Before Tetsuya Nomura went full steam ahead on Kingdom Hearts 3, there was another very important project he was working on for several years prior. All the way back in 2006, five years before Final Fantasy 13-2, another spin-off in the Fabula Nova Crystallis sub-series was in the works with Nomura as director. Titled Final Fantasy Versus 13, this additional spin-off was a completely new game that was very different compared to a traditional Final Fantasy game.
Over the next several years, the original Final Fantasy Versus 13 would effectively be cancelled as Nomura is moved on to Kingdom Hearts 3 full time and new game director Hajime Tabata took over the project. What fans eventually received in 2016 was the amalgamation of ideas that became Final Fantasy 15, but Versus 13 ended up being very impactful for the game's development. In fact, Versus 13 ended up being tangentially impactful on the future of Kingdom Hearts and to some extent Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Final Fantasy Versus 13, Before Final Fantasy 15
Originally, Final Fantasy Versus 13 was planned to be a spin-off title in the same Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. The game was planned for release on PS3 and had its debut trailer as far back as 2006 alongside Final Fantasy 13's first trailer. While the game's general tone remained the same, a lot changed in Final Fantasy Versus 13's development cycle. Over time, eventually the project was shifted into Final Fantasy 15 as Nomura moved on to Kingdom Hearts 3's development full time. Both games had been in "development hell" for numerous years, so it finally came time to ramp up development and begin production.
Everyone would've assumed that Final Fantasy Versus 13 transferred entirely into Final Fantasy 15, but that's not entirely true. After Hajime Tabata took over for Tetsuya Nomura on what was Versus 13, Tabata changed course for the game to a mainline entry instead. With that course correction, the game changed drastically from its origins as Nomura's brainchild project. Main characters, major story beats, locations, and a whole bunch of Nomura's ideas had to be streamlined or changed entirely (like the missing "Stella" character) to fit the new ramped-up development.
What fans received in 2016 was Final Fantasy 15, but was very much an aggregation of Nomura's concepts and ideas fleshed out by new narrative leadership. The original concepts of Final Fantasy Versus 13 would be collectively distributed as inspiration on Nomura's other notable Final Fantasy projects, especially a certain Final Fantasy-adjacent Disney property.
How Kingdom Hearts is Re-Introducing Versus 13
While at first it seemed like a cheeky Nomura easter egg, it turns out Kingdom Hearts is fully incorporating a version of the Versus 13 storyline directly into Kingdom Hearts lore. Yozora's story in future Kingdom Hearts projects is very strongly inferred to be a Versus 13 re-use, even down to a shot-for-shot remake of a Versus 13 promotional trailer in Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind. Not to mention, Yozora's physical appearance is very much a reference to Noctis from Versus 13/Final Fantasy 15. Considering several of the original concepts from Versus 13 never really made it in Final Fantasy 15, Nomura is seemingly reincorporating those concepts into Kingdom Hearts instead.
Rather than serve as an inspiration, Versus 13 could quite literally be remade into a Kingdom Hearts project. It helps that Versus 13 was an original project from Nomura, because adapting it into Kingdom Hearts lore will undoubtedly be quite the task. Kingdom Hearts is already a series known for having a convoluted overarching timeline full of unanswered questions and an elaborated narrative. How an Final Fantasy plot conceived by the same creator is incorporated into Kingdom Hearts remains to be seen, but Yozora's storyline is a direct injection of Versus 13 into Kingdom Hearts.
The Residual Inspirations in Final Fantasy 7 Remake
As for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the inspirations are a bit more nuanced compared to Kingdom Hearts. While the story in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is almost beat-for-beat accurate, the miniscule changes throughout end up blasting into unknown territory at the end of the game. Originally, Cloud and the crew escaped Shinra's forces and the world of Final Fantasy 7 opened up to players. However, there's some serious timeline dimensional rifting going on Final Fantasy 7 Remake's ending. One place in particular that's a huge inspiration from Fabula Nova Crystallis, and to some extent Final Fantasy Versus 13, is the Singularity at the end.
Both Final Fantasy 15 and Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind have toyed with Nomura's concept of a singularity: a rip in the time-space continuum, generally leading to different timelines in different dimensions. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is clearly hinting at this with Zack Fair's survival being teased in the game's ending. The Whisper Harbinger's death is a direct symbolization of the breaking of Final Fantasy 7's original timeline, which is going to have serious after-effects on the remainder of Final Fantasy 7's story. Considering most of the Fabula Nova Crystallis projects (including Versus 13) were all about changing fate and differing timelines, the same could soon apply to Remake.
One day, Final Fantasy Versus 13 may blatantly return in a Kingdom Hearts game, but the original foundation has served as inspiration to a lot of other Square Enix titles. Whether it's all a total brainchild of Tetsuya Nomura remains to be seen, but it's definitely no coincidence.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is out now.