WMG / Final Fantasy XV

Pre-Release Theories

Versus is a Reconstruction of Final Fantasy VII.

Whereas 7 decided to Break the Cutie/Kill the Cutie, Squeenix decided to give her edge, thus possibly averting the trope, but replaces it with the reason why Aeris and Cloud can't be together canonically. Where Aeris failed, Stella succeeds, shown in how much of a Cute Bruiser Stella is compared to Magical Girl Aeris. As such, where Cloud is the big man with the false facade, Noctis is the subverted character: a man with large potential but decides to have good, outwardly shy intentions underneath that cool façade. Finally, where VII deconstructed the Anime Hair, Versus will reconstructs it.

Expect something along the lines of parent issues when playing through Versus; 7 didn't like going into that subject often, so expect reasons why Cloud behaved like a wuss in wolf's clothing and Aeris is a Magical Girl.

EDIT: For compare/contrast, look at the WMG directly below this one (Final Battle Will Be Against Stella) and the last one (Heroic Sacrifice). All three appear to go hand-in-hand.

• Huh, can you give me example where Anime Hair is deconstructed? I mean, besides Lampshade Hanging, that is.
  • Eh, since 7 does Lampshade it, I guess Versus would do that to an extent. Lampshade Deconstruction (Do We Have This One?) in this sense would be a bit extreme to say so, so maybe Versus will attempt to do the same. Either way, the core of this WMG assumes that Versus is the Spiritual Successor and/or Reconstruction to 7.

The world that XV takes place in, is the new world that Bhunivelze has Lightning guide souls to in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, only far in the future.

• I mean think about it, the world in XV has the EXACT SAME MYTHOLOGY as in XIII, and most numbered FF titles have nothing connecting them to each other story wise, yet XIII and XV do. And this isn't the first time that something like this has happened....The people who migrated to Gaia in VII, were people who came from Spira, which was in X....
  • Very unlikely since Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII ended with the reveal that the world Bhunivelze was planning to migrate the souls to was a new planet he had just created... Earth. As in, OUR Earth.
  • Except that Lightning have guided pretty much every souls from the old world, both living and dead into the new one, complete with their memories. So people are free to bring the mythologies from their old world into this one. So the setting physically looks a lot like Earth but contains traces of legends from the Final Fantasy XIII.
    • You are forgetting a key point: in the ending, Bhunivelze turned into a crystal, and there is only one crystal in this game as well. Plus, the people who disembarked from the old world were even leaving their old mythologies behind. Now, won't that be a twist to remember?
    • Additionally, in Kingsglaive it's revealed that Eos has a lot of technology that mirrors those of Earth (AMEX cards, Audi cars, Uniqlo stores, Casio wristwatches, etc) and at one point even has Taito arcade machines. Maybe the Earth Bhunivelze created is a mirror of our Earth that took a different path in history somewhere and ended up with several high-tech kingdoms instead of what we have on our Earth. It should also be noted that Gran Pulse also had technology similar to that belonging to Earth (i.e. very modern (to us) fiberglass playground equipment and split unit air conditioners are shown in the opening cinematic of Chapter 10. Split unit air conditioners also appear in Eos in the Brotherhood anime shorts). Given that how those souls who migrated to the new world kept their mythologies, you'd think they'd be allowed to keep the knowledge and tech that they regained in Gran Pulse as well.

The final battle of the game will be against Stella.

Furthermore, she will not go One-Winged Angel. She'll get powerful, but she will remain her original form, looking exactly like herself, the entire time, just to make it extra-hard on the player. Why? Well, this is supposed to be the darkest Final Fantasy yet. They've already shown they're willing to Kill the Cutie, so what's one step beyond that? Making you kill her. Not to mention the scene in the trailer of Noctis and Stella drawing their weapons on each other... alternatively, it will subvert the entire concept of a Final Boss by having an intentional loss letting yourself be beaten and then choosing to Press X to Die, or by having running away be an option the entire time that will actually work if you try enough, but Stella usually stops you. Actually beating her in this case would provide a Nonstandard Game Over.

• It's not like Square isn't known to have you as the player Kill the Cutie, either...
  • The change from Versus XIII to XV has rendered this completely moot.

The final battle of the game will be against Etro.

If they decide to go the "bigass terrifying final boss" route, unlike the above WMG.

• Jossed, and it isn't even against a god either.

Combining the WMG's above...

The final battle will be against Stella, possessed by Etro. Or possibly being backed up by Etro, who will have become a Summon Stella can use.

• See above, all jossed.

Noctis and Stella will become either the Official Couple or Star-Crossed Lovers.

Don't they just give off that whole vibe?

• Actually, it would most likely be both. Official Couple due to being shown damn close to each other in nearly everything, and Star-Crossed Lovers for TOO OBVIOUS reasons.
• Even after the XV change, confirmed on both counts.

Alternatively, Square Enix is deliberately screwing with the pre-release Shippers.

They set up Noctis and Stella deliberately so everyone will assume the Star-Crossed Lovers WMG is true, and they intend to do something to make the whole concept simply loaded with Squick - Stella is much Older Than She Looks and is a baby, for example, or is Noctis's daughter conjured up in time travel, or something else gross. Or, less meanly, just otherwise sinking the ship by making one of them canonically gay or having them decide they're too close as friends to risk that by hooking up.

• In fact, this has just been confirmed: Nomura has stated in an interview that Noctis is gay. Or not. It was an April Fools prank.
• I read this as a Take That! to the bad fanbase. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Jossed, with a slight degree of tweaking. They are indeed the Official Couple, but Noctis's feeling are a little ambiguous.

The Big Bad will be the sickest, most depraved villain in the Final Fantasy franchise yet.

He/she will be so evil that even Kefka will think he's/she's messed up.

• Ardyn does plenty of terrible things in the game, but he has a compelling enough backstory to keep from falling into the Complete Monster category.

Godzilla will show up

Then the game will reveal its true name: "Final Fantasy: Godzilla vs. XIII". And she'll fight the entire cast of FFXIII. And she'll win.

• Jossed.

The Leviathan will have more HP than Aeronite and even Yiazmat

Think about it, the Aeronite was said to be born outside of Nova Chrysalia (that, or was born as Nova Chrysalia's equivalent of Omega Weapon). Dunno if it's related, but given it's size, perhaps it could be featured as a bonus boss somewhere in FFXV that has... somewhere around 100 million H Ps...

Noctis is Hope.

• A grown up Hope, but Hope nevertheless.
  • Probably not. Versus doesn't take place in the same world, and Noct has black hair.
    • Hair dye.
    • Noctis' hair seems pretty silver to me. Dark silver, but silver none the less.
  • Actually, the entire Fabula Novus Crystallis trilogy is set in the same universe, and with all the magic Final Fantasy has, it would not be surprising if they could find someway to crossover. Their personalities certainly fits.
    • Errr... actually, developers said that none of the Fabula Nova Crystallis games take place in the same world, save for the XIII trilogy; each game takes place in the same universe; they mentioned crossovers were unlikely. What they share is a common mythology and the "vague crystal theme."
    • But, you never know. For all we know, at the end of Lightning Returns, the new world Bhunivelze creates to escape the chaos infected Nova Crysallia, is the same world that XV takes place in. After all, they have the same mythology, unlike most FF titles....
• Jossed.

Organization XIII will show up as an Optional Boss.

• Jossed.

This and XIII are parallel universes, with Versus beginning shortly before the end of XIII.

So Square-Enix has said that the games don't take place in the same world. Allegedly this means that they aren't really connected at all. However, the main plan of the Big Bad in XIII is to call the Maker back into the world by killing so many people that the door to "the next world" is forced wide open. It's implied that the crystal light floating around near the end of the game is the preliminary form of this happening. In the one dialogue scene we've seen in Versus XIII, they discuss a light they see in the sky, which is supposed to be the goddess accepting the souls of the dead into the other side. Additionally, the arks were built to prepare for an invasion by the "outside", but the Analects reveal that this doesn't refer to Cocoon at all.

• Compare and contrast the Gran Pulse WMG one below. It may not be the Maker exactly, but somewhere close to the Goddess Etro, since she is featured more often.
• Jossed.

This is the world of Gran Pulse, in the past.

Not so much WMG as assuming that SE was lying so that the revelation that Gran Pulse used to be really very advanced is more of a shock.

• Calling plausible. If you pay real attention to the shots of Gran Pulse during the Chapter 10 opening cinematics of FFXIII, you'd see that the ruins contained some extremely modern tech, that also exists in FFXV.
• Jossed.

The Eye Colors are actually Battle Modes given by the Crystal. This is also a critical story element.

Strictly speaking, a normal eye color is a general fight, with no extra abilities and magic.

A red color is when Noctis and his family line uses the Crystal. This explains why Noctis is able to be Badass in the first trailer, and why Noctis is the only person who can use magic: he's using the Crystal. This follows in line with the Red Eyes, Take Warning trope.

That gold/white eye color is the Gestalt Mode for that game. In other words, we may see Bahamut as a Summon for the game.

• Even better, Noctis and co. could ride Bahamut just like Fang did, and if the airships aren't around, could take the party across the skies over the cities.

Noctis's friend Prompto is going to die.

The game does have Shakespearean elements, and the blonde haired guy Prompto gives off a "Mercutio vibe," IMO.

• Though it appears that the game is based more on Hamlet than Romeo and Juliet.
• It goes with the Kill the Cutie tendency. Also, he's the one that everyone in the team seems most comfortable with. See how he messes around with Noctis, is ruffled by Gladiolus, and sits in the front seat with Ignis.
  • Please note that he's the one Noctis is first seen interacting with before the explosion in the trailer.
• My guess is that this will send Noctis into a wild rampaging killing fit in revenge. And be an emotional turning point in the game.
• This might effectively move blondie's woobie status towards Noctis.
• If we're following the theme of this game taking from Hamlet, then everyone else will die out of Noct's posse, Prompto the last to survive and witness the "sweet prince" sacrifice himself at the very end of the game.
  • If anyone's going to be the Horatio-type character, it'd probably be Ignis. He seems to be Noctis's advisor and strategist.
• It's a Final Fantasy staple that someone important to the player party must die, and FFV and FFVII shows that even playable characters are no exception. This can tie in to the Prompto being a traitor WMG, upon finding out the traitor (after all, how else is the Niflheim army finding their location to have troops sent to them?) the party must battle him to the death to make room for Luna to join the party, assuming FFV-style whole-game-stationary party.
• Jossed
  • On the other hand, one interpretation of the ending is that Everyone Dies at the end and are reunited in the afterlife. So it's probably a big maybe instead.

Alternatively, Noctis and Stella were dead before the game started, or they will be dead over the course of the game.

Or worse: they can be considered dead already. This game will mostly rely on Immortality and why they can "see the light", which is a critical plot spoiler: the Crystal that they are fighting over is dying, and they know it. I see very bad shades of Madoka Magica incoming. Brace yourself.

• If this December 2016 leak is credible, then yes, the original story for Versus XIII would have had Stella being Dead All Along, with Noctis being her amnesiac killer.

This game will correct everything that everybody hated from Final Fantasy XIII and everybody will still hate it.

Truly a wild and mass guess, because knowing Square Enix, Versus XIII will invent a whole new set of things for everybody to hate... or will probably keep on doing everything that (some feel) XIII did wrong.

• Someone's gonna hate something about it. A bunch of people are going to love something about it. Flame Wars will erupt. This is easily the least wild guess on the page.
  • Hate is starting to spew at the news that the game has just been delayed again (albeit for only two months). So it's confirmed I guess.
  • Basically confirmed at present. Tabata has revealed that the game is actually structured in reverse to XIII; with an open world at the start and a more linear path at the end, while being Final Fantasy, the debate is still raging.

Stella will become The Ophelia

.The game is based on Hamlet. Come on. This may also be connected to the first guess - Stella gains a huge amount of power, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, and the player has to kill the poor sweet Love Interest who's gone ethereally crazy and just doesn't understand that she's setting fires and killing people as she giggles and dances and tosses flowers here and there.

• I think she already shows traits of this in the trailer (though Trailers Always Lie and/or it's only this troper's interpretation) at 2:00 the way how she just stares at the sky (presumably staring at the light) it's creepy and she looks cute at the same time. That or the animation makes it look creepy.

The game will be one massive bloodbath.

They're quoting Hamlet, of all things. What with that and the trailer wherein Noctis single-handedly slaughters what looks to be an entire army, what other option is there?

• Confirmed for Kingsglaive. Also confirmed for XV proper.

Noctis will be completely, utterly, unbelievably Adorkable.

Come on. Guy who acts aloof in public but is really shy and nervous and loves to laugh and hang around with his friends? Just typing that makes me wanna Squee.

XIII and Versus XIII are connected

Tenebrae looks similar to Paddra, or rather Paddra would resemble Tenebrae where it not destroyed in the War of Transgression. The developers have stated long ago that XIII and Versus will have no direct connection, although like the Ivalice Alliance this could simply mean the games are set on the same planet, hundreds of years apart from one another.

• And recent scans suggest that the alphabet of both games appear to be the same, which fuels the theory a bit.
• There have also been a few theories trying to link the Goddess Etro to Necron (appearance, theme of death) and Cosmos (an Aborted Arc from the trailer had the villains call Cosmos "The Goddess of Death", which is what the myths believe Etro to be).
• Jossed.

The Fabula Nova Crystallis games will take a decade to develop.

When this series was announced as a "ten-year project", we all thought they meant they would be making games for ten years. Actually what they meant is that Agito and Versus might be out by 2016-2017.

• Averted for Agito, but confirmed for FFXV which got released in November 2016.

Versus XIII is going to be Square Enix's Duke Nukem Forever

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

• A 10 year development cycle is pretty darn close.
• Jossed, the game got good reviews and has recieved praise from fans and even Ign made a video saying it didn't end up like that, spefically mentioning DNF

Noctis and his three friends will be the Warriors of Light.

Well, there are four of them. So yeah.

Prompto is Stella's little brother.

He seems like the youngest out of the four friends, and it appears like Noctis and Stella have a past too. Since Stella and him look pretty similar (or that could just be Square Enix designs), they might be siblings. This could also explain how Prompto got to know Noctis and the others, and why they treat him like a little brother.

• Jossed; though Luna was indeed instrumental in Prompto befriending Noctis.

This game will eventually become Final Fantasy XV.

Let's face it, this game isn't coming out any time soon. And yet, Square-Enix has stated that they won't begin production on the inevitable XV until Versus XIII is finished. Most likely, after 2 or 3 more years, Square Enix will say "f*ck this Fabula Nova Crystalis sh*t" and just rename the game to Final Fantasy XV.

UPDATE: With the recent re-titling of Agito XIII to Type-0, it's possible that the latter half of this WMG is actually coming true. Who knows, perhaps the first half will as well...

• Alternatively, this game was meant to be FF15, but used Versus XIII as a fake working title. It's kind of like how some films are shipped out to theaters or auditions are given fake names.
• CONFIRMED: And not through the above post's reasoning. The trailer uses the tagline "the story of VERSUS", meaning it'll receive its own saga much like Final Fantasy XIII's "Lightning Saga" while still being tied to the Fabula Nova Crystalis series.

One of Noctis' friends will pull a Face–Heel Turn.

Or at reveal himself as The Mole. Maybe that will lead Noctis cross his Despair Event Horizon and go berserk.

• Some people on the internet have guessed that Prompto is the White-Robed Man. Said man is blond, about the right height, and doesn't look exactly dissimilar. On the other hand, his hair is slightly longer than Prompto's and a lighter blond, and just about everybody's that little bit taller than Noctis. So...YMMV?
  • Jossed as far as Prompto being the White-Robed man; that man appears to be Ravus Nox Fleuret.

Noctis or Stella has a Superpowered Evil Side

I don't know, just feel like they would.

• Noctis doesn't, and we'll never know about Stella now.

All of the main enemies and bosses will be people who have also "seen the light" of the death goddess

• Both Noctis and Stella have, most likely from having a near-death experience. It's not much of a stretch to assume that other characters have, and that they might want to use the powers they gained for evil.

Related to the above theories of a connection from the end of Final Fantasy XIII to Versus XIII or that Hope is Noctis...

• When the characters in one world (that is, either the Versus world or the XIII world) die, they are reincarnated into the other world. So, hypothetically, the Hope=Noctis WMG could be plausible. If/when Hope dies in the Final Fantasy XIII world, he could be reincarnated into Noctis.

The armored Dark Action Girl fighting Noctis in the latest trailer might be Stella.

• It's possible. Stella will be an antagonist in the game, as Noctis and Stella will be forced to fight each other, but it hasn't been revealed how Noctis will discover Stella is his enemy. And the armored woman is blond, which can mean Stella or an entirely new character.
  • Jossed. An interview with Nomura in Dengeki magazine tells us that's not Stella, just an enemy.
  • Turns out this was an early concept of the character that would later become Commodore Aranea Highwind.

The two old men at the end of the recent trailer are actually Noctis and the White Robed Man from previous trailers, in the future. The whole game is about their conflict, leading up to their final confrontation at the end of their lives.

• I mean, one's keeping his White Mage styled robe, and the other has Noctis' weapons ready. It's a tempting thought.
  • Jossed, despite how interesting that sounds. A translation of King Caelum's lines in the 2011 trailer reveals him as (desiring to be) the last king and he is inevitably the one facing off against the white robed man in the trailer. Which leads me to ponder...

The confrontation of King Regis and the White Robed Man will be a battle leading to a Heroic Sacrifice, and occurs early in the game

King Regis wants to be the last king, he doesn't want Noctis to succeed the throne, and the caption after his scene in the trailer read "An act of love by the last king". There was also a scene with (presumably) Noctis running through a forest to meet with the king and the perspective made the king out to be much taller, thus making it seem like it was a flashback to Noct's childhood. His death is fuel for Noctis, probably the primary reason for why he's fighting. At the end of the trailer he asks Ignis about exacting revenge tenfold, to which Ignis corrects him that they'll exact revenge a hundredfold. It could also be a reason behind why he's trying so hard to fight, even when his friend's warn him that he is overestimating his abilities and acting rashly that his citizens might get hurt from all the fighting.

And if we're going to juice the life out of the Hamlet-based storyline theory, then the White Robed man would be Noctis' uncle seizing the crystal to rule over the kingdom.

• Confirmed and Jossed. This was indeed intended to be at the start of the game, but was transferred into Kingsglaive.

Everyone is going to die or be effectively dead.

• It's not that hard to imagine this game ending on a Downer Ending of epic proportions. Somehow, every main character will die or otherwise rendered completely impotent as the game progresses. The game's said to have a theme of death, and Etro, the Goddess of Death, appears to be taking a major role in the story. Presumably, all of Noctis's friends will die first, probably making sacrifices which may or may not be senseless. The final boss will be a Hopeless Boss Fight which ends with Noctis dying at the hands of a Brainwashed and Crazy Stella, who goes comatose or dies after seeing him die. The villains won't necessarily win, but neither will the heroes.
• It's easier to list who's not confirmed dead by the end of the game, so yeah. Confirmed.

This game will have themes that are the complete opposite of the themes of Final Fantasy VIII.

• Noctis will not be like Squall; that's just a front he puts up out of shyness, and he'll never have Squall's determination and focus. Stella might be similar to Rinoa, even meeting the hero while wearing a white dress, but she won't get the Distress Ball like Rinoa did, and maybe she'd rather be Just Friends, and instead of disliking her magical abilities (which may or may not be a case of Cursed with Awesome), she'll be pretty satisfied with them. Instead of FFVIII's unabashedly happy ending, Versus will end with a massive Downer Ending. Noctis won't end up with Stella or any other Love Interest, and, at least in this universe, you can't fight fate. While Rinoa was most certainly not Ultimecia, Stella will be the Big Bad, though not necessarily by time travel. Maybe Noctis will have Squall's Always Save the Girl mentality, but he won't always save her. Basically, Versus will be the inverse of Final Fantasy VIII, just to screw with the fans. The only theme they'll share is the youth of the main characters causing huge problems. Except in the case of Versus, said main characters won't be able to fix things.

The Game's Ultimate conflict will be White v. White

• What else could be more tragic than Ultimate Good fighting against Ultimate Good?

Prompto is a l'Cie.

• He's said to be a 'recent' friend of Noctis', and the rumours are flying around he's some sort of fugitive. What if he's a fugitive because of his l'Cie status, and his focus is to kill Noctis; he befriends him to get close.
  • The real reason why he's a fugitive is that he uses a shotgun, which are banned in Noctis's country.
  • Might actually be plausible. At its basic definition, l'Cie are beings who are granted powers from gods with a negative side-effect; the only individuals in the story who fit that description are the Lucian royal family and the individuals that they can share their powers with.

There will be a Say My Name towards Stella

Come on, you all know where this is going.

• It will be Subverted. He'll actually end up sobbing over Stella's corpse, as he was forced to kill her as part of Bhuniverzi's will, whispering "Stella" before the screen fades to black.

We will be able to change certain things over the course of the game

In a recent Famitsu, Nomura said that all of the cutscenes will be fully controllable, so the player never feels like they're not playing. This troper is guessing that the player will be able to change a few important events over the game, gaining the possibility of a new/different ending.

• Maybe this was the plan for Versus XIII but it's definitely not the case for XV.

---

The assault shown happens at the begining of the game, thus giving Noctis full access to his powers.

First, it's said to be in the blood; Noctris' father was shown lately to use the same arsenal in his last confrontation. 'Of course he was using it' referred to a Crystal, which gives the limited access to powers, but only death of someone's else fully activate it. That's why near-death experience unlocks it: the person in question was dying. It's hid from the people what Crystal really is.

Second, powers activate only by the cost of someone's else life, as mentioned at the trailer shown Stella and Noct talking about 'the light'. It's seen at the sky that night, and Noct says 'goodbye', possibly knowing what his father was up to. Shortly after that the assault begun. It's a first chapter.

More of it, there is this dream-like sequence in the wood at the morning, and because the camera is set low, it's most possibly Noct as a child. His father seems younger there, obviously. He is already dead by that time, it's an retrospection sent to haunt the user of powers bound.

In short: if you want to use the powers, keep killing. Make death stick to you. That's what allows you to use it without Crystal(which acts as a passive storage, people die every day). So yeah, Nice Job Noct...Stella wants to stop Noct when she realized the source of her powers, and it drives her possibly insane (supporting The Ophelia theory) or going Break The Cutie scenerio and join him.

The 'last act of love' is the twist in all this power deal- Crystal itself is fueled by deaths, and the last king, concerned by the well-being of his country and sanity of his child, decides to break the circle and cut Noct off the Crystal, destroing it in the process. That's why it's so bloody, killing is the fuel for magic and every power. It fits also 'fantasy based on reality' theme: power is usually earned by sacrificing something else, and through pain and suffering of people (tyrany).

The game will become it's own series

With how much is being put into this game, it's baffling that this is a spin-off. I think sometime during developement, it would either:

• A: Become Final Fantasy XV like the above guess said.
• B: Given an entirely new name and become its own series.

It does seem strange that the spin-off takes longer to develop than the main series..

• Both are confirmed; Final Fantasy Versus XIII was changed to Final Fantasy XV, and "a world of the Versus epic" at the end of the E3 trailer heavily implies that there will be more to come of its saga. Saga actually entails more media; not just more games; currently there's Justice Monsters Five and A King's Tale.

---

All the main cast of FFXIII will be present in some sense or other.

Maybe they'll be mentioned offhandedly, like, a legendary woman that challenged the demigods/Fal'Cie with her friends. Or they'll actually be present on-screen, not looking exactly like themselves, but close nonetheless. Like a cameo. For instance maybe there's a man that works in Noctis' palace that is immensely tall and well-built, who's hair is blond and he keeps it wrapped up somehow. The -XII games share the same universe after all, maybe we'll get some sort of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles situation where the same people are on every world but look different.

• Nope, it's completely divorced from the XIII sub-franchise.

The game will have a pretty sad ending

None of the titles in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation have a truly happy ending (not counting alternate endings). And as so often stated, FFXIII is the darkest Final Fantasy title yet, so while dark does not always equals to bad ending, it does sometimes connect.

• It sure did.

The men in white

• The Elder One- King Regis's brother. With all the Shakespearian connections, they'll probably go the Hamlet route and have him murder the King (and frame Noctis for it so he won't get the throne). In the trailer, Regis told somebody he was not fit to be king, but Word of God implied that it wasn't Noctis he was talking to.
  • Jossed: This man is effectively Regis's opposite as the emperor of Niflheim.
• The Younger One- Either the elder's son or his clone. Possible dragon.
  • Jossed; though he is his underling. He's actually Luna's brother.

Possible voice actors

• Noctis- Either Yuri Lowenthal, Johnny Yong Bosch, Aaron Dismuke, or Vincent Martella.
  • Jossed. Noct is voiced by Ray Chase.
• Ignis- Either Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, or J. Michael Tatum.
  • Jossed. Ignis is played by Adam Croasdell.
• Prompto- Vic Mignogna.
  • Jossed. Robbie Daymond plays Prompto.
• Gladious- Crispin Freeman.
  • Jossed. Chris Parson voices Gladious.
• Stella- Either Laura Bailey, Caitlin Glass, or Stephanie Sheh.
  • I predict Prompto will be played by Yuri, Stella by Laura, and Noctis by either Troy or Aaron(because I think Vincent is too young).
    • Jossed, see above. Additionally, Stella is pretty much out of the spotlight if not a completely scrapped character at this point.
  • I for one predict Tara Strong to have a role somewhere.
• Ardyn Izunia - Quinton Flynn. His seiyuu voiced Axel and Reno, and since Quinton voiced the same roles...
  • Jossed. Darin De Paul plays Ardyn in both the Kingsglaive movie and the game itself.
• Luna- Maaya Sakamoto in Japanese, to reflect another Luna who replaced another Stella as the protagonist's love interest.
  • Jossed; she's voiced by Rina Kitagawa.
• Iris- Catherine Taber (Penelo).
  • Jossed, it's Eden Riegel.

Why the game is taking so long

• internal disagrements on what will be in the game
  • Possible. We're talking about how it was planned to be a musical RPG at one point. That alone is enough to bring up images of what else they could've had planned for the game.
• hiding the developement of another game with the developement of Versus
  • Remake of FF7 maybe. Probably the only thing that will cause people to forgive them for the wait.
• Square Enix's embarrassing no-show of any titles at the 2013 Playstation 4 reveal, other than the express command that fans "please wait and be excited," combined with some off-site evidence, indicates that development has moved to that console and the title has been renamed Final Fantasy XV.
  • Which is exactly what happened.

The line of kings Noctis belongs to were, in fact, l'Cie

Including Noctis, himself, and the rulers of those nations whose crystals were destroyed at the time of the war. Each had a Focus and a brand much like any l’Cie, only in Versus XIII’s world, a Focus is hereditary and passed down from heir-to-heir, and brings with it great power and authority.

• Lucis, L'cie... yep, makes sense.

The world of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is trapped in worldwide crystal stasis

One of several major themes that is said to be relevant to the game’s plot is “Sleep,” and as crystal stasis in Final Fantasy XIII was implied to be akin to eternal slumber, the theme of “Sleep” in Versus XIII may relate to some variation of crystal stasis.

The game is stated to take place at the “clearing” of a war between nations that revolved around the crystals – think a nuclear exchange – resulting in the crystals’ destruction. What if the end of the crystals brought about a kind of crystal stasis that enveloped the entire world? The game has post-apocalyptic overtones that lend its locales an eerie sense of desolation; crippled freeways, crooked power-lines running parallel to empty stretches of fractured road – one wonders if the world really did survive the war at all.

Perhaps the events of the game are merely the product of an elaborate recreation of the real world, ala Final Fantasy X’s Dream Zanarkand, conjured by the dreams of those trapped within worldwide crystal stasis.

The cloaked guy giving off Assassin's Creed vibes in the new Final Fantasy XV trailer is either Prompto (...somehow...) or Prompto's twin—or simply younger or older—brother or something.

I mean, he's a blond with a fluffy hairstyle that looks short except for a lock hanging off on the side (at least from what I could make of it in the two seconds you see it in the 720p E3 trailer on Youtube) and they have similar enough facial structure (nose, even mouth if you subtract the shadow of the lips; maybe his face is a little slimmer, though?) at the ensemble cast card at the end. And writers do love those brother tropes.

• The fact that Prompto is a recently-made friend of Noctis might support the idea that Prompto and the Ass Creed guy might be the same person.
  • They're probably not the same person, though they do seem to have similar hair color. One of the 2009 trailers show Noctis and the hooded Assassin's Creed-esque guy face-to-face, with the latter taking off his hood. It's a little difficult to tell from the lighting, but it looks as though the hooded guy has shoulder-length hair as opposed to Prompto's shorter, unruly hair. Hooded dude is also shown to use magic/powers of some sort while Prompto's a firearms specialist (unless Prompto turns out to use magic, too, for some reason).
  • Along with the hair color, both hooded guy and Prompto's hair were changed to be wavier-looking (instead of straight like Stella's), too, between the 2009 trailer and E3 trailer.
  • Jossed. The Hooded man is Ravus, Luna's brother.

This game will actually have a fairly optimistic Earn Your Happy Ending

Everyone expects the game to be super grim with lots of death and a sad ending. It'd be kind of boring if that's exactly what it turns out to be. But it's also a good opportunity to surprise people with some degree of brightness and emotional payoff. Bright things shining brighter in the dark and all that.

• They went for a pretty Bittersweet Ending route with all 4 main party members dying in the ending.

The pink-haired man with the hat will be The Rival or The Starscream.

He just gives off that vibe somehow, what with the whole amused way he says "This is turning into quite the ordeal." He's going to be either the recurring rival or this game's Sephiroth.

• Possibly Jossed in terms of fighting, but confirmed in that he does meet up with the gang several times.

There will be platforming segments akin to the chase sequences from Assassin's Creed

And it will involve our mysterious hooded figure being chased by Noctis and his allies, interestingly traversing the map a la Le Parkour. Someone went out of their way to design him (or her. Who knows at this point) to resemble an Assassin. This Shout-Out would be inevitable, especially since exploration has become more free and open. That and they chose to dress up a guy in an iconic white hood with a head protector that makes the front-view profile looks exactly like an Assassin's beaked hood!

This man◊ is a traitor to the kingdom of Lucis

This character may not have had any major focus in the trailers yet, but there is still some evidence supporting it. One is this◊ image which shows that he is clearly a high ranking member of society, having close enough ties to the king to be in this meeting between kingdoms. Interestingly enough, despite his ties to the king, in this image◊ he doesn't appear on either side of the picture, which leaves his alliance completely ambiguous. There are certain other clues from other places that may or may not support this idea. One, the story of the game is said to be based off of Hamlet, so a traitor to Regis is not completely out of the equation. Second, in the 2011 trailer Regis is talking to someone, mentioning that he will not pass on the title of king to anyone. Nomura stated that the person he was speaking to was not Noctis. Granted, he may have been talking to anyone else in the main cast, but it can be a good motivator for anyone to assassinate the king.

• EDIT: If the man's eyes are any indication, he's Gladiolus' father. They share the same eye colour. They also look disturbingly similar. The leap isn't too far to make, as both serve one half of the royal family, and the recently released (as of this edit) English guide states that the Amicitias are a long line of royal guards, and Gladio continues that tradition. The sinister nature of the image, however, cannot dissuade that this man may be capable of betrayal.
  • If he was Gladio's father, this is Jossed; Clavus goes down fighting with King Regis. Possibly played straight if he's Titus, aka General Glauca, who WAS a traitor.

You'll be able to change the party's clothes.

There have been changeable wardrobes in nearly every FF game released for the past couple years, so why not continue the trend?

• CONFIRMED!

The world that XV takes place in, is the new world that Bhunivelze has Lightning guide souls to in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Stella will pull a Heel–Face Turn and join the party as a playable character

Come on, we know how these things go. It'll happen; it can't not. It'll happen near the end of the game, and she might even be a non-playable Guest-Star Party Member during an earlier boss battle or two as a tease.

• Completely jossed, and Luna never joins as a guest party member.

The final boss will be Bahamut.

And he'll be an epic colossus climb boss.

• Jossed, Bahamut turns out to be something of a Big Good. Although the second-to-last boss was Ifrit.

Cor is going to suffer in spades.

According to this overview, Japanese superstitions say that Cor's age of 42 is unlucky. This information implies that Cor's going to get it bad compared to the other characters. Since this installment also promises to be Darker and Edgier, it's also possible that he'll go through a Trauma Conga Line of legendary proportions.

• Jossed; he barely has any storyline relevance and disappears from the plot after the gang goes to Altissia.

Each playable character will have their own distinct playstyle.

My reasoning behind this is that we have been told that each character can access magic whilst Noctis is around, but every spell will work differently based on who uses it. We also know that Prompto plays quite differently to the other characters, being able to manually aim weapons. My guess is that character will have their own unique combat mechanics that slightly shift the feel/genre of the game when you control them.

• Noctis plays in what appears to be a more realistic & action packed kingdom hearts style game. His positioning on the battlefield will be very important during combat as he needs to be near others in order for them to use magic and he has access to various teleportion abilities. Noctis style will be a very fast paced action RPG with movement and positioning as key elements to success.
• Prompto will play in a Dirge Of Cerberus, third person shooter style.
• Ignis, being the tactician, will have a slow-paced, more traditional JRPG combat style of choosing commands from a large list of abilities. Ignis combat style will be there to appease fans of the older FF games.
• Gladiolus combat style will be similar to Noctis, but more grounded in reality and based on the timing of attacks, dodges, parries and blocks. Gladiolus style will be similar to The Witcher games.
  • It can also be based on the gameplay of Dissidia Final Fantasy.
• Cor is a little difficult to place a concept around, but perhaps something more like a traditional fighting game/ Beat-Em-Up.
  • Since he is a war veteran and would know what he's doing most of the time, I can imagine his gameplay being either like the Gambit System from Final Fantasy XII or the Paradigm System from Final Fantasy XIII.

The original author of this WMG is somewhat downhearted to report this has been Jossed and is not the case as Noctis will be the only character that the player can directly control.

• Or not... because it has been announced that the party members are each getting their own DLC!

Cidney will be a Guest-Star Party Member or even a full party member.

By the logic that they wouldn't be showing her off as much as they are unless she were an integral part of the story in some way.

• Jossed, she never joins the party.

At least one of the party members will be gay

...or just extremely homoerotic.

I mean, after all, if FFXV is going to be Shakespare-themed, might as well throw in some ho yay, specially with the (very pretty) male-dominating cast.

My bet's on Prompto.

• Jossed for Prompto and Gladio, who both show a keen interest in Cindy.

How Summons work

The requirement to summon Ramuh in Episode Duscae is getting into critical health, but going off the way it's worded when explaining there could be different requirements for different summons. Like one could be super powerful (legitimately powerful in the actual game; Ramuh is probably one hit killing everything because the programmers wanted to give everyone a taste of the power) but you need to exchange HP to summon it. They could also probably be "equipped", with one summon availible to use at a time. Like Noct's swords, it can be possible to swap them out mid combat.

There seems to be no cool down, but there is a drawback: you don't get exp from a summon killing something. It's unknown if this is just a feature of Episode Duscae or an actual game trait, but with a condition as simple as "get into crit health" there has to be something to balance it out. Unless square wants It's Easy, So It Sucks! to be invoked.

The taste we got in Episode Duscae is leaving the nature of summons a little foggy, but then again it is likely an early build and the devs are still working out the kinks.

Stella is still around

She's just dead. Lunafreya- her identical twin -is still alive. The Niflheim invasion mentioned at the end of Episode Duscae most likely found Stella's body and confused it for Luna's, hence Lunafreya being declared dead. Ditto for what happened to Noctis, though.

• WELL Stella's been revealed to be axed, so sadly Jossed... Unless they mention this anyways as a nod to her.
• Tabata allegedly has plans for her...but all the same, I wouldn't keep my hopes up.
• I think she will apper just as a cameo refrincing the orginal game.
• Well, the Kingsglaive movie did show Luna sneaking out of Lucis in the end, so it could be possible that they found a double (calling a bluff aside). Whether the double is named Stella as a tribute or joke tho, that will be the Riddle for the Ages.
• Totally jossed, there's no mention of Stella anywhere in the game.

Each nation will have an Archaean as its "Guardian Spirit".

If the above video is correct, Leviathan was actually protecting Accordo from Niflheim. That being said:

• Lucis's Archaean: Hades or Zalera
  • It's Bahamut, who resides in the Crystal and as evidenced in the Omen trailer, can talk with Regis.
• Niflheim: Bahamut or Tiamat
  • They don't seem to have one. Although Ardyn seems to have a good working partnership with Ifrit.
• Solheim: Ifrit
  • Supplementary materials reveal that Solheim is gone, they were the predecessor country that eventually became Niflheim.
• Tenebrae: Fenrir
  • It's actually Shiva for Tenebrae, mostly using her human form Gentiana.
• Also, regarding Accordo, Leviathan is a colossal jerkass who was throwing a temper tantrum that ended up destroying Altissia. She doesn't care about the country.

The Portrait at the end of Episode Duscae gives away the summons.

When you finally get access to the car in Episode Duscae you are treated to the Japanese audio only epilogue and a portrait. In the portrait you see what appears to be an Etro-inspired Goddess at the top who is surrounded by knights further down is four men with one appearing to summon swords, to one side you see a bearded man as well as a familiar looking woman and a hulking man to the four men's other side is what appears to be a draconic or demonic man holding onto a mermaid in comfort. Beneath the bearded man's side is an angel spearing a serpent and beneath the mermaid is what appears to be Ultros being speared by another angel. And beneath them all is a horde of monsters containing a gorgon and a minotaur (serpent's side, kinda blends in). Now then we know of three summons that fit the appearances of three individuals in the portrait and those are Ramuh, Titan and Leviathan, the bearded and hulking men and the serpent respectively. Onto the sub guess:

• The Knights are the Knights of the Round Table, which would be fitting since FFXV originated from a concept for FFVII.
• The familiar looking woman is Shiva. Remember there was a scene on a train in one of the earlier trailers that showed a sudden snowstorm coming in.
• The mermaid is Siren.
• The draconic/demonic man could be:
  • Diabolos, this one seems to fit the most.
  • Hades; the way he's holding the Mermaid suggests the two of them being lovers. Of all previous summons that could fit in that place in the portrait, Hades is the only one who had a lover, or could be depicted as demonic.
  • Ifrit, finishing off the Fire, Lightning, Ice and Water as the basic spells. And Fire and Water are not depicted as total opposites in Final Fantasy.
• The Angels could be the two remaining gods of the trio, or even Alexander and Seraph.
• The gorgon is Medusa.
• And the minotaur may be Ifrit, or Minotaur from Final Fantasy VIII.

Luna will have a Tonks moment regarding her name.

And the first meeting between her and Noct will go something like this:

Herald: Prince Noctis, allow me to introduce to you Her Royal Highness, Princess Lunafreya—

Luna: It's Luna!!

Herald: —Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of Tenebrae, who prefers to be known only by the first two syllables of her first name.

• Jossed.

The reason Noctis is so sleepy all the time is because of his magic.

• The reason Regis aged so swiftly is because Lucis' protective spell drained energy from him. It seems plausible that Noctis' constant use of spells in combat is doing the same to him, only on a smaller, less harmful scale.

Some Characters that die will become smaller summons or become part of larger summons

Like say if Regis dies he becomes a human sized Odin or parts of Knights of the Round.

• Funnily, oddly enough...plausible. After Regis dies, his spirit ascends to the same place as those of the previous Lucian kings, and they later animate giant statues to battle the Daemons.
• At any rate, this never happens.

Etro gave Luna necromantic powers.

• Luna is a Foil to Noctis in basically every possible way, and Noctis's divine powers help him kill people; it's only natural that Luna's powers would correspondingly bring the dead back to life. (Perhaps their 'gifts' are meant to be used cooperatively, resulting in the creation of multiple undead minions to do Etro's will.) In addition, Luna has a very White Mage aesthetic- white dresses, civilian gear, no visible armor- and press releases have revealed that she is literally worshiped by many people. In fantasy settings like XV's, religion is usually related to magic in some way.
• Jossed, again because the game is completely divorced from the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology.

Agni will appear in the game at some point.

Why? Simply Noctis and Luna are each others counterpart(Night and Moon), Gladiolus and Gentiana effectively play the same role to their respective royalty and are both named after flowers, now that leaves Ignis and Prompto as the guys with no female counterpart and like Ignis Agni's name means fire. Okay technically Gentiana could be argued to be playing double time as both Gladiolus and Ignis's counterpart, while Cindy could be considered Prompto's counterpart, but dangit, having Agni in the game would be awesome even if she's only a guest... Which brings us to our next WMG.

• The character of Crowe in Kingsglaive does have her hairstyle deliberaely based on Agni's, but otherwise jossed and she never makes an appearance.

Final Fantasy XV will be one part of the world's story with Final Fantasy XVI acting as the conclusion dealing with the aftermath of FF15

And Agni will play a guest role in 15 while being the main protagonist in 16.

• She has nothing to do with XV. Only time will tell what happens with Final Fantasy XVI.
  • It's jossed anyway. XVI has nothing to do with Agni.

Regis, Noctis's father, will be the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XV

• Well, he's dead as of the end of Kingsglaive. So unless he does have a major plan or unless Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt is the real King Regis and doesn't get betrayed by Ardyn Izunia, or worse, unless Ardyn Izunia is in fact King Regis, it's a full-on Jossed.

Agni has a connection with the Solheim nation.

• There's no mention of Agni in the game.

Aranea Highwind is a Turncoat.

• She's wearing black armor which would imply that she is from Lucis but later on decided to work with Niflhiem, which the color of the uniforms should be white instead.
  • Possible, as it is confirmed that she and her unit are Private Military Contractors.
• Alternatively, she is a mole and only attacked Noctis and Co so her cover wouldn't be blown.
  • Nope, she's a mercenary, but she is very, very much a stickler about her job and quits the fight because she claims her working hours are over and she's not getting paid overtime.

Aranea's voice actress is Miyuki Sawashiro

• She had no dialogue in the ATR trailer but that split-second long grunt she let out sounded exactly like Mosquito Girl, Sice, and Sinon.
  • Confirmed: Her one line in the Uncovered final trailer is definitely Sawashiro's voice.

The game will be released on May 8th, 2016

• This would be a Meaningful Release Date, as it would be exactly ten years after the game was first announced.
  • Jossed, the release date is set for September 30, 2016.
    • Double-Jossed. It got postponed to November 29th, 2016.

Noctis will still have an epic showdown against the woman he loves

Understandably, people were disappointed when Action Girl Stella was replaced by seemingly Distressed Damsel Luna, and the epic Starcrossed Lovers showdown appeared to be scrapped. However, Luna is being set up to become Noctis' enemy more than Stella ever was.

We knew Stella and Noctis were going to fight each other at some point because it was explicitly shown in a trailer. If that scene hadn't been included, no one would have thought that they would become enemies, given the other information available regarding Stella (that she was from Tenebrae and met Noctis at a party). In contrast to that, while Luna hasn't been shown getting ready to fight Noctis, there are a lot of hints that appear to lead to that particular showdown.

As some others have mentioned, Luna is definitely a foil to Noctis, from their names, to their hair colour, to their clothing, to their powers – they're contrasted in pretty much every possible way, really. Why set up so many opposing qualities, if they're not going to end up on opposing sides of the conflict? In the Dawn 2.0 trailer, it was stated that "fifteen years ago... their journey began", followed by shots of both of them walking towards an unknown destination. Taken at face value, it may seem that their journey is one and the same (defeating Niflheim to bring freedom and peace), but they're shown to walk towards that unseen future by themselves, not together, which might imply that they're on different journeys, with different goals. Additionally, SE's caption of that very same scene of Luna's walk states "Lady Lunafreya's face is full of determination. Is it revenge she seeks, peace among nations, or something more?".

We're told that Luna is a strong-willed woman, but the ambiguity of her motivations is a pretty clear red flag. Not to mention, Noctis, who is undeniably the good guy, is from Lucis, which means "light" in latin. Luna is from Tenebrae, which means "darkness" in latin. Suspicious.

• Confirmed but only in the "Omen" trailer. Something possesses Noctis's body to kill Luna.

King Regis is going to die.

He's being voiced by Sean Bean, after all.

• Alternatively, he doesn't die as not every character Sean Bean plays dies and it will be a Plot Twist that reveals that King Regis was just playing dead.
• Confirmed. He dies near the end of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.

The cook will not be sent away.

• Considering this scene was from the old Versus XIII concept, it never comes up in XV.

Justice Monsters Five is a Show Within a Show.

Maybe it's even a popular media franchise encompassing all sorts of products, since Prompto and Noctis act with almost a childlike glee at playing a Justice Monsters Five-branded pinball machine.

• Confirmed. It's supposedly a game within a game, although the game will be released independently for iOS and Android devices.

Noctis's mother died protecting him from a Niflheim assassination attempt.

In episode 1 of Brotherhood, there is a dead body laying near Noctis with an arm extended seemingly protectively toward him. The lamia that turns up again at the end of the episode is the same monster from that scene and it elicits an uncharacteristically furious reaction out of Noctis. Put the pieces together.

• It is stated that Noctis's mother died when he was an infant and he seems too old to be an infant in episode 1 of Brotherhood.
  • However, this is EXACTLY what happens to Ravus's mother, and Ravus is being presented as a Foil to Noctis...in an attempt on the lives of Noctis and Regis no less!
• Aside from the mother part, this was mostly confirmed in episode 5 of Brotherhood. The woman was one of Noct's caretakers, and the bodyguards' suspicions that the creature had broken the Wall strongly indicate it was sent by Niflheim.

Prompto is a Traitor

He's the new guy from nowhere who managed to ingratiate himself with the prince fairly easily. It would be a good Plot Twist since he's one of your bros and will betray you at a critical moment. If you run with it some more, he's wearing a shirt that says "It's a beautiful day. Now watch some bastard fuck it up." He's the bastard who will fuck it up.

Jossed while Prompto was from Nifhelm, he never does any betraying but Noctis does betray him... in a sense.

Noctis is half-Astral.

• Jossed.

The Regalia will get destroyed.

• For certain values of destroyed. It could have gotten destroyed before it gets turned into an airship.
  • Or turned into an airship BECAUSE it gets destroyed!
    • Exactly what I was trying to say!
• Confirmed, it does get shot up and rendered inoperable when Noct, Ignis, and Gladio go to Gralea, the Niflheim capital.

There will be a fifth female party member

In the "Reclaim Your Throne" trailer for a couple of seconds a girl can be seen sitting in the car with Noctis and the gang, it's possible she is an unannounced player character.

• While it doesn't really confirm anything, but it seems like she is Gladilous' younger sister Iris.
• She is confirmed to act as a guest at the very least.
• Aranea Highwind is the other guest female party member who is with you for a more significant amount of time.

Cidney's father will be called Mid Aurum

In Final Fantasy games is common to call Cid's male relatives Mid or some similar like Midus. In this game he will be Cidney's dad, and Cid's son-in-law.

Ravus Nox Fleuret is Lunafreya Nox Fleuret's brother.

• Confirmed.

The voice actor for Noctis is Roger Craig Smith

Noctis is voiced by Roger Craig Smith the guy who does Deidara from Naruto, Shinjii from Bleach and Chris Redfield from Resident evil. He also did some voice work for final fantasy 13/13 part 2.

I could recognize his voice in the wait mode preview @ 2:06 – 2:07 “Prompto you’re up!” then @2:14 “I’m impressed!”

wait mode preview

E3 Demo

Cinematic Trailers

compilation of his VA work

Roger Craig Smith

• Jossed. Ray Chase plays Noctis in the game.

Noctis will shout out "TRAITOR!" to Glauca and beat the ever loving crap out of him.

• Alternatively, it will be Gladiolus; Glauca killed his father too.
• Jossed, Glauca died at the end of Kingsglaive.

Noctis's mother isn't human, she's actually an Astral.

• Jossed.

Drautos's full name is Drautos Glauca.

• Jossed; his first name has been revealed to be Titus.

Noctis and Glauca will work together to prevent the destruction of the world.

Gilgamesh will appear.

He will disguise himself as Glauca.

• It will be awesome if this does happen and Gilgamesh appears as an Optional Boss, along with a remix of Battle at the Big Bridge.
  • He is not in the game, and Glauca is a different character entirely.
    • he was confirmed to be in the Episode Gladious DLC though.

Drautos hates Regis because Regis pissed in Drautos's bowl of Final Bran-Tasy cereal.

• I know this is a joke, but I'm going to joss it. Kingsglaive reveals that the real reason Drautos hates Regis is because of the former's perception of Fantastic Racism- he feels that people from outside Insomnia are not treated as those born in Insomnia itself. This is another reason he bought into Niflheim's propaganda and became a mole- Niflheim was promising equality.

Noctis will hit Glauca with the Regalia.

• Jossed since Glauca died in Kingsglaive.

Ravus and Luna are Decomposite Characters of Stella.

Since SE couldn't make Stella work in XV's revised story, they decided to split her into two characters: Luna was given the female lead and Love Interest aspects, while the rapier and Anti-Villain aspects were combined with the Hooded Man, the result being Ravus.

Gentiana is not human.

She plays a vital role in the game's story, and is of a "special existence." She's either Etro or an alien. She could be Leviathan as it was stated that Leviathan is female.

• Absolutely confirmed, she's the human form of Shiva.

The Empire of Niflheim's major leaders are the EvilCounterparts to the party members.

Noctis = Ravus

Ignis = Ardyn

Gladiolus = Glauca

Prompto = Iedolas

Noctis is attracted to women older than him such as Luna because he has mommy issues

The reason he loves Luna, is because he sees her as a mother figure, who can take care of and love him when his own mother could not.

Final Fantasy XV's Chapter 0.

Final Fantasy XV features a chapter 0. WITCH - Chapter 0 [cry] is chapter 0. Agni has been part of Final Fantasy XV all along.

• There is no Chapter 0 and Agni has nothing to do with XV.

Cor Leonis is a traitor.

It's his job to protect the king yet he does not appear during the events of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, a time when the king needs him the most.

• This is supported with his age is stated to be 42 and he is voiced by Matthew Mercer.
• Ends up jossed as his role in the plot is very minimal.

Regis will die and it will be part of his plan.

Probable. He did send Noctis out to a distant city to be wedded to Luna. And when rescuing Luna and Nyx from General Glauca, he makes Nyx promise to take Luna to said distant city before sacrificing himself to General Glauca (the promise was later passed on to Libertus). Surely he has something planned at the distant city to handle this. And well, it's possible that his soul is absorbed into the Ring of the Lucii (one of the voices that was persuading the spirits sealed in the ring to not immediately burn Nyx when he puts it on is that of Sean Bean's). And of course the ring is to be handed over to Noctis. One can probably think that someone at said distant city is secretly a Lucis sympathizer who can extract King Regis' soul from the ring, give him a new body and bring him back to life.

• Seemingly confirmed given the above you'd think.
• Self-jossing the bringing Regis back to life part given the scenes in the VA interview video, but yes, confirmed that King Regis has apparently planned everything including his death from the start.

Chancellor Ardyn Izunia will usurp and murder the emperor and take over the entire empire, then plunge the world into darkness via the Plague of the Star (which is revealed to be his doing), halfway through the game

It worked out for Kefka in Final Fantasy VI, didn't it? After all a lot of people who've seen Kingsglaive feels that Ardyn is a sleazeball with a hidden agenda and a hidden psychotic side. This could be the ultimate outcome. Furthermore, the Empire of Niflheim had successfully conquered the world by the end of the movie.

• Looking more and more likely, especially after the TGS 2016 trailer dials his sleaziness up and a lot of his florid dialogue seems to hint that he's getting bored with the Empire and he's looking for bigger fish to fry.
• Confirmed indeed, and it even does happen at roughly the halfway point. The only inaccuracy is that he doesn't take over the empire, so much as he simply unleashes all the captured Daemons and reprogrammed Magitek Troopers to utterly burn the country to dust.

Chancellor Ardyn Izunia is another incarnation of Lord Vitiate, the Sith Emperor.

Lunafreya and Ravus's father, the King of Tenebrae, died when Lunafreya and Ravus were still infants.

The final battle will be against Izunia and/or Ravus piloting the ultimate war machine of Niflheim.

Maybe, for the first time in the series, the final boss isn't some sort of deity or supernatural/magical thing, but just a man-made engine of destruction.

• Confirmed, sort of. No war machine, but this is the first time in a Final Fantasy game where the final boss (Ardyn) is just a very powerful human who possesses the same magic that you do, without a One-Winged Angel form.
  • Though it should be noted there were plans for a One-Winged Angel transformation that ended up cut!

There are more than six Aracheans.

The universe lore suggests that there are six summons in the game, but there's going to be a seventh or even eighth one that Noctis must seek to fully control his ancestral powers. Plus, c'mon, its a Final Fantasy game: there are always optional summons lurking around if you just know where to look.

• It's just the six.

Umbra is behind everything.

• Nope, Umbra's still on your side even through the end of the game.

The 2006 Versus XIII reveal trailer is the Distant Finale of the game.

At the end of his journey, Noctis has lost everything and everyone he values, and all he is left with is an empty throne fighting meaningless battles until the day he dies.

• Jossed, mostly because The Hero Dies. If that hadn't happened though, this WMG would have been pretty true as Noct did lose everyone and everything he cared about.

Post-release Theories

Plot explained... maybe?

2000 years ago, a meteor fell to Eos. Inside that meteor were the six Astrals, the crystal and the Starscourge. The Starscourge was a malady that infected people, turning them into daemons. As the number of daemons grew, the Starscourge in the atmosphere began to multiply, blocking out the sun and plunging Eos into eternal night. 12 generations ago, in order to save the world, the Astrals (except for Ifrit) gave humans powers to fight the daemons. To the Oracle, they gave the power to commune with them and heal those humans who were afflicted with the Starscourge. To the line of Lucis Caelem, they gave the ring of Lucii (basically a link to the powers of the crystal) to bestow magic upon them in order to fight the daemons that had already taken form. There was also the prophecy of the Chosen King, who would end the Starscourge once and for all.

One of the line of Lucis Caelem was Ardyn, who had to power to heal the Starscourge. (I'm not clear on where his powers come from. Was he an Oracle?) However, his method of healing meant absorbing the deamons into his own body, and over time he came to absorb so much that his body and soul basically became one with the Starscourge and the daemons. Even if his body were to be destroyed (like when Shivah froze him and he broke to pieces), his soul would simply reemerge from the Other side and the Starscourge would reform his body. The king of Lucis (probably his father, a brother or even his son) deemed him a monster for this, and exiled him. Ardyn then came to hate the line of Lucis Caelem. He took the surname Izunia and manipulated the events of the last few hundred years to bring about war to wipe out Lucis. He gave the Empire the technology for the magitek soldiers and helped them win the war. By then, however, he had become so unhinged that just destroying the line of Lucis Caelem was not enough: he wanted to kill the true Chosen King, not the prince, so he guided and even helped Noctis along the way to make sure he awakened his power by coming into contact with the crystal. As his plans were coming together, he also killed Lunafreya, the Oracle, the only person still able to heal the Starscourge and keep the night at bay. With Lunafreya dead, the night grew longer until there were simply no more daylight. In this world of ruin, Adryn waited for the time when Noctis would awaken and finally come for their final showdown.

Ten years later, Noctis awoke from within the crystal. Bahamut warned him that eradicating the Starscourge would cost his life. That came to pass after his confrontation with Ardyn in the Crown city of Insomnia. Even though Noctis managed to kill his physical form, Ardyn's soul would simply reemerge after a while. Noctis had to take the power of all twelve past kings (an act that might have killed him in itself), and then die in order to cross to the Other side. There, the power of the light from the twelve kings destroyed Ardyn's soul and the Starscourge, and morning came after ten years.

So, yeah, or something else. They really left a bunch of wholes in the story. Look forward to the 120+ pages FFXV guide to patch everything up!

• This is on the right track, more details available in the Ultimania book.

Ravus never wanted to kill Noctis, he was actually looking to kill the Astrals.

Kingsglaive makes it quite clear that he truly despises King Regis for abandoning Tenebrae during the Niflheim invasion and thus getting his mother Queen Sylva killed during it, and the natural assumption is that he must also hate Noctis as well. However, events in the game don't really bear this out. The first time he meets Noct in the Imperial base that Ramuh flattens, while he does get a bit violent with Gladio, it doesn't look like he actually intended to kill anyone there. Furthermore, when Ardyn shows up, he leaves without even being told to. It's simply more that he's doing everything he can to keep his sister and only remaining family left alive. But at the same time, because he knows Luna loves Noctis, for her sake, he can't bring himself to kill him. This is a conundrum, as the cutscene in Tenebrae shows that the covenants Luna is making with the Astrals will kill her (which she is doing solely for Noctis's sake). So his way of trying to save his sister's life without killing her beloved is to destroy her reason to die: killing the Astrals instead. He was quite ready to do battle against Leviathan in Altissia, and it's probably safe to say that the heavy Imperial presence in Duscae was to wipe out Titan (considering how quickly he took credit on the radio for destroying that one). And the death of Shiva was also most likely done by his orders. If Ravus hadn't been executed, he most likely would have kept on hunting for Ramuh, Ifrit, and Bahamut.

The reason for the constant Magitek trooper airdrops and how Ardyn always knew where Noctis and Co. happened to be?

The empire discovered an unaccounted for barcode frequency originating near Noctis, discovered it was coming from Prompto, and started geotracking the group through the signal from Prompto's barcode.

There'll be a Final Fantasy XV-2

And even with all the stuff that Noctis and the gang went through, it'll be a crushing Happy Ending Override when it turns out there was a much worse threat looming on the horizon compared to Ardyn.

• Given the XIII trilogy being panned for — among other things — its seeming addiction to that trope, combined with Square visibly trying to create an Author's Saving Throw difference between those entries and this one, don't you think that something Lighter and Softer (albeit without the sheer cheese of X-2) would be a better bet instead?

Leviathan lays Magikarp eggs

and one of them was used as a national dish of Altissia.

The premises for the upcoming DLC centered around the rest of the party

• Episode Gladiolous: It'll go into what he was doing during Party of Three.
  • Confirmed
• Episode Ignis: The events leading to his blinding.
  • Confirmed, considering how the teaser shown at the end of Episode Prompto still has him with his sight, followed by the sound of glass breaking when the release date is shown.
• Episode Prompto: What he was doing after he got knocked off the train and before his capture.
  • Confirmed

There will be a DLC campaign adapting Kingsglave

It'll add more development that the movie couldn't do due to time constraints.

There will be a What-If Gaiden Game or Alternate Universe called Final Fantasy Versus XV

It'll basically take all of the unused elements from Versus XIII, unless they get refitted for Final Fantasy XVI.

• As a bonus, Stella will be the protagonist.
  • To add to this theory: This installment would have the same general background as FFXV, but embrace more reality with its plot as opposed to vanilla XV embracing fantasy in regards to Ardyn, the Starscourge, and the Greater-Scope Villain Ifrit and the divine conflict. This will take the form of following many concepts seen in Versus XIII that were otherwise scrapped or heavily altered for XV.
  • The War Is Hell implications given off by earlier trailers and Episode Duscae is going to be involved full-force; instead of the plot revolving around Ardyn's machinations and the Starscourge, alongside Noct and Luna's fated deaths to fulfill the prophecy, instead the plot will involve more of the struggle against the empire of Niflheim itself, taking the old FF concept of The Empire and applying it to a more realistic world just like the former, more fantasy plot above.
  • More cityscape and urban areas will be explorable. That being said, classic FF monsters like Demon Wall or Tonberries will either be drastically retooled or left as Easter Eggs to give way to more "real" enemies, from mobile turrets to enemy infantry, to possibly airships.
  • The scrapped "mafia" concept found in the original Versus XIII drafts will be revived, either applied to Noctis to cast a shade of gray to the conflict with The Empire or Lunafreya to create a situation similar to that of Stella Nox Flueret.
  • The divine will be largely left out of the plot, or used for warfare. This could take the form of Regis summoning Bahamut to blast the imperial army, to the Empire summoning Ifrit to sunder a city.
  • Similar to how XV was Darker and Edgier with a much more grim story and Nightmare Fuel abound, Versus XV would be Darker and Edgier in that there would be more political conflicts and consequences. Likewise, a good chunk of the story may actually take the roadtrip in the vanilla game and twist it to instead of being about Noctis going to a wedding with Luna and summoning power from the gods, instead it would still involve the wedding, but it would be for a far more practical reason; to unite Lucis and Tenebrae against Niflheim and have the power of both the Lucian King and the Oracle fighting against The Empire.
  • Finally, the plot will imply the game takes place in an Alternate Universe born when Ardyn was eradicated, tying into another WMG theory, hence the absence of daemons or Ardyn.

Noctis and Luna's fates in The Stinger

Given that Noctis and Luna are in the throne room and share a kiss in The Stinger, they may be married and are in either the physical or the spirit realm or be Together in Death, turning it into an Ambiguous Ending. But since Luna and Noctis die, it could be wrong.

Noctis's Blade Warp

It is my impression that Noctis and the party's weapons work via a kind of hammerspace system, where the weapons are kept in some kind of pocket dimension that they reach into to draw their weapons when in a fight. Considering Noctis is the source/the primary anchor for the storage system, the other party members, being tied to him as companions and retainers, can equip their various weapons due to his magic.

That being said, one possible idea to consider is that Noctis performs his bladewarp by throwing any one of his weapons, and once thrown, dives into his pocket dimension storage himself due to it being tied to his blood as the prince of Lucis, and uses the sword he threw as a beacon to pop out of the pocket dimension back into real space where the sword is. This would explain why the other party members can't warp, seeing as they aren't of royal blood. That's my guess, at least.

• Kingsglaive shows that anyone can learn to blade warp as long as the king lends his power to them (Nyx and his fellow Kingsglaive could all do it until Regis died). The more likely explanation on why the other party members can't warp is that Noct never figured out how to share the ability.
  • Alternatively, he just wasn't strong enough yet. It's implied if not outright stated that when Noctis and co. leave the Crown City for the wilds outside, that it's their first time in a real fight. And, obviously, if game mechanics are anything to go by, Noct (particularly early) only has so many times he can even shift away from an enemy attack before he has to rest for a while, completely away from the action. So not only has he likely not mastered how to funnel his power to his friends to blade warp, it's very likely he just didn't have enough power to spare. Of course, from a meta perspective, it was probably just because imbuing everyone else with the power to blade-warp would have been a nightmare to balance. By the game mechanic (given that they would have been drawing on Noctis's power) they would have had to tie everyone to Noctis's MP supply, which would have limited him severely (read: going into stasis at inopportune times because one of your AI-bros was spamming his blade warp too much). At the same time, without that limitation (and even to some degree with it, once one's level/MP got high enough) it would've made Noctis's mates overpowered as hell.

Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto's Fates

The last time we really see them is when they and Noctis share one final farewell before Noctis heads for the throne, leaving them to fend off the army of daemons forming outside. The game never specifies if they managed to come out of that fight alive. Their appearance alongside Noctis and Regis in the afterlife when the former finishes off Ardyn for good may not be symbolic...

Noctis has an illegitimate child...

...who Noctis doesn't know about. He secretly was in a relationship, but cut off that relationship shortly before the start of the series. Said child could be the sole survivor of the Lucis bloodline, therefore ensuring that the Big Bad didn't get the main thing he wanted.

• Or alternatively, Noctis has a half-sibling or a distant cousin.

Prompto and Cindy are brother and sister or otherwise related

.

• The two have so many commonalities that it almost seems too many to be coincidental. Similar blond hair, similar affinities and talents for mechanical things, similar obsession over one of the game's transport mechanics (Cindy with cars, the Regalia in particular, and Prompto with chocobos), and similarly themed names (Argentum = Silver; Aurum = Gold). This makes more sense if Cindy had similar origins to Prompto and was adopted by either Cid's child or Cid himself, who is using the cover story of Cindy's parents dying when she was young to explain her origins to everyone else.
  • In that case that'd make her an Opposite-Sex Clone of Verstael.

Iedolas Aldercapt and Niflheim are the true villains of the story.

• One could argue that Ardyn's role was already predicted and set by prophecy, as were Noctis's and Luna's. But Aldercapt's greed for the crystal and subsequent betrayal of the peace treaty with Lucis required both Noctis and Luna to step into their roles much sooner than intended, and particularly in Noctis's case, before he was truly ready to accept such a responsibility. In a world where Aldercapt and Niflheim play the long game and wait a few more years to make their move on the crystal, Noctis probably marries Luna and has enough time for peace to bear children - children that could have been protected by Cor or others even if things went completely to hell and Noct and Luna had to give their lives to save Eos as had been fated for them. But in canon, not only is the line of Lucis extinguished (just like Ardyn wanted - and this likely had a lot to do with why he killed Luna first), but the world that remains basically has to reboot itself with no structure or leadership.

Aldercapt, not understanding the nature of the crystal, wanted it for immortality.

• As crude as it sounds, it seems like something of a tactical error for the ruler of the strongest kingdom on the continent to have reached the apparent age that he did and have failed to produce any sort of offspring. Hell, that's an unbelievable amount of Genre Blindness. Every third RPG (including this one) starts with a king dying and a proper successor either nonexistent, unknown, or unavailable to take the helm. Perhaps he can't have children at his age - also possibly, he was never able. Either way, it probably occurred to Aldercapt that Niflheim would quickly go to pieces if he died without having a successor. (To be fair, he was very right.) So he made a play for the crystal, perhaps thinking it would give him eternal life. (Because, also, half of the evil emperors in RPG existence want quick power for world domination. The other half usually want to live forever.) But when things eventually went sideways and Ardyn usurped him, he probably figured, "I'm too old to survive this anyway, better to live as a powerful daemon than die as a mere mortal." Which might have worked, had Noctis and his friends never gone back to Insomnia.

Where the bloodline magics went after Noctis and Luna's deaths.

• Energy cannot be created or destroyed, right? It's possible that they 'seeped' into Eos' people. The magic would be weaker (akin to spells in previous Final Fantasy entries)- because it's spread between more people- and need to be directed at a specific target, but it would clearly exist. Also supporting this idea is the glacier left around one of Shiva's corpses, which lasts way too long to be merely attack residue. Maybe it seeped into the world too, creating a sort of Eosian version of Macalania Forest.

This series will have both the pocket edition and the original graphics released on the Nintendo Switch.

The pocket edition is a lower quality setting that saves energy as you play the switch handheld.

• Jossed. PS4 and X-box are scheduled to have pocket release when they already have the original game, while the switch will only have the pocket edition announced.

What was the Warrior King of Lucis really like and what was his contributions to Lucian society?

Unlike most descriptions of the Lucii, the Warrior King's is more cryptic. For example, while the Rouge was described to be a ruler without a public face and ruled in secrecy by the dark like a ninja, or even to the Mystic, who was described as the king who established the communion between Lucis and Tenebrae as he defended the Oracle, the Warrior's description is merely "A king was changed forever when his beloved queen was killed by assailants. This was his katana. It is drawn and strikes in a single heartbeat." What can we infer from this, at all?

• This comes across as more of a Headscratcher than a WMG, but to hazard a guess, what we can infer is that the Warrior became known as such because he eschewed the sociopolitical aspects of his office in favor of waging endless war against whatever society produced the assailants that killed his queen. Where once he'd been a worthy and noble king, he was lost to grief and hatred once his beloved was taken and "changed forever" into a man who cared for nothing more than laying waste to his enemies.

Ifrit hates mankind because they killed Eos.

The Astrals are said to be born from the stars, and Eos is referred to as a star itself. Eons ago, Eos was a sapient being like the other Astrals, but she decided to give birth to life and had to give up her identity to do it. The other Astrals promised to guide and protect the beings she sacrificed herself to create, but Ifrit, who loved her more than the others (perhaps to the point of obsession) grew to hate those lifeforms for taking Eos away from him. So he created the Starscourge and waged war to destroy them all out of a misplaced sense of vengeance. Maybe he even had a fal'Cie vibe in play and acted in the hope that killing all of the lifeforms that emerged from Eos would somehow restore Eos to her sentient state.

• According to Shiva, Ifrit hates mankind because Solheim stopped worshiping (or straight up stopped believing in) the Astrals, and being that he was the one who gave mortals fire in the first place, he took it personally.

Ifrit and Eos were siblings, and that's why Ifrit is pals with Ardyn.

Ifrit is fire, Eos is light; if the Pitioss Theory is true and holds that Ifrit went into the underworld/land of the dead/underground prison to rescue a pregnant Eos, it's not because he was in love with her and went to save her despite feeling betrayed, it's because she was his sister and she was carrying his niece/nephew. If Ardyn was that child (or one of those children, if she was having twins), Ifrit may well have been part of his entire mortal life from the very beginning. We know Ardyn made contact with the Astrals, there's no reason why Ifrit couldn't have been the first one.

Ardyn Izuna is a Time Lord

Seriously, I can't be the only one who thinks he looks like Tom Baker.

Aranea wasn't there in Episode Prompto

In the main game, she always always carries her spear, she never dismisses it like other characters do, however in Episode Prompto, she dismisses and resummons it (with the same red 'aura' that Ardyn and Gilgamesh - who was the Shield of Ardyn's brother - use). Additionally, Aranea had no way of knowing Prompto would be at this facility, had no reason to go after Verstael (no matter how much she disapproves of him) and when she was last seen canonically, Noctis and the others told her to look after the train passengers, while she claims they asked her to look for Prompto (which didn't happen onscreen at least). Her distinctive red airship is also never seen and how she got there to assist Prompto is never explained (nor is why a woman with a number of men under her command would choose to attack a secure facility alone). Conclusion? 'Aranea' was Ardyn, disguising himself again.

The face Gentiana/Shiva wears is that of a close relative of Ardyn's

In the backstory, it's noted that the Trident of the Oracle was gifted to a 'pious Oracle of house Fleuret' by the gods - however, the Oracle in question was also a Queen of Lucis. The Oracle line also has Ardyn's power of healing people of the Starscourge. This suggests that at one point, the Fleuret and Lucis Caelum lines were one and the same before diverging at some point in the 2000 years between the backstory. Ardyn, notably, had the power of both family lines, but Noctis only inherits the power of Kings from his ancestor (and Ardyn's brother) the Founder King.

• So where does Gentiana/Shiva come in? The clue comes in on the cover of the Cosmogony book. While Bahamut and Ardyn are prominent, a woman with closed eyes and dark hair, wearing white, is in the background, holding the Trident. It's easy to assume this is Shiva in human form before passing the Trident on, based on Ardyn's line in the dub where he appears to recognise her before she freezes him - making it sound like it's the face she wore the day he encountered the gods. However, in the Japanese version, Ardyn's line is cut off differently, revealing that Gentiana is the face she wore the day she was killed - referring to how Niflheim killed Shiva in the backstory (notably the expanded backstory implies Ardyn specifically resurrected Ifrit at this time specifically to get Shiva's attention to kill her - an oddly direct act of spite on his part given he doesn't go after any of the other Astrals in this way).
• So who is the woman on the cover of the Cosmogony - well, she's the Oracle. Notable characters from Tenebrae are known for their white clothes while notable characters from Lucis are known for their dark clothes (which was actually some visual Foreshadowing for Ardyn - notable characters from Niflheim wear white and red, but aside from a dash of red, Ardyn wears black) - the woman holding the Trident is wearing white, like Luna, but she has black hair, like the Lucis Caelum's. Shiva's guise of Gentiana primarily wears black, with a splash of white and gold (and the black and gold combination evokes Regis, a Lucian king), but is otherwise identical to the woman on the book.
• There's no need for the gods to have an Oracle (as there'd be no need for line of descent), which suggests the 'original' Gentiana is another Lucis Caelum before the family line diverged to the Nox Fleuret's, and likely a close relative of Ardyn's given they have the same power of healing the Starscourge, possibly a daughter or even a sister. Ardyn seems to have a special hatred of Shiva specifically, so if she's taking the guise of someone he used to care for, that could be reason why.

Ardyn's armiger is full of extra hats.

Kind of a silly theory in all honesty, but he kept throwing away his hat in Episode Ignis and mysteriously recovering it. The explanation? They were all different hats, and he was pulling them out of his armiger when no one was looking.

Ardyn was originally meant to be part of an Ancient Conspiracy involving both the Astrals and the entirety of the Lucis bloodline for the single purpose of eliminating the Starscourge completely, Episode Ardyn was a later addition.

Ardyn's actions throughout the game makes no sense if all he wants to do was to exact vengeance upon the world and the Astrals that forsaken him, he had plenty of chances to kill Noctis and his friends, yet never once tried to do so, even if the Lucis bloodline falls, he would theoretically win, even if it was his pride that makes him want to defeat the chosen king at his strongest, it still wouldn't make sense that a usuper king's dynasty will work so well with the prophecy of the true king. Not only that but he goes out of his way to strengthen Noctis and his friends slowly by putting them through ordeals that will give them training without killing them and let them contracting allies (such as the old kings, the Astrals, the hunters, the Lucis remnants) through their journey, the only one he killed was Luna who was in the known of Noctis' destiny and was fated to die anyway for crafting the covenant with the Gods.I think this whole thing only makes sense if it was orchestrated by the first King, the Oracles, the Astrals sans Ifrit, and Ardyn himself: Hundreds of years ago, on the wake of the War of the Astrals the world of Eos is on the brink of total collapse due to the sudden appearance and spread of the Starscourge, generating sickness and Daemons everywhere it touches, even the Astrals themselves will get corrupted on contact with it as evident on Ifrit himself. Desperate, the remnants of the Solheim civilization conspired with the Astrals to rid Eos of the calamity by sacrificing two entire bloodline of their greatest mages spanning hundreds of years in order to accomplish their goal. The plan is simple, one of the brothers Lucis, whom of strong will and kind heart was to be the trap to seal all the taint within his person for as long as he can, namely Ardyn; the other was to build a strong Kingdom to protect the people and sire an entire bloodline of warrior kings imbued with the power of the Astrals until it produces an heir strong enough to inherit the entire fortune of collected power over the years (kinda like one for all), thus becoming a pseudo Astral that will resonate with the one crystal gaining its power and sacrifice his entire physical being in order to neutralize the Scourge in its entirety, namely Noctis; lastly a family of Oracles was to Shepard the faith of the Astrals, the Astrals in turn absorb power of the faithful masses and funnel them into the Lucis blood, enriching it generation by generation, and finally when the last king was born, lead him to his destiny and forge for him the covenant of the Astrals at the cost of her own life. Noctis was never meant to be king in a traditional sense, his life was forfeit from the very start, that explains why Reggie and Luna was always kind of distant even when close by Noctis, it was the sense of guilt mixed in with love that pains them everytime they looked at Noctis. How did Reggie feel when trying to act like a father who was teaching his son how to be a benevolent king to his people when he knows in his heart that Noctis will never be a ruling king to his people? How did Luna feel when each time she asked Noct to write down his journal that he was in fact writing down his will? I could never imagine. Ardyn on the other hand was to live on as a monster, shunted by his people, out living anyone he has ever known, spend every waking and dreaming moment with trillions of rampaging beast ripping at his heart, until one day he will unleash the End of the World and finally be put down like a rabid dog by the hands of his own blood. He held on like that for hundreds of years, as you can see the world was allowed to flourish due in the years that follow due solely to his ultimate sacrifice. When Noct earn his seat in heaven with his bride at his side, who will remember the old saint who started all? Adyne was contend though, and merely a simple bow to his executioner, before finally being rip to shred and vanishing into the aether, happy for a job well done.

A sequel to the alternate ending will be made.

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