it’s insane that no matter how many years had passed, some of us will never forget about this unreleased atmosphere. The eerie and enchanting meeting between Stella and Noctis, the dark atmosphere of the sceneries and the theme of Somnus playing just felt so right with it, those meaning behind the Shakespeare quotes whether it is relevant to the story, how the plot is going to take a dark turn. I hope that someday, maybe in the future, we will get a chance to play the true Final Fantasy Versus XIII that Nomura envisions it to be. It still pains me that Stella never got to call Noctis by his nickname or show him around Tenebrae.
Agreed. I followed this title with great interest since 2008. I would love to see ANY footage of a tech demo or gameplay footage of Versus XIII since development began way back for the PS2 and then the PS3.
@@SuperGrecius to each their own 15 should still have been separate but they should've developed the story more. Also you realize these are just trailers right? So of course the CG will look good
This game was first officially revealed back in 2006. It's been almost 2 DECADES and there's still so many of us clinging on to what could have been. Thank you for remastering these trailers. You did a phenomenal job.
The dinner party with Noct and Stella is still my favorite one. They had a better interaction in a trailer than noct and luna did in an entire game. Not to mention the idea of Noct actually being in Insomnia during the invasion. It would've been so cool to fight an uphill battle and try to escape the city with your life.
Yes OMG I was so bummed that we left the city and then hear about the attack from your friends who already read it in a news paper. WHAT!? Who by the way wasn't going to tell him. And then we head back home but *can't* go home to fight, in the whole game. Just because the Chinese Execs didn't like the concept. No wonder Namura was mad. Looked like the game was done ready for release. 🤦
Thought that was going to happen until I played the game. This was supposed to be a completely different game story wise. Nomura's vision was missing. We got an alternate universe version of this story. The real story is yet to be told.
Don't forget the fact that, Stella was also supposed to be playable. We were seriously robbed with whatever shit SE did for FFXV. I need a proper remake for FFXV
@@Zero-rq9ti idk man, I’m 28, it’s the first ff game I played since ff8, and that was a 4 cd nightmare or some shit my young brain couldn’t handle. Ff15 was just straight fun through and through, I beat it like 4 times, then did a modded play through on pc, then did online mode until I had a max character. I get it’s “disappointing” from the view that it’s not versus, but it surely was still a great and beautiful looking game
@@Zero-rq9ti I get what you're saying, but FF15 is one of my favorites of the whole franchise. Versus 13 had so much potential, true. But the game got stuck on development for so long and Nomura just couldn't carry it forward. It's honestly a miracle that the game is as good as it is, and Tabata and the whole team did their best to make it come through.
the heads at SE at the time removed him from it he didnt leave. IMO i believe he shoulda focused on this game then KH3 because he was doing to much and spread himself out too much which ultimately led to the length of time it took for these to release and even KH3 that he had full attention on was massively underwhelming.
@@ДенисОррлов he was not fired LOL, he was moved by SE to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3 and he place a little revenge into the game with Yozora aka Noctis Versus 13th version xDD
Same. I remember the goosebumps of seeing the 2011 trailer for the first time because it was THE FF game I always wanted. Style, music, gameplay, mysterious characters and story...it was PERFECT for what I wanted a FF game to be. FF15 was...alright I guess? But wasn't close to anything we were shown previously...so it was disappointing from the get go. You could tell it was a developmental clusterfuck and they just shoved it out to recoup SOMETHING on their investment...
So many reasons why this version stood out and could have been so great. -The tone of Gotham City -The game play like something between kingdom hearts and drakengard -The political vibes like AoT -the Cinematics like FF13 -the combat like FF7AC It might have seemed edgy af, but it felt so dark, honest, and unforgiving. 😫
Idk why they said one of main reason this was cancelled was problem that some countries block or boycott the game for the dark setting (about a cult worshipping reaper). While there are many games literally killed and destroyed gods and belief and showing lots of blood (god of war, dante inferno, etc).
I loved that Noctis and Stella were ennemies and love interests at the same time. This looked like a so much more interesting game. Aranea ´s design looks like the premices of Lightning in Lightning Returns.
"My heart won't let go" Same here Noctis, same here... And don't get me wrong, I like XV, I got all the DLC and all the trophies and even teared up with the last Camping scene but Versus is just different, the atmosphere, the characters and their interactions all are so interesting. Noctis and Stella show more chemistry and interaction with one conversation in these trailers than Noctis and Luna in a full game. Someone should really make a documentary about Versus XIII/XV like the one Noclip did for FFXIV, maybe that way we could know what happened and what Nomura had in mind for the game and maybe show some unreleased stuff like the 130 pages Storyboard Roberto Ferrari did in 2013 depicting the whole story they had back then from start to finish. ~Sigh~ I hope Nomura actually does something with Verum Rex even if it won't be what Versus would have been, at least the feeling it gives is similar to these trailers.
Hopefully with KH4 this is redeemed . I remember getting excited about these trailers as a kid. Especially with the references to Fabula Nova Chrystallis
Versus XIII's development was held back by the development of the Crystal Tools engine. When that engine proved unable to handle Versus's wider environments, it was held back /again/ by the development of the Luminous Engine. In his capacity as director, Tetsuya Nomura ultimately settled on internally-developed code with only the lighting taken from Luminous, to get the project on schedule. Both these engines were pet projects of SQEX then-president Yoichi Wada... but he had already spent a shitload of money on Crystal Tools and assigned it to two MMOs, so he wouldn't accept that _his_ projects had catastrophic consequences for the company. Thus, he blamed Nomura. In Japan, it's considered bad PR for a company to actively fire an employee or remove them from a position - so executives usually bully employees into quitting by forcing them into precarious positions or demoting them. Why is this important? Wada had the entire development staff replaced with the devs of Final Fantasy Type-0 and Hajime Tabata assigned as co-director, with the specific goal of forcing Nomura to quit. Nomura was never consulted about the Final Fantasy XV retool. What's especially callous is, Tabata had been good friends with Nomura since the early 2000s - Nomura even recommended Tabata to direct Type-0 to give him some work after finishing Before Crisis: FFVII, and they co-directed Kingdom Hearts coded. But Tabata refused to cooperate with Nomura and overrode him at every creative opportunity - which made Nomura feel deeply betrayed and drove him to quit in December 2013, nine months before the official announcement was made. To reiterate: Tetsuya Nomura *was not consulted* about the FFXV retool. It makes no sense to blame him for anything wrong with that game. Nomura has suffered too much to let his legacy be defined by a scapegoating gambler and a backstabbing opportunist.
Do you have a source for all of this? I fully believe it considering what I already know about what Square has done in the past but I want to know for sure that this is all true.
@@darknight10000 Sadly, it's not something that can be summed up in a single article or page. I looked through a huge array of articles, websites, magazine articles... I kinda hope someone will make a video out of this. I'm sure someone can explain better than I can. I do, however, know this: the day XV released, Versus XIII co-character designer Roberto Ferrari went off on Facebook and explicitly blamed Tabata's team for the changes. He had severe creative disagreements with XV art director Yusuke Naora (also Lunafreya's de facto character designer); he's also mentioned he quit XV's development in December 2013. But it's not hard to infer this was Wada's fault. To give you an idea how batshit he was: when he was president, he ordered SQEX to move offices from the Meguro ward to Shinjuku... on a fortune-teller's advice.
I still can't get ovet the fact that Stella would be forced to fight with Noctis for the crystal in a situation that if she fails her kingdom dies and if Noctis fails his kingdom will face the same fate. She had more chemistry with Noctis than Luna in the entire FF XV story. Let's not mention the fact that she will be a fierce warrior like Noctis was. So it would be a tragic and incredible battle. What a shame... I will never forget this.
@@OrganizationXIII these trailers got reskinned in KH3's 'Verum Rex" (is a fictional video game set in Quadratum that exists in Toy Box, a world from Kingdom Hearts III based on Toy Story)
This brings back so many memories. I spent countless hours in my teens theorising what this game would be like, with all the amazing action and emotional moments. I probably came up with multiple entire games in my head just from these trailers. Even if I wasn't that happy with 15, the joy that I got from imagining myself playing it one day was enough to make the wait worthwhile. To me, this is the best example of the journey being better than the destination.
Not only was seeing this HD compilation of Versus XIII trailers in my recommended a big nostalgia trip, but it’s also my first time seeing the very first trailer ever.
Saw the notification and was excited! It's so important to preserve all the media released relating to Versus XIII, in terms of trailers, press releases etc. it seems to be getting harder each year with sites and forums going offline over the years. I really wonder what this piece of work would have been like, especially those unreleased trailers (the JF2007 one bugs me as we only have two source camera recordings with no audio to this day) Hopefully, one day, Square Enix will reveal to us Versus XIII was all about. Fantastic work on these remastered ones, the quality and colour preservation is top quality!
My heart still longs for this game I don't mean FF XV I mean the og Final Fantasy Versus XIII the way it's creator Tetsuya Nomura intended. I been waiting for vsxiii since 2007 when I first watched the trailer during visual arts class and I was so impressed by it I googled this game daily for years to get Intel about noctis aka mysterious badass what I called him back then. It's trailers including the 2013 E3 trailer are so badass that they still impressed me to this day. I made so many friends who longed for this game just like me as well it influenced my imagination. Thank you for remastering all of FF VSXIII trailers for it's fans to remember for eons to come.
Verum Rex will no doubt never be what 13 would've been, but it probably will be at least the closest thing we'll ever get to seeing it come to any sorta light
Honestly, even though I never got to play Nomura's original vision for Versus 13, I still look back on these trailers as a fond memory of my childhood leading up to becoming an adult. Everything from the atmosphere, the music and ideas that were both showed and speculated made such an impact. I still remember being a kid on my old windows PC looking up anything I could online to get more information because I saw so much potential in this story and world. I still put well over 150 hours into Final Fantasy 15, but I still feel I would have easily doubled that if it was Versus 13 instead. I'm glad some of these ideas are coming to KH4. But deep down Versus 13 will always be alive in my heart.
I will never forgive that we got robbed of this masterpiece. Everytime I re-watch all the trailers my heart drops and I feel very heavy and sad. I hope Nomura gets a chance to finish this at some point or is able to make something similar. Not fair , the shit that happened to him during that time.
bro, the game is out. It was called Final Fantasy 15. This is a concept discarded for reasons that are irrelevant. Many games go through different stages before being released, and along the way they mutate
@@ECGxX12 XV(15) is not this one. Due some reasons, game canceled and they did what leftover over to make Final Fantasy XV(15) so basically, they are using most of characters, monsters, and map a bit maybe. Like city... Well, you said that your own too. But yeah, the main point, the game we wanted in trailer was not 15 though I am still happy Noctis become canon. xD
Ya know, I've seen a LOT of unreleased and incomplete works over the years... .....But none of them quite hit me as hard as this one did. It's such a shame that this idea has been buried far below the dirt with no chance of returning. I understand the existence of KH4, but it will never be the same. Ever
there is more chemistry and on screen (conscious and alive) interaction between stella and noctis in these trailers than what luna and noctis had in the actual game as adults 😬
I thought I went crazy lmao. I thought the notification said Versus XIII trailer and IMMEDIATELY clicked on the video. I didn’t check to see who uploaded it. I appreciate the HD trailers though!
Years ago, I watched the trailer for Final Fantasy Versus with my dear old friend. We were incredibly excited for the game; every aspect seemed captivating. We made a pact to purchase it and experience it together upon its release. However, after many long years of anticipation, my friend tragically succumbed to cancer before he could witness the fate of this masterpiece. I can only imagine his disappointment at seeing how the game was mishandled. Brother, I hope to join you in heaven soon, where we can finally play Final Fantasy Versus together. Until then, wait for me.
Nomura: I’m not salty about it. *14* years later. (See what I did there? Cause there are 14 members in Org XIII because of Xion. And Versus XIII trailer was released in 06 so yeah… okay no? Alright I’ll stop.) *Kingdom Hearts 3 Reminds gets released and we all see the cutscenes.* Us: OOOOMMMMMGGGGG!!?!???
I followed Versus XIII for the WHOLE time from day one, and was excited af for it just to find out it wasn't really coming out and XV would be a shell of what we expected to get. So that was a decade of anticipation. A lot of people are like me, you might have enjoyed XV- But there's no point in telling us "XV wasn't that bad" or "It's okay, Verum Rex is coming." You're just gonna have to understand we wanted this fucking game bro LOL.
Well said bro! I am the same like you T_T Been waiting this game for over 10 years Playing Versus XIII is my childhood dream! Hopefully people who said "XV wasn't that bad" will open their mind and stop misunderstanding us!
Man I'm playing through XV right now and really loving it, but the trailers for Versus XIII do leave me longing for a bit more. It's crazy to me that the first trailer came out a year after I was born and people have been wanting a game like this for almost as long as I've been alive lol.
This game changed so much from 2006, we may not get the Vs XIII but we might get the story in KH4. 2006 tho, holy shit they envisioned this game from that far from the present. I couldn't imagine what the combat system would be like if it released around that era of gaming.
I will never forgive square enix for depriving me of this after I waited so long lol. The shady underworld vibes of the Noctis family, the dark tone of the city, the actual interaction between Noctis and Stella. Just watching that third trailer I could feel the tension and excitement building in my chest. Nothing in FFXV was deserving of Somnus, but everything in these trailers shows the potential to be. This feels like it could have aligned with classic Final Fantasy experiences in the best way. And in the end we got a bloated slog of a game that barely made any sense.
Bruh did you even play FFXV? It's absolutely fantastic. Fun, memorable, immersive, impressionable, and full of emotion. It had enough content to last you hundreds of hours. And every second felt like it was well spent. Just because it's different from the original concept doesn't make it any less of a good game. It does just fine standing on its own legs. It's not a bloated slog, you're just a crybaby. Give it the fair chance it deserves. Otherwise even Nomura would be embarrassed of you
@@randomboys1000 you never played 15 at release. You fail to realize without the patches and dlc the game was only 1/3rd of what it is now. I have and it soured me so bad I've never touched it again after finishing it. I will try to go through it again some day but it's still too soon.
@@randomboys1000 while @LE0N4C brings up a good point, the conversation starts well before release. The base story in the released game is a patchwork of events and nonsensical motivations and conflicts, because even after all that time the game was unfinished. The released game took parts of an unfinished game that were complete, and stitched them together and tried to make them make sense. The bantering brotherhood distracted from the gaps and seams and made folks feel warm and fuzzy, and that was exactly their purpose. Most of the content in the base game was padding, and the content added later was filler dlc fodder. Considering how much this game deviated from it's original vision, who would know better how much of a disappointment it was than Nomura? I'd bet if he could speak freely he'd likely be more critical of it than I am. We literally waited on this game for 10 years after it's announcement, 2006-2016, through multiple iterations and name changes. Randomboys1000, unless you know what that wait was like, seeing the game change more and more, move further and further away from the original vision, you can't really speak on this subject or assume to speak for Nomura. Find that 150+ gigs of space on your console for this 90% filler content if you want.
"bloated slog of a game that barely made any sense" i'm still confused why a modern setting uses a delivery dog to convey messages instead of a phone... xD But whatever...
the instant Armiger, and even warping with Elemancy... The combat system looked so much fast paced and intense, this could've been the game that would have surpassed KH2FM
The fact that they created enough of the game that a whole half hour of promotional content could be created for the game, just for it to still get scrapped is crazy 😭
Y’know, as much as I enjoyed XV, discovering Versus XIII and learning more about it makes me feel like I kinda got robbed. The first four trailers tell what appears (to me at least) to be filled with more passion. The dark and mysterious atmosphere, the potential lore surrounding it, Versus XIII looked like the game I wanted and didn’t even know it.
It is hard not to think back on what might have been sometimes. FFXV has a lot of problems, and unfortunately I think a lot of that is due to the fact that it incorporated a lot of half-baked ideas from the original plan for the game. Now it seems like we're left with a game that has a lot to love in it but also a ton of wasted potential, and a very clear identity issue. While I love the game we ended up with in its own right, I do wish we could have gotten the chance to explore what was previously envisioned.
“Versus XIII looked like the game I wanted and I didn’t even know it” BOOM! Imagine those who saw this in 2006 and watched every trailer throughout the years… FFXV was so empty and completely went off track to what this was suppose to be. Like seriously, even FFXIII had a deeper story line.
@@tomasgomez9925 I’m holding onto hope we get something like what we saw in Versus XIII’s early trailers. Regardless of what medium it’s told, be it a game, movie, show, or even a book.
As much as I did come to love FFXV to a point, I still have a lot of criticism for it, and I can't help but wonder what could've been. Even seeing content from the trailers after it changed titles, there's stuff that just plain was cut from FFXV, I'm a little sad about it. I don't think FFXV could've existed without FFVersusXIII, but I think FFVersusXIII could've been its own grand game. Now we'll get some lite version in KH. I'll take it, but that "what did Nomura have planned?" question always hangs over me. And I can't imagine what it's like to watch your concepts and characters be taken away for a project you have no control over, watching them be changed to something you never planned for any of it. Yes, a risk of making a game rather than writing a book on your own, but... STILL. It must've been difficult.
Im so happy I'm finding more people like this channel that feels exactly the same way how i felt for this game and for Nomura through the years, there were times where I felt alone in this but not anymore. I hope Nomura still makes what he was meant to do one way or another.
It's a good line, but it's also really funny to me that it literally just means "when people die some people can see their souls ascend to heaven." Makes me wonder how literally the rest of those title cards were supposed to be taken.
@@sagewaterdragon I don't feel like your laymen's translation takes any weight or poetic impact away from the line at all. If anything, it's nice that it sounds so epic and mysterious, but also has a tangible and clear meaning.
Great, now I'm getting stupidly nostalgic and also longing for this intriguing vision of the game that was never released. But thank you for remastering it...
Looks like KHIV is taking major inspiration from Versus XIII. While that game may never see the light of day at least it still has remnants sprinkled within Kingdom Hearts
I really want the game to take a darker tone but knowing square enix they aren't gonna do it. It seems yeah they're taking minor inspiration from versus 13 but they should go the full mile with it
@@michael-pg8fi At the end of the day it's still a kingdom hearts game. I doubt Disney would want such a bleak game. And they're going to make a dark story anyways, by the looks of XVI. I still agree with you though, I want a full version of Versus XIII too
Honestly i miss the simplicity of the first game. The series has gotten far to convoluted and I’m not at all invested in the mobile/iOS/android series, but I guess I’ll play KHIV for what it is. I grew up with this series but can’t help but feel I’m being left behind, especially with the new trailer. I’ll definitely still pick it up when it releases but I can’t say I’m exactly as excited as I used to be.
Ugh, just seeing these trailers again sparks my imagination. I want to know more about the mythos and everything! I wanna see more interactions between Noctis and Stella! I want this game so bad! Why Square!? Why!?
I’m still waiting for a game like this, a dark mature fantasy game where you dont know which side is either good or bad. But there is a complex conflict on every aspect on the battlefield, political, with enemies, friends and loved ones. Where the developer is not afraid to show blood, guts and even death to tell there story. That is why i still return to these trailers once in a while.
Final Fantasy Type 0 was pretty dark. With all the killing and blood and violence. Along with the concept that once people die everyone else forgets about them leaving them as only more bodies and memories to burry. Which is intriguing since VS XIII and Type 0 and FFXIII are part of the FNC (Fabula Nova Crystalis) story.
Look forward to Final Fantasy XVI, in June, because that’s exactly what we are gonna get from that. The spirit of what Versus was trying to do will live on in that game.
It's really interesting to rewatch all these trailers again, (I would watch them over and over, specifically the part where Aranea (At the time she was called Dragoon girl) jumped and when Noctis got hit with bullets in the gameplay trailer) and only just realized upon watching all of the scenes relating to Yozora, it's obvious, but it made me realize: Luxord = Ignis Magis = Prompto Aegis = Gladiolus Yozora = You get the idea. So we might not see a revival in KH4, but prehaps a *link to FF Versus 13...* It's probably worth mentioning the light they (Stella and Noctis) talk about is like the bright purple light that Yozora was trying to reach out to the girl in the Toy Box trailer.
Two games that I always come back to watch their initial trailers, FF versus XIII and Bioshock Infinite, always imagining how those versions would be way cooler than the final released games.
Never watched these before. I can see why people were so excited for this game. Also, very interesting that the defensive wall of swords is so much like the block in Sora’s Ultimate form
Oh I wish if I can go back where Final Fantasy Versus XIII became a big deal and the fanbase had formed, many theories in forums, fanfics made, dedicated fanarts and so on... FFXV is still my all time entry but this is what I can imagine if the director didn't scrapped this along the Fabula Nova Crystallis but in the end, this always lived in my rent free mind.
@@OmegaKatanaXIII how come? nomura being a sly fox literally made yozora and vs xiii noctis have the same pose in the car scene if that doesn't scream revival or something I dunno what is
@@SpiderTrickster it's to identical to be just an homage or a simple Easter egg yes it's using resources but even that takes a ton of money to do like replace the model and etc call me crazy but I have a feeling that Nomura has plans for yozora and he is the key to open the door. One more thing to add remember the quote "an oath to return".
I doubt it’s Versus XIII revamped too. Although I do have hope that Verum Rex will be good, being that Verum Rex borrows Versus concepts that never came to be.
@@Kirito843 This. Exactly this. It would be concepts, but we don't have the entire original story. That and my opinion of VsXIII being forced in Kingdom Hearts. Like I really don't know if Kingdom Hearts was meant to go this way into FF territory or he was inspired by his original work of VsXIII and wanted to implement it into KHs. Or because he's upset and he's getting his original out there by inserting it into KHs and changing the entire route it's suppose to go. Either way I feel like he's getting his story one way or another by involving a bystander--KHs, to get it, when VsXIII should of been its own thing! But if we get a Verum Rex game, it's literally FF slap on with the KHs lable. Or is that the other way around... But yeah... KHs needs reboot/rewrite to fix the story telling and no more retcons during the first draft after all this time. Because the story is a mess, but we still stand by it all this time.~
Thanks for doing this, there are still the few of us who still lament what the game could have been. I hope you never take this down because I want to come back here in another decade just to relive the memories.
It still hurts so much! I loved XV for what it is but I desperatly long for the version shown in in the last 3 trailers. I swear after the last 2013 trailer they scarpped everything besides the character designs and names.
I understand that we'll probably never get this version Nomura wanted to do for a video game -- and while I'm eager to see what he recycled from it to use in the future KH games -- I really hope someday we can get a novel or movie of *this* version.
FFXV will always hold a special place in my heart as being the first FF I’ve played. I genuinely loved most of the story and I never had such love for characters then I did with Noct and his crew. But I totally agree that some things in FFXV could’ve been fleshed out a bit more; combat and story wise. Definitely felt that the Magitek soldiers could’ve been a lot more dangerous and more of a threat than what they were in the final product. They felt really easy to kill especially when they hardly leveled up along with Noct to keep up as a threat to him and his crew. And the magic could’ve been a bit more easier to use. I hardly ever used the consumable spells Edit: Don’t get me wrong, I still appreciate what Tabata and Nomura did with what they had for FFXV
Don't get me wrong, XV was really good, especially if you have in mind the development hell, but dude this could have been a masterpiece!!. Someday it will be released, NEVER FORGET!!
I will freak the hell out if at the KH 20th anniversary event in April Nomura shows us a glimpse of the next KH game and where the series goes next. And he shows a quick shot of something from Verum Rex which is basically taking from Versus XIII
Everything you said at the end is exactly how I feel. Like man, I only ever look at Final Fantasy XV with sadness. I really wanted Final Fantasy Versus XIII and I still do! #RestoreVersusXIII
Just found this for the first time recently and it blows my mind how this whole game changed this much and they even still had Somnus theme this whole time as well.
I know there is nothing but speculations and theory on who and what Stella could have been and her role but man, that sequence shot of her slowly turning around, something just tells me her role was going to be some damn special in vXIII and @10:52 is still one the best version of Somnus!
Gracias por la compilación, la calidad y los subtítulos para preservar esta épica historia. No soy gamer pero si fan de las historias de los jrpg y estaba pintaba increíble (además como profesor de latín me encantan ambos temas de Yoko). Yo creo que Verum Rex va a conectar la historia de KH con la deVersus, como fue la idea original de Nomura, y preparar así la posibilidad de un futuro Versus.
I still say, to this day, that the first trailer that rebrands it as FF 15 was by far the most impressive display of mindblowing gameplay to be shown in a trailer, even by today's modern standards. If that game had come out then, hell, even now in 2024, - with cinematics woven in to the battle system diegetically - game designers would be shitting themselves out of fear of being unable to beat this combat system. All this said, I find it interesting that Nomura fully intends to "bring back" this vision of what could have been vs XIII into the KH franchise with Quadratum feeling very "first three trailers of vs XIII" inspired and Yozora and Nameless Star being Noctus and Stella in new forms, respectively. I'd be excited to see Nomura rework this version of FF15 into KH4. Even Noctus's original personality: a little too hot-blooded and running into things head first, fits with Sora fairly well. What a fascinating case study these trailers are.
Noctis was actually supposed to be an anti hero doing good and bad acts according to Nomura and that would connect with the themes of the game and the quote “there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so” also Nomura stated Sora and Noctis have opposite names for a reason sky and night sky. I think Nomura always wanted to connect kingdom hearts with versus xiii and have Sora and Noctis work together and fight the master of masters or ardyn together and show each other opposite sides of perspectives and worlds with Sora being the light and Noctis being the dark just my opinion it seems no one reads into when Nomura said that and just skims past it. Also don’t think verum rex will be versus xiii, Nomura even confirmed this saying verum rex and versus are “two different works”.
I thank you for taking the time to compile the trailers together remastered. I at times ponder on what the game would have became had Nomura and his team finished Versus XIII. Are there any demos left from the project like the gameplay at 15:04 - if only developers were allowed to share that build with the players, I would love to explore the early stages of the world. I read that Noctis' Japanese voice actor has the script, I pray that he can one day share what the story is like.
The third trailer is literally the best video on earth. The tension all up until the ending even tho we know so very little… omg bro it was SOO MUCH ahead of its time and it makes me sooo sad to see what FF15 made with Noctis….. Tetsuya Nomura the ultimate goat just give him the time he needs and everyone will be happy…
Incredible preservation work. I've been trying to source higher-quality versions of some of those trailers for a hot minute (especially the Cloud DVD one) and I was seriously considering buying the DVD so I could upscale it - glad this came out so I didn't have to pay those import fees! Seriously, though, this is as pristine as this footage is ever going to get, and I really appreciate that, when you used upscaling, it was done tastefully. Color grades are the easiest thing for people to mess up and you did it well.
the 2011 trailer was my favorite. it looks so much like a ff game compared to ffxv. looks like they were working with the idea of being able to control the other party members more. also that version of the invsaion looks like it would have been a great experience to play through. RIP King Regis. Long Live the King.
Best trailer of all time. I'll never forget how this game made me feel. Something tells me that Nomura isn't going to die without getting this story out there, in whatever format it needs too. Rip Stella. Long live the queen.
I could never thank you and everyone behind this enough. I'm a non-gamer Final Fantasy fan and I'm so invested in FFVII and FFVsXIII. I've been watching FF Versus trailers and amvs for countless of times, and I'm so happy that every trailer is now on HD. More power to you guys^^
Tabata removed so much elements from Versus XIII because he wants the game to be "straightforward" so anyone can follow. And look what we've got, a very barebones game that you actually need those DLCs to be complete, and what's funny is that it still wasn't complete and you still need the novel to know the true ending. Such a shame.
I used to watch the 2011 trailer all the time, even as far to download it into my phone. I was like 15 or so, and I was also currently really into anime and starting to get into JRPGs back then. The game has swords, guns, magic, and mechas. It took place in modern setting, the main character is a prince, dresses all black, can teleport and summon weapon similar to Fate's Gilgamesh, it resonates with my chuuni soul; This game was pretty much the edgy teen wet dream. My parents only let me to have one console and that was 360, I literally saved money to buy PS3 just to play this game. FFXV might be incomplete and doesn't come close to the awesomeness they showed in the trailers, but the Versus XIII hype was so strong that I come to love XV despite it flaws. It has such a huge impact in my teenage life.
Really wish the final game had like a Intro segment like FFVII Midguard where you play the first couple of hours in the City before it gets attacked. Most of the trailers made me think it would be so. It would have made coming back to it way more meaningful to see it in ruins.
i just discovered this video i heard a lot about vs 13, and know the story as a kingdom hearts fan, i know nomura is going to remake this game into verum rex and still, with all of that, you made me fell in love for a game that i know will never release just through atmosphere, design, this game touched me like... really not a lot of games thank you for your work man i hope one day we can all play this game
it’s insane that no matter how many years had passed, some of us will never forget about this unreleased atmosphere. The eerie and enchanting meeting between Stella and Noctis, the dark atmosphere of the sceneries and the theme of Somnus playing just felt so right with it, those meaning behind the Shakespeare quotes whether it is relevant to the story, how the plot is going to take a dark turn. I hope that someday, maybe in the future, we will get a chance to play the true Final Fantasy Versus XIII that Nomura envisions it to be. It still pains me that Stella never got to call Noctis by his nickname or show him around Tenebrae.
Agreed. I followed this title with great interest since 2008. I would love to see ANY footage of a tech demo or gameplay footage of Versus XIII since development began way back for the PS2 and then the PS3.
versus 13 design look better 15
@@SuperGrecius to each their own 15 should still have been separate but they should've developed the story more.
Also you realize these are just trailers right? So of course the CG will look good
I think they'll redo 15 in the future but versus is never going to see light of day I think.
13 wasn't a perfect FF either
Well some of the haters of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII made Square Enix scrap vs. XIII. FF fan base toxicity is like Chernobyl.
This game was first officially revealed back in 2006. It's been almost 2 DECADES and there's still so many of us clinging on to what could have been. Thank you for remastering these trailers. You did a phenomenal job.
This was even before Lightning's Saga!
The ps2 era and now we’re in ps5 crazy
The dinner party with Noct and Stella is still my favorite one. They had a better interaction in a trailer than noct and luna did in an entire game. Not to mention the idea of Noct actually being in Insomnia during the invasion. It would've been so cool to fight an uphill battle and try to escape the city with your life.
Yes OMG
I was so bummed that we left the city and then hear about the attack from your friends who already read it in a news paper. WHAT!? Who by the way wasn't going to tell him. And then we head back home but *can't* go home to fight, in the whole game.
Just because the Chinese Execs didn't like the concept. No wonder Namura was mad. Looked like the game was done ready for release. 🤦
Thought that was going to happen until I played the game. This was supposed to be a completely different game story wise. Nomura's vision was missing. We got an alternate universe version of this story. The real story is yet to be told.
Cool indeed
i am fully convinced that Nyx was just a “replacement” for Noctis just so they could squeeze as much out of this game to profit on the multi media BS
Don't forget the fact that, Stella was also supposed to be playable. We were seriously robbed with whatever shit SE did for FFXV. I need a proper remake for FFXV
As someone who enjoyed 15 for what it was, this video makes me super glad that I didn't even know about Versus 13 until well after I beat 15
same. i loved ff15, but when u get on the internet, people start going HARD af on it
15 was a disappointment
Same here. 15 was my first final fantasy game
@@Zero-rq9ti idk man, I’m 28, it’s the first ff game I played since ff8, and that was a 4 cd nightmare or some shit my young brain couldn’t handle. Ff15 was just straight fun through and through, I beat it like 4 times, then did a modded play through on pc, then did online mode until I had a max character. I get it’s “disappointing” from the view that it’s not versus, but it surely was still a great and beautiful looking game
@@Zero-rq9ti I get what you're saying, but FF15 is one of my favorites of the whole franchise. Versus 13 had so much potential, true. But the game got stuck on development for so long and Nomura just couldn't carry it forward. It's honestly a miracle that the game is as good as it is, and Tabata and the whole team did their best to make it come through.
Nomura's vision for this game would've made it a top 3 ff for me. It breaks my heart he left the project.
He was fired, he didn't leave this by himself
the heads at SE at the time removed him from it he didnt leave. IMO i believe he shoulda focused on this game then KH3 because he was doing to much and spread himself out too much which ultimately led to the length of time it took for these to release and even KH3 that he had full attention on was massively underwhelming.
Thats why he is gonna make KH4 good with his revenge what they did my friend.. Yozora shall rise and help Sora
@@Diablosco Makes youw onder why KH4 looks like this
@@ДенисОррлов he was not fired LOL, he was moved by SE to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3 and he place a little revenge into the game with Yozora aka Noctis Versus 13th version xDD
This game will forever live rent free in my head.
Same. I remember the goosebumps of seeing the 2011 trailer for the first time because it was THE FF game I always wanted. Style, music, gameplay, mysterious characters and story...it was PERFECT for what I wanted a FF game to be. FF15 was...alright I guess? But wasn't close to anything we were shown previously...so it was disappointing from the get go. You could tell it was a developmental clusterfuck and they just shoved it out to recoup SOMETHING on their investment...
Not me literally anytime I dirnk alcohol, I swear to God
Nomura is that you?
So many reasons why this version stood out and could have been so great.
-The tone of Gotham City
-The game play like something between kingdom hearts and drakengard
-The political vibes like AoT
-the Cinematics like FF13
-the combat like FF7AC
It might have seemed edgy af, but it felt so dark, honest, and unforgiving. 😫
And blood hahahaha
I know I’m gonna get shit for this, but I’m happy we got the FFXV that we did. But! I’m excited to see this executed through KH4 and Verum Rex!
Idk why they said one of main reason this was cancelled was problem that some countries block or boycott the game for the dark setting (about a cult worshipping reaper). While there are many games literally killed and destroyed gods and belief and showing lots of blood (god of war, dante inferno, etc).
@@danthovict381 that was tabatas bullshit saying so he can cut it all dont believe everything on the internet
It doesn't feel edgy. These are sole of the greatest game trailers EVER made. The concepts behind this game are incredible.
I loved that Noctis and Stella were ennemies and love interests at the same time. This looked like a so much more interesting game. Aranea ´s design looks like the premices of Lightning in Lightning Returns.
Yes, good catch
holy sht, that's true! The costume looks almost identical.
I think she is lightning when i see first time 🤣🤣
"My heart won't let go" Same here Noctis, same here...
And don't get me wrong, I like XV, I got all the DLC and all the trophies and even teared up with the last Camping scene but Versus is just different, the atmosphere, the characters and their interactions all are so interesting. Noctis and Stella show more chemistry and interaction with one conversation in these trailers than Noctis and Luna in a full game.
Someone should really make a documentary about Versus XIII/XV like the one Noclip did for FFXIV, maybe that way we could know what happened and what Nomura had in mind for the game and maybe show some unreleased stuff like the 130 pages Storyboard Roberto Ferrari did in 2013 depicting the whole story they had back then from start to finish.
~Sigh~ I hope Nomura actually does something with Verum Rex even if it won't be what Versus would have been, at least the feeling it gives is similar to these trailers.
It supposed to be darker than how XV are
If only verum rex isn't animated with Kingdom hearts style.
Check out the KH4 trailer
Hopefully with KH4 this is redeemed . I remember getting excited about these trailers as a kid. Especially with the references to Fabula Nova Chrystallis
@@waytodawn1913 I just watched it! My hype is through the roof right now.
Versus XIII's development was held back by the development of the Crystal Tools engine. When that engine proved unable to handle Versus's wider environments, it was held back /again/ by the development of the Luminous Engine. In his capacity as director, Tetsuya Nomura ultimately settled on internally-developed code with only the lighting taken from Luminous, to get the project on schedule.
Both these engines were pet projects of SQEX then-president Yoichi Wada... but he had already spent a shitload of money on Crystal Tools and assigned it to two MMOs, so he wouldn't accept that _his_ projects had catastrophic consequences for the company. Thus, he blamed Nomura.
In Japan, it's considered bad PR for a company to actively fire an employee or remove them from a position - so executives usually bully employees into quitting by forcing them into precarious positions or demoting them. Why is this important? Wada had the entire development staff replaced with the devs of Final Fantasy Type-0 and Hajime Tabata assigned as co-director, with the specific goal of forcing Nomura to quit. Nomura was never consulted about the Final Fantasy XV retool.
What's especially callous is, Tabata had been good friends with Nomura since the early 2000s - Nomura even recommended Tabata to direct Type-0 to give him some work after finishing Before Crisis: FFVII, and they co-directed Kingdom Hearts coded. But Tabata refused to cooperate with Nomura and overrode him at every creative opportunity - which made Nomura feel deeply betrayed and drove him to quit in December 2013, nine months before the official announcement was made.
To reiterate: Tetsuya Nomura *was not consulted* about the FFXV retool. It makes no sense to blame him for anything wrong with that game. Nomura has suffered too much to let his legacy be defined by a scapegoating gambler and a backstabbing opportunist.
indeed. every problem square had in the late 2000s/early 2010s goes right back to wada.
Do you have a source for all of this? I fully believe it considering what I already know about what Square has done in the past but I want to know for sure that this is all true.
They should try developing VS 13 for the ps5! We have the technology capable now !
he still blamed for bad stories. He should just stick to character design
@@darknight10000 Sadly, it's not something that can be summed up in a single article or page. I looked through a huge array of articles, websites, magazine articles... I kinda hope someone will make a video out of this. I'm sure someone can explain better than I can.
I do, however, know this: the day XV released, Versus XIII co-character designer Roberto Ferrari went off on Facebook and explicitly blamed Tabata's team for the changes. He had severe creative disagreements with XV art director Yusuke Naora (also Lunafreya's de facto character designer); he's also mentioned he quit XV's development in December 2013.
But it's not hard to infer this was Wada's fault. To give you an idea how batshit he was: when he was president, he ordered SQEX to move offices from the Meguro ward to Shinjuku... on a fortune-teller's advice.
I still can't get ovet the fact that Stella would be forced to fight with Noctis for the crystal in a situation that if she fails her kingdom dies and if Noctis fails his kingdom will face the same fate. She had more chemistry with Noctis than Luna in the entire FF XV story. Let's not mention the fact that she will be a fierce warrior like Noctis was. So it would be a tragic and incredible battle. What a shame... I will never forget this.
@@TRANE23-hz7mdI’ll check that out
What we didn't know at the time was these were actually Kingdom Hearts trailers 🗿
How?
@@OrganizationXIII these trailers got reskinned in KH3's 'Verum Rex" (is a fictional video game set in Quadratum that exists in Toy Box, a world from Kingdom Hearts III based on Toy Story)
It would be the other way around. Or more like since it couldn't be what it was envisioned it was altered and Re shown to say, "I am still here"
@@xeons7 I was gonna say, he looked familiar aside from his obvious connection to ffxv noctis lmao
Lol 😆
Stella’s still in my heart no matter what 😭💖
Named my Carbuncle in FFXV "Stella" after playing through the tech demo as a sort of "in memoriam"...
Same. Still holding hope we will see OG Noct and Stella together again. 😭
Stella was a vertical slice.
Same ❤
We could've had a Vergil who was also the Love Interest
I will never stop being mad
This brings back so many memories. I spent countless hours in my teens theorising what this game would be like, with all the amazing action and emotional moments. I probably came up with multiple entire games in my head just from these trailers. Even if I wasn't that happy with 15, the joy that I got from imagining myself playing it one day was enough to make the wait worthwhile. To me, this is the best example of the journey being better than the destination.
I hope we meet in Niflheim one day my friend.
Fully agree, glad there were others on the journey! I do still long for something, despite many years.
The final game was terrible imma huuuge ff fan and this game didn’t even come close to the classics (ff7-10)
Versus XIII is still my most hyped game followed by Xenoblade X which mostly delivered but also got kneecapped.
@@SeFu2006i still really enjoyed XV. It wasnt perfect, but it was still a great game
Not only was seeing this HD compilation of Versus XIII trailers in my recommended a big nostalgia trip, but it’s also my first time seeing the very first trailer ever.
SAMEE
X2
I’m surprised. Even I knew about the trailers for Versus 13 and I’m not a Final Fantasy fan. They were viral UA-cam videos.
@@pinkblossoms yeah viral like 14 years ago
Saw the notification and was excited! It's so important to preserve all the media released relating to Versus XIII, in terms of trailers, press releases etc. it seems to be getting harder each year with sites and forums going offline over the years. I really wonder what this piece of work would have been like, especially those unreleased trailers (the JF2007 one bugs me as we only have two source camera recordings with no audio to this day)
Hopefully, one day, Square Enix will reveal to us Versus XIII was all about.
Fantastic work on these remastered ones, the quality and colour preservation is top quality!
Could you give me a link where I could watch these two camera recordings please?
NEVER. FORGET. EVER. It WILL return, my friends. Mark my words.
In Kingdom Hearts!
@@hiroko_9779 HELL Yeah!!
just hope u are right:)
Osaka does not have good production value. It will not be close to the same.
Amen
My heart still longs for this game I don't mean FF XV I mean the og Final Fantasy Versus XIII the way it's creator Tetsuya Nomura intended. I been waiting for vsxiii since 2007 when I first watched the trailer during visual arts class and I was so impressed by it I googled this game daily for years to get Intel about noctis aka mysterious badass what I called him back then. It's trailers including the 2013 E3 trailer are so badass that they still impressed me to this day. I made so many friends who longed for this game just like me as well it influenced my imagination. Thank you for remastering all of FF VSXIII trailers for it's fans to remember for eons to come.
My heart won't let go. Kingdom Heart III's secret ending and the Re Mind ending really feel like a gut punch.
Verum Rex will no doubt never be what 13 would've been, but it probably will be at least the closest thing we'll ever get to seeing it come to any sorta light
Honestly, even though I never got to play Nomura's original vision for Versus 13, I still look back on these trailers as a fond memory of my childhood leading up to becoming an adult. Everything from the atmosphere, the music and ideas that were both showed and speculated made such an impact. I still remember being a kid on my old windows PC looking up anything I could online to get more information because I saw so much potential in this story and world. I still put well over 150 hours into Final Fantasy 15, but I still feel I would have easily doubled that if it was Versus 13 instead. I'm glad some of these ideas are coming to KH4. But deep down Versus 13 will always be alive in my heart.
IDK i see FFDMC and it just makes me sad seeing what we missed out on.
I will never forgive that we got robbed of this masterpiece.
Everytime I re-watch all the trailers my heart drops and I feel very heavy and sad.
I hope Nomura gets a chance to finish this at some point or is able to make something similar. Not fair , the shit that happened to him during that time.
bro, the game is out. It was called Final Fantasy 15. This is a concept discarded for reasons that are irrelevant. Many games go through different stages before being released, and along the way they mutate
you are so exceptionally wrong its comical@@ECGxX12
@@flygonkerel781 explain, please
@@ECGxX12 XV(15) is not this one. Due some reasons, game canceled and they did what leftover over to make Final Fantasy XV(15) so basically, they are using most of characters, monsters, and map a bit maybe. Like city... Well, you said that your own too. But yeah, the main point, the game we wanted in trailer was not 15 though I am still happy Noctis become canon. xD
@@batuhandurmaz6872I think you mean XV(15). IV is 4.
Ya know, I've seen a LOT of unreleased and incomplete works over the years...
.....But none of them quite hit me as hard as this one did. It's such a shame that this idea has been buried far below the dirt with no chance of returning. I understand the existence of KH4, but it will never be the same. Ever
It's crazy that we missed out on Nomura vision and hopefully we see some semblance of it in verum rex
there is more chemistry and on screen (conscious and alive) interaction between stella and noctis in these trailers than what luna and noctis had in the actual game as adults 😬
I like to think of ffxv as a commerically sponsored fanfiction of the game we never got :)
@@luxeadawnlight that is so painfully accurate
I thought I went crazy lmao. I thought the notification said Versus XIII trailer and IMMEDIATELY clicked on the video. I didn’t check to see who uploaded it. I appreciate the HD trailers though!
same dude thought Versus XIII got re-announced
you must've had a goddamn heart attack, i'd be pissed if that was me, hopefully one day we can laugh at this if Versus gets reannounced
Thank you for making this video. It makes me happy to see some people still hold on to what’s left of Versus XIII. 😊
I wish we could have seen that cold blooded Noctis initial design more. Not saying his final version character is bad
How many years later and it’s still incredible. The choreography was ahead of it’s time, truly.
Years ago, I watched the trailer for Final Fantasy Versus with my dear old friend. We were incredibly excited for the game; every aspect seemed captivating. We made a pact to purchase it and experience it together upon its release. However, after many long years of anticipation, my friend tragically succumbed to cancer before he could witness the fate of this masterpiece. I can only imagine his disappointment at seeing how the game was mishandled. Brother, I hope to join you in heaven soon, where we can finally play Final Fantasy Versus together. Until then, wait for me.
Hopefully not 'soon', you must live your entire life here first, so you have enough stories to tell him!
My sincere condolences for your friend.
I hate that I love rewatching this, I keep getting excited for a game that doesn't and will never exist
Hurts me everytime... God I wish we got Versus XIII
Its so sad that this game never actually released at least the legacy of this game lives on through kh.
@Dead Rat why's that
Time for Nomura to force his this into kh
@@peridusk6128 he already has
Nomura: I’m not salty about it.
*14* years later. (See what I did there? Cause there are 14 members in Org XIII because of Xion. And Versus XIII trailer was released in 06 so yeah… okay no? Alright I’ll stop.)
*Kingdom Hearts 3 Reminds gets released and we all see the cutscenes.*
Us: OOOOMMMMMGGGGG!!?!???
no this games legacy lives on in FFXV
I followed Versus XIII for the WHOLE time from day one, and was excited af for it just to find out it wasn't really coming out and XV would be a shell of what we expected to get. So that was a decade of anticipation.
A lot of people are like me, you might have enjoyed XV- But there's no point in telling us "XV wasn't that bad" or "It's okay, Verum Rex is coming."
You're just gonna have to understand we wanted this fucking game bro LOL.
XV wasn't bad but it wasn't Versus XIII, we waited 10 years.
@@yadig. so true people say verum rex is coming don't worry wanted this game not verum rex
@@noavsnow7134 it's better than nothing but yeah I wish for Versus.
Well said bro!
I am the same like you T_T
Been waiting this game for over 10 years
Playing Versus XIII is my childhood dream!
Hopefully people who said "XV wasn't that bad" will open their mind and stop misunderstanding us!
Man I'm playing through XV right now and really loving it, but the trailers for Versus XIII do leave me longing for a bit more. It's crazy to me that the first trailer came out a year after I was born and people have been wanting a game like this for almost as long as I've been alive lol.
This game changed so much from 2006, we may not get the Vs XIII but we might get the story in KH4. 2006 tho, holy shit they envisioned this game from that far from the present. I couldn't imagine what the combat system would be like if it released around that era of gaming.
I wonder what do the cutscenes look like or the gameplay of the game will be like.
I will never forgive square enix for depriving me of this after I waited so long lol. The shady underworld vibes of the Noctis family, the dark tone of the city, the actual interaction between Noctis and Stella. Just watching that third trailer I could feel the tension and excitement building in my chest. Nothing in FFXV was deserving of Somnus, but everything in these trailers shows the potential to be.
This feels like it could have aligned with classic Final Fantasy experiences in the best way. And in the end we got a bloated slog of a game that barely made any sense.
Bruh did you even play FFXV? It's absolutely fantastic. Fun, memorable, immersive, impressionable, and full of emotion. It had enough content to last you hundreds of hours. And every second felt like it was well spent. Just because it's different from the original concept doesn't make it any less of a good game. It does just fine standing on its own legs. It's not a bloated slog, you're just a crybaby. Give it the fair chance it deserves. Otherwise even Nomura would be embarrassed of you
@@randomboys1000 you never played 15 at release. You fail to realize without the patches and dlc the game was only 1/3rd of what it is now. I have and it soured me so bad I've never touched it again after finishing it. I will try to go through it again some day but it's still too soon.
@@randomboys1000 while @LE0N4C brings up a good point, the conversation starts well before release. The base story in the released game is a patchwork of events and nonsensical motivations and conflicts, because even after all that time the game was unfinished. The released game took parts of an unfinished game that were complete, and stitched them together and tried to make them make sense. The bantering brotherhood distracted from the gaps and seams and made folks feel warm and fuzzy, and that was exactly their purpose. Most of the content in the base game was padding, and the content added later was filler dlc fodder. Considering how much this game deviated from it's original vision, who would know better how much of a disappointment it was than Nomura? I'd bet if he could speak freely he'd likely be more critical of it than I am.
We literally waited on this game for 10 years after it's announcement, 2006-2016, through multiple iterations and name changes. Randomboys1000, unless you know what that wait was like, seeing the game change more and more, move further and further away from the original vision, you can't really speak on this subject or assume to speak for Nomura.
Find that 150+ gigs of space on your console for this 90% filler content if you want.
"bloated slog of a game that barely made any sense"
i'm still confused why a modern setting uses a delivery dog to convey messages instead of a phone... xD
But whatever...
Fax. 🔥
the instant Armiger, and even warping with Elemancy...
The combat system looked so much fast paced and intense, this could've been the game that would have surpassed KH2FM
I think Nomura will do his project in a way or another (verum rex in next kh saga)
Kh3 was the game that surpassed kh2fm my guy
@@BandedMetagrossMeteorMash I agree, but it is not a sentiment shared by many.
@@BandedMetagrossMeteorMash I wish I could say the same but I can't. kh3 was such a let down for me
@@LordMoldyButt18 well that sucks for you cause kh3 improves tenfold on the gameplay, music, story, characters, graphics and everything of kh2fm
The fact that they created enough of the game that a whole half hour of promotional content could be created for the game, just for it to still get scrapped is crazy 😭
Y’know, as much as I enjoyed XV, discovering Versus XIII and learning more about it makes me feel like I kinda got robbed. The first four trailers tell what appears (to me at least) to be filled with more passion. The dark and mysterious atmosphere, the potential lore surrounding it, Versus XIII looked like the game I wanted and didn’t even know it.
It is hard not to think back on what might have been sometimes. FFXV has a lot of problems, and unfortunately I think a lot of that is due to the fact that it incorporated a lot of half-baked ideas from the original plan for the game. Now it seems like we're left with a game that has a lot to love in it but also a ton of wasted potential, and a very clear identity issue. While I love the game we ended up with in its own right, I do wish we could have gotten the chance to explore what was previously envisioned.
@@supremeoverlorde2109 agreed, the potential is all there. I can see it.
“Versus XIII looked like the game I wanted and I didn’t even know it”
BOOM! Imagine those who saw this in 2006 and watched every trailer throughout the years…
FFXV was so empty and completely went off track to what this was suppose to be. Like seriously, even FFXIII had a deeper story line.
@@tomasgomez9925 I’m holding onto hope we get something like what we saw in Versus XIII’s early trailers. Regardless of what medium it’s told, be it a game, movie, show, or even a book.
Well said on this as someone who enjoyed XV, yet can still be aware and acknowledge its flaws@@supremeoverlorde2109
As much as I did come to love FFXV to a point, I still have a lot of criticism for it, and I can't help but wonder what could've been. Even seeing content from the trailers after it changed titles, there's stuff that just plain was cut from FFXV, I'm a little sad about it. I don't think FFXV could've existed without FFVersusXIII, but I think FFVersusXIII could've been its own grand game. Now we'll get some lite version in KH. I'll take it, but that "what did Nomura have planned?" question always hangs over me. And I can't imagine what it's like to watch your concepts and characters be taken away for a project you have no control over, watching them be changed to something you never planned for any of it. Yes, a risk of making a game rather than writing a book on your own, but... STILL. It must've been difficult.
If they were to all the sudden decide to finish the last 3 dlcs, I hope they have nomura make the story for them & add his original ideas
"love FFXV" into the trash this opinion goes, lawl.
Im so happy I'm finding more people like this channel that feels exactly the same way how i felt for this game and for Nomura through the years, there were times where I felt alone in this but not anymore. I hope Nomura still makes what he was meant to do one way or another.
"Eues that see the light of expiring souls" that line just sends shivers. What could have been
It's a good line, but it's also really funny to me that it literally just means "when people die some people can see their souls ascend to heaven." Makes me wonder how literally the rest of those title cards were supposed to be taken.
@@sagewaterdragon I don't feel like your laymen's translation takes any weight or poetic impact away from the line at all. If anything, it's nice that it sounds so epic and mysterious, but also has a tangible and clear meaning.
I hope someday nomura will remake this version of the game. Nomuras artstyle and aesthetic is why I love final fantasy
I will never be over Versus XIII.
Never fucking forget what they took from us
Damn straight.
Versus XIII will never be forgotten. Thank you, 13th vessel!
King Regis looks even more badass in Versus XIII.
Edit: Thank you for the 13 likes.
Man...nostalgia. The first trailer came out the year i graduated high school. I was so hyped..
I followed this game for such a long time, its a shame it never came out. Was such a cool concept.
Great, now I'm getting stupidly nostalgic and also longing for this intriguing vision of the game that was never released. But thank you for remastering it...
there are shots that I've NEVER seen before in this!!! terrific job, well done
The best final fantasy we never had😢
Now the first trailer of KH4 has just released, I'm hopeful that Nomura can finally do what he envisioned for Versus XIII.
Looks like KHIV is taking major inspiration from Versus XIII. While that game may never see the light of day at least it still has remnants sprinkled within Kingdom Hearts
I really want the game to take a darker tone but knowing square enix they aren't gonna do it. It seems yeah they're taking minor inspiration from versus 13 but they should go the full mile with it
@@michael-pg8fi At the end of the day it's still a kingdom hearts game. I doubt Disney would want such a bleak game.
And they're going to make a dark story anyways, by the looks of XVI. I still agree with you though, I want a full version of Versus XIII too
Honestly i miss the simplicity of the first game. The series has gotten far to convoluted and I’m not at all invested in the mobile/iOS/android series, but I guess I’ll play KHIV for what it is. I grew up with this series but can’t help but feel I’m being left behind, especially with the new trailer. I’ll definitely still pick it up when it releases but I can’t say I’m exactly as excited as I used to be.
@@RelevantMacaroon Yeah, I feel you. I'm currently watching the Key Saga on UA-cam. Taking a break before continuing the video.
those trailers were nothing short of legendary and iconic, just my kind of tone and cinematography.
We could have had one of the best gaming experiences ever
Ugh, just seeing these trailers again sparks my imagination. I want to know more about the mythos and everything! I wanna see more interactions between Noctis and Stella! I want this game so bad! Why Square!? Why!?
That sequence with Noct and Stella facing off from 8:48 is still so amazing to me
I’m still waiting for a game like this, a dark mature fantasy game where you dont know which side is either good or bad. But there is a complex conflict on every aspect on the battlefield, political, with enemies, friends and loved ones. Where the developer is not afraid to show blood, guts and even death to tell there story. That is why i still return to these trailers once in a while.
Final Fantasy Type 0 was pretty dark. With all the killing and blood and violence. Along with the concept that once people die everyone else forgets about them leaving them as only more bodies and memories to burry.
Which is intriguing since VS XIII and Type 0 and FFXIII are part of the FNC (Fabula Nova Crystalis) story.
You just described Type 0
Look into Western RPGs. That's stuff's common there. I recommend Dragon Age
Look forward to Final Fantasy XVI, in June, because that’s exactly what we are gonna get from that. The spirit of what Versus was trying to do will live on in that game.
It's really interesting to rewatch all these trailers again, (I would watch them over and over, specifically the part where Aranea (At the time she was called Dragoon girl) jumped and when Noctis got hit with bullets in the gameplay trailer) and only just realized upon watching all of the scenes relating to Yozora, it's obvious, but it made me realize:
Luxord = Ignis
Magis = Prompto
Aegis = Gladiolus
Yozora = You get the idea.
So we might not see a revival in KH4, but prehaps a *link to FF Versus 13...*
It's probably worth mentioning the light they (Stella and Noctis) talk about is like the bright purple light that Yozora was trying to reach out to the girl in the Toy Box trailer.
Wow! Awesome job at preserving this piece of videogames history. Thank you so much for you hard work!
Two games that I always come back to watch their initial trailers, FF versus XIII and Bioshock Infinite, always imagining how those versions would be way cooler than the final released games.
Never watched these before. I can see why people were so excited for this game.
Also, very interesting that the defensive wall of swords is so much like the block in Sora’s Ultimate form
It's like seeing an alternate version of Sora from another univer- wait a second
NOMURA YOU SLY DOG
@@ZeranZeran Riku*
@@Quintessence4444 I would LOVE to see RIku too. So much of his back story is unexplained.
I’ll never let go. I’ll never stop hoping.
in some alternative universe, people are loving FF versus 13 game with a passion!
Oh I wish if I can go back where Final Fantasy Versus XIII became a big deal and the fanbase had formed, many theories in forums, fanfics made, dedicated fanarts and so on... FFXV is still my all time entry but this is what I can imagine if the director didn't scrapped this along the Fabula Nova Crystallis but in the end, this always lived in my rent free mind.
We may never get the intended Versus XIII but at least we’ll get some form of it via Verum Rex.
I have a feeling that verum rex isn't the vsxiii revival that most people think.
@@OmegaKatanaXIII how come? nomura being a sly fox literally made yozora and vs xiii noctis have the same pose in the car scene if that doesn't scream revival or something I dunno what is
@@SpiderTrickster it's to identical to be just an homage or a simple Easter egg yes it's using resources but even that takes a ton of money to do like replace the model and etc call me crazy but I have a feeling that Nomura has plans for yozora and he is the key to open the door. One more thing to add remember the quote "an oath to return".
I doubt it’s Versus XIII revamped too. Although I do have hope that Verum Rex will be good, being that Verum Rex borrows Versus concepts that never came to be.
@@Kirito843 This. Exactly this. It would be concepts, but we don't have the entire original story. That and my opinion of VsXIII being forced in Kingdom Hearts. Like I really don't know if Kingdom Hearts was meant to go this way into FF territory or he was inspired by his original work of VsXIII and wanted to implement it into KHs. Or because he's upset and he's getting his original out there by inserting it into KHs and changing the entire route it's suppose to go.
Either way I feel like he's getting his story one way or another by involving a bystander--KHs, to get it, when VsXIII should of been its own thing! But if we get a Verum Rex game, it's literally FF slap on with the KHs lable. Or is that the other way around... But yeah... KHs needs reboot/rewrite to fix the story telling and no more retcons during the first draft after all this time. Because the story is a mess, but we still stand by it all this time.~
Thanks for doing this, there are still the few of us who still lament what the game could have been. I hope you never take this down because I want to come back here in another decade just to relive the memories.
It still hurts so much!
I loved XV for what it is but I desperatly long for the version shown in in the last 3 trailers.
I swear after the last 2013 trailer they scarpped everything besides the character designs and names.
havent watched the trailers in a while but damn the 2013 build looks really really good, fast and snappy. Nomura really knew what he was doing
I understand that we'll probably never get this version Nomura wanted to do for a video game -- and while I'm eager to see what he recycled from it to use in the future KH games -- I really hope someday we can get a novel or movie of *this* version.
The beautiful game that never was, but we will never forget it for some reason
FFXV will always hold a special place in my heart as being the first FF I’ve played. I genuinely loved most of the story and I never had such love for characters then I did with Noct and his crew. But I totally agree that some things in FFXV could’ve been fleshed out a bit more; combat and story wise. Definitely felt that the Magitek soldiers could’ve been a lot more dangerous and more of a threat than what they were in the final product. They felt really easy to kill especially when they hardly leveled up along with Noct to keep up as a threat to him and his crew. And the magic could’ve been a bit more easier to use. I hardly ever used the consumable spells
Edit: Don’t get me wrong, I still appreciate what Tabata and Nomura did with what they had for FFXV
Don't get me wrong, XV was really good, especially if you have in mind the development hell, but dude this could have been a masterpiece!!.
Someday it will be released, NEVER FORGET!!
I will freak the hell out if at the KH 20th anniversary event in April Nomura shows us a glimpse of the next KH game and where the series goes next.
And he shows a quick shot of something from Verum Rex which is basically taking from Versus XIII
Well shit. KH4 trailer straight up in Quadratum.
Everything you said at the end is exactly how I feel. Like man, I only ever look at Final Fantasy XV with sadness. I really wanted Final Fantasy Versus XIII and I still do! #RestoreVersusXIII
XV is still a fantastic game in its own right. In a perfect world we'd have both
Just found this for the first time recently and it blows my mind how this whole game changed this much and they even still had Somnus theme this whole time as well.
bIess your efforts you man we so desperateIy needed
I know there is nothing but speculations and theory on who and what Stella could have been and her role but man, that sequence shot of her slowly turning around, something just tells me her role was going to be some damn special in vXIII and @10:52 is still one the best version of Somnus!
Gracias por la compilación, la calidad y los subtítulos para preservar esta épica historia. No soy gamer pero si fan de las historias de los jrpg y estaba pintaba increíble (además como profesor de latín me encantan ambos temas de Yoko). Yo creo que Verum Rex va a conectar la historia de KH con la deVersus, como fue la idea original de Nomura, y preparar así la posibilidad de un futuro Versus.
This was sorely needed.
Man I wanted 13 Versus so bad . Noctis just looked so much better
The Noctis we got in 15 is such a pansy bitch, and it hurts so bad.
3:38 this was an iconic shot for the longest time, waiting for Versus XIII to release
I really hope we get this game in the future, the real original vision with Noctis.
15 was ok. But versus looked so flipping amazing. Why have we been punished by the Square Enix Overlords :(
I still cried for Stella
versus 13 will neverr die in my heart
Verum Rex
@@FlameOC that's a Phoenix.
Check out dis guy name Derek Bonilla ffxv channel he made ffxv look like versus 13...
I still say, to this day, that the first trailer that rebrands it as FF 15 was by far the most impressive display of mindblowing gameplay to be shown in a trailer, even by today's modern standards. If that game had come out then, hell, even now in 2024, - with cinematics woven in to the battle system diegetically - game designers would be shitting themselves out of fear of being unable to beat this combat system. All this said, I find it interesting that Nomura fully intends to "bring back" this vision of what could have been vs XIII into the KH franchise with Quadratum feeling very "first three trailers of vs XIII" inspired and Yozora and Nameless Star being Noctus and Stella in new forms, respectively. I'd be excited to see Nomura rework this version of FF15 into KH4. Even Noctus's original personality: a little too hot-blooded and running into things head first, fits with Sora fairly well. What a fascinating case study these trailers are.
Noctis was actually supposed to be an anti hero doing good and bad acts according to Nomura and that would connect with the themes of the game and the quote “there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so” also Nomura stated Sora and Noctis have opposite names for a reason sky and night sky. I think Nomura always wanted to connect kingdom hearts with versus xiii and have Sora and Noctis work together and fight the master of masters or ardyn together and show each other opposite sides of perspectives and worlds with Sora being the light and Noctis being the dark just my opinion it seems no one reads into when Nomura said that and just skims past it. Also don’t think verum rex will be versus xiii, Nomura even confirmed this saying verum rex and versus are “two different works”.
If it was released, it would be the best game of the generation or atleast best of the ff franchise for sure
I thank you for taking the time to compile the trailers together remastered. I at times ponder on what the game would have became had Nomura and his team finished Versus XIII. Are there any demos left from the project like the gameplay at 15:04 - if only developers were allowed to share that build with the players, I would love to explore the early stages of the world. I read that Noctis' Japanese voice actor has the script, I pray that he can one day share what the story is like.
The third trailer is literally the best video on earth. The tension all up until the ending even tho we know so very little… omg bro it was SOO MUCH ahead of its time and it makes me sooo sad to see what FF15 made with Noctis…..
Tetsuya Nomura the ultimate goat just give him the time he needs and everyone will be happy…
At least Nomura now has one more shot at telling at least a spiritual successor to Versus XIII's story with the Verum Rex aspect of Kingdom Hearts 4.
The greatest game of all time that we'll never get to play
Incredible preservation work. I've been trying to source higher-quality versions of some of those trailers for a hot minute (especially the Cloud DVD one) and I was seriously considering buying the DVD so I could upscale it - glad this came out so I didn't have to pay those import fees! Seriously, though, this is as pristine as this footage is ever going to get, and I really appreciate that, when you used upscaling, it was done tastefully. Color grades are the easiest thing for people to mess up and you did it well.
the 2011 trailer was my favorite. it looks so much like a ff game compared to ffxv. looks like they were working with the idea of being able to control the other party members more. also that version of the invsaion looks like it would have been a great experience to play through. RIP King Regis. Long Live the King.
FFXV was a great game, but Versus XII would have been another level...
Best trailer of all time. I'll never forget how this game made me feel. Something tells me that Nomura isn't going to die without getting this story out there, in whatever format it needs too. Rip Stella. Long live the queen.
Yeahh doubt that
I could never thank you and everyone behind this enough. I'm a non-gamer Final Fantasy fan and I'm so invested in FFVII and FFVsXIII. I've been watching FF Versus trailers and amvs for countless of times, and I'm so happy that every trailer is now on HD. More power to you guys^^
Tabata removed so much elements from Versus XIII because he wants the game to be "straightforward" so anyone can follow. And look what we've got, a very barebones game that you actually need those DLCs to be complete, and what's funny is that it still wasn't complete and you still need the novel to know the true ending. Such a shame.
I still feel this game in my bones. I hope you can bring this to life again in some shape or form in KH4/Verum Rex, Nomura.
I used to watch the 2011 trailer all the time, even as far to download it into my phone. I was like 15 or so, and I was also currently really into anime and starting to get into JRPGs back then. The game has swords, guns, magic, and mechas. It took place in modern setting, the main character is a prince, dresses all black, can teleport and summon weapon similar to Fate's Gilgamesh, it resonates with my chuuni soul; This game was pretty much the edgy teen wet dream.
My parents only let me to have one console and that was 360, I literally saved money to buy PS3 just to play this game.
FFXV might be incomplete and doesn't come close to the awesomeness they showed in the trailers, but the Versus XIII hype was so strong that I come to love XV despite it flaws. It has such a huge impact in my teenage life.
Really wish the final game had like a Intro segment like FFVII Midguard where you play the first couple of hours in the City before it gets attacked.
Most of the trailers made me think it would be so. It would have made coming back to it way more meaningful to see it in ruins.
i just discovered this video
i heard a lot about vs 13, and know the story
as a kingdom hearts fan, i know nomura is going to remake this game into verum rex
and still, with all of that, you made me fell in love for a game that i know will never release
just through atmosphere, design, this game touched me like... really not a lot of games
thank you for your work man
i hope one day we can all play this game