I hope someday we get to see Nomura’s original vision of Noctis from Versus XIII

From the stand point of a creator, it would be beyond heartbreaking to put years of hard work and dedication into a project just to be told to scrap it. I believe your theory is spot on. It makes since for him to love Noctis that much and to FIND a way to flesh his idea all the way out despite his adherence to company demands. I hope it all works out THIS TIME the way he wants it to. You're the greatest NSP!!!

The whole versus 13 fiasco still breaks my heart and idk if I’ll ever truly be over it but seeing him work his ideas in kh3 is really helping me work passed that and I can finally start to separate what noctis is now from what he originally was supposed to be

Square enix should really give some light towards Nomura....see not only him more than half the final fantasy community love noctis cuz he is pretty much the most heart warming and relatable character they have ever made. Give him some spotlight, make the real versus 13 or sequal to ffxv.

He lost custody for his own son. Poor Nomura. How hard it must be to witness your kid to grow up totally alienated from yourself.

Watching this made me sad and feeling like crying. 😢 Remembering all of those original trailers for VsXII and how much I was intrigued by Stella and Noctis... Yeah, I enjoyed playing XV, but deep inside I still feel disappointed that the content from those early trailers, including the short indoor scene, were totally dropped.

My theory is yozora IS noctis. And Re:MIND is literally Nomura reMINDing us what final fantasy 15 was meant to be all along. A reimagining of the idea of Sora

This actually made me really sad :( it reminds me what could have been, but also gave me insight on Tetsuya Nomuras relationship with Noctis...it breaks my heart..its like one of his kids died and he's is trying to keep him alive

“Oh... I can’t have Noctis, I’ll just make my own....again”

Yozora, his friends and the redhead girl are everything that FFXV Versus should have been.

I think that the KH1 quote is a hint towards an anomaly of the World, about how confused we are born and how they are things outside of our perspective that may surprise us. Just like a dream. The whole battle of light and darkness is like a proof of that, and the World of Kingdom Hearts in its true nature is like a contradiction of what people inside this World expect of it. As the truth is unveiled, Sora's character was purposefully lead to Shibuya, which is a vibrant entertainment district that people pass by, not even noticing that amongst the people they see, some of them may form a future connection with us. Yozora, Riku and the Master are a little more hesitant of that notion of hope. They seem to represent a more active side of taking the destiny in their own hands. Struggling to oppose, not to find the opportunities, which the World is presenting to them. That's why they were shown in Shinjuku(which is regarded as an administrative district). In particular, Riku and Yozora, and that may be because of their fate being cruel enough to take things that are precious from not once or twice, but all of the time. For Riku it'd be isolating him and his friends, for Yozora it'd be that Stella look alike possibly being a centerpiece of some nasty thing. The Master is what I believe at the edge of will and fate. That why he is shown to observe the whole Shinjuku and Shibuya area in contrast to Yozora, who is focusing his gaze on Riku(they'll fight for who won't get copystriked lol). On a side note, I think I found a lot of clues due to Versus XIII, FFXV, KH and TWEWY. It is a speculation though. For once, I actually believe that Yozora may've retained the ability to speak to the dead through dreams, the same ability that Versus XIII Noctis' had(it's thanks to a comment of someone under the Secret Ending of KH3, whoever you are sir, thanks much for the info). That may be a reason of why Yozora and Sora were shown to meet in the recent ReMIND trailer. Because they meet in the night version of the Final World, and the FInal World is situated where "the edges of dream and death touch" as stated by Chirithy. Second, this Tokyo they are send to, is a punishment zone(HMK's Jail theory). A normal city, but with a secret connected to the Kingdom Hearts. It hosts a game of "Verum Rex" to determine the True King, and achieve a certain goal. The Master probably originated from this Tokyo and may be one of its residents, while Yozora and Sora + Riku are from different realities respectively. If I had to guess what the Master is trying to do, I'd bet on the fact that he wants to connect this Tokyo to Kingdom Hearts to initiate a plan connected to ending the Keyblade War, i.e the war between the light and darkness. Since, there's a Darkling shown on the cover art of the KH3, holding a star, which Yozora's waifu has in a form of a pendant, I believe that Darklings may be in Tokyo. The Master mentioned something like this right? That there were beings of light and darkness fighting in this conflict. That they were the manifestations of darkness and light, which took a shape. They were not human. The Master described the beings of darkness as monsters, but did not say that he, or anyone fighting alongside him in the Keyblade War, was, or rather is a human too. That's the intersting part. A conclusion? The Master and the rest of the beings of light decided to end the war with the beings of darkness, but didn't succeed, because both light and darkness didn't let them to, so they created a civilization of their own, after being given a free will, due to darkness and light wanting to use the sentience of those beings and claim victory by spreading their influence. Think of it like this. Both darkness and light have their own territory, they are at a stalemate, but create avatars of themselves to cover more territory that is unavailable to them. The beings of light and darkness finally rebel after being used by the force of light and darkness, but are cursed for it in sort of like the biblical Adam & Eve fashion. The whole goal is basically waging a war against the conflict of light and darkness itself, while manipulating a pieces essential to this war.

I completely agree. I've been thinking of that interview of Nomura's for a while, and I DO think he was planning on connecting KH and Versus XIII. But when he got kicked off the project, it became something else, it messed everything up and that's part of the reason he's been so bitter... and why the Verum Rex stuff now exists. Awesome video, Night Sky Prince. Keep it up!

you know what would be a BOMB of a surprise? The DLC having a secret ending clip, and that clip being the very first Versus XIII trailer from 2006 in modern graphics.

Nomura really needs his own game studio. Maybe even with a partnership with Platinum Games for all the open worldiness they both like to do

The question is how triggered do you think the guys who shutdown the Versus XIII project were after seeing that Verum Rex skit?

It seems obvious to me that Nomura is trying to create a shared universe of sorts and there's a lot of evidence as proof in KH3's secret ending alone. For a recap, DDD's variants of TWEWY were originally non canon since at that point Joshua has never met Shiki in TWEWY canon. However, in the Final Mix released after DDD it was retconned so that they met. I believe this was done on purpose. Sora wakes up in Shibuya with the 104 building being in view, indicating that he is in TWEWY's Shibuya, which is the afterlife in that universe. The color surrounding Sora is a red orange color. Meanwhile, Riku wakes up in Shinjuku, which in the canon of TWEWY was erased from existence. Here he is surrounded by the color blue. This is significant because Shinjuku was where the setting of vs XIII was meant to be based on. An important element in all of this is that in the original FFvsXIII trailers we see Noctis' eyes change a red color. It was later revealed in interviews that Noctis had the power to see the dead in the original concept of FFvsXIII, so it's safe to assume the eye color changing was to show this. Now, we see Yozora in Shinjuku with Riku and one eye is red and one eyes is blue. If the Noctis parallel carried through, then the red of his eyes would see the afterlife of Japan ( aka the Reaper's Game, indicated by the color red from where Sora woke up) and the world of the erased (indicated by the color blue where Riku woke up). This is doubly backed up by the fact that a main element of Kingdom Heart's lore is the ability for things to be erased from existence being a major plot element (see: Nobodies). Noctis, or Yozora in this case, was never meant to exist. Essentially being born a Nobody. So with Shinjuku being erased in the events of TWEWY, it would make sense that he ends up there.

When Noctis sat on the throne, he entered the world of KH3. Kingdom Hearts, when Crystal's dream... Is any of this for real?

I get the impression Nomura is not pleased with Square taking his baby away and screwing it up so bad. It's gotta be heartbreaking for him to see something he put so much creative energy into taken away then released unfinished and never truly completed. I hope he's able to recycle those ideas into another game in the future (probably would be better to be an original ip since Square seems to have unrealistic expectations for FF games)

If this theory is true, then the original plan was to have Toy Story characters playing FF Versus XIII at that cutscene, imagine that

Seeing the remind trailer just kind of confirms my theory that Yozora is Sora from an alternate universe. Or in KH terms, an alternate “line.” It makes sense being that his name means night sky, while Sora means sky. Them repeating that famous line in unison is what sold it for me.

So, Kingdom Hearts is just another dream of Goddess Etro. Got it.

Your theorizing makes sense, though it's curious why he wouldn't just pull the trigger and use noctis instead of yozora. Especially now that he's used his old outfit in dissidia and the versus ban has been lifted. My personal belief is that Yozora is a dream avatar of Noctis and the area where he and sora meet is the world of dreams or sleep or whatever. By defeating him you wake him up out of his dream world and send him back to his world, the world of versus. This would also coincide with my earlier idea that the star you meet in the final world is "not-stella" and she's talking about Noctis. regardless, things certainly look interesting next month. Edit: most of us seem to agree that we want versus rebooted. Come on Square, pull the trigger. Rumors are spreading that Kojima is talking to Konami about reviving silent hills. If Square revives Versus we shall truly be living in the best possible timeline.

Versus XIII had something special indeed. As much as FFXV can be interesting, it is clearly not Versus XIII. I'd love to see something of a "non numbered game" called "Skies over the Organization" or something clever like that linking both our Sky boys agains the organization XIII. THAT'D be a punch to the guts of SE >¦D

I feel like Verum Rex's inclusion in the plot following his initial cameo is proof that Nemura has plans to etch his FFV13 dream into KH. I could only wonder why he couldn't simply use Noctis and give his interpretation like how the other FF characters are different. That would have been too epic.

Could Yozora be Noctis' Nobody? I'm not completely up on my KH and FF15 lore so just an idea.

Why do I get the feeling that if Versus XIII had actually launched, or at least XV with Nomura directing... it would have been the best damn FF game ever released

The bros are coming together!! I could cry a flood right now T-T

4:45 I never noticed they are both sitting in the same position in those artworks which is a cool detail.

You can’t force somebody off of their own project without expecting some sour grapes. I wish Noctis would meet Sora. Noctis in a way feels like an unofficial Final Fantasy character.

Man i honestly can’t wait.

I´m with you. I think Yozora will take the part of what Nomura wanted for Noctis. I´m so sad what Square did to Noctis and FF15 :( The old Versus 13 Trailers were the greatest thing I´ve ever seen and the dissappointment of the result of FF 15 is still present :( I hope Nomura will be happy with Yozora :)

Tetsuya Nomura in 2013: Sora is "a very very good boy. More like a good son actually." Tetsuya Nomura in 2018: "Sora is like my enemy." SEARCH YOUR FEELINGS NOMURA! WHICH IS IT!? XD

I saw a related Google search asking if Yozora was a Riku

This is very exciting! We are literally going to see 3 secret endings total(after Re:Mind dlc)! The Yozora ark sounds very promising!😊

I guess you could say this is Nomura's revenge for removing him from the FF project. I really like to know the reason behind this. I suspect he didn't agree to all those worsening changes. I believe we will see this coming together in ReMind. It would be interesting seeing Kingdom Hearts characters in a real world setting.

I just want to say thank you for sharing the details of Versus 13 in a video because until recently I didn’t know the FF15 was supposed to BE that (because of my age when those trailers were released)

Love the video and all of the connections you've done between the two games! I do have to ask, where did you get that HQ image of Stella for your thumbnail? It's so lovely!

I love all the content you put out surrounding Versus Xiii. Although fans love Ffxv, some still don’t know about its origins and past trailers. Thank you NSP !!

Don't know about dis one I mean looking at the first Versus XIII trailer(that could never be in a Kingdom Hearts game disney would freak) I doubt that Nomura wanted to connect to two together. I believe Nomura said something about KH and Versus having similar DNA but their connection seemed to be mainly gameplay and design sensibilities.

This hits my feels

I would love to play a game that Nomura envisions with no limit to his creativity. He got depression because of what happened to Versus XIII! That's how passionate he is about his job.

What I don’t understand is why can’t Noctis himself be in KH3? I may be mistaken, but I remember way way back when KH3 was first revealed with that fight against the heartless in twilight town, I saw a magazine clipping with renders for Lightning (she was younger and wielding the struggle bat thingy) and Noctis (same as Lightning). And if I’m wrong there, why can’t Noctis be in the game anyway? I mean KH was born from a marriage of FF and Disney so why can’t they add another FF character?

tbh we live in a world in which we got two sequels for FF13 SO WHY WON'T THEY GREENLIGHT FF15VERSUS WITH NOMURAS VISION there is also so much fan demand !

Wow this is a good theory

You know if you think about it, the stuff regarding the Power of Waking, Yozora's world being that of a night sky (with a moon + partly cloudy just like Versus XIII Insomnia trailers), it all sounds veeery similar to the little bits we heard from Nomura regarding the FNC lore he was using regarding Etro the Goddess of Death and the world of the dead. Especially with Yozora's world connects to Sora's and vice versa.

THE GOODEST BOY

I hope they give him another chance. I want to see his vision so very badly, it's such a shame that the game wasn't even playable before the project was handed over. I really do hate how 15 turned out, I bet the combat would've been legendary.

Everything you said in this video is pretty much 1:1 to what I also thought after seeing the trailer. Nomura is clearly trying to explore certain themes with his characters. I'm still pissed to this day that Noctis was taken from him.

Makes sense, I agree 100%!

I think you've nailed it. That really SUCKS that Nomura wasn't able to link together his works like he had envisioned...

I think he's trying "To pick up the pieces.Yours and mine" ...

Obviously it's a rework on noctis, as stated on the video, Sora and noctis are like Nomura's kids, Sora means sky and yozora/noctis means night sky, Sora is a happy and funny guy who is always laughing and making jokes, yozora/noctis is mora darker, emo like, both were supposed to be connected to the ideia of sleeping and dreaming, (Sora literally start the first game in a dream, and wake up at the beach, while I heard that in the original vs xiii concept noctis would sleep a lot and have dreams, visions and stuff like that) the main theme of kingdom hearts is destati, that mean awake, or to wake up, in vs xiii/xv we had somnus (that has been reused along with dearly beloved), somnus mean something like asleep, or to sleep, both concepts are mirrored, they are the opposite and the same, nomura is clearly trying to recreate vsxiii inside kh and will merge both into one universe. Sorry about my poor English Edit: also it has been speculated that yozora is a different version of Sora from another dimension. Some even say that yozora is the Riku from other universe, one that Sora doesn't exist.

Imagine if we get a remake of the original Versus XIII trailer as a new Secret Movie. Yozora in a dark Tokyo/Insomnia fighting some Heartless or some new enemy while "Somnus" plays in the background, that would be cool. It's interesting that Nomura is still trying to make Versus XIII a reality, he still loves the project even after all these years. This really says something.

Square: nomura you can't do this! Nomura: funny, I said the same thing when you DESTROYED MY MASTERPIECE! Did you see what happened to 15 after you fired me from it!? You stop me, and your next ff will be even worse! you need my work and you know it! So stay outta this! Square: alright, sir, you do what you have to, just please, don't screw this up... Nomura: I won't, because I don't make mistakes.

Great video as usual! I would only add that the citation at the end of the ReMind trailer is NOT CASUAL at all. "I have been having these weird thoughts lately, is any of this for real or not?". In the original concept of FFversusXIII Noctis was supposed to enter into other realities (or a "dream world") falling asleep. So I think that this is a very interesting way of connecting the original concept that Nomura had in mind with KH and the different timelines and realities. Not to mention the "sleeping realm theory" in KH... I know, it is just a theory but with this probable connection it just blows my mind! Finally, another point that connects Noctis of FFXV with Sora is the fact that they both had to fall asleep for a certain period of time during their adventure. I mean, the connections between Sora and Noctis/Yozoora are many and all very relevant!

Nice, that would be cool

I would love that to be true. I remember how I was practically dancing in joy when watching the first trailer of Versus XIII. It felt so magical and there is something oddly yet beautifully tragic in it. Stella is just so bae as well added the plus point. All of that felt like it melted away with FFXV first trailer. Idk, I first was like 'yay the project live on' but the moment after, I has no idea how to feel. I gave the game a benefit of doubt but ended up yeeted my copy away, of course the vanilla ver. of it. I refuse to buy the DLC because the DLC is filling up the gap of the story and not adding something that felt like it is just niche plus. You know, like FE 3H DLC pass since those are what I think as DLC. All of it is just an extra. In that vein, I think only Ardyn Episode is actually a proper DLC. The other? Cut content. I hold the same feeling toward this DLC tbh. Like, I think it is supposed to be in the base game for reasons. But at the same time the base game is actually a sound story if we ignore the obvious influence from Disney's executive order to make superficial content like some... scene in Frozen and Tangled. I don't appreciate information dump but it felt like it can't be helped at the same time. At least it does bind the story together and give an end to it albeit in somewhat convoluted storytelling. Serious question though. Who would officially own Yozora? SE or Disney?

Plot twist:. Nomura has been secretly working on ff versus. Tonight at game awards:. World premiere....final trailer for ff7r....but we will leave you with this. Tonight at midnight, psn users can download the demo for ff7r

If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the image of stella from? I know it's from the billboard in Insomnia in the Royal Edition of FF15, but the one you used in the thumbnail is very clear and easier to see than any of the images I can find online.

What’s the name of the song at 1:50.

in the FFV13 plot, there was suposed to be a good portion of the game based on the dream world and the world of the death (remember that was one of the things with Noctis family) and Noctis would start to have doubts about which world was the real world

what Versus might also have included is the whole "is this reality or just a dream"-thing, just like the latest Joker movie had (which was brilliant btw).

Honest to God if Square announced that eventually they were making FFVXIII I would probably be more excited than I would be for whatever 16 is gonna be. There is just something so fascinating and alluring about everything about Versus, Kingdom Hearts like combat, a dark story focused on tragedy and God's of death. The darker look and tone, etc.

Yess!!

I knew from the beginning that Noctis is special for Nomura ,bcs if u could see before on e3 and other he dressed in Noctis style and other things you know

it was pretty clear (like crystal clear) , ff vs 13 was meant to be final fantasy ultimate game, it was meant to be a Kh gameplay throw into a final fantasy , it was meant to take the best of ff9 (it's philosofy and the quest to search for a meaning in the life) and mix all togheter. It exist a deep connection between ff9-10 and kh, as the years of develop are close. ffvs 13 should had been that great game basically a serious kingdom heart (with out gang etc) with ff graphic. Basically a triple AAA game with a combat system based on kh2; that was the project. Even kh3 and ffvs13 and later 15 planned on use the same graphic engine. square top plan ditched this because in few words sqaure had a bad period at the time it had a stream of low income for 3-4 years and the vs 13 project was blocked by a lot. The nomura develop time would also took 6 years a price square could not withstand. But it's their job to find the money. And clearly there has been a kind of fight inside square the goodbey of kitase also linked to ff15 show that no one has been happy with ff 15. I mean even if ff15 got better sales results of ff13 whole trilogy on ff15 there was too much potential wasted. Here nomura got his little revenge with yozora.

The moment I saw Verum Rex, I knew it was basically Versus XIII. I'm so glad to see it coming up. It's also weird for me since I remember it being announced back when I was in high school, haha.

Nomura probably did that sewing of KH and FFV13 so Square wouldn't dare to get him off whatever the game he's doing right now, like they did with Versus 13.

Holy shit I didnt realize it was yozora. Damn

referencing the japanese remind trailer, the "I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like is any of this for real or not?" quote japanese equivalent more accurately translates to something like "I don't really know [anymore]. Is this world truly real?"

Not a bad theory, NSP. Well done buddy! I think you connected a lot of dots there.

Totally agree

Well um because of the references I...managed to do something fun with um Yozora in my story 😅

not sure how Noctis would be otherwise, but i like how the way he is now

Lol, I pretty much agree with you there. Though whatever the plans with Yozora end up being, I wonder if we’ll ever get to see Noctis as we know him appear in a future KH title. If Nomura’s plans with Yozora end up being what we suspect, then probably not, as it would probably be kind of jarring and confusing to have “two Noctis’s” there. But who knows, I would still love to see Sora and co meet the Chocobros, lol. Gimme that fan service please, Nomura-san!

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. And if that is what would have happened I'm kind of sad for that future of connecting these two games together in that way. It would have been interesting to see how this would have played out if versus 13 still happened. Would the Verum Rex trailer have been a VS 13 trailer instead? All the fun possibilities.

Also, wasn't there some interview where nomura mentioned that "this was something that shouldn't exist"? I don't remember if it was about KHIII specifically, but I feel like it had something do do with it. He could definitely be referring to Yozora.

This actually makes a lot of sense.

Good!

This actually makes a ton of sense because at one point before kh3 and before the backlash didnt nomura say that kh doesn't need final fantasy anymore? Maybe he was just pissed.

Remember, yoshinori kitase is original producer ffxv

I hope Nomura will follow his dream project and make many fans amazed! ( I made a fan made trailer of Verum Rex inspired by this theory, using both clips from Final Fantasy versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts 3 ( only the yozora's parts), If you wanna give a look that would be awesome! feedbacks are welcomed)

I don't know if we will see much of Yozora in KH3 Remind, however I think this theory is spot on. My only wish is that Nomura will actually push this forward, and make something of Versus within the Kingdom Hearts universe. It would also be cool to see Verum Rex get it's own game. I just want to know what Versus was really about, but I also think that it would have been too mature for Kingdom Hearts, so while we might get bits and pieces, I think sadly we will never know the actual truth. :(

Now I want a verum rex game lol

I don’t know if they were destined to meet as Sora and Noctis but it’s clear that Nomura was hurt by how things were handled. Not that it was his fault directly since at the time Square was going through a new CEO and restructuring. So there are concepts and stories lying around with characters that no longer exist. So what better way to do those that cannot exist justice than by reincarnating them into his own franchise? Honestly it’s daring and exciting. We will get Versus but it will now be apart of the bigger aspect of Kingdom Hearts. Presumedly the wordlines concept introduced in the secret reports. And maybe someday a Verum Rex game.

Nomura: *tries to make a huge epic game part of the largest jrpg series of all time for basically the sole purpose of putting it in his Disney fanfic* Square: Yeah, sorry you’re taking too long. Nomura:... imma do it anyway. On a serious note, I prefer Yozora’s design anyway, but I also like that Yozora gets to be a Kingdom Hearts original character. It opens him up to be more connected and important to the main story as opposed to a cameo. That, plus the fact that Nomura’s style and design choices have definitely evolved since versus XIII and I think we’re going to have a much more 3 dimensional character than we would have had Noctis been the character.

I want Verum Rex to become a real games with it's own franchise, and even it's own anime with all the characters from the trailer in the Toy Story world with Yozora as the main character.

I hope the English and Japanese voices of Yozora (if he shows up more than once) will be the same as Noctis! That would be awesome!

🔥

So it’s final fantasy DLC for a FFxDisney franchise? Incredible. But better late than never.

This is a big brain title for sure, with the big brain energy

I really thought that yozura in the remind trailer was riku.. still not sure.. he looks like riku to me..

I hope Verum Rex becomes its own game series that ties into KH with guest characters and vice versa. Like KHs more mature older brother.

My top 3 favorite character creations from Nomura is Noctis, Sora & Yozora. Yes, I know we don't know too much about him at this moment, but since he's *suppose* to be another version of Noctis from Versus XIII, and his name is meaning similar to as Sora and Noctis as well, I feel he's worth one of my favorites. I've said this before, but once again, I do feel sorry for Nomura. He's heart broken about Versus XIII's cancellation more than us. I *REALLY HOPE* they give this man a chance to revive his Versus XIII project!

I love this idea and I completely agree. Yozora is a spiritual stand in for Noctis and would make sense to have him connected to Sora. Now In what way I’m not so sure but I hope that becomes clear soon. I’m thinking that Yozora may exist in a timeline parallel to Sora. One where Kingdom Hearts and keyblades don’t exist and therefore a world that would be fitting for the master of master to have full dominion over as it would be free of darkness. Not a perfect theory but thought I’d share. Can’t wait for Re:Mind!

Plot twist: Riku and Sora both are halves of Yozora.

Excellent theory and pity Nomura vision for V13 was too ahead of its time. Would love to play his version of it

He literally had to see his son loose 10 years of his life so that he could just die after waking up, because Bahamut was to incompetent to solve the problem himself. Bahamut has to be the depiction of Square enix higher up who has power over their staff Nomura/Regis for example but not enough power to fight the starscourge/us fans. Noctis was Nomura's dream "vs13" who died when FF15 became reality.

It would make sense to make a versus xiii-esk story in kh just to make it alive again. I kindof feel bad for Nomura now

Honestly? Maybe him losing Versus was a good thing if it meant creating Yozora. Sometimes, that can happen - when one project falls through, you take elements from that failed project and put it into something else, to have it live on, in a way.