Today, one of our editors found out a group of people working on revealing the secrets behind the Final Fantasy XIII game data.They have succeeded in finding many different things such as a playable version of the downloadable content that was never released in the game. Even cooler is the fact that the unfinished version of the area is available on the disc and the players can actually access it on PlayStation 3 and PC. As we shared the news on our personal accounts, many people joined us to help with cracking this project and now we have even more screenshots, videos and details about the DLC. Let’s look at the facts first:

The Final Fantasy XIII team did plan to include the level called the “Seventh Ark” in the original game, which would have been a free battle area build around a quest. It would have been accessible from one of the portals in Orphan’s Cradle. However, the team had to remove access to that area from the game for timing reasons. They then considered adding it again as a DLC, but they eventually cancelled all plans, citing technical issues in terms of overall quality of the contents. They also pointed to differences in online services between the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Lightning: “Are we back in the Ark?”
Snow:  “Seems a little different from before, no?”
Fang: “Then again, it’s probably not the same Ark”.
Sazh: “What do you mean?”
Vanille: “It’s like I said before. They hid these things across Gran Pulse.”
Hope: “And you think the plan is for Barthandelus to use them in this grand scheme of his?”
Sazh: “Let loose the horrors locked inside, and watch Cocoon get destroyed from the bleachers.”
Fang: “Either that, or he hasn’t given up on the idea of training us for doomsday.”

Next they will see an area similar to the fifth ark we saw in the original game. The monster is  still standing on the platform and another monster is frozen and lost its textures. However, it’s possible to interact with objects that start to spin when the player touches them.

“Fal’Cie lord and master of the Seventh Arc. Its work consists of harassing the l’Cie in the middle of cruel tests and obligating them to surpass their own limits. Apparently it trains them to fight against someone, but it is not known who. Nemesis and its Arc already existed in the times before the construction of Cocoon.” 

“One of the military installations of which the legends of Gran Pulse speak. The Fifth Arc is clearly an arsenal ready to combat invaders; the Seventh, instead, has as its principal function to awaken the hidden power of the l’Cie.”

Below, you can view a full video from the Seventh Ark. It will show you all the game scenarios and events we talked before. It also shows us how unfinished the area still is. Storywise, Barthandelus was meant to train our heroes there and perhaps even stop them. The Seventh Ark was never meant to be downloadable content at the first place but the team had to remove access to that area from the game for timing reasons. The development team considered adding it again as a DLC, but they eventually cancelled all plans, citing technical issues in terms of overall quality of the contents, which is why the remnants were left to the game.

Big thanks for Virgin KLM and hedgehog89 for working hard on this little project. Thanks for Crystamined for capturing screenshots and making additional Spanish translation work. Thanks to SkacikPL for capturing the video. One big hug for our editor Amicitias who originally found out this project.