Final Fantasy XV/WMG

Versus is a Reconstruction of Final Fantasy VII.

Whereas 7 decided to Break the Cutie/Kill the Cutie, Squeenix decided to give her edge, thus possibly averting the trope, but replaces it with the reason why Aeris and Cloud can't be together canonically. Where Aeris failed, Stella succeeds, shown in how much of a Cute Bruiser Stella is compared to Magical Girl Aeris. As such, where Cloud is the big man with the false facade, Noctis is the subverted character: a man with large potential but decides to have good, outwardly shy intentions underneath that cool facade of his. Finally, where 7 deconstructed the Anime Hair, Versus will reconstructs it with the You Gotta Have Blue Hair motif.

Expect something along the lines of parent issues when playing through Versus; 7 didn't like going into that subject often, so expect reasons why Cloud behaved like a wuss in wolf's clothing and Aeris is a Magical Girl.

EDIT: For compare/contrast, look at the WMG directly below this one (Final Battle Will Be Against Stella) and the last one (Heroic Sacrifice). All three appear to go hand-in-hand.

• Huh, can you give me example where Anime Hair is deconstructed? I mean, besides Lampshade Hanging, that is.
  • Eh, since 7 does Lampshade it, I guess Versus would do that to an extent. Lampshade Deconstruction (Do We Have This?) in this sense would be a bit extreme to say so, so maybe Versus will attempt to do the same. Either way, the core of this WMG assumes that Versus is the Spiritual Successor and/or Reconstruction to 7. Besides, can someone else find an example of a possible Deconstruction of this in 7 since this troper cannot?

The final battle of the game will be against Stella.

Furthermore, she will not go One-Winged Angel. She'll get powerful, but she will remain her original form, looking exactly like herself, the entire time, just to make it extra-hard on the player. Why? Well, this is supposed to be the darkest Final Fantasy yet. They've already shown they're willing to Kill the Cutie, so what's one step beyond that? Making you kill her. Not to mention the scene in the trailer of Noctis and Stella drawing their weapons on each other... alternatively, it will subvert the entire concept of a Final Boss by having an intentional loss letting yourself be beaten and then choosing to Press X to Die, or by having running away be an option the entire time that will actually work if you try enough, but Stella usually stops you. Actually beating her in this case would provide a Nonstandard Game Over.

The final battle of the game will be against Etro.

If they decide to go the "bigass terrifying final boss" route, unlike the above WMG.

Noctis and Stella will become either the Official Couple or Star-Crossed Lovers.

Don't they just give off that whole vibe?

• Actually, it would most likely be both. Official Couple due to being shown damn close to each other in nearly everything, and Star-Crossed Lovers for TOO OBVIOUS reasons.

Alternatively, Square Enix is deliberately screwing with the pre-release Shippers.

They set up Noctis and Stella deliberately so everyone will assume the Star-Crossed Lovers WMG is true, and they intend to do something to make the whole concept simply loaded with Squick - Stella is much Older Than She Looks and is a baby, for example, or is Noctis's daughter conjured up in time travel, or something else gross. Or, less meanly, just otherwise sinking the ship by making one of them canonically gay or having them decide they're too close as friends to risk that by hooking up.

• In fact, this has just been confirmed: Nomura has stated in an interview that Noctis is gay. Or not. It was an April Fools prank.
• I read this as a Take That to the bad fanbase. It Makes Sense in Context.

Godzilla will show up

Then the game will reveal its true name: "Final Fantasy: Godzilla vs. XIII". And she'll fight the entire cast of FFXIII. And she'll win.

Noctis is Hope.

• A grown up Hope, but Hope nevertheless.
  • Probably not. Versus doesn't take place in the same world, and Noct has black hair.
    • Hair dye.
    • Noctis' hair seems pretty silver to me. Dark silver, but silver none the less.
  • Actually, the entire Fabula Novus Crystallis trilogy is set in the same universe, and with all the magic Final Fantasy has, it would not be surprising if they could find someway to crossover. Their personalities certainly fits.
    • Errr... actually, developers said that none of the Fabula Nova Crystallis games take place in the same world; each game takes place in the same universe; they mentioned crossovers were unlikely. What they share is a common mythology and the "vague crystal theme."

This and XIII are parallel universes, with Versus beginning shortly before the end of XIII.

So Square-Enix has said that the games don't take place in the same world. Allegedly this means that they aren't really connected at all. However, the main plan of the Big Bad in XIII is to call the Maker back into the world by killing so many people that the door to "the next world" is forced wide open. It's implied that the crystal light floating around near the end of the game is the preliminary form of this happening. In the one dialogue scene we've seen in Versus XIII, they discuss a light they see in the sky, which is supposed to be the goddess accepting the souls of the dead into the other side. Additionally, the arks were built to prepare for an invasion by the "outside", but the Analects reveal that this doesn't refer to Cocoon at all.

• Compare and contrast the Gran Pulse WMG one below. It may not be the Maker exactly, but somewhere close to the Goddess Etro, since she is featured more often.

This is the world of Gran Pulse, in the past.

Not so much WMG as assuming that SE was lying so that the revelation that Gran Pulse used to be really very advanced is more of a shock.

The Eye Colors are actually Battle Modes given by the Crystal. This is also a critical story element.

Strictly speaking, a normal eye color is a general fight, with no extra abilities and magic.

A red color is when Noctis and his family line uses the Crystal. This explains why Noctis is able to be Badass in the first trailer, and why Noctis is the only person who can use magic: he's using the Crystal. This follows in line with the Red Eyes, Take Warning trope.

That gold/white eye color is the Gestalt Mode for that game. In other words, we may see Bahamut as a Summon for the game.

Noctis's friend Prompto is going to die.

The game does have Shakespearean elements, and the blonde haired guy Prompto gives off a "Mercutio vibe," IMO.

• Though it appears that the game is based more on Hamlet than Romeo and Juliet.
• It goes with the Kill the Cutie tendency. Also, he's the one that everyone in the team seems most comfortable with. See how he messes around with Noctis, is ruffled by Gladiolus, and sits in the front seat with Ignis.
  • Please note that he's the one Noctis is first seen interacting with before the explosion in the trailer.
• My guess is that this will send Noctis into a wild rampaging killing fit in revenge. And be an emotional turning point in the game.
• This might effectively move blondie's woobie status towards Noctis.
• If we're following the theme of this game taking from Hamlet, then everyone else will die out of Noct's posse, Prompto the last to survive and witness the "sweet prince" sacrifice himself at the very end of the game.
  • If anyone's going to be the Horatio-type character, it'd probably be Ignis. He seems to be Noctis's advisor and strategist.

Alternatively, Noctis and Stella were dead before the game started, or they will be dead over the course of the game.

Or worse: they can be considered dead already. This game will mostly rely on Immortality and why they can "see the light", which is a critical plot spoiler: the Crystal that they are fighting over is dying, and they know it. I see very bad shades of Madoka Magica incoming. Brace yourself.

This game will correct everything that everybody hated from Final Fantasy XIII and everybody will still hate it.

Truly a wild and mass guess, because knowing Square Enix, Versus XIII will invent a whole new set of things for everybody to hate... or will probably keep on doing everything that (some feel) XIII did wrong.

• Someone's gonna hate something about it. A bunch of people are going to love something about it. Flame Wars will erupt. This is easily the least wild guess on the page.

== Stella will become The Ophelia ==. The game is based on Hamlet. Come on. This may also be connected to the first guess - Stella gains a huge amount of power, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, and the player has to kill the poor sweet Love Interest who's gone ethereally crazy and just doesn't understand that she's setting fires and killing people as she giggles and dances and tosses flowers here and there.

• • I think she already shows traits of this in the trailer (though Trailers Always Lie and/or it's only this troper's interpretation) at 2:00 the way how she just stares at the sky (presumably staring at the light) it's creepy and she looks cute at the same time. That or the animation makes it look creepy.

The game will be one massive Kill'Em All.

They're quoting Hamlet, of all things. What with that and the trailer wherein Noctis single-handedly slaughters what looks to be an entire army, what other option is there?

Noctis will be completely, utterly, unbelievably Adorkable.

Come on. Guy who acts aloof in public but is really shy and nervous and loves to laugh and hang around with his friends? Just typing that makes me wanna Squee.

XIII and Versus XIII are connected

Tenebrae looks similar to Padra, or rather Padra would resemble Tenebrae where it not destroyed in the War of Transgression. The developers have stated long ago that XIII and Versus will have no direct connection, although like the Ivalice Alliance this could simply mean the games are set on the same planet, hundreds of years apart from one another.

• And recent scans suggest that the alphabet of both games appear to be the same, which fuels the theory a bit.
• There have also been a few theories trying to link the Goddess Etro to Necron (appearance, theme of death) and Cosmos (an Aborted Arc from the trailer had the villains call Cosmos "The Goddess of Death", which is what the myths believe Etro to be).

The Fabula Nova Crystallis games will take a decade to develop.

When this series was announced as a "ten-year project", we all thought they meant they would be making games for ten years. Actually what they meant is that Agito and Versus might be out by 2016-2017.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is going to be Square Enix's Duke Nukem Forever

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Noctis and his three friends will be the Warriors of Light.

Well, there are four of them. So yeah.

Prompto is Stella's little brother.

He seems like the youngest out of the four friends, and it appears like Noctis and Stella have a past too. Since Stella and him look pretty similar (or that could just be Square Enix designs), they might be siblings. This could also explain how Prompto got to know Noctis and the others, and why they treat him like a little brother.

This game will eventually become Final Fantasy XV.

Let's face it, this game isn't coming out any time soon. And yet, Square-Enix has stated that they won't begin production on the inevitable XV until Versus XIII is finished. Most likely, after 2 or 3 more years, Square Enix will say "f*ck this Fabula Nova Crystalis sh*t" and just rename the game to Final Fantasy XV.

UPDATE: With the recent re-titling of Agito XIII to Type-0, it's possible that the latter half of this WMG is actually coming true. Who knows, perhaps the first half will as well...

• • Alternatively, this game was meant to be FF 15, but used Versus XIII as a fake working title. It's kind of like how some films are shipped out to theaters or auditions are given fake names.

One of Noctis' friends will pull a Face Heel Turn.

Or at reveal himself as The Mole. Maybe that will lead Noctis cross his Despair Event Horizon and go berserk.

• Some people on the internet have guessed that Prompto is the White-Robed Man. Said man is blond, about the right height, and doesn't look exactly dissimilar. On the other hand, his hair is slightly longer than Prompto's and a lighter blond, and just about everybody's that little bit taller than Noctis. So...YMMV?

Noctis or Stella has a Super-Powered Evil Side

I don't know, just feel like they would.

All of the main enemies and bosses will be people who have also "seen the light" of the death goddess

• Both Noctis and Stella have, most likely from having a near-death experience. It's not much of a stretch to assume that other characters have, and that they might want to use the powers they gained for evil.

Related to the above theories of a connection from the end of Final Fantasy XIII to Versus XIII or that Hope is Noctis...

• When the characters in one world (that is, either the Versus world or the XIII world) die, they are reincarnated into the other world. So, hypothetically, the Hope=Noctis WMG could be plausible. If/when Hope dies in the Final Fantasy XIII world, he could be reincarnated into Noctis.

The armored Dark Action Girl fighting Noctis in the latest trailer might be Stella.

• It's possible. Stella will be an antagonist in the game, as Noctis and Stella will be forced to fight each other, but it hasn't been revealed how Noctis will discover Stella is his enemy. And the armored woman is blond, which can mean Stella or an entirely new character.
  • Jossed. An interview with Nomura in Dengeki magazine tells us that's not Stella, just an enemy.

The two old men at the end of the recent trailer are actually Noctis and the White Robed Man from previous trailers, in the future. The whole game is about their conflict, leading up to their final confrontation at the end of their lives.

• I mean, one's keeping his White Mage styled robe, and the other has Noctis' weapons ready. It's a tempting thought.
  • Jossed, despite how interesting that sounds. A translation of King Caelum's lines in the 2011 trailer reveals him as (desiring to be) the last king and he is inevitably the one facing off against the white robed man in the trailer. Which leads me to ponder...

The confrontation of King Caelum and the White Robed Man will be a battle leading to a Heroic Sacrifice, and occurs early in the game

King Caelum wants to be the last king, he doesn't want Hamlet to succeed the throne, and the caption after his scene in the trailer read "An act of love by the last king". There was also a scene with (presumably) Noctis running through a forest to meet with the king and the perspective made the king out to be much taller, thus making it seem like it was a flashback to Noct's childhood. His death is fuel for Noctis, probably the primary reason for why he's fighting. At the end of the trailer he asks Ignis about exacting revenge tenfold, to which Ignis corrects him that they'll exact revenge a hundredfold. It could also be a reason behind why he's trying so hard to fight, even when his friend's warn him that he is overestimating his abilities and acting rashly that his citizens might get hurt from all the fighting.

And if we're going to juice the life out of the Hamlet-based storyline theory, then the White Robed man would be Noctis' uncle seizing the crystal to rule over the kingdom.

Everyone is going to die or be effectively dead.

• It's not that hard to imagine this game ending on a Downer Ending of epic proportions. Somehow, every main character will die or otherwise rendered completely impotent as the game progresses. The game's said to have a theme of death, and Etro, the Goddess of Death, appears to be taking a major role in the story. Presumably, all of Noctis's friends will die first, probably making sacrifices which may or may not be senseless. The final boss will be a Hopeless Boss Fight which ends with Noctis dying at the hands of a Brainwashed and Crazy Stella, who goes comatose or dies after seeing him die. The villains won't necessarily win, but neither will the heroes.

This game will have themes that are the complete opposite of the themes of Final Fantasy VIII.

• Noctis will not be like Squall; that's just a front he puts up out of shyness, and he'll never have Squall's determination and focus. Stella might be similar to Rinoa, even meeting the hero while wearing a white dress, but she won't get the Distress Ball like Rinoa did, and maybe she'd rather be Just Friends, and instead of disliking her magical abilities (which may or may not be a case of Cursed with Awesome), she'll be pretty satisfied with them. Instead of FFVIII's unabashedly happy ending, Versus will end with a massive Downer Ending. Noctis won't end up with Stella or any other Love Interest, and, at least in this universe, you can't fight fate. While Rinoa was most certainly not Ultimecia, Stella will be the Big Bad, though not necessarily by time travel. Maybe Noctis will have Squall's Always Save the Girl mentality, but he won't always save her. Basically, Versus will be the inverse of Final Fantasy VIII, just to screw with the fans. The only theme they'll share is the youth of the main characters causing huge problems. Except in the case of Versus, said main characters won't be able to fix things.

The Game's Ultimate conflict will be White v. White

• What else could be more tragic than Ultimate Good fighting against Ultimate Good?

Prompto is a l'Cie.

• He's said to be a 'recent' friend of Noctis', and the rumours are flying around he's some sort of fugitive. What if he's a fugitive because of his l'Cie status, and his focus is to kill Noctis; he befriends him to get close.
  • The real reason why he's a fugitive is that he uses a shotgun, which are banned in Noctis's country.

There will be a Say My Name towards Stella

Come on, you all know where this is going.

• • It will be Subverted. He'll actually end up sobbing over Stella's corpse, as he was forced to kill her as part of Bhuniverzi's will, whispering "Stella" before the screen fades to black.

We will be able to change certain things over the course of the game

In a recent Famitsu, Nomura said that all of the cutscenes will be fully controllable, so the player never feels like they're not playing. This troper is guessing that the player will be able to change a few important events over the game, gaining the possibility of a new/different ending.

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The assault shown happens at the begining of the game, thus giving Noctis full access to his powers.

First, it's said to be in the blood; Noctris' father was shown lately to use the same arsenal in his last confrontation. 'Of course he was using it' referred to a Crystal, which gives the limited access to powers, but only death of someone's else fully activate it. That's why near-death experience unlocks it: the person in question was dying. It's hid from the people what Crystal really is.

Second, powers activate only by the cost of someone's else life, as mentioned at the trailer shown Stella and Noct talking about 'the light'. It's seen at the sky that night, and Noct says 'goodbye', possibly knowing what his father was up to. Shortly after that the assault begun. It's a first chapter.

More of it, there is this dream-like sequence in the wood at the morning, and because the camera is set low, it's most possibly Noct as a child. His father seems younger there, obviously. He is already dead by that time, it's an retrospection sent to haunt the user of powers bound.

In short: if you want to use the powers, keep killing. Make death stick to you. That's what allows you to use it without Crystal(which acts as a passive storage, people die every day). So yeah, Nice Job Noct...Stella wants to stop Noct when she realized the source of her powers, and it drives her possibly insane (supporting The Ophelia theory) or going Break The Cutie scenerio and join him.

The 'last act of love' is the twist in all this power deal- Crystal itself is fueled by deaths, and the last king, concerned by the well-being of his country and sanity of his child, decides to break the circle and cut Noct off the Crystal, destroing it in the process. That's why it's so bloody, killing is the fuel for magic and every power. It fits also 'fantasy based on reality' theme: power is usually earned by sacrificing something else, and through pain and suffering of people (tyrany).

The game will become it's own series

With how much is being put into this game, it's baffling that this is a spin-off. I think sometime during developement, it would either:

• A: Become Final Fantasy XV like the above guess said.
• B: Given an entirely new name and become its own series.

It does seem strange that the spin-off takes longer to develop than the main series..

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All the main cast of FFXIII will be present in some sense or other.

Maybe they'll be mentioned offhandedly, like, a legendary woman that challenged the demigods/Fal'Cie with her friends. Or they'll actually be present on-screen, not looking exactly like themselves, but close nonetheless. Like a cameo. For instance maybe there's a man that works in Noctis' palace that is immensely tall and well-built, who's hair is blond and he keeps it wrapped up somehow. The -XII games share the same universe after all, maybe we'll get some sort of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles situation where the same people are on every world but look different.

The game will have a Downer Ending

None of the titles in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation have a truly happy ending (not counting alternate endings). And as so often stated, F Fv XIII is the darkest Final Fantasy title yet, so while dark is not always equals to bad ending, it does correlate.

The men in white

• The Elder One- King Caelum's brother. With all the Shakespearian connections, they'll probably go the Hamlet route and have him murder the King (and frame Noctis for it so he won't get the throne). In the trailer, King Caelum told somebody he was not fit to be king, but Word of God implied that it wasn't Noctis he was talking to.
• The Younger One- Either the elder's son or his clone. Possible dragon.

Possible voice actors

• Noctis- Either Yuri Lowenthall, Johnny Yong Bosch, Aarron Dismuke, or Vincent Martella.
• Ignis- Either Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, or J. Michael Tatum.
• Prompto- Vic Mignogna.
• Gladious- Crispin Freeman.
• Stella- Either Laura Bailey, Caitlyn Glass, or Stephanie Sheh.