Former Final Fantasy XV Localizer Discusses Versus XIII Leftovers, Tenebrae, And Removed Story Concepts
- ⚡Xe⚡
- May 14
- 3 min read
A former Spanish localizer who worked on Final Fantasy XV has shared some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the game’s long and chaotic journey from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to the version we eventually got.
In a new interview with The Night Sky Prince, Luis (who previously worked on Final Fantasy VI Advance and Final Fantasy XIII) shared details about early internal reactions, major story changes, and one absolutely wild scrapped sequence.
While working on Final Fantasy XIII, Luis and the team first heard about the mysterious sister project Versus XIII. The reaction was immediate: many on the team were fascinated by how different and stylish it looked compared to the game they were translating. Later, as XIII became heavily criticized for its linear design, the Versus team’s “opposite of XIII” approach started looking like the future of the franchise.
Internally, XIII was known as “White” and Versus as “Black.”
By the time Luis joined the localization team in early 2015, the project had already become Final Fantasy XV under director Hajime Tabata. A lot of the original Fabula Nova Crystallis lore had been stripped out as the project evolved, but remnants of the Versus era still lingered, most notably the city of Tenebrae, which was originally much more important and tied to Stella.
Stella herself was suddenly replaced by Lunafreya. The localization team’s reaction?
“It’s the same. It’s basically the same.”
The moon symbolism and themes of darkness and night from the original vision also carried over into XV.
Tabata was apparently full of disruptive, fresh ideas — some made it in, some didn’t. One that stayed was the now-iconic opening where players have to push the broken Regalia. Tabata wanted players to experience both the good and bad parts of the road trip.
The wildest story, though, involved an early version of the time skip. Instead of just waking up after ten years, players would have been forced to sit in a prison cell on Angelgard for two to three real-time hours. Noctis was meant to spend that time doing almost nothing except staring at the moon to make the player feel his isolation.
“You spend hours inside this room… basically doing nothing. Looking at the moon. The idea of the director is that you had to feel the solitude… the loneliness of being there on your own for years.”
The team understandably pushed back hard on the idea, and the sequence was eventually shortened significantly.
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-⚡Xe⚡
About FINAL FANTASY XV
Set in the world of Eos, FINAL FANTASY XV casts players as Crown Prince Noctis and his comrades as they embark on an epic journey of brotherhood, love and despair and unravel Noctis’s destiny in his battle against the warmongering Niflheim empire. Featuring a captivating cast of characters, breath-taking visuals, open world exploration and thrilling action-packed combat, FINAL FANTASY XV is the ultimate FINAL FANTASY experience for fans and newcomers alike. The game won over 20 awards and nominations from US and Latin American media publications at this year’s E3, received the E3 2016 Game Critic’s award for “Best RPG,” and also won “Game of Show” at Brazil Game Show 2016.
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