Final Fantasy Explorers director Atsushi Hashimoto and project manager Takahiro Abe recently shared more about the game’s job system. In the same interview with Famitsu, they also talked about befriending monsters, the game’s difficulty, and the game’s world.
When it comes to hunting-style games, fans love a challenge that reward players with nice loot, but at the same time, the difficulty can also be intimidating for newcomers. Famitsu asks the developers to talk about the difficulty behind the action of Final Fantasy Explorers.
“I’d like to make [the game] into something that even those who aren’t the best at action games can enjoy,” says Hashimoto. “There will also be things like specific actions that can be used to cancel abilities, and other technical maneuvers for those who are confident in their skills to enjoy.”
“Think of it as something that has the strategic nature of an RPG, together with a focus on combining jobs and abilities that just about anyone can enjoy,” adds Abe. “Of course, we also plan on adding high difficulty quests that will have you going, ‘is this even possible to clear?’ So people who excel at action games will have plenty to look forward to.”
Abe continues, “Additionally, there will be a way to adjust quest difficulty, so those who think ‘this isn’t enough!’ can easily adjust the difficulty to their liking.”
Hashimoto and Abe also briefly talk about the “Resonance System,” which is basically a system that lets players perform cooperative moves using abilities, which can make them into different and more powerful abilities.
This might sound like regular cooperative attacks to hit nearby enemies, but Abe explains that Final Fantasy Explorers is set on an island with all kinds of different areas that can be fully explored, so the Resonance System is being made so it can be used from a distance.
According to Abe, this means players can continue exploring and go out to fields that are quite a distance away from other players, so they made the Resonance System to make it possible for players to interact with one another using cooperative abilities that can be used from quite a distance.
Famitsu mentions that it sounds pretty close to what you’d expect from an open-world game, and that might make it troublesome for players to get around.
To this, Hashimoto says that the development team is currently working on a system for that very purpose. Abe laughs, and teases, “When it comes to Final Fantasy… airships come to mind.”
While on the subject of transportation, the developers also mention that Chocobos won’t be rideable this time around, but they will appear as monsters that can be recruited. In order to recruit monsters, you must defeat them and obtain a special item drop. Once you have this item, you can take it back to town and have that monster born from it.
The monsters can be collected, and raised as well. As far as monster variety goes, the more powerful and rare the monster is, the tougher they will be to acquire, so it’ll add some excitement once you finally get the rare monsters you’ve been eyeing.
During the interview, Famitsu also asks if there are event scenes that will show off parts of the story during the game.
“Yes, there’s a main story. Once you make your character, it’ll be your avatar that you’ll play as, but we’re not pushing for the story to have as much emotional involvement compared to the main numbered series,” explains Hashimoto.
He continues, “However, the game goes beyond the island that is the setting of the game, and there is a setting for the whole world, with quest content and NPCs with different speaking mannerisms to show for it.”
“[As you play] you might think ‘there are these kind of characters, so it must be this kind of country?’ or ‘the weapon description says this and that, so maybe it was used by someone in the past?’ This might sound typical of an old game, but I want it to be something that works your imagination.”
Final Fantasy Explorers is in development for Nintendo 3DS.
Food for thought:
1. Since the story revolves around taking out different Summons, you might be wondering how that affects the Summoner class. In Final Fantasy Explorers, there will be a different system that involves using the power of the Summons, instead.
2. Before you get too excited by the prospect of airships in the game, note that they could simply be a form of quick travel.
