1. Final Fantasy Versus XIII
If you didn't guess this game being number one then you haven't lived long enough as a gamer. I remember when I was back in grade school watching the awesome trailer of Noctis ripping through enemies. The darker theme and tone of the Versus made it appear like a Shakespearean tragedy. The man behind this game was none other than Tetsuya Nomura, creator of the Kingdom Hearts series. Final Fantasy Versus XIII received its first trailer in 2006.
Of course, Nomura had no ideas set in stone for how the game would play or what the story would be like at all. So how in the world did we get a trailer? I don't know. What we did know is that the team behind the Kingdom Hearts series would be involved in Versus' development, along with Yoko Shimomura, composer for the same series. This is a dream team come true as fans of both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts will see Nomura's realized take on the long-established Final Fantasy franchise. Too bad what came after is a long period of hopelessness, desolation, and absolute distraught.
As Nomura was busy with the Kingdom Hearts series and the team behind Versus were working hard on Final Fantasy XIII, the game was put on hold. Fans saw a minor setback but assumed that the game would see an imminent release after XIII was released. When Final Fantasy XIII launched in 2009, everyone assumed that Versus would resume full production and might see the game's release in 2011 or 2012.
Nomura had his hands full with Final Fantasy Agito XIII, which was renamed to be Type-0, and with his portable Kingdom Hearts games. In addition to this, fans found out that the game entered full production in 2011 and everything prior was pre-production. Five years of pre-production made fans wonder if this game was even going to come out. Last year, Nomura showed the first gameplay footage of Versus, and while it won't make a showing at E3 this year, he promised that something related to Versus will make an appearance this year.
It's been more than half a decade since Versus has been announced. The ridiculous development cycle that this game has undergone is outright insane, even for Blizzard standards. Fans are no longer hopeful of Versus' release, and many speculate that the game won't even be released until the next generation of consoles are launched. Others speculate that Versus will be renamed Final Fantasy XV, and others believe that the game will never come out. Clearly, gamers are scarred by the outrageous promises from Nomura and Square-Enix if they feel this hopeless. When will we see Versus? Not anytime soon. Just remember, after Versus is done, Nomura can finally start on Kingdom Hearts III — which probably won't come out anytime soon either.
2. The Last Guardian
Bless Fumito Ueda for creating Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. In all seriousness though, how long does it take to create a game? While it hasn't made any changes in developers, this game might well be on its way to be the next Duke Nukem Forever incident. Remember when people flipped out at its original announcement trailer in 2009? We all marveled at its glory and how the game would play. I mean, who wouldn't after the masterpiece that was Shadow of the Colossus.
After being promised numerous times when the game would release in Japan, fans are now left hopelessly wondering if this game is even going to come out. Even Fumito Ueda doesn't know, as he has left Sony. This brilliant wonder featuring a little boy and his companion griffin might have to wait a couple more years before gamers have the chance to experience its majesty. That's if we're lucky. After all, Sony can promise more release dates and break our hearts until we finally give up. Until then, this game is still going to be listed as a game that may never ever come out. Let's just hope that I'm wrong.
3. Kingdom Hearts III
This one is no surprise to any fan of Kingdom Hearts. Sure Kingdom Hearts III hasn't been officially announced yet, but we all know it's coming. After all, Tetsuya Nomura has noted multiple times that the Kingdom Hearts trilogy will wrap up only one story arc for the franchise. He says every year that Kingdom Hearts III will happen on a console, but the question is when. Since the first Kingdom Hearts release in 2002, the series has seen one proper sequel in 2005 and numerous spin-offs ranging from a prequel to random supplementary story arcs almost every year after II. Each entry adds a level of complexity to the insane story in Kingdom Hearts, and now the series has so many protagonists that it borders on ridiculousness.
Still, fans cling to Kingdom Hearts with absolute adoration. With the recent release of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Nomura has stated the next entry in the franchise will wrap up the current story arc and the series might be returning to consoles, after nearly half a decade of portable games. Fans can hope that Kingdom Hearts III will come out soon — hopefully within the next year or two — but many know that it's not going to happen. After all, Nomura is a busy man. We'll get to that later though.
4. Final Fantasy XIV (PS3)
Who could ever forget the infamous announcement of Final Fantasy XIV at E3 2009. I didn't. When Jack Tretton proudly announced to the world that Final Fantasy XIII would come out on 2009, and in the following year fans would be able to get their hand on XIV for the PC and eventually the PS3, everyone was shocked. However, it was all downhill from there. As people feasted upon the glorious CG trailer for Final Fantasy XIV, their dreams were absolutely shattered as the word 'Online' faded into the the logo. As the already dropped jaws dropped even further from the increased shock, fans were disappointed.
Indeed, Final Fantasy XIV came out the following year, but rather than being a critical success, it was a catastrophe. The gameplay was abyssmal and gamers found it to actually be worse than XI, which was a hit. Square-Enix, realizing XIV's failure immediately, stopped its online subscription and proceeded to make it free-to-play. The months after XIV's launch was grueling as key figures on the project left or were fired. Not only this, but the amount of money necessary to get the game playable while keeping fans interested was extremely high.
Of course, the problem was only on the PC version. Square-Enix put the PS3 version on hiatus after the problems with the PC, and their reasons are justified. Next year we'll see Patch 2.0, which is set to make all the wrongs of the game right. After the PC version is all fixed up, we might see the PS3 version. Just maybe. Until then, fans would have to wait for an indefinite amount of time for the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV to hit. Here's hoping that the project isn't cancelled.
5. Prey 2
Originally announced on March 2011 with an amazing CG trailer, Prey 2 showed a game that appeared to be a far cry from its predecessor. Gamers who watched the information that followed were absolutely psyched by its bounty hunter premise and amazing alien hunting goodness. However, we haven't seen much of Prey 2 since then, and Bethesda has recently announced that the game is undergoing change and won't meet the 2012 release date as planned.
According to Bethesda, the game hasn't progressed satisfactorily and doesn't meet their quality standards. Prior to this statement from Bethesda though, rumors were flying around that the game was cancelled. Only weeks after did Bethesda say they didn't cancel it but delayed it indefinitely. Who knows what the current situation is with Prey 2. Perhaps this is Bethesda's way of letting Prey 2 die slowly, or maybe they really do intend on releasing it after the game has been severely worked on. Regardless of the reason, the game's delay makes me wonder if it will ever come out.
Oftentimes, developers make an announcement for a game to get the hype train going, only for fans to feel impatient until the game finally comes out. We've seen countless games that were announced many years prior to launch, such as Starcraft II and Diablo III. While it took a while for them to finally get a date, the following games haven't even been dated after years of being announced.
Some speculate whether these games will even see the light of day; others expect that they'll come so late into the generation that the games will be rendered obsolete. Regardless of the reason, these following five games are absolutely criminal because fans have been waiting so long for the game, but we haven't even seen a hint of it coming out in the near future.
