GET READY FOR LIGHTNING RETURNS TRAILER
Only few weeks left before E3 2013 where we will be seeing brand new trailers and screenshots for new games such Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and the next-gen Final Fantasy.
Today we decided to get you hyped up with a new – a bit remixed – Final Fantasy XIII trailer from FF25th bonus disc which we haven’t seen before. Also now you can joy the new orchestra version of Blinded by Light x Defiers of Fate!
Official Synopsis:
The world of Gran Pulse is sinking into the sea and what remains is now called Nova Chrysalia.
With only thirteen days remaining until the end of the world, Chaos reigns in a world that never ages. New life cannot be born. People need salvation.
As Lightning, it is your mission to save as many souls as possible so that they may be brought to the new world. Along the journey, you will encounter familiar faces and engage new foes in all new lands. You must ultimately choose which souls to save and which to abandon…and fully understand Lightning’s true destiny.
It all ends here.
Thanks to Pablo for capturing the original footage from bonus disc!
*APRIL FOOLS* The Theme Song Singer of Lightning Returns Announced on Japanese Morning Show
As rumored earlier, one Japanese Morning Show had a big and exclusive Final Fantasy related announcement coming this morning. They revealed the theme song singer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and guess who it is? NICKI MINAJ. Wow… Lightning Returns will have a rap & very auto-tuned theme song this time? Well let’s not judge it before hearing.
We couldn’t yet add subtitles for video but in the beginning they reveal that they have a big music related announcement to make. Then they tell about how Lightning’s new game will be getting a theme song sang by American rap-singer-barbie-bad bitch Nicki Minaj. When it comes to LR gameplay part they tell about the game (release timing is Fall etc.) and how the theme song will be included in the next trailer.
Final Fantasy XIII-2: Cancelled Environments, Areas and DLC Plans
Abandoned/Cancelled Prototypes Plans
When developing a new (Final Fantasy) game, creators often imagine many different kinds of things for their next game. From this article you can find an overview of abandoned or cancelled areas and content from FINAL FANTASY XIII-2. These new details are taken from the official FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 ULTIMANIA OMEGA book.
Thanks to our French friends from Final Fantasy World who translated the text from Japanese to French we were able to make English translation.
Ideas for Known Environments
In the early creative process of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the developer team is creating many environments and places, but only part of them are actually included in the final game. In this article you can see many different and interesting looking illustrations or in-game screenshots of many ideas and areas which were planned for the game. However these places and ideas were never playable at any point. Like we told you in the earlier article the story was meant to be located to 900 years in the future, but in some early point of the development it was changed to the time traveling system.
Enjoy this article and never-before-seen artwork below!
The Ruins of Eden at Lake Bresha
In this concept artwork you can see Eden, the great floating city of Cocoon, which has collapsed to Lake Bresha that lies at the bottom of crystallized Cocoon. People who has played the first game likely remember that the lake crystallized at the very beginning of it. In the background, you can see the crack in Cocoon’s shell.
The Ruins in the Oerba
In this illustration you can see the landscape of desertified Oerba. You may recognize those pieces of building, they are from the Cradle of Orphan, the last area of FINAL FANTASY XIII. It is not known why these remains can be found on Gran Pulse. (and not Cocoon)
Ruins of Eden on Gran Pulse
Different to the Lake Bresha version here Eden has been collapsed on Gran Pulse, at Archylte Steppe. The scene was to be in the distant future where the ancient capital of Cocoon would have been covered by different kinds of plants, flowers and other vegetation.
Archylte Steppe in the Future – The Great City of Gran Pulse
These conceptual images show, how Archylte Steppe would have looked 900 years after the ending of Final Fantasy XIII. This is a huge and great city with high buildings. You can also notice similar building to the government building of Eden background. This place would have had day and beautiful sunset versions.
Bresha Ruins in the Future
These two images show the appearance of the ruins of Bresha from 500 (upper) and 900 (lower) years after the events of FFXIII. By the time’s passing the area wouldn’t change that much, but in AF 900 the ruins had completely submerged to the lake. Could this have been the Atlantis of Final Fantasy XIII?
Deleted Area: The Thirteenth Ark
It’s possible that some environments and areas aren’t included to the final game because the lack of time. This is what happened to the Thirteenth ark, the place which was mentioned in the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and is visible in the sky of Academia. The developers had planned to let the players to discover this place by themselves and nobody would have known anything about this place. They were also planning to have symbols on the ground to help players to know where they were in this maze.
The Thirteenth Ark is a monumental structure that floats in the sky of Gran Pulse. Visually,The Thirteenth Ark was supposed to make the player feel dizzy. The idea of the developers was to make Ark dungeon-like maze where players could have explore the mysteries of area.
The dungeon included mechanisms to let players move around it. The machine (above) in the Ark was supposed to allow the player to make huge jumps thanks to the power of the wind.
Cancelled Downloadable Content
FFXIII-2 is the first game in the whole saga which has downloadable content. Furthermore all the enemies, costumes and weapons, developers had also planned several additional scenarios. Each of them would have been dedicated for one character like Sazh and Lightning DLC episodes did. They had ideas for Snow and Hope episodes, but they were cancelled. Here is more info about those episodes.
Snow’s Episode
This episode was very different to the final version of Snow’s episode which is available via XBOX LIVE and PSN. Originally Snow’s episode included a motorcycle minigame through the Archylte Steppe where he would fight against monsters. (See photo above) The goal was defeat 30 monsters, and Snow’s abilities would have been spinning, drifting, jumping and water spell. The racing system was used as the base for the chocobo racing minigame in Serendipity. Those visible red balls in the bottom left of the image are the flare accelerations.
Hope’s Episode
Like we earlier told, the action would have taken place in the August Tower. Player would have had 30 minutes of time to stop Alyssa and her plan to kill Hope. This episode reminds us a bit about Dragon’s Lair. If the player responded well, the story continued, but if he answered, it was game over. With right answer player would have seen a new cutscenes and problems. The idea was repeat the mission several times to successfully complete it.
Original Japanese to French translation made by Jérémie Kermarrec from FFWorld. Original French to English translation made by Jonttutan from Square Portal.
New Final Fantasy XIII-2 Ultimania Omega Scenario Details
Thanks to GameFAQ user, Alyassus, we have brand new information about cancelled DLC plans and events of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Also some important and interesting questions concerning to the story have been answered.
Note: This news will have huge story spoilers. Don’t read if you haven’t finished the game yet!
Originally, Final Fantasy XIII-2 wasn’t meant to be a direct sequel for Final Fantasy XIII.
The story was meant to take place some 900 years afterward. During the creation of all the back story for the 900 years in between XIII and XIII-2, the development team decided to add time travel in the game. The theme of the game was keep the hope alive, even if the future is dark, uncertain and dangerous. Developers have got inspiration to the story from the tsunami cataclysm which happened in Japan in March 2011.
The battle between Lightning and Caius in Valhalla was meant to take place in an endless loop. Both characters were aware of it though. The endless loop could only end when Lightning turn into a crystal. Like we know, Valhalla is a place between the Unseen World and the real world, but originally it was meant to be the place in 999 AF. That time was also mentioned in Final Fantasy Type-0 (Only released in Japan for PSP) which would have tied both games together. This idea was cancelled.
There is no toilets in Valhalla…
The Caius which we have seen in 700 AF traveled to Valhalla by using the power of Chaos. From there he had the ability to send messages to past-him in different timelines. This explains why Caius in 200 AF seems to know Noel, even though they shouldn’t have met yet. He doesn’t have the ability to time travel, but Caius you fought in 500AF can be the same Caius in 700AF.
Does Caius purposely make Yeul’s lifespan shorter by changing the timeline? Caius is aware of this and that is why he tries to destroy the world and bring everything to Valhalla. More paradoxes Serah and Noel solve more possibilities for the future broaden. That’s why Caius tries to reduce the number of possible futures to the point where there is only the one future, where the world is destroyed and gone. He allows Serah and Noel to solve the paradoxes and the world is still heading for its doom.
Caius’ motivation comes from the fact that he has seen Yeul die so many times on his hands and he knows the world will end in 700 AF. He wants to safe Yeul from her suffering by ending the world sooner than it is meant to happen. Caius actually died at the hands of Noel near the end of the game, but may live on through Chaos.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 didn’t feature any love story between Serah and Noel because they both had their own loved ones in Snow and Yeul. In few interview Toriyama promised that game will bring happy ending for Lightning but it didn’t happen. He he hopes to tell more stories using Fabula Nova Crystallis mythologies.
Ultimania Omega book also includes information about scrapped DLC plans. Originally Snow’s episode included a motorcycle minigame through the Archylte Steppe where he would fight against monsters. (See photo above) The goal was defeat 30 monsters, and Snow’s abilities would have been spinning, drifting, jumping and water spell. The racing system was used as the base for the chocobo racing minigame in Serendipity.
There was also plan to make Hope Episode DLC as an adventure type game using Live Trigger system in Augusta Tower. The goal was to stop Alyssa from killing Hope. Player would have used terminals, where you would have done some decisions that would let you continue the game or get a game over.
At first Alyssa was supposed to be a tough type of woman that would make fun of men. Her relationship with Hope should have changed both characters some way. They had a few fun ideas for her, but nothing was revealed. Anyway this version of Alyssa would have been too much alike with Jihl Nabaat so they decided to change her character.
