Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
During the production of "Final Fantasy Type-0", the development team explored the possibility of a high-definition port of the game. The idea never went beyond experimentation as the team was focused on keeping the game as a portable experience. The team also experimented with a sequel on eighth generation consoles, but production was halted when the development team were transferred to "Final Fantasy XV". After some time working on "XV", original director Hajime Tabata decided to develop "Type-0 HD" for eighth-generation consoles. The game began development in mid-2012, around the same time "XV" was shifted onto PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One. Tabata came on board in July of that year as director and producer, though his involvement was fairly minor due to his directing duties for "XV". The main development was handled by HexaDrive, who had previously collaborated successfully with Square Enix on "The 3rd Birthday", and had developed the high-definition remasters of "Ōkami" and "". The remaster was intended as an incentive for "Final Fantasy" players in both Japan and the west to purchase eighth generation consoles before "XV"s release. The original plan was for a port to both the seventh generation PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, and eighth generation consoles. After the PS4 proved popular at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show, and as Tabata had no development experience with seventh generation console hardware, the team focused on the eighth generation versions. According to art director Yusuke Naora, moving from the PlayStation Portable to eighth-generation hardware proved hard for the team. Despite early claims, no version of "Type-0 HD" was developed for the PlayStation Vita. According to Tabata, this was due to difficulties in porting between console and Vita development environments, and his wish for a playing experience he could only envision on home consoles.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
The narrative was divided into smaller "pieces of drama" similar to a television series rather than one overarching story piece. This was reflected by the game's working title "Final Fantasy XIII: Season 2" when the project was first proposed within the company. Unlike "Final Fantasy X-2", which had a more cheerful and humorous feel than "Final Fantasy X", the staff members wanted the overall tone of "Final Fantasy XIII-2" to be serious as well as darker and more mysterious than its predecessor. The original scenario had called for Serah to travel alone with Mog. However, Kitase felt that their dialogue was "quite girly, almost camp and a bit over the top" and resulted in a tonal shift that was too similar to the one from "X" to "X-2". Noel was added to the story to counter this. Watanabe considered scriptwriting for the game's two-character party difficult. With the lack of varied personality traits provided by an ensemble cast, he had to ensure that conversations between Serah and Noel would not be repetitive or unrealistic. Unfamiliar concepts and terms in "Final Fantasy XIII", such as "l'Cie" and "fal'Cie", were deemed too difficult to understand and hence avoided in the sequel. A story link to "Final Fantasy Type-0" via the location Valhalla was planned but later discarded.