Has Final Fantasy Versus XIII become the next Duke Nukem Forever?

If you consider yourself to be a self-confessed Final Fantasy fanatic, you can be forgiven for asking the question ‘What on earth has happened to Final Fantasy Versus XIII’? This is particularly more evident after Square-Enix opted not to show the elusive game at this year’s E3 event.

Instead, the Japanese company decided to turn their focus to Final Fantasy XIII-2, the follow up game to the somewhat ‘disappointing’ Final Fantasy XIII title. This could become gamers’ worst nightmare, but has Square-Enix quietly decided to stop development on the game for the time being? Let’s sum up the facts.

Some of you may have forgot this, but Versus XIII was actually unveiled SIX years ago at E3 2006. Since then, we have heard very little facts about the game’s storyline, with only a few trailers released in that period of time. This is backed up by producer Yoshinori Kitase’s reluctance to commit to a release in 2011, although we can’t really criticize them too much as they never gave a release date in the first place.

However, the lack of information in the space of six years, will be very worrying for fans. Dare we say it, but has Final Fantasy Versus rolled into development hell and become the next Duke Nukem Forever? It now looks like Square-Enix will release Final Fantasy XIII-2 before they push Versus XIII out, which again will be met with considerable frustration by patient fans.

This of course could have been rectified if Square-Enix would had least shown off a brand new trailer or elements of gameplay for the game at E3. They chose not to however, leaving us to ponder all sorts of theories as to what has happened to the game.

Personally, I think it’s very sad to see Square-Enix going down this route. After delivering amazing games such as FF7, FF8 and FF9 through the years, they have become a company which chooses not to interact with the fans. How hard can it possibly be to give some reassurance on one of the most anticipated RPGs of all time? The same can be said for the new Kingdom Hearts game, but that’s a different story altogether.

What are your thoughts on the lack of information regarding Versus XIII – Were you disappointed not to see the game in any way at E3? We can all pray for a release in 2012, but until Square-Enix changes their stance in dishing out information to fans, we have a feeling that this may continue for a while. On the positive side of things, the Tokyo Game Show is coming up in September, so that may offer a glimmer of hope.