One of the lead developers on Final Fantasy Resonance says we're getting the throwback JRPG because the now-decreased mobile game it's based on is "too good to become unplayable."
Following Final Fantasy Resonance's big reveal, producer Keisuke Nakashima has been doing the media rounds to share more details about the upcoming JRPG. What I've found most interesting is how it's all come about.
Nakashima explains that the game proposal was first shared at the end of 2020, and the pitch was quite simple. Final Fantasy Brave Exvius – a game he previously worked on – wasn't getting the respect it deserved.
"There are a couple of reasons why I decided to create Final Fantasy Resonance," he tells Automaton. "I've previously worked on FFBE as an assistant producer, and I wanted to show all the things that make the game so great to an even wider audience.
"FFBE is packed with entertaining features from each of the numbered entries in the main Final Fantasy series. Airships and Chocobos appear, and there are secret treasure chests lying in the hidden parts of dungeons – it's filled with stuff that screams 'Final Fantasy.'
"I thought it would be a shame for such a wonderful game to become unplayable via mobile, and that's one of the reasons I decided to create Final Fantasy Resonance for consoles."
What's interesting to me is that his desire has only become more relevant with time. It was just last year that Square Enix ended service for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, so it's no longer just the case that you only play it on mobile – you can't play it at all.
Regardless, people's hesitancy to try Final Fantasy Brave Exvius has clearly stuck with Nakashima to this day.
"Back when we initially released FFBE, we got a lot of feedback from users saying that they want to play the game as a console title," he says. "Of course, we were confident about expanding FFBE as a mobile app.
"However, there were a lot of people who told us that they wouldn't play the game simply because it wasn't available on console. I was so frustrated about it. Or maybe I should say, I felt like it was such a shame that they wouldn't give it a try. It's such a fun game, but they didn't even want to have a go at it just because it was a mobile app."
While things have, perhaps, not played out as Nakashima might have expected, it appears he's going to get his wish. Final Fantasy Resonance is due to release later this year, and for many, it will show off what FF Brave Exvius no longer can.
To be fair, it makes for an alluring package. Fans have been crying out for an old-school, turn-based JRPG in the Final Fantasy series that looks more like Octopath Traveler than the current trends of AAA RPGs. It makes for a fitting bonus, though, that Final Fantasy Resonance might also preserve an experience that others can no longer enjoy.
