• Uematsu reunites with Art Director of FF VI, Minaba!



    Recently at Roppongi Nico Fare event, Granblue Fantasy was announced. Inside Games had the scoop on this event where Nobuo Uematsu, Hideo Minaba and many voice actors appeared. According to Cygames director Yuita Kimura stated that the project started when he approached Minaba about creating a new RPG. He felt that if he were to make a game with him, naturally Uematsu would need to be asked as well. So it began! The two Final Fantasy heavy hitters were once again back in action.

    If you're unfamiliar with either name, both have been long and active members of the Square Enix team until recently. Uematsu has worked as the composer on Final Fantasies I through XII, XIV, Advent Children, Tactics Advance, and Legends I and II. Minaba was the art director of Final Fantasy V, VI, Tactics, IX, Tactics Advance, XII, Dissidia 012, and XIII-2. If that doesn't mean show the dedication to a series, I don't know what will!


    "I believe that my fans may feel a sense of nostalgia from this," said Uematsu after stating he had already composed 11 songs for the game. Minaba added that as of this event he has already drawn 100 characters for the game and each character will have its own voice actor. Take a gander at some of the art work that has been released. You can definitely tell it has that Final Fantasy Feel.


    Bii, Rakam, and Marie.

    Strum, Dark Knight, and Cielo.

    Fighter (Protaganist), Lulia, Catalina




    Mobage’s parent company DeNA director Kenji Kobayashi was excited to say that when Mobage and Cygames joins up it usually results in the most successful of all Mobage games. He also stated he had high expectations of Granblue Fantasy because as he feels it's "a game made by a collection of top staff".

    Now here's the kicker and I included it last, because well you guys tend to nay say. If you know who Mobage is, you already knew where this was going. First of, the game is cardbased! Woo those can be fun! Secondly, well have another quote. Kobayashi also had this to say after viewing Uematsu and Minaba's work "I thought to myself, 'Can we really make a mobile RPG with such a large-scale feeling from this?' but after seeing the game screen, I was truly surprised," he said. "It’s as if you completely forget that you’re playing a mobile game."

    Yeah I know I got your hopes up but with these a-listers it could be a great mobile game! No stop leaving! Okay here have some gameplay/battle pictures to cheer you up.







    Look at that summon card. If that's not amazing artwork that you can forgo your hate of mobile games, I don't know what to say. I personally have enjoyed the mobage related FF mobile games, although this isn't under the SE flag, and this one seems as if they are putting a lot of effort into the soundtrack, voice acting and artwork. So it may actually be worth something!

    The game will be opening it's beta soon and is hoping to come out later this winter for mobile devices.

    Can the heavy hitters actually convince you to get a mobile game? Why do you hate them so much? It has such pretty artwork!
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Uematsu reunites with Art Director of FF VI, Minaba! started by Freya View original post
    Comments 14 Comments
    1. Skyblade's Avatar
      Skyblade -
      Pretty artwork does not a good game make.

      No matter how pretty the artwork is, or how grand the envisioned project is, the game is going to live or die based on the system it's on. Mobile games have a completely different input system, not to mention the fact that during actual play, up to a quarter of the screen can be obscured by your fingers. You need to account for the differences in how the systems operate, and make a game that's fun to play.

      This will be great to look at, but how will it play? Card based gives it some potential, but I'm definitely not going to get my hopes up.
    1. Freya's Avatar
      Freya -
      What tiny phone do you have that your fingers take up that much room D:
    1. Bolivar's Avatar
      Bolivar -
      I salute these dudes and hope their game will be successful but I just don't play these kinds of games.
    1. LadyJuxtaposition's Avatar
      LadyJuxtaposition -
      The artworks are beautiful though.
    1. Elskidor's Avatar
      Elskidor -
      Purdy art for sure.
    1. Vyk's Avatar
      Vyk -
      I almost started having the same feelings that Mistwalker and Project Rainfall induced. And then I became kinda sad. But then again, I've never played Biaten Kaitos or anything similar, so I can't immediately write the game off. But full blown RPGs on mobile in general make me feel iffy. But I'll let them make what they want and hope for the best
    1. Pete for President's Avatar
      Pete for President -
      Intrigued. Never played a cardgame. Might have to try something new.
    1. ShunNakamura's Avatar
      ShunNakamura -
      My shoulders and arms and hands and fingers hurt just thinking about trying to play an RPG on a cellphone. The 3ds is painful enough even with optional grips on it. I have never met a cellphone that won't turn you into a knot of pain if you play for more than a few minutes at a time.

      This is my way of saying 'damn that looks fancy, but I can't ever play it'.
    1. Del Murder's Avatar
      Del Murder -
      Bah. Cell phone game. Looks cool, too.
    1. Slothy's Avatar
      Slothy -
      Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
      Pretty artwork does not a good game make.

      No matter how pretty the artwork is, or how grand the envisioned project is, the game is going to live or die based on the system it's on. Mobile games have a completely different input system, not to mention the fact that during actual play, up to a quarter of the screen can be obscured by your fingers. You need to account for the differences in how the systems operate, and make a game that's fun to play.

      This will be great to look at, but how will it play? Card based gives it some potential, but I'm definitely not going to get my hopes up.
      This might be the strangest bit of pessimism I've seen in a while. If it were an action title, I could see being concerned about it being on mobile devices because action games on touch screens is largely stupid. But an RPG with card based combat? I have a hard time thinking of a style of gameplay that would work better given the format.
    1. Polnareff's Avatar
      Polnareff -
      Goddamn it, Freya! Well, the Mobage thing pretty much killed it because of "MOBA" being in the name, so it's not as disappointing as it could have been. Still, what a waste. We naysay for a good reason. Instead of making a full-fledged RPG, they turn around and make stupid crap like Square-Enix does. This is some high-caliber trolling coming from the likes of Uematsu.
    1. Jiro's Avatar
      Jiro -
      I wonder when the Judge design will go out of fashion and similar styled characters get a different look.
    1. Rostum's Avatar
      Rostum -
      Lovely artwork, I'll get it if it comes out to the Australian iTunes store.
    1. Freya's Avatar
      Freya -
      Quote Originally Posted by Polnareff View Post
      Goddamn it, Freya!
      MUHAHA.

      Well how else will I get you lot to read articles unless i hide the mobile portion until the end haha.

      Quote Originally Posted by Jiro View Post
      I wonder when the Judge design will go out of fashion and similar styled characters get a different look.
      Never. I hope never. I love the judge design it's just so cooooool
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