Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII
Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Square Enix Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows Released in JP: December 19, 2009 (PS3), December 16, 2010 (360), October 9, 2014 (Windows) Released in US: March 9, 2010 (PS3/360), October 9, 2014 (Windows) Released in EU: March 9, 2010 (PS3/360), October 9, 2014 (Windows) This game has unused areas. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article

Final Fantasy XIII is the thirteenth major installment in the never-ending RPG series, in which Claire "Lightning" Farron treks through a never-ending series of hallways to overthrow the government.

This installment gave way to a trilogy of games referred to as The Lightning Trilogy. The second game centered around her sister Serah and boasted an expanded battle system and non-linearity. The third game threw all of that out the window and became more action-oriented while implementing a Majora's Mask-style time limit.

To do: Not only did Mezmorize find at least 16 videos containing earlier versions of scenes, but there's a topic on the forum that has much more than what this page currently has. fkualol has discovered a "Premium Showcase" mode, which presumably was used to demo the game at a public event.

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Prototype Info

E3 Preview Content

Early Hope

The only noticeable difference between the model used in the E3 preview build and the final is the color scheme: in the early build, his hair was closer to Lightning's bright pink rather than being gray/white. There are also minimal differences in the texture design of the bandanna he wears around his neck.

A model that appears to be a prototype leftover. It seems to be close to Hope's final design, but it has a very low polygon count and no textures along with seemingly wearing different clothes (although in similar fashion). Most noticeable is the lack of his signature scarf, and slight difference in his hair polygons' layout.

Hope's facial features also seem to be different, but that can't be determined for certain due to the model's low fidelity and lack of textures.

Early Snow

Untextured and is less detailed.

Unused System Data

Unused XMB Background

filelistu.ps3.bin\sys\ps3\savedata\etc\PIC1.PNG

An unused XMB wallpaper for the PlayStation 3 version.

filelistu.ps3.bin\sys\ps3\savedata\jp\PIC2.PNG

An unused XMB background image overlay for the PlayStation 3 version.

Unused Enemies

Wurtzitoise

An Oretoise-type enemy with green glowing cysts coming out of its sides.

Rotten Tomato

An unused Flan enemy that was reused in Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Unused Models

Cactuar

An unused, uncolored Cactuar model exists within the game's data. A metallic-colored version was used in Final Fantasy XIII-2 for the Metal Gigantuar enemy.

Others

• Two other models exist on the disc which were not used in Final Fantasy XIII, but were used in Final Fantasy XIII-2 for Gorgyra and Raspatil.
• There is also a fully animated Zenobia and Vaballathus, but are never used due to the creature being killed in a cutscene before facing the party.
• A blue wyvern-looking Cie'th was also never used in-game, but appeared in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII as the superboss Ereshkigal.

The Seventh Ark

The Seventh Ark is a cut playable zone, originally meant to be one of 13 existing Arks in the game's universe, also being the third Ark (besides the 5th and 13th Arks) directly shown in-game.

The entire zone was initially planned to be an integral part of the game:

It was going to be an extra area with optional free battles and a quest structure of some sort

(Source: Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega)

However, due to its nature, being optional, and not essential to the story, it was sacrificed for the sake of finishing the rest of the game in time for release. It was then supposed to be finished and released as DLC, but the team ran into issues caused by differences in the DLC shipping process between the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Additionally, the team indicated that there were technical limitations of some kind within the engine which possibly made it harder to ship the DLC. As a result, the Seventh Ark was never finished.

Despite being incomplete, the retail version on all three platforms does contain the Seventh Ark. A small part of the area can be accessed by editing user save files, but additional modifications are required to initiate other events within the area due to a lack of (or removal of) event scripting.

Originally, it was meant to be accessible using the 3rd warp gate inside The Orphan's Cradle. Once entered, it was supposed to greet the player with an introductory screen identical to the chapter title screen. The accessible area consists of a small corridor with warp gate, leading to a greater hallway with a Berserker (or a statue of it) in the middle. It is worth noting that the accessible area does not have any enemies, although whether that was the final intention is unknown.

The greater hallway also has a set of four diamond-shaped switches which, despite being interactive, don't contain any messages. Accepting the first option will make the switch spin indefinitely while making the player unable to move, leaving you with no option but closing the game or resetting the console.

Using the second option seems to either do nothing at all, or launch one of two things: a cutscene showing the door which leads to the second hallway opening, or a Nemesis boss battle.

The second room is much smaller and round, with a set of three (locked) main doors located directly in front, left, and right with a set of closed gates located on diagonal walls. The gates do not have any collision, and walking through them reveals a small box-style, dead-end room which may indicate that this area was meant to be an ambush of some sort. Present in the middle is another diamond-shaped switch which functions like the other four.

Currently, there is no way to leave the initial area, as it is completely detached from the rest of the rooms (marked with a red rectangle).

Content

The available parts of the Seventh Ark contain few in-game cutscenes (non-CGI), which are unpolished (lack of ambiance audio, rough animations) and have only Japanese voiceovers (though there are English subtitles). Besides cutscenes, the Seventh Ark also features a Fal'Cie boss dubbed Nemesis, which was later reused in XIII-2 as Adam, the proto-Fal'Cie.

As for the rest of the existing content, the boss battle is roughly laid out:

• Nemesis itself has poor animations and no AI.
• His two manipulators, left and right, each have roughly 2,999,997 HP.
• Nemesis has about 6,999,993 HP, but unlike his manipulators does not seem to have the correct collision mesh. As a result, he's immune to most attacks due to hits not always connecting with his collision mesh.

List of available cutscenes

1. Upon entering, the full party will think that they've landed back in the Fifth Ark. However, Vanille quickly makes it clear that this is a separate Ark and one of the 13 existing ones.
2. (most likely) When all four switches are enabled inside the first hall, the door to the second hall opens.
3. When initiating the battle with Nemesis, a short cutscene plays showing the arena. Lightning senses an ambush and notices Nemesis; she taunts the Fal'Cie, and battle begins.
4. Upon defeating Nemesis, Lightning starts a monologue about the need to use their powers in order to save the world instead of destroying it.

Additionally, both the Seventh Ark and Nemesis have Datalog entries, however they were not translated to English. Trying to view the log entry in English versions of the game will display the line "PLACEHOLDER - TO BE TRANSLATED LAST AS THIS IS GOING TO BE DELETED ANYWAY". Oof.

Very strangely, the Datalog entries were translated into Spanish, and can be retrieved from the game files.

Translated 7th Ark description: "One of the military installations of which the legends of Gran Pulse speak. The Fifth Ark is clearly an arsenal ready to combat invaders; the Seventh, instead, has as its principal function to awaken the hidden power of the l'Cie."

Translated Nemesis description: "Fal'Cie lord and master of the Seventh Ark. Its work consists of harassing the l'Cie in the middle of cruel tests and obligating them to surpass their own limits. Apparently it trains them to fight against someone, but it is not known who. Nemesis and its Ark already existed in the times before the construction of Cocoon."

Unused Prerendered Cutscenes

z009_us.ps3.wmp

To do: Can these unused movie files be ripped from the game, converted and uploaded here? Also, is this container file found in the Xbox 360 version as well?

The movie files are stored in the .wmp file format, which is actually a container file that can have one or more pre-rendered movie files inside. The actual movie files are in .PAM format on the PS3 version and .bik (Bink video) format on the Xbox 360 and PC versions. There are several unused .PAM movie files in this particular .wmp file that is found only on the PlayStation 3 version.

video_01.PAM

This file contains a mix of cutscenes you would normally get in the game but starts with a earlier version of the cutscene that you get after defeating Anima.

Regional Differences

Various English UI elements and battle system terms in the Japanese version were changed in the English version.

Japanese	English	Notes
Optima	Paradigm
Optima Change	Paradigm Shift
Attacker	Commando
Blaster	Ravager
Defender	Sentinel
Jammer	Saboteur
Enhancer	Synergist
Healer	Medic
Driving Mode	Gestalt Mode
Enemy	Target
Break!	Stagger
Battle Result	Battle Results
Rank	Rating
Items	Spoils
Tactical Points	Technical Points
Crystal Points	Crystogen Points
Battle Member Change	Battle Team Changed	During party modifications
Treasure	Open	Approaching treasure spheres
Reserve Smoke	Shrouds	In the Shroud menu
Camera Settings	Camera Control	Tutorial at beginning of the game
Chain Break System	Attack Chain	Battle tutorial
Command System	Command Execution	Battle tutorial
Item System	Item Usage	Battle tutorial
TP Ability	Battle Technique	Battle tutorial
Shiva Sister Battle	Eidolon Battle	Eidolon tutorial with Snow against Shiva
Odin Driving Mode	Gestalt Mode	During eidolon tutorial with Odin

• The two theme songs made specifically for the game were changed in the international versions. "Eternal Love", which plays during the movie showing Snow and Serah during the festival is replaced with "Serah's Theme". "Kimi ga Iru Kara", which plays during the ending, was replaced with the licensed track "My Hands" by Leona Lewis.
• The English lyrics of the songs "Serah's Theme" and "Sunleth Waterscape" were revised for the international versions. The song "Chocobos of Cocoon - Chasing Dreams" was translated to English for the international versions.
• The sound effect for the Optima Change/Paradigm Shift was changed in the international versions.
• Controller vibration has been reduced.
• It is no longer possible to trigger a Preemptive Strike against an Ochu.
• The AI for Synergists has been modified, allowing them to prioritize using Haste and deprioritize using En-spells.
• When a target is Dazed, damage dealt to said target that is doubled is now calculated before the damage cap is applied.

Version Differences

PlayStation 3

• Released on 1 Blu-ray Disc.
• An update that was released exclusively in Japan on July 21, 2010 adds an Easy Mode for battle difficulty.

Xbox 360

• Released on 3 DVDs.
• Initially released only in North America and Europe.
• A later International Version re-release for Japan was released on December 16, 2010. Based on the localized version of the game with the English voice acting, text in Japanese, English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and the music changes. It also adds the Easy Mode from the update to the Japanese PS3 version.

Windows

• Released as a digital download.
• Voice-overs can be selected in either English or Japanese. When set to English, the music changes that were made in the localized PS3/360 version apply, while in Japanese, the original theme songs will play.
• The previously Japanese-exclusive Easy Mode difficulty setting is available for the first time in a worldwide release.