Wark Digest #183 - Further Mobile Adventures In Eorzea

Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week, as award season opens, an unlikely new mobile title was announced, and fresh desire was sparked for a classic FF to be reborn in HD-2D.

This week’s newsletter is 2304 words, a 11-minute read.

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Final Fantasy XIV Mobile Announced

The biggest MMORPG is about to embark upon a new frontier next year: your smartphone. This week Square Enix and Lightspeed Studios announced Final Fantasy XIV Mobile, an adaptation of the ongoing blockbuster.

What’s going on:

• Final Fantasy XIV Mobile is a joint venture between Squeenix and Lightspeed—a subsidiary of Tencent Corporation, responsible for over 50 games (according to their website), including the popular PUBG Mobile port

• Director and producer Naoki Yoshida announced the news late Tuesday, describing it as “our latest MMORPG title specifically tailored for the mobile platform” that will “faithfully recreate the story duties, battle content, and other aspects of the original game,” mentioning that both current players and those who have been curious about its story might want to check it out

• Official descriptions also describe it as an “extension” of the core game, and “a sister to FFXIV, aiming to recreate the grandeur of the original’s story and combat mechanics on mobile devices”

• Gathering and crafting disciplines will be included, as will the Gold Saucer and Triple Triad

• Lightspeed is recreating visual elements from the main game, from character and monster designs straight down to the environments themselves

• Yoshida later spoke to IGN to answer a few big questions left from the reveal:

  • Square Enix was “keen” to a mobile adaptation, but “had doubts about adapting some core aspects” and “provided challenging feedback” to Lightspeed

  • Mobile will kick off with A Realm Reborn, the core Main Scenario, and add the other expansions over time, based on player feedback

  • Yoshida sees the titles growing “hand-in-hand” if all goes well

  • No word on whether or not accounts will be unified, allowing full-game players to access their progress on mobile

  • There’s no gacha!

  • Yoshida and his team have played preview builds and given feedback on how to adapt the multiplayer experience to mobile, typically by adjusting the duties themselves

What we thought:

• First of all… why didn’t we get this for FFXI instead?!

  • The FFXI adaptation was cooking for 6 years before it was cancelled, and it arguably offered a bigger opportunity—since FFXI is an older, staler game, that many people have been missing out on for many years

• Aside from that, this could be a pretty novel opportunity for people who want to experience the story firsthand, but don’t want the chore of the full game

  • Better still if there’s no monthly subscription fee on mobile, but that’s unclear

• It’s also an opportunity for veterans to go back to their roots; I don’t know about you, other FFXIV players, but I played A Realm Reborn a very long time ago, in several chunks, across a long time span, and I wouldn’t mind “returning to the Waking Sands” (so long as it’s in a streamlined or abridged fashion, that is)

• Incorporating side content like the Disiciples of the Hand and Land shows a lot of ambition

• Judging by the trailer, they’ve done a good job recreating the look of FFXIV, though time will tell how the gameplay lends itself to the mobile screen

• Just… for the love of Hydaelyn, add controller support! Yoshida mentions a touchscreen interface, which is a necessary backup, but this just doesn’t seem tenable with only touch controls

What’s next? FFXIV Mobile will launch playtests first in mainland China (presumably next year, at this point) and roll out to the rest of the world afterward. In the meantime, check out the announcement and trailer here.

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth On the Awards Circuit

This week saw the announcement of the Game Awards nominees, as well as the Golden Joysticks’ winners, and Final Fantasy’s 2024 offerings cemented a place on the ballots.

What’s going on:

• At the Game Awards:

  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth received a fitting 7 nominations: Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Performance (Briana White as Aerith), Best Score & Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Role-Playing Game

  • Final Fantasy XIV once again received nominations for Best Ongoing Game and Best Community Support, as is tradition

  • Rebirth’s competition for GOTY is: Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Edtree, and Metaphor: ReFantazio

  • Briana is up against another Square Enix nominee, Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s Hannah Telle as Max Caulfield

• At the Golden Joysticks:

  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won 4 of the 6 awards it was nominated for:

    • Took 2nd place in Ultimate Game of the Year, losing to Black Myth: Wukong, and lost Best Console Game to Helldivers 2

    • Won Best Storytelling, Best Soundtrack, Best Lead Performer (Cody Christian as Cloud), Best Supporting Performer (Briana White as Aerith)

  • Ben “Clive” Starr hosted the event

What we thought:

• Rebirth got nods in all the categories we would’ve expected, but now the hard part begins: the voting

  • For TGA, winners are determined by a “blended vote,” where the voice of the voting jury (a panel of industry outlets) is worth 90% of the vote, and the public fan voting is worth the remaining 10%—except for the upcoming Player’s Voice, which is 100% fan-voted and will begin December 2

• Its biggest GOTY competition is Elden Ring‘s DLC and Metaphor

  • Many, many people have contended that Erdtree shouldn’t be included since it’s a DLC for the larger game, but the rules specifically say that DLC can be included, and it’s been that way for years

  • Geoff Keighley, the face of the awards, has taken a lot of flack for that point but it’s not on him; the jury chooses the nominees and Geoff has little to any role in this aspect (at this point anyway)

  • Metaphor might be the dark horse in this year’s contest, and I’m guessing the GOTY will be one of these three games (well, two games and a DLC)

  • Black Myth: Wukong’s threat would grow if fan voting played a bigger role; in fact, it has a strong chance of winning the audience vote simply because of its massive player count—it peaked on Steam’s charts at 2.4 million players, where last year’s sensation Baldur’s Gate III peaked at 875k

• I truly believe Rebirth deserves to win, for a lot of reasons, but I’m starting to resign myself to the fact that it could lose, despite everything it did so well, and hopefully I’ll be proven wrong on this one

• Briana and Cody’s wins and nominations are well-deserved, but it does sting to see John Eric Bentley snubbed for his role as Barret

  • Remake did a world of good for the character’s portrayal, and a lot of that had to do with John’s brilliant, heartfelt performance

• The requisite pair of noms for FFXIV are a nice laurel, though it no longer feels like a strong contender

What’s next? You can vote for the Game Awards here now, while the Player’s Choice award rounds begin on December 5. The trailer reel award ceremony itself will take place December 12.

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Fresh Fuel For The HD-2D Fire

The release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D has reignited a hot topic: what would Final Fantasy VI look like in Square Enix’s modern HD-2D engines? DQ3 remake producer Masaaki Hayasaka (of Squeenix’s Team Asano) would like the chance to show us, as he told Inverse.

What they’re saying:

• Speaking to Inverse’s Hayes Madsen, Hayasaka was asked which Square Enix classics he’d like to see remade in DQ3’s new visual look: “It’s not that we have concrete plans for this, but personally I would have to say Final Fantasy VI. Octopath Traveler—the first HD-2D title—was developed while referencing FFVI, as it had the highest quality pixel art. I would love to see how the game we referenced would look with the HD-2D art style.”

• Octopath Traveler similarly inspired these HD-2D remakes of the first 3 DQ games, as well as the Live A Live remaster and Star Ocean: Second Story R

• However, adapting a game into this style is not a simple copy-paste gig:

  • “Some say that because HD-2D is pixel-based and this game is a remake, it should be easier to produce, but that is far from the truth! In my opinion, this style requires a higher level of artistic sensibility, and a remake faces more project-level limitations compared to a brand-new title, making the difficulty extremely high. After all, the expectations from the fans of the original game are a monumental hurdle we must work hard to meet.”

• There already is a touch of HD-2D in FFVI’s Pixel Remaster, unlike the rest of that set: the opera scene utilizes the perspective to heighten the cinematic visuals

What we thought:

• It feels like this idea surfaces every 6-12 months like clockwork

• Having now tried DQ3 HD-2D for myself, and knowing Team Asano’s track record, I would definitely be down to see what they could do with FFVI

  • Even that taste in the Pixel Remaster added a lot of depth (no pun intended) to the scenery, making FFVI’s world all the more immersive for a few moments

• This is the perfect antidote to what Kitase said earlier this year, that it would take twice as long to remake FFVI in the FFVII Remake style—we don’t need someting like that, especially when a VI HD-2D could be in the cards instead

  • You can add things to FFVI while keeping to a 2D-HD look; a game doesn’t have to be in Rebirth-quality cutting edge graphics to expand a story slightly

  • Don’t crib too many notes from DQ3 or the Remakes, however; DQ3 HD-2D still has some old dated elements, and FFVI doesn’t necessarily need to go all-in on the “remake everything” approach; just retell the story with some fresh perspectives, add a little content, and arrange it in HD-2D like a stage show

• Not that a HD-2D game could be out in no time whatsoever, either; DQ3 and its siblings were originally announced in 2001, then went MIA for some time before finally resurfacing this summer

What’s next? Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D will be joined by the rest of the “Erdrick” saga, I and II, sometime next year. And for more on how Squeenix approaches remakes, read on…

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Around the Union

Over on YouTube this week we saw part 3 of the Complete Unabridged Timeline of FFVIII, “The Downfall of Adel!” This longform breakdown of the biggest unspoken plot thread(s) in Final Fantasy VIII, and in this installment, we approach the modern day and a certain Galbadian soldier enters the fray. Find out for yourself why so many commenters have been saying “I had no idea FFVIII was this deep!”

Meanwhile, in this week’s installment of the Kupo Chronicle, we delve into the history of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions’ development—how Valkyrie Profile influenced it, the approach its lesser-known producers took to remastering this classic spin-off, and what that philosophy might mean for future return trips to Ivalice. (My favourite part was when one of the producers suggested players should touch grass… and play the multiplayer outside.)

Hopping over to our reader polls, last week we took your pulse on which of the (older) Final Fantasy mobile games was nearest and dearest to your hearts…

49% - I haven’t played any
20% - Record Keeper
14% - Brave Exvius / WOTV
13% - Dissidia Opera Omnia
5% - Mobius

First, let me say, respect to my fellow Record Keepers. But it’s not all that surprising that half of you, dear readers, are not super interested in the mobile division (or maybe you’re Ever Crisis folk; sadly Substack polls only allow 5 options). For all the fiscal weight Square Enix places on these smartphone apps’ shoulders, the mobile market still might not appeal to all gamers—whether for lack of time and energy, a decent phone, or even distrust of gachas and the potential spending they bring.

This week, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards, can Cloud and company count on your vote? Or did one of the contenders outshine it in your books? (And if so, let us know which game in the comments, and what you liked about it more than Rebirth!)

And to end on one last brief, personal note, I’d like to thank anyone who checked out my team’s Extra Life stream last weekend! We’ve almost reached our goal for the year, made our own small effort to a good cause, and had a great time doing it. Any and all support is/was greatly appreciated!

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Until next time, kupo!