[UPDATED!] FINAL FANTASY Agito announced for iOS and Android!
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Published on 09-11-2013 02:30 PM
In the latest Famitsu magazine, Square Enix announced that FINAL FANTASY Agito will be coming to iOS and Android devices. The game is an original fantasy RPG that features free to play multiplayer elements with a focus on friendship.
The game is set in the world of FINAL FANTASY Type-0 and is a retelling of sorts of the storyline of Type-0 told from the perspective of new, player-customised, characters. Your character is from the same Orience magic academy that was an integral part of Type-0. It also features returning Type-0 characters Jack and Ace. Unfortunately there's still no word on whether or not Type-0 itself will be seeing the light of day outside of Japan.
In an interview with Famitsu, producer Hajime Tabata said that he:
Originally Posted by
Hajime Tabata
"wanted to write a story that traced the different fates of the FF Type-0 heroes. A lot of FF Type-0 players have told us that, and there are a lot of people within the studio, too, who wanted to do it. FF Type-0 was originally meant for release on mobile phones, and I liked the Agito name anyway, so that's how we got started with this project."
Agito looks to take advantage of smartphones as a gaming platform by progressing in realtime based on the actions players take. It uses Type-0's story gambits - the history of Orience runs across millions of parallel cycles meaning that when one cycle ends, a new, different one begins. What this means for us is that the decisions we make in one game-story cycle will make things dynamically change in the following cycle. Tabata went onto elaborate further:
Originally Posted by
Hajime Tabata
"The story is divided into chapters. There's an ending, and when the story ends one time, the next cycle begins and history is repeated from the beginning. The decision system here means that the game should change gradually with each cycle. We might have different decisions for you to make at the second cycle, or more choices to select from. That kind of 'live' experience is something you can only get here."
He did go at length to state that it's still undetermined how many chapters will make up a cycle and how long each individual cycle will last. The current plan, according to Famitsu, is for every chapter to run across a two week realtime period.
Originally Posted by
Hajime Tabata
"Each chapter is divided into a solo-play and team-play phase. The solo-play phase taking 10 days out of the two-week chapter period and the team-play phase taking four days. Players spend the first 10 days running their personal missions, and then all the individual teams challenge powerful bosses. Your team and job is chosen for you at the start of the chapter, so you have to boost your job skills in solo mode in order to prepare for the team phase."
At present FINAL FANTASY Agito is slated to debut this winter, with more details to be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show next week. Tabata also stressed that Agito is still enjoyable even if you don't want to throw money into it. But given Square Enix's recent track record with smartphone RMTs we'll have to see how that one plays out - but judging by Tabata's own comments we shouldn't be too afraid.
Originally Posted by
Hajime Tabata
"We want you to be able to reach the ending fully free-to-play. I don't buy extra stuff in games, after all. The 'active force' you consume in missions refills over time, but you can refill it instantly with an item if you want to play at once. You can also spin to purchase abilities, continues for when you fail at a mission, and most of the other things you'd expect."
Now if you're bursting with excitement at the prospect of finally being able to explore the world of Type-0... then I'd hold your breath a little longer. Square Enix have yet to confirm which regions this will be available in.
UPDATED 14th September 2013:
Square Enix have filed a trademark for FINAL FANTASY Agito, complete with a localized logo, in Europe. No trademark application as of yet in the US. But considering Square Enix have generally released all but a handful of their mobile offerings in all regions, this is good news!
Check out some Famitsu scans below:
[Source: Final Fantasy Agito (iOS/Android) announced [Tabata Producing, Details In OP] - NeoGAF ] 
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