Throughout its lifetime,Final Fantasyhas been defined by a number of eras in its numbered games. The initial three games were set apart from their peers by being NES games that used a charge-based magic system instead of MP. The next three numbered Final Fantasy games we’re all on the SNES, andFF4andFF6were better known asFinal Fantasy 2and3in the US. Next came the PS1 era ushered byFinal Fantasy 7, and the PS2 era began withFinal Fantasy 10. However, late in this era, Square Enix would begin a new trend inFinal Fantasyby grouping upcoming titles into long-term multimedia projects.
The first of these wastheCompilation of Final Fantasy 7in 2004, which is still running today after an extended absence. The second, announced in 2006, is theFabula Nova Crystallis. TheFabula Nova Crystallis anthology is a set of games and novellas that share mythology alongside various terms and concepts. The main entries in this series are theFinal Fantasy 13trilogy, and theFinal Fantasy Type-0games.Final Fantasy 15was also planned to be a part of this collection while it wasFinal Fantasy Versus 13, but this was discarded when it changed development direction. WithFinal Fantasy 13returning to the public eye on Xbox Game Pass, now is a good time to review what exactly went into this almost decade-long part of theFinal Fantasyfranchise. Since this requires discussion of some obscure lore,please note that this article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 13 and Type-0.
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Underlying Themes of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Project
Fabula Nova Crystalliswas meant to be a reinterpretation of whatFinal Fantasyhad been. Focusing on the shared mythology that included certain common terms like fal’Cie, l’Cie, and thestandardFinal Fantasyfixation on crystals, theCrystallisentries gradually built up a backstory for their shared universe. Most of the details came from theFinal Fantasy 13trilogy, butType-0did offer a bit of additional detail. Lore was dispersed in a very scattered manner, almost always portrayed as bits and pieces of larger works or mythos within the games' universes. Datalogs and characters would reference them, but little in the way of hard explanation was given, even when central figures to this mythos showed up in the latter two13titles.Fabula Nova Crystallisgames focused on a core group of human characters who fought to change their fate set by higher powers, leaving little room for players to see the larger picture.
The backstory begins with the god Bhunivelze killing his mother Mwynn, seizing control of all reality. However, fearing that his mother had placed a death curse on reality, Bhunivelze wanted to follow his mother to the unseen realm (meaning the afterlife), totally destroy her, and seize complete power. However, because the unseen realm is firmly separated from the realm of the living, he could not reach her without abandoning his control over reality. So, Bhunivelze created the godlike fal’Cie Lindzei, Pulse, and Etro. Lindzei and Pulse were sent to work creating a world that could serve Bhunivelze’s ambitions, but Etro was given no power because she looked unnervingly like Mwynn. Shunned and lonely, Etro reached the gateway between the visible and unseen realms by killing herself and met Mwynn there. Before she was absorbed into the primordial chaos, Mywnn entrusted the gate of souls to Etro. Lindzei used Etro’s spilled blood to create humans. Etro then gifted the humans with small pieces of Chaos, as she felt compassion for them. Theunderlying goal of the villains ofFF13andType-0then became overloading Etro’s Gate via humanity’s extinction.
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Final Fantasy 13 and the Fabula Nova Crystallis
That creation myth is the backbone that informs all of theFabula Nova Crystallisstories. Again, however, this is only revealed to players piecemeal throughout theFF13trilogy. It might have actually been intended to be doled out across many more games, but13-2andLightning Returnswere approved for development when other Crystallis games drifted off track, so they ended up being the primary vehicles for this information. Initially,Final Fantasy 13was only meant to be the leading entry of theFabula Nova Crystallisin 2009, with its brethrenFinal Fantasy Agito 13andFinal Fantasy Versus 13coming later.FF13was the only one released under its proposed name,withVersus 13becomingFF15and ending up completely divorced from the anthology.
Final Fantasy 13focused on a group of Pulse l’Cie, most of whom were Cocoon citizens, fighting to escape their fate of destroying the world. Their opponents, and nefarious benefactors, are the biomechanical demigod fal’Cie, which are not to be confused with the deific fal’Cie that had created them. In the end, Etro needed to intervene to prevent the death of the main cast and everyone on Cocoon, so in13-2, Lightning is whisked away to serve as her protector. This 2011 sequel sees Lightning’s sister Sarah and the time traveler Noel fight against the seemingly unstoppable Caius Ballad in an effort to save Lightning and Etro. Unfortunately, Caius wins, leading to the 2013Lightning Returnstaking place several days before the end of the world.Lightning, now serving as Etro’s replacementunder Bhunivelze, must shepherd the souls of those who remain to the next world so they can be reincarnated. This far cry from the original concept did not go unnoticed by fans, but it did serve as a fitting conclusion to the Fabula Nova Crystallis story as a whole.
Type-0’s Place in the Fabula Nova Crystallis
That leavesFinal Fantasy Type-0, formerly known asFinal Fantasy Agito 13.Type-0was formerly a PlayStation Portable game in 2011, andthen to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2015.Type-0tells the story of a class of students fighting to save their school and country from other warring nations and the cosmic machinations of the crystals that preside over them all. WhileFabula Nova Crystallisis meant to be an anthology of sorts,Type-0still comes off as a side story even within its own multiverse. It is largely self-contained, and because the proposed sequelType-Nextwas never released due to the director Hajime Tabata leaving the company, it remains as an odd companion piece toFinal Fantasy 13.
Type-0shares a number of similarities withFinal Fantasy 13itself. The most notable is the presence of the l’Cie, which are created from people selected by the crystals to serve them.Type-0also received two mobile sequels, one being Active-Time Battle RPGFinal Fantasy Agito, and the other being a hack-and-slash gacha game calledFinal Fantasy Awakening. Nothing of note happened in either and they have since shut down.Fabula Nova Crystallisnow stands as a bizarre, tangled, and slightly misguided era ofFinal Fantasy’s history, but none can deny that an entire generation of gamers has lived knowing it as whatFinal Fantasywas. It’s far enough away now to be remembered for its more interesting points, and, hopefully,Final Fantasy 16will be able to take some lessons from it andFF15regarding scope.
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