece was created for the movie, cool, I guess.

 

[AwShucks]

y'all FFXIV fans need to stop being greedy with YoshiP and let us non-mmo FF fans have him.

If he's so good you'll let him go

I don't like MMOs but I love XIV and don't want YoshiP going anywhere.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Took the words right out of my mouth. Nomura has shown a distressing tendency to take on way too many projects and I don't think this is the way to go now. Versus XIII was my dream game and I'd love to see it realized, but it's dead now and that's alright. Dude's got enough on his plate, keep his projects manageable!

Not to mention he has already stated that he isn't good when it comes to managing projects.

Finaland & FFDream: Nomura-san, you work on a lot of project like Final Fantasy XV, the Kingdom Hearts Saga, The World Ends With You. How do you manage all the projects you have at the same time?

Tetsuya Nomura: Actually I am not very good at managing myself, especially at managing lots of different projects, but because of my staff and all the staffs are very very intelligent, very good and very capable I’m able to run all the different projects at the same time. And also the most important are the Co-Directors in each project, again they are very capable and skilled people, they are the people actually managing the actual everyday job on the ground. That’s why I’m here, they are supporting me all the time.

http://www.finaland.com/?rub=site&page=news&id=4865

 

[JeffZero]

I agree. Give Nomura a third project to manage and we'll never see any of these games ever.

For real.

Final Fantasy VII REMAKE has been rebranded as Final Fantasy VII Versus. Please look forward to more exciting announcements in the next generation of consoles.

Kingdom Hearts 3 has been rebranded Disney Hearts. It is a groundbreaking collaboration with the Disney Infinity team. Please look forward to more exciting announcements for mobile phones this fall.

Final Fantasy Versus XV has been rebranded Final Fantasy XVI. Please wait just a little longer for more exciting details.

 

[Gemeanie]

I agree. Give Nomura a third project to manage and we'll never see any of these games ever.

I don't mind if he's so overly ambitious he'd dedicate one whole episode solely for Wall Market

 

[AwShucks]

"Hey let's remake XV shortly after the original came out but get the original director when the game was in development hell."

Why do you people keep buying this shit?

Most everyone in this thread is not believing that...

 

[Death Penalty]

Final Fantasy Versus XV has been rebranded Final Fantasy XVI. Please wait just a little longer for more exciting details.

This killed me.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Sorry, meant to put the radio bit was in the game. And frankly I don't recall that scene from Kingglsive cuz I hated the movie and besides some nice visuals recall little about it. So if that art piece was created for the movie, cool, I guess.

I am just saying you were using that concept art to say that a a lot of story was rewritten while it looks more like they ran out of time to fit them in with cutscenes and instead resorted to narrative exposition to explain them. So there wasn't as much of a 'rewriting' as it was lack of time.

Most everyone in this thread is not believing that...

Ummm... the last rumor about FF Versus XV is from another leaker altogether. No one believes it. Me neither.

But the other leak from Versus story and cut content sounds plausible and not entirely fake.

 

[AlexFlame116]

Most everyone in this thread is not believing that...

More like wishful thinking to be honest.

 

[vainglorious]

I am just saying you were using that concept art to say that a a lot of story was rewritten while it looks more like they ran out of time to fit them in with cutscenes and instead resorted to narrative exposition to explain them. So there wasn't as much of a 'rewriting' as it was lack of time.

See this isn't settling well with me either. They clearly spent a lot of time developing and writing events, dialogue, and animations for specific side quests and hunts, there is a tooon of that stuff in this game. I'd even call it impressive. So what's the justification for Dino the wannabe jeweler having more screen time than Luna?

Lack of development time?

Or fucked up priorities?

 

[LouisaFerre]

Very, very few people in this topic believe that one.

EDIT:

Yeah, if it was something like a standalone DLC that tried to recreate some of the things cut at a smaller scale, that'd be a bit more reasonable but still very difficult to believe. It feels like a lot of the number of the scrapped Versus plans are being folded into Nomura's plan for FF7R as well, so the idea of a full remake just sounds like a load of shit.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

See this isn't settling well with me either. They clearly spent a lot of time developing and writing events, dialogue, and animations for specific side quests and hunts, there is a tooon of that stuff in this game. I'd even call it impressive. So what's the justification for Dino the wannabe jeweler having more screen time than Luna?

Lack of development time?

Or fucked up priorities?

Look man. I know you are talking about Dino having more screen time just to make a joke of Luna's actual screen time but he is an NPC giving sidequests and in the main story, his screen time was way shorter than Luna.

It is 'lack of development time' because once we reach Altissia, it is clear that a lot of content is cut and from there till the end of the game, it feels like they cut cut and just cut to ship the game by the deadline.

Would you have been happy if Altissia was more fleshed out and Luna and Noctis meet and did some talking around the city while talking about their past? Because this could have been possible as well, and who knows, they had it in plans until they ran out of time to actually implement it. Just like it was the case with the whole other region being train and all.

 

[Chaserjoey]

This is interesting:

There was concepts for a city that looked like old London with british bridges and architecture, I don't know about the rest.

I thought this concept art from the Guide Book was weird.

http://imgur.com/VHWNkPb

The characters are dressed like they're from the renascence but since the city is Altissia I wonder where the old London city would have been.

 

[vainglorious]

Look man. I know you are talking about Dino having more screen time just to make a joke of Luna's actual screen time but he is an NPC giving sidequests and in the main story, his screen time was way shorter than Luna.

It is 'lack of development time' because once we reach Altissia, it is clear that a lot of content is cut and from there till the end of the game, it feels like they cut cut and just cut to ship the game by the deadline.

Would you have been happy if Altissia was more fleshed out and Luna and Noctis meet and did some talking around the city while talking about their past? Because this could have been possible as well, and who knows, they had it in plans until they ran out of time to actually implement it. Just like it was the case with the whole other region being train and all.

I would've been happy if Dino and his completely optional bullshit fucked off entirely and instead of receiving an empty over world with derritive side quests that we've already been playing for 10 years (with the occasional great dungeon), yes, I would've much rather resources and development time were spent on the latter parts of the game.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I would've been happy if Dino and his completely optional bullshit fucked off entirely and instead of receiving an empty over world with derritive side quests that we've already been playing for 10 years (with the occasional great dungeon), yes, I would've much rather resources and development time were spent on the latter parts of the game.

It is easier to create bullshit sidequests like Dino though. It is not like he had any special cutscene that was animated. He just sat there on the bench while giving us some meaningless fetch quests.

If they had just 1 more year, perhaps they could have fleshed out the latter parts of the game. I don't think blaming the open world first half is a valid complaint since the reason why the game is getting this high praise is because of it in the first place.

 

[Pinko Marx]

If you think about it FFXIII really fucked the FF brand up. With the release of XV are we finally just finishing up the baggage left from the whole FNC debacle.

 

[Bladenic]

I would've been happy if Dino and his completely optional bullshit fucked off entirely and instead of receiving an empty over world with derritive side quests that we've already been playing for 10 years (with the occasional great dungeon), yes, I would've much rather resources and development time were spent on the latter parts of the game.

Personally I really enjoyed the world they created, but in the grand scheme of things it feels pretty small. And did they ever give a reason for why Lucis is a backwoods hickville area with lots of old and decaying structures with old ass cars while Insomnia is all "modern" and shit? Felt slightly disconnected.

 

[∀ Narayan]

I kinda believed it to begin with....

Same. Once the information started leaking out, I took a major step back from the fence for this game.

I feel like the development of the Luminous Engine definitely got in the way for a good amount of FFXV's development. If Square went with an already established engine, I wonder if things would have turned out better?

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Personally I really enjoyed the world they created, but in the grand scheme of things it feels pretty small. And did they ever give a reason for why Lucis is a backwoods hickville area with lots of old and decaying structures with old ass cars while Insomnia is all "modern" and shit? Felt slightly disconnected.

Not in the game but it is explained in the lore that Insomnia was pretty cut off from the rest of the region. They were like the elite in that area and prided on their crystal and magic.

Same. Once the information started leaking out, I took a major step back from the fence for this game.

I feel like the development of the Luminous Engine definitely got in the way for a good amount of FFXV's development. If Square went with an already established engine, I wonder if things would have turned out better?

They are using Unreal Engine 4 for KH 3, which was announced in 2013 so.....

Similarly FFVII: Remake was revealed in 2015 and the game doesn't look like it will be out until 2018....

 

[Pinko Marx]

Personally I really enjoyed the world they created, but in the grand scheme of things it feels pretty small. And did they ever give a reason for why Lucis is a backwoods hickville area with lots of old and decaying structures with old ass cars while Insomnia is all "modern" and shit? Felt slightly disconnected.

It's not THAT unheard of. What is usually outside of a castle in fantasy landscapes? Small villages scattered around it. What city lays just outside of Midgard in VII? Small town Kalm.

 

[vainglorious]

If you think about it FFXIII really fucked the FF brand up. With the release of XV are we finally just finishing up the baggage left from the whole FNC debacle.

This is a really myopic view of the franchise. FF13 is Japan's highest selling PS3 game and Lightning is almost universally loved there.

 

[Bladenic]

This is a really myopic view of the franchise. FF13 is Japan's highest selling PS3 game and Lightning is almost universally loved there.

Didn't she place first in a poll recently? Above actually great characters like Yuna...

 

[DarkLordMalik]

This is a really myopic view of the franchise. FF13 is Japan's highest selling PS3 game and Lightning is almost universally loved there.

The point being?

They literally made a game called 'Lightning Returns' and it was the lowest selling main FF spin-off there.

 

[Pinko Marx]

This is a really myopic view of the franchise. FF13 is Japan's highest selling PS3 game and Lightning is almost universally loved there.

I worded that wrong. But my point is only now have we finally gotten past the last piece of media related to XIII and the FNC it was supposed to have spawned. Whatever FF comes next will be completely new.

 

[Trojita]

This is a really myopic view of the franchise. FF13 is Japan's highest selling PS3 game and Lightning is almost universally loved there.

Need an asterisk there

*Loved by the younger demographic that still goes to the official Final Fantasy Community website.

 

[vainglorious]

The point being?

They literally made a game called 'Lightning Returns' and it was the lowest selling main FF spin-off there.

Which reflects Japan's movement away from consoles. Like every other console release since 2009 in Japan dude. Correlation does not always imply causation.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Vagrant Story. The profile shot of Guildenstein and the guard in the opening. Framed by the corridor and windows. 16 years ago. Realtime 3D. Playstation One.

I think Akiyama is a better cinematic director than Kojima.

Vagrant Story remains my favorite game of all time. It's a shame that we probably won't see another game of its caliber from Square-Enix.

 

[Joqu]

I think they vaguely mention the Lucis thing in a Cindy sidequest? I remember something about it being the result of the war, with only Insomnia being able to make technological advances due to its protection. Made sense.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

Sure in Japan FFXIII and Lightning might be big but in the west where console gaming still matters Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most unpopular games in the series.

 

[Bladenic]

I think they vaguely mention the Lucis thing in a Cindy sidequest? I remember something about it being the result of the war, with only Insomnia being able to make technological advances due to its protection. Made sense.

Oh did they? That would make sense, considering a lot seems abandoned/destroyed. Actually the daemons existing could be a part of that as well, since Insomnia has the wall protection.

Sure in Japan FFXIII and Lightning might be big but in the west where console gaming still matters Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most unpopular games in the series.

Citation needed

 

[Lunafreya Nox Fleuret]

If added content allows us to play "important" characters.. they better be fleshed out or I will cry fowl. I put important in quotes because NOBODY in game but Noctis and the bros seem important to me.

Spoiler

Regis dead, Luna dead, Aranea left the army and that's all. Nice sass though. Iris? She's a daemon slayer 10 years later and we see none of that, not even Gladio comments. Gentiana? lol

I won't lie.... an

Spoiler

Aranea

dlc can work but it was super ambiguous how she

Spoiler

left the army without getting her throat slit.

 

[ULTROS!]

Sure in Japan FFXIII and Lightning might be big but in the west where console gaming still matters Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most unpopular games in the series.

I think this shows how divided the FF fanbase is.

What might be popular in the West might not be marketable in Asia. See FFXII and FFXIII.

 

[Joqu]

Oh did they? That would make sense, considering a lot seems abandoned/destroyed. Actually the daemons existing could be a part of that as well, since Insomnia has the wall protection.

I mean it was some dumb quest about some car product she was interested in because it had been impossible to find outside of the city for years or something, and I already don't remember much, but I think that was the implication.

I might be combining it with some other snippets tbf