Many fans of the legendary franchise just want to pretend that Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII doesn't really exist.

So put it out of your heads. It's not real. Just a cruel joke, a lingering nightmare, a vision of something that can't possibly be. And if there's one place where a Final Fantasy RPG might actually still qualify as "role-playing," it's in the handheld world.

Of course, that doesn't mean Crisis Core and Type-0 were actually traditional installments in the franchise but hey, at least they were decent. And the director of those PSP titles, Hajime Tabata, has said he'd like to develop a Final Fantasy specifically for the Vita . According to a retrospective interview, Tabata had this to say about Sony's highly advanced new portable:

"I had an impression [that] it was an exceedingly good piece of hardware. Since I [had been] making Final Fantasy titles on the PSP, I have an interest in [developing] for a larger device. As someone concerned with game production, there is nothing other than the Vita that offers that largeness, high density and luminescence, and ability to [render] high-quality images."

So maybe that's what we'll do. Just wait for Tabata to get going on an FF for the Vita, and hope it's not like a spin-off to Lightning Returns . And you know, maybe the Vita could be home to a remake…as unlikely as that appears. We're just trying to be as optimistic as humanly possible.