I still think about the Final Fantasy Versus 13 trailer. Did you know that Square Enix gave the first real full look at the so-called Final Fantasy XIII spin-off? With the opening shot of a sleepy Noctis being herded into a modern city, the blend of fantasy creatures and contemporary settings feels so fresh for a series from over two decades ago. Of course, almost none of this made it into the final game, and the inevitable reboot in the form of Final Fantasy XV left some elements that I’m personally very excited about for what seems like forever. And wouldn’t you know it, the emergence of the ReMind DLC for “Kingdom Hearts 3” has brought trouble to this work.
Please be warned of spoilers for “Kingdom Hearts 3” in advance.
When you first launch the Toy Story world in Kingdom Hearts 3, you’ll be greeted by a seemingly interesting cutscene. There’s a main character who looks like he could be from any modern Final Fantasy game, a girl he has to save, dramatic music, and it has the works.
That main character happens to be named Yozora, and for the rest of your time in that world, the toy dinosaur Rex insists on calling Sora by that name because of their resemblance. This is interesting because the cutscene is presented as an in-world advertisement for a game called Verum Rex, which in turn contains a series of purchasable toys. Everyone thought Tetsuya Nomura was just joking, making fun of Final Fantasy as a whole. But in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3, you see… the night sky? Isn’t he just a character in a video game?
Well, it turns out he was real. In fact, he’s the super boss in the ReMind DLC, which was released a year after the base game and had two endings, depending on whether you won or lost. No matter which ending you get, you’ll eventually see a cutscene showing a sleepy Night Sky being herded into a modern city, a shot-for-shot remake of the classic Versus 13 trailer, and I kind of lost my mind.
“Nomura, what does this mean?” I asked myself then and still ask myself now. We still haven’t found any answers to this question, or any of the thousands of other questions I have, because Kingdom Hearts 4 isn’t out yet. We also don’t know when Kingdom Hearts 4 will be released, but considering that the next mobile game, Missing Link, may not be released for a while. Whenever it’s released, I just hope it delivers on the promise of Versus 13.
I really can’t explain how much Versus 13 intrigued me when I first saw the aforementioned trailer and its original trailer. At that point I hadn’t played Final Fantasy 7, which obviously also blended modernity and fantasy, but as much as I enjoyed the game, and enjoyed the remake, the steampunk influence meant it wasn’t quite there yet. Play a role. The itchy feeling left behind by Versus 13.
Looking at Versus’ gameplay reveal, you can clearly see that it’s meant to be Kingdom Hearts “but if it were a full-on Final Fantasy.” It has a similarly designed combat menu, slower-paced but exciting-looking action, and even the health bars of Noctis and company put their faces in the corners. But beyond that, the dark, moody urban environments are a far cry from Kingdom Hearts’ color-heavy aesthetic, and as a near-teenager, that’s exactly my vibe.
But even now, a decade later, what Versus 13 promised still hasn’t really materialized. I want to explore modern, fictional Tokyo one minute and ride around on a chocobo the next, I want to play a hot anime boy who is a future king in a stylish black suit, and I want to own the top of Shibuya 109 fierce fighting.
Well, Kingdom Hearts 3 already gave me the last one, but that’s part of the reason why I hope Kingdom Hearts 4 will live up to what Final Fantasy vs. 13 told us, even to some extent . The trailer for Versus 4 definitely looks like we’re going to be on a very different journey with Sora this time around, which does excite me in a way, but I really need that Versus 13 itch.
More importantly, I want to see these ideas come to fruition. Sure, there were movies or albums with stories that never came to light, but none promoted themselves the way the games did — footage of Versus 13 exists but is completely unplayable, at least not publicly. I hope Kingdom Hearts 4 realizes this near-mythical idea of Versus 13 and leans into it, giving us more of the meta-genre narrative that the Disney x Final Fantasy series often indulges in.
Essentially, what I want most is to explore the potential of Versus 13, even if that’s not exactly what Nomura planned all those years ago. This is what the trailer looks like most of the time, right? Potential? You never really know what it is until you get it in your hands, and maybe Kingdom Hearts 4 will take away some of the magic I’m currently feeling from those old trailers. But, much like how I felt as a teenager, it’s fun to imagine what might have been.
