Final Fantasy Tactics beat Pokemon when the Mewgenics creators were trying to figure out how combat should work: "One has depth, and the other has the illusion of depth"

Mewgenics leads Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel recall when the game went from being a Pokemon-esque title to a tactical RPG.

A long development is something that's becoming more common in the industry as ballooning budgets and tech become a factor. It's almost easy to forget that for series' like Gears of War the first three games all released within five years, kicking off in 2006 and ending in 2011, while the next entry in the series Gears of War: E-Day will probably end up releasing around seven years after Gears 5 released. But not many can step up to Mewgenics, which was first announced in 2012 and finally released earlier this year.

However, the original Mewgenics and the new game are a different beast. The original game was shown at PAX Seattle 2013 "I think we only had one functional minigame, the cat fights, which was this Pokemon-esque turn-based combat game" McMillen recalls, speaking to Edge. McMillen's Team Meat coworker Tommy Refenes had lost interest in the game in favor of working on Super Meat Boy Forever, with McMillen leaving the developer in 2017.

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"I was still pitching it to Tommy before I left. I was trying to wrap it in a genre that I thought he would be excited about." McMillen explains, with him recalling a version closer to the devious platformer icon Spelunky. Mewgenics co-creator Glaiel adds "I remember suggesting back then: 'Why not try Final Fantasy Tactics-style combat instead of Pokemon combat?'"

He explained, "they’re on the same tree, kind of, but you can do a lot more with the positioning stuff." McMillen adds, "Yeah. One has depth, and the other has the illusion of depth." Of course, the thousands of EV and IV fanatics will likely take umbrage with the implication Pokemon doesn't have depth, I get his point. Pokemon is solely about the attacks when you get into battle, while Tactical RPGs have the extra layer of positioning and taking into account yours and your enemies ranges.

Thankfully, the Final Fantasy Tactics-inspired version is what the duo went with for the game, and ended up releasing one of the highest-rated games of 2026, which currently sits atop my game of the year list with the strength of a cat wrestling one of those mouse on a stick toys.

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