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The creators of Final Fantasy XIII have been notoriously tight-lipped about the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy, a series comprised of FFXIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the PSP-exclusive Final Fantasy Agito XIII. During a GDC panel titled "The Crystal Mythos," director Motomu Toriyama gave a few scant details about the other two branches of the trilogy, and the few similarities connecting the entries in the franchise's 13th series.

Toriyama's main point during his presentation is that Agito and Versus won't be sequels to the recently released Final Fantasy XIII -- they'll both have their own unique set of characters, gameplay systems and overarching stories. The only thing connecting them is the "Crystal Mythos" motif -- a theme where the fates of ordinary humans are controlled by omnipotent gods. Players of Final Fantasy XIII should already be acquainted with this storytelling device.

The other detail about the series Toriyama mentioned was that, like XIII, the rest of the series will continue to focus on story-driven gameplay rather than allowing the player to explore an open world. For better or worse, it sounds like Versus and Agito will possess the same linearity for which XIII was frequently criticized.

As Square Enix developers are prone to do, acclaimed Final Fantasy lead Tetsuya Nomura recently dropped some vague information about one of the handful of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII​ games that was announced like, a million years ago (okay, okay -- in 2006). Apparently, due to the display of the world map not being up to snuff, Final Fantasy Versus XIII may not make an appearance at this year's E3.

"We were hoping to debut it at E3, but we're not sure now," Nomura told Famitsu (as relayed by FF-Reunion.net). "For displaying characters on the world map, we were originally planning on using the method used by 'FF#,' with a small Noctus running about on the screen, but that didn't look too great, so we ended up switching to the method used by 'FF#.'" Allegedly, the "#" designations used by Famitsu in the preceding quotation were an effort to mask the particular Final Fantasy installments Nomura was referring to. "Famitsu had to block them out," explained Andriasang.

Nomura also suggested that Versus might be benched for E3 2010 in order to give other Square Enix titles at the show more time in the spotlight. Nomura did not mention Agito XIII in the Famitsu article, but did note that, in terms of other projects, "There are a number of them, along with some for which we need to begin preparations for a reveal." That's right -- forget about finally showing us more of the game that was announced four years ago, bring on Final Fantasy XV!

[Via Andriasang]

Guess Square Enix lied when they said they weren't going to be showing off Final Fantasy Versus XIII at Tokyo Game Show this year. Once again, the company continued its Closed Theater antics by ... well, having one.

This year's trailer for the still-only-for-PS3 Versus XIII broke the mold of all the previous ones by focusing exclusively on gameplay (gasp!). The trailer is barely a trailer at all, absent of the fancy editing and slick text overlays so common in a Square Enix trailer. Instead, we're treated to handicam footage of the game running off of a TV. The footage isn't particularly interesting: we see Noctis running through many different kinds of environments, such as European-inspired towns to grassy green fields that look like they're ripped straight from Final Fantasy XIII.

Unfortunately, the trailer didn't answer the one question all Square Enix fans have on their minds: what will it play like? Sure, we know he can run, but we'd love to see how this trailer translates to gameplay (if at all!). This secret trailer reveal at TGS did answer one though, though: Versus XIII is actually in development and, from the looks of things, may be farther along than any of us had expected.

We're not quite done with the Final Fantasy XIII onslaught yet. IGN has posted a new trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Those who attended the Tokyo Game Show closed theater presentation (umm, that's gotta be some of you, right?) will be familiar with it and probably recognize some of the real-time footage from the game. We see the two main characters of Versus chatting ... and not much else. The game is so far away from completion that it appears Square Enix hasn't hired voice actors for the game yet!

Check it out after the break.

[Thanks, Fidoboy17!]

Wow! The official websites for Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII have gone live, and at least one of them is jam-packed with direct-feed images of this hotly anticipated game series. (The Versus XIII website, we're afraid to report, is quite bare-bones right now.) No more scans, please! This is the real deal.

Oh, you still haven't seen the latest trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII? Man, we thought everyone had seen those old things by now. We guess you weren't hip enough to get into Square Enix's "Closed Theater" at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this year. Well, no worries -- said trailers were recently released on the Re: Final Fantasy XIII DVD and, following Newton's Fourth Law of Gaming Media Distribution, were unceremoniously ripped off their discs and launched into the internet. For as long as they remain unmoderated, we've got both posted after the break. Just make sure you're wearing appropriate protective eyewear, as many of you may find them eye-meltingly gorgeous.

The Cloud Message mag isn't even out on Japanese store shelves yet, and the internet is already blazing with sneaking peeks on the Fabula Nova Crystallis coverage within its pages. All three announced titles in the series: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII (PSP) are all featured in the mag and there's juicy new info on each one.

For the two PS3 games, the new reveal on Versus XIII is a pretty big one. It's the first time anyone has seen gameplay images of the game. The images themselves are tiny (pictured above), but it is clearly seen (in the larger version) that numerous pictures show off in-game scenes as hinted by the visible HUD and map. As for the Main FFXIII title, the images don't reveal as much. It's interesting to note that a character design from the title's drawing board has been semi-blurred. It is possible that this design may be a new playable character, though that is not certain. If any of this has you interested, check out the larger sized images here and see the fine details.

[Via Final Fantasy-XIII.net]

Stop the presses! The latest issue of Famitsu (you know, the one that totally hated on LittleBigPlanet) has revealed the name of "blond-haired bandana dude" from Final Fantasy XIII. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Snow Villiers. We know you'll be able to sleep more soundly now. Snow will be joining described "female Cloud Strife" protagonist Lightning in taking the world by storm. Bad weather puns aside, we can't decide who'd be more proud of the nomenclature, Mega Man or Captain Planet.

The magazine (via IGN) also delved a bit into Versus XIII but lacked any gameplay details. Instead, we're given hints about each of the two main characters' personalities, Noctis Lucis Caelum and Stella Nox Fleuret (latin words literally translated as "Night Light Sky" and "Star Darkness Sword," respectively). These two have the ability to "see light," which we guess is either some incomplete translation, a metaphor for something spiritual or a hint that Square Enix is taking a cue from the story Blindness.

Famitsu has a four-page spread in their latest issue all about the PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII. You've probably seen some of it in the scans earlier this morning. In the magazine, the full name of Versus' sleepy protagonist prince is revealed to be Noctis Lucis Caelum -- which is Latin for "night, light and sky." The blonde-haired female friend of his is named Stella Nox Fleuret. Her name is Latin for "star, darkness and sword" and she appears to be a princess from another country. It is interesting to note that their respective appearances reflect each other's names.

The game's director, Tetsuya Nomura, points out that part of the plot was revealed in the TGS Closed Theater trailer. He notes that the discussion seen between these two characters in that trailer focused on their abilities to "see light." Noctis seems afraid to talk about these abilities, while Stella is very frank and opens up the dialogue by asking Noctis about how he obtained his ability.

It's rather funny to think that we now know slightly more about Versus XIII than we do of the main XIII title. That's especially harrowing after knowing Versus XIII isn't expected until after XIII is out.

[Via IGN]

If you've read about our Square Enix Closed Mega Theater trailer impressions during our coverage of TGS, then you may have been left wanting to have seen those trailers for yourself. While you can't anymore see them the way we did, we've got the next best thing: pictures. New scans for both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII show off images which debuted in the Closed Theater.

In the image above, we see the two most prominent Versus characters engaged in their voiceless conversation. While in the FF XIII image posted after the break, you'll (hardly) see the new Sephiroth-like female character; you'll just see the back of her head. She's the image second from the bottom in the lower left corner. Wait a minute. Sephiroth-like female character? Voiceless conversation? What are you talking about, dude? If you don't know, then you better read those trailer impressions. Also, check out larger versions of the scans here.

Click for full Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer impression
Click for full Final Fantasy XIII trailer impression

This year's Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer out of Square Enix's Closed Theater follows in the footsteps of last year's trailer in the respect that it's yet again the final video shown during the private screening. The two differ, however, as this year's trailer shows off a bit of in-game footage of Versus XIII for the first time.

The trailer kicks things off with the same line of text we've seen dozens of times before: "This is a fantasy based on reality." The scene moves to the prince's luxury sedan speeding through a tunnel. He's listening to the news on the car radio. The vehicle exits the tunnel and the camera pans up to see the moonlit sky with two giant airships hovering in the distance. Somewhere in between this, we get a reintroduction to the Shakespearean quote that's been used since the debut trailer. At this point, things shift and the new stuff come in.

We see the prince character wearing a casual, all black suit. This is rendered with the in-game engine, and the graphics look as smooth and appealing as the main FFXIII title. He climbs marble stairs up to a loft-like art gallery. There he meets the blonde woman revealed previously wearing a black dress and a small white top. This time she's seen in a white cocktail dress. the two are talking but through Japanese subtitles as there doesn't appear to be any voice work done yet – or, Square Enix purposely took it out for some reason.

Motomu Toriyama, the director of Final Fantasy XIII, divulged bits of information about the upcoming RPG in an interview with Famitsu PS3. We already know the demo is lengthy, but now we also know that it will allow players "to play from the opening through the prologue," similar to the Final Fantasy VII demo. Besides Lighting, players will also be able to play as the blonde male (shown above) in the demo. He remains nameless, but whatever his name is, it will be weather-related as well.

Toriyama then talks about a "new style" where FFXIII will not have an actual main character. Instead, players will experience the story from the viewpoints of different characters. One of the main focuses of the demo will be to allow players to try out this "new style." The battle system also allows you to switch characters; it will be party-based and the player will switch between each character during combat.

As a bonus, Forever Fantasy has scans of the screenshots from the FFXIII story. There are even a few Versus XIII pictures as well. Take a look here.