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Being a huge Final Fantasy fan, I naturally have an interest in the upcoming Final Fantasy titles – Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII – collectively known as Fabula Nova Crystallis or “The New tale of the Crystal” as it translates to English. The set of games do not tie in directly as such, but are more set in the same single universe – assumedly similarly to the “Ivalice Alliance” of Final Fantasy XII, and the Tactics titles. They share a common mythology (crystals and Eidolons) but thats as much as is known of any connection between the titles.

Still, we are a way off of an actual release yet – supposedly Final Fantasy XIII is due for a release no earlier than next year – a minimum of six more months – but as far as it can be told it could really be any time in 2010. Versus and Agito have yet less information released as of yet – so naturally I would assume that these will be released some time after.

Now, I personally like to know as little about the plots of games as possible before I actually play them, so I’m afraid I wont be delving too deep into that aspect. But from what I have heard – I’m still very excited.

Final Fantasy XIII

Being the next numbered title in the Final Fantasy series, I felt it best to cover this title first. Not much has been shown of the general exploration side of things but it will assumedly play in a similar way to its predecessors – controlling a character exploring various areas, talking to NPCs and the like – all very normal. However, this is speculation as this is an element that has been skimmed over mainly – as with all Final Fantasy titles, the focus is on the battle mechanics and the cinematic story elements – but it is known that the enemies will roam the world in real time, much like Final Fantasy XII – although once battle is activated it will seamlessly shift the gameplay into a more fixed “Battle screen”, more reminiscent of the old battle systems of FFX and its predecessors. A similar concept was used in The Last Remnant, although perhaps not as impressively done.

The battle system seems to be reaching back toward FF’s roots – using ATB (Active Time Battle) once more, although it has been completely revamped into something more. The player can control one character at a time, from a party of up to three (a la FFXII), and instead of MP the game now uses an attack chaining system, linked with Cost Points that determine how many attacks you can link per turn. Regular skills such as Attack, Fire, Blizzard etc are back, alongside new combo oriented moves such as launch – in this way the characters should be able to perform complex combos and juggle enemies in an ATB style battle. The visuals look impressive – as demonstrated years ago in a prototype shown at E3 in 2006.

Summons are returning – this time using the name Eidolons (as seen in Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy IV DS), and seem to be going more along the lines of Final Fantasy X’s mould breaking Aeon system that allowed the summon to join into the actual battle and take commands from its summoner. It seems that all characters have summoning abilities – and even have the ability to interact even more with their summons and actually merge with them in some way – it has been shown with his “Shiva sisters” – Nix and Styria, transforming them into a motorcycle and entering ‘Driving Mode‘ assumedly yet another element of combat, carrying a large gun. It seems we’re in for something big, and its sounding spectacular.

The game stars the Gunblade wielding female lead ‘Lightning’, and is set in the futuristic city of Cocoon, which appears as though it is set deep underground. The world seems to be a big nod to the Midgar of Final Fantasy VII – although it is so far unknown whether the world will expand outside of Cocoon or not.

Final Fantasy XIII is due for release on both PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2010.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Each of the titles within Fabula Nova Crystallis promises a different experience – a whole different style of gameplay, each their own game. Versus is headed by Final Fantasy’s expert character designer Tetsuya Nomura, director of Kingdom Hearts, Square-Enix’s massive joint venture with Disney. Little is yet known about Versus, although it promises to be a more realistic take on the real time RPG battle system of Kingdom Hearts.

Starring Noctis, the male lead of FF Versus XIII, Versus promises to be one of the darkest games in the FF franchise – a more gritty story, perhaps aimed at a more mature audience. Nomura stated that he would like to pull off more “tricky” sequences within the game’s battles, reminiscent of scenes from the Final Fantasy VII movie, Advent Children. Not much has been said on the matter, but looking at some of Kingdom Hearts II’s more impressive reaction commands I think we can expect something in a similar vein.

It has been shown that Noctis has various powers – including telekinesis to move weapons to attack or shield himself, and fast movement or teleportation. Since no gameplay footage has been shown we have no actual knowledge aside from what Nomura has said, but it is said he can use a variety of weapons including Swords, Spears and Lances, and that they will all have different abilities and uses. Another thing that has been noted is that Noctis’ eyes change colour to red sometimes in clips – and this does apparently have some kind of meaning to the game, although it is unknown what exactly it will mean in terms of gameplay (if any).

It seems that Noctis will gain at least one ally during the plot (a girl named Stella, with similar powers) so I would assume that she will operate via AI in a similar way to Sora’s companions in Kingdom Hearts.

There’s still a lot to be known on this title, but if Nomura’s words are true, this game could be as good as Final Fantasy XIII itself – or maybe even more so. Currently, Versus is only scheduled for PS3, although this may change in time, as with XIII. No release date has yet been announced, but I would assume it will be released some time after XIII, perhaps as late as 2011 or later.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII

Seeing as Japan is some way ahead of us with their mobile phone technology, occasionally titles have been released for mobiles – such as Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis. However, due to the limitations of technology, Before Crisis was not released outside of Japan and was kept from America and Europe, a game missed by most English-speaking fans of Final Fantasy.

Agito was originally announced to be a similar title – although in August 2008 the title was announced to be discontinued from phone production and instead moved to the PlayStation Portable (PSP).  It is unknown whether this was a move to reach out to a larger audience, or whether the game was simply too large for the phone market, but in any case it seems to be good news for everyone outside of Japan.

Agito is being directed by Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and will apparently be in a similar vein, albeit upgraded and revamped. This time, the player will be able to take control of a party rather than a solo character, and will incorporate ATB elements into the gameplay. The game will have a massive 12 playable characters, assumedly in a party of up to 3 or 4 at one time (going on knowledge of common Final Fantasy gameplay).  It is also said that each character will have his or her own personal summon, Odin confirmed as that of the currently nameless lead-character (nicknamed “Card-Kun” by followers of the game’s development).

The game has been described as an “Online RPG”, but not “massively multiplayer”. This is currently a mystery as to what this will entail, but seeing as players seem to control a set team of story-specific characters it would suggest that the title has heavy offline aspects, rather than mainly online gameplay with player-tailored “avatars.” I personally hope that the online will be a backseat to a great solo title, but we will have to wait and see.

Agito, like Versus, has no official release date at this time, although I would not expect to see it in stores for a couple of years yet.

And there you have it, a roundup of the general goings on with the next installments into the huge Final Fantasy series. Lets hope they’ll be as spectacular as they promise to be. I definitely cannot wait.

-Leon