We haven’t heard much from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi in a while, but he recently revealed his new smartphone project, called Terra Battle. While details still remain light, he discussed certain aspects of the game in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine.
During the interview, Famitsu asks if Terra Battle is the final title of the game.
“Yes, this game starts out in a so-called fantasy world, but about halfway in, it gets a very sci-fi vibe, where you’ll be fighting in places like outer-space,” replies Sakaguchi.
In Terra Battle, magic is ranked by “Mega,” “Giga,” and “Terra,” with Terra being used for the strongest magic. You’ll see stuff like “Terra-Flare” as some of the game’s strongest spells.
Famitsu mentions that the main image for the game we’ve seen so far seems to have many characters. Something to note is that the game’s character designer is Kimihiko Fujisaka, who you know from Drakengard and The Last Story.
“And that’s not all of them,” states Sakaguchi. “From those characters, you’ll pick characters you like and put them together in a party. However, just by having their images and abilities, I thought it’d be boring, so we gave them profiles you can take a good look at in the game.”
“They all have personal relationships, so if you get one character that another has some kind of relationship with another in the same party, they might talk about their past, and that gets added to their profiles. So as you go on, their profiles get meatier.”
When asked about the music in Terra Battle, Saaguchi explains that Nobuo Uematsu composed all of the music, and there are about 20 tracks total. Most of the tracks are used in battle, but certain characters have their own themes, and there are situational tracks for emotional moments, and such.
Famitsu also asks if he can share anything about the game’s system, or any of its contents.
“For now, that’s a secret. However I can say that at first, I had originally planned on making a rather light game, but after getting more people who worked on Final Fantasy involved, a personal habit of mine kicked in and I wouldn’t allow myself to settle for something light, so I kept working and adding more and more,” shares Sakaguchi with a laugh.
Final Fantasy? Sakaguchi’s referring to developers like Koji Ono (director) and Yuki Nishimura (game design), both of whom were previously employed at Square. When asked about the game’s development staff, he replies, “I’m the producer, and the programmer [Koji] Ono is the director. Something like that, but the development team has a very small number of people. As far as people in charge… that’s about it.”
“I’m writing the scenario, and the final text is being done by Hatano, who worked with me on The Last Story,” says Sakaguchi when asked if he’s also in charge of plans and scenario. “The parts I write come in a little bit after the plot has advanced a little.”
As mentioned in the earlier report, Sakaguchi mentions that he’d like to see Terra Battle get a home console release, with its smartphone release being a starting point. While he didn’t go too far into detail, he also teased that he’s preparing a “certain something” with all kinds of other creators involved.
Terra Battle launches this September on Android and iOS devices.
