Final Fantasy “Fabula Nova Crystallis” was announced exactly 20 years ago

Final Fantasy XII was out in Japan. It was on the way to the rest of the world. Square Enix's Final Fantasy output slowed down a bit in the PlayStation 2 era, but it was still on track for the same three-mainliner-on-one-console output that characterized the franchise from its Nintendo roots.

May 8, 2006. E3. Huge event. Everyone tuned in. Square unveiled its next plan, and it was big. Fabula Nova Crystallis will be a multi-game project united by myths, yet separated by actors, stories, even the worlds themselves. It was a broad ambition, something that would be spectacularly diverse, but come together in key ways.

Final Fantasy XIII will lead the charge. Final Fantasy vs. XIIII will come in a darker, more tragic-like way. Final Fantasy Agito XIIII will bring Fabula Nova Crystallis to us all. It was the dawn of a new era. What could go wrong?

Crystal's long shadow

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we know how it all turned out. Final Fantasy XIII debuted three years later to a divisive reception that for a few years characterized JRPG fandom's general reaction to the Final Fantasy name. Final Fantasy vs. XIII was MIA, years later, at a time when AAA games did not Tendency to take forever to release. As for Agito, it finally took off – eight years later – but it was largely superseded by Final Fantasy Type-0, a PlayStation Portable game that ran with many of its early concepts.

Agito wasn't very hot, and Awakening, its successor, only took off in China, Australia, and finally, North America. There was a teaser for some kind of Type-1 deal with Type-0 when it was re-released in HD on PS4 in 2015, but that never came to fruition. Final Fantasy XIII spawned two direct sequels despite its split, each selling significantly fewer copies than the last. And Versus XIII, once known as the crown jewel of the Fabula Nova Crystallis project courtesy of its immaculately moody reveal trailer, was rebranded to Final Fantasy XV in 2013 and finally released in late 2016.

FFXV has long been the subject of many “what if” stories; The epic three-game scope for the Versus concept was cut down to a one-game deal with an increased emphasis on its open world at the cost of a cohesive story of any decent length. The result is a mishmash, a pretty uneven, completely unwatchable experience that's nevertheless at least a little more beloved than FFXIII. It sold over a million copies, got tons of post-launch DLC (more on the way before it was unceremoniously canceled), got a Royal Edition re-release, and… in its final form, is a deeply flawed gem, a JRPG that's covered in bandages and never really reaches its heights, but it can at least be fun.

Fabula Nova Crystallis, suffice it to say, was no slam dunk. The Crystal Tools development engine that plagued FFXIII continued to rear its ugly head in 2010 with Final Fantasy XIV, an early version of an unrelated MMO. That game was discontinued, then relaunched as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Against all odds, it created one of the world's most successful long-running MMORPGs of all time.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), Final Fantasy XVI (2023), and especially Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) have had their fair share of fans; The ongoing FFVII remake trilogy has been particularly well-loved, with Rebirth in particular winning a boatload of awards and viewed by many as a slam-dunk of all time. One that, sadly, hasn't sold as hotly as many of the series' predecessors – a fact that may owe in part to the frustrations of the FNC era. (But hey, sales have at least picked up over time.)

Final Fantasy never really regained its halo following the developmental disasters of the day, but at least, slowly, it found its forgotten reputation.