Final Fantasy’s biggest mobile game yet comes Stateside.
Square Enix has partnered with mobile game company DeNA to finally bring Japanese hit Final Fantasy: Record Keeper to iOS and Android platforms in the West. The Tokyo-based company typically publishes its own titles, including its hugely popular Final Fantasy role-playing game franchise, but it sought out a partnership with DeNA for the company’s expertise in free-to-play games. This joint effort allows DeNA to flex its game-making muscles for a high-profile partner while helping Square Enix expand the reach of the Final Fantasy franchise into the mobile games, a market which Newzoo says will hit $30.3 billion in 2015. Record Keeper has seen over 5 million downloads in Japan since its launch last summer, and has hit the top five grossing charts for iOS — no small feat in Japan.
The two companies expect it will do just as well in the West.
It helps that DeNA is known for building games for popular entertainment franchises. It has successful launchs include the Marvel, Transformers, and Star Wars brands in the West. Its China division primarily releases branded games in the territory, such as its most recent hit, One Piece, based on a popular Japanese property.
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is sort of a mashup of all of the mainline Final Fantasy games. It takes characters and scenes and mixes them together to form a new experience, giving fans a new way to revisit their favorites. Its look is straight out of the Super Nintendo era, giving it an old-fashioned style that should resonate with long-time fans.
GamesBeat met with Square Enix producer Ichiro Hazama and DeNA producers Yu Sasaki and Shonosuke Tokumaru last week in Tokyo, just ahead this week’s U.S. launch of Record Keeper. The three spoke with us through a translator.
Collaboration inspired by pixels
It was DeNA that approached Square Enix with the original idea for Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, inspired by a game of its own, Defender of Texel.
“In the beginning, this project was originally proposed by DeNA,” explained Square Enix producer Ichiro Hazama in an interview. “DeNA approached Square Enix with this idea based on the fact that it had already released Defender of Texel, another game that uses a pixel art style as well as battles with characters in formations.
“Based on the success of that title in the Western market, DeNA asked, ‘How about creating a Final Fantasy game? Not using the same game mechanic, but using that experience to build the game.’ Even though smartphones have a lot of limitations, especially from a console point of view, in terms of game controls and gameplay style and so on, I was happy with DeNA’s proposal. So I decided to go ahead with this project.”
The plan was to go international from the beginning, said DeNA producer Yu Sasaki. The international release saw a delay recently, but now it’s moving forward toward its North American launch this year. The two companies looked at Defender of Texel as a sign that Record Keeper could do well in the West.
“The initial proposal for this project involved Defender of Texel, which was fairly successful in the west already, so there was an idea that this game could be successful overseas, outside Japan,” Hazama said.
New to free-to-play
Hazama notes that DeNA handled most of Record Keeper’s game development, with Square Enix overseeing the story, setting, characters, and overall supervision. But the traditional console-game publisher left the backend to DeNA, as it has years of experience in free-to-play mobile games.
“This title does have a special place because it was a collaboration with DeNA,” Hazama explained. “This is a Final Fantasy game, so there’s a large responsibility that comes with releasing using the Final Fantasy brand. With DeNA’s wealth of experience in releasing games to the west, and also with free-to-play games, I feel that we can trust DeNA with the brand — that’s very important.”
Square Enix has released dozens of mobile games in the past, but free-to-play is still relatively new for the company. While it’s confident in its ability to create great mobile experiences, it’s trusting DeNA to lead it into newer territory.
“I have full confidence in DeNA in developing a free-to-play game,” Hazama said. “Obviously, we at Square Enix are very proud of its heritage. In terms of releasing a fully packaged download game, I don’t think that any other company can do what we do. But for this free-to-play style, that’s pretty new for Square Enix, so we’re very happy to work with DeNA.”
More than just translation
The group explained that localization efforts started immediately following the Japanese release of Final Fantasy: Record Keeper. But there was a lot of preparation involved beyond just translating text, and several considerations were made for the preferences of Western fans.
“It’s mostly the same game but there is some difference in terms of which worlds — which Final Fantasy series game — gets released into Final Fantasy: Record Keeper,” explained DeNA producer Shonosuke Tokumaru. “There is some adjustment in terms of order to appeal more towards western fans.”
“One thing to note with the Final Fantasy series is, in Japan, it was popular from the start from the Famicom and Super Famicom days, with their pixel art. With the west it really blew up more from like the 3D polygon [games] like Final Fantasy VII and onward,” Hazama added. “In terms of localization, we really took that into consideration. The main gameplay itself is the same pixel art style, but in using screenshots from the series in Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, I made sure we focused more on the 3D CG from later in the series and also from the remakes. Instead, in the Japanese version, we used the Famicom and Super Famicom screenshots more often.”
While the core gameplay is the same, you’ll find no other connections between the Japanese and Western versions of Final Fantasy: Record Keeper.
“Between Japan and the West, they are completely separate games, on separate servers,” Hazama said. “There is no social connection between Japanese users and the users in the west.”
It sounds like the release is just North America for now, though the group is open to expansion if fans demand it.
“This being a social game, in terms of supporting other languages in other countries, a lot of it depends on user reaction,” Tokumaru said. “If there’s a good reaction from users, we’re obviously thinking about expanding support into other languages.”
Stories old and new
Though Final Fantasy: Record Keeper uses scenes and characters from other games, capitalizing on nostalgia, its main character, Tyro, and its core story are brand-new creations. Hazama says that the core experience is to relive the past, and they’ll fuel that through the constant addition of content from all of the Final Fantasy games. He’s not worried about running out of material.
“Even though the there’s a finite number of the numbered Final Fantasy games, at the same time, there’s more ways to look at these games, he explained. “As an example, right now for our weekly events, they’ve being created based on a specific view-point of one character in a game. That gives many different possiblities for adding content that the fans can enjoy.
“Obviously, just in the numbered titles there’s tons of content to explore. But there are also the spin-off titles that haven’t seen content yet — those are also possibilities.”
And this has just as much room for expansion with Tyro. He was created just for Record Keeper by famed series character designer Tetsuya Nomura. With him comes a storyline that ties all of the elements from the various series games together.
“Tyro, an original Nomura character, is another area that should get more expansion in terms of storyline in the future,” Sasaki said. “At the same time there’s also the original story of Final Fantasy: Record Keeper. I feel that there is enough content there to leave it open-ended.”
The group is hoping its efforts toward a full-fledged story for Record Keeper will set it apart from other free-to-play releases in the West. Hazama says that he wants to keep with the Final Fantasy’s tradition of strong stories, and that it was actually DeNA’s idea to approach the game in this way.
In Japan, the free-to-play model with a strong storyline is becoming more popular,” he explained. “But it’s maybe not so much in the West right now.
“If you look purely at sales, maybe having an elaborate storyline doesn’t work more towards casual users. But DeNA insisted on having a storyline that is solid because that is more in tradition with the Final Fantasy world. I feel that that’s definitely another reason why we can trust DeNA with this project. We intend on continuing with this path.”
A casual Final Fantasy
Both Square Enix and DeNA look at Final Fantasy: Record Keeper as a way to reach new fans. But Hazama says it’s just as much about giving current fans a casual experience as much as it is reaching a new audience.
“The reason why we can offer such an opportunity is that the Final Fantasy brand is very solid,” Hazama explained.
“But there is a differentiation between the core series and this free-to-play mobile title. As you know, the Final Fantasy XV demo is out and that’s really big in the media, so there’s an obvious dedicated line in the main Final Fantasy series. I think these titles like Final Fantasy Record Keeper present a chance for fans to have a casual experience with Final Fantasy.”
“This is a way to approach the more casual Final Fantasy fans,” he added. “But at the same time it’s optimized for the smart phones to get the full experience out of a phone game.”
Collaboration going forward
The group wouldn’t talk about plans beyond Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, with Hazama saying that they plan to focus on this one title for now. But it has high hopes for its current collaboration, and it sounds like the two companies will work together for some time.
“There’s still a lot of future on this title, of course, so obviously this collaboration is going to continue,” Sasaki said. “But beyond that scope, I can’t answer yet.”
“We expect the game to be as much of a success in the west as it is in Japan,” Tokumaru added. “To have Final Fantasy fans enjoy this game is the most important thing.”