Originals

[Continued] Page 6

1. Final Fantasy Versus XIII

If you didn't guess this game being number one then you haven't lived long enough as a gamer. I remember when I was back in grade school watching the awesome trailer of Noctis ripping through enemies. The darker theme and tone of the Versus made it appear like a Shakespearean tragedy. The man behind this game was none other than Tetsuya Nomura, creator of the Kingdom Hearts series. Final Fantasy Versus XIII received its first trailer in 2006.

Of course, Nomura had no ideas set in stone for how the game would play or what the story would be like at all. So how in the world did we get a trailer? I don't know. What we did know is that the team behind the Kingdom Hearts series would be involved in Versus' development, along with Yoko Shimomura, composer for the same series. This is a dream team come true as fans of both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts will see Nomura's realized take on the long-established Final Fantasy franchise. Too bad what came after is a long period of hopelessness, desolation, and absolute distraught.

As Nomura was busy with the Kingdom Hearts series and the team behind Versus were working hard on Final Fantasy XIII, the game was put on hold. Fans saw a minor setback but assumed that the game would see an imminent release after XIII was released. When Final Fantasy XIII launched in 2009, everyone assumed that Versus would resume full production and might see the game's release in 2011 or 2012.

Nomura had his hands full with Final Fantasy Agito XIII, which was renamed to be Type-0, and with his portable Kingdom Hearts games. In addition to this, fans found out that the game entered full production in 2011 and everything prior was pre-production. Five years of pre-production made fans wonder if this game was even going to come out. Last year, Nomura showed the first gameplay footage of Versus, and while it won't make a showing at E3 this year, he promised that something related to Versus will make an appearance this year.

It's been more than half a decade since Versus has been announced. The ridiculous development cycle that this game has undergone is outright insane, even for Blizzard standards. Fans are no longer hopeful of Versus' release, and many speculate that the game won't even be released until the next generation of consoles are launched. Others speculate that Versus will be renamed Final Fantasy XV, and others believe that the game will never come out. Clearly, gamers are scarred by the outrageous promises from Nomura and Square-Enix if they feel this hopeless. When will we see Versus? Not anytime soon. Just remember, after Versus is done, Nomura can finally start on Kingdom Hearts III — which probably won't come out anytime soon either.  

Tags: Final Fantasy XIV