Lightning Returns Really is The Last XIII Game, Don't Ask About Versus

Square Enix Origin held an interview with Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, the producer and director, respectively, of the Final Fantasy XIII games, on the subject of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and its creation.

Toriyama confirmed that the Final Fantasy XIII story will end here, declaring that gamers will be "entitled to a specific purpose, which will be understood by everyone" as opposed to XIII-2, which "left a little to imagine the player’s own end of the game."

I know, I know, don't blame me, I didn't do the translating.

They touched upon the rather interesting Majora's Mask-esque premise, as apparently Lightning alone is tasked with preventing the end of the world in thirteen days. Obviously, time travel will be present, to facilitate the challenge the developers faced balancing the importance of balancing the player's ability to explore with the player's ability to stop the world from ending.

Versus was brought up, albeit briefly, as the interviewer asked if it was still part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis project, and the response was a pretty rote "the project is that of another team, we cannot tell you anything about it."

For those unfamiliar with the name, years ago Fabula Nova Crystallis was meant to be a link between Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. Seven years after its announcement, Versus is nowhere to be found, Agito was re-titled Final Fantasy Type-0 and may never see North American release, and we have three XIII games.

Finally, the subject of the recently announced Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD re-release was brought up, and no matter what the question- "Is there a collector's edition planned?", "Will the bonus Last Mission sequence be in French copies?", "What are the chances of an FFVII remake/re-release?"- the response was effectively a resounding "no comment."

[Source: Square Enix Origin]