Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy is as exciting for the project team as for players

The statement that the team behind magic: the upcoming set of cooperation between the Final Fantasy of the Congregation is excited about launching would be an understatement.

“When we were going to the Congress Center, there is this giant hotel-size screen with the inscription” Magic: The Gathering-Final Fantasy, “said the main designer and script Gavin Verhey during the press event for the upcoming set. “We all just looked at each other and said:” This is what we were waiting for. In the end it is happening. “

Such moments are what Verhey dreamed about, the executive producer Zakeel Gordon, the main designer of games Dillon Deveney and senior game designer Daniel Holt in the four -year history of Set development. When the team mentions their time, working on the extension, both in Square Enix offices in Japan and wizards from the headquarters of the Wybrzeże in Renton, Washington, our zoom combination is illuminated with a smile and laughter during a simple mention of cards such as Summon: Bahamut, names such as Yoshitaka Amano and countless references.

For these four people, the release of magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy is the culmination of hard work, celebrating magic and final fantasy, and ultimately the declaration of victory. Gamespot sat with a panel for a long conversation about the Final Fantasy Foreay in Magic: The Gathering, which begins on June 13.

Design process

“I designed cards at 2 am” is a common sentence from Verhey’s mouth. In this particular case, he talks about the absolute virtue, the powerful boss from Final Fantasy XI and the card that appeared during the panel. Gordon, Deveney and Holt consciously nod, predicting where history is going.

“I tried to design an absolute virtue and could not come up with what to do,” says Verhey, “I fell asleep at my desk-like an adult. Suddenly I woke up and thought:” Ah! Protection against everything! It literally jumped in my head when I was out of sleeping. Amazing. “

This does not mean that every conversation went like that; Deveney used the word “thrilling” to describe some conversations between him and Holt. “We only have so many design places [pre-constructed Commander] Deck for new cards – describes Deveney. “Who understands this? Who does the cut?”

Deveney clearly resembles a discussion on the initially constructed Final Fantasy XIV waist, which in itself was a hercules task to create. “To tell the truth, it is a game that has been working for over 10 years, with 14 years of content; we could probably make the whole set of this one game,” says Deveney. “I play the game since the premiere, and Daniel said that he was playing it, so our prospects were different.”

Deveney claims that the difference in the perspective has helped them tune them to the deck of the FF14 commander to make it as authentic as possible. Sometimes Deveney would like a character who does not consider it so important; Other times, Deveney would not take the answer. “In particular, one character, I had to say” Daniel, if they do not come in, I will be very nervous, because someone is very nervous about me if he does not come in. “

Concentration on the commanders

With such a large history to analyze and only so much space that can be around in the expansion set, choosing products received which cards or projects led to a further “thrilling” discussion. “We look at the whole product as one experience, but then we have to look at every individual song-main, commander, etc.”-says Deveney. “Sometimes I ask myself,” Is this the only thing that the fan buys, what they expect? “

For the commander, on which Daniel Holt focused primarily, he allows him to discover four games receiving pre-constructed deposits-FF6, FF7, FF10 and FF14-as their own unique stories. As Holt put it: “We have to go very deeply in the commander’s decks.”

“Tali commanders were almost each of them their own universes outside the product in the way we approached them,” continued Holt. “Final Fantasy VI is its own world, FFVII is their own world. They do not exceed. Everyone allows us to add different things; for example, elves appear only in some games, but not in others, so we made a reprint of the elves on board the game in which they were found.

“Thanks to the Final Fantasy VI we had the motive of the cemetery recursion, but it is not from death, it is” raising allies “. We twisted some reprints to be a bit more thematic.

Works of art

One of the interesting facts mentioned during the press preview were some of the artists who contributed to the art of the card: nine of them, known for drawing Final Fantasy art in the whole story, had the opportunity to draw everyone or anything they wanted. This opened interesting possibilities; Although Amano drew Kefka, he never drew the last form of Kefka in his entire career-until now.

This led to what Verhey describes as one of the coolest moments of his life. “We are in Japan and we happened to be in the Square Enix office when a piece of Kefka Amano arrived. Nobody saw him yet and came in this black artistic folder provided by Amano himself.”

“They set him on the table and we all were just silent, staring at the original work in Amano … But from afar, because none of us wanted to get closer and risk that it somehow broke it,” Verhey continues. “Nobody sneezes, nobody does anything that could give it.”

Deveney says that most artists drew characters they knew, but a few took the opportunity to branch and try something new. “There were several artists who were simply:” Oh, I would like to play with the toy of the second game because I didn’t work on it and it sounds really cool, “explains Deveney. “They were like:” Oh, I’ve always wanted to draw this character! “

Although the works of Final Fantasy art are iconic, soundtracks for each of these games are equally well known. The implementation of music in a physical card game is of course very difficult, but the band tried to act. As Deveney put it, “these discussions have completely happened.”

“I will say that there are two or three cards that can be happy, seeing” blinking, blinking, nudge, nudge “to the famous song titles -l moments in which you can hear these songs-that we could get to the set,” says Deveney. “There is a greater discussion about musical rights and how it is a little different with each industry, but so They are very deliberately reference. “

Selection of the grasshop

The last sets of magic contained a star-one specific card that works like a “chase” card, with a limited printing number and each of the individually numbered. Last Set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, used Mox Jasper-CENTRED on dragon gems MOX-How Headliner, with a special art of the original artist Mox Dan Frazier.

In Final Fantasy, the band knew that they wanted to choose something that every FF fan knows. Sure, they could make a star like Cloud or Sephiroth, but FF7 fans would fully appreciate it; Fans of other games may not enjoy so much. Therefore, for Zakeel Gordon, the choice was simple: Chocobo, especially traveling Chocobo.

“Chocobo was a flagship figure that we wanted to take to the fore, because he is represented in the vast majority of games,” said Gordon. “If you are a franchise fan, but you only have a relationship with some games, you will recognize Chocobo regardless of everything.” The band pulled out of a specific card game-Multiple-card shows many colorful Chocobos from Final Fantasy VI-but even if the player does not know Chocobo races, he will know what the bird is.

However, the number of printing is strange in this series-where the previous headliners made 500 copies, gold traveling Chocobo will see only 77 prints. It was deliberate because the team wanted the card to be even more unique. “77 is, I think, an ideal medium for the one in which we recently conducted the series, explains Gordon,” where it is a little less rare than “a unique ring”, but it is a bit rare than “x 500”. And in the spirit of the Final Fantasy 7, two sees just felt like the right number. “

For centuries

The last large function in this new extension is the final fantasy: for centuries an additional sheet 64 cards-four cards for each of the 16 main FF games. All 64 cards are reprints of previously issued magic cards, but the art presented on each card comes from the authentic Square Enix archives. This is a history lesson in a cardboard form, and Dillon Deveney says that they had many materials to analyze-reliable 5000 works of art.

“We would ask all kinds of questions,” said Deveney, “How do we think is the most to order things that someone would like to see about this game? What is the best version of this art? What is the best version of this character? Should we go with a sketchy concept or a fully ended illustration? All. “

Many cards from the bonus sheet were shown during the PAX East panel, including Zidane Tribal FF9 as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and FF2’s Furrion, Mastermaster as SRAM, senior Edificer. Earlier, Yuffie Kisaragi from FF7 was unveiled as a shark of Yuriko, a shadow of a tiger.

“The bonus sheet was a place where we could perfectly balance every game,” said Gordon. “We assigned the” budget “of each game: there will be four cards, we will have a hero and an antagonist, and then we will find two moments; Perhaps it is more based on history, and the other can be a bit more mechanically powered. “

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When the panel signed a preview, the host and former MTG sender, Richard Hagon, said that although it is still magical: a meeting, there is something in the Final Fantasy set that seems different. “You can absolutely play wonderful magic games with this set, the cards are there, the projects are there. But the feelings are unique and unique, and it is people who will remember for a very long time.” When the panel was enthusiastically nodded, this feeling definitely appeared from the minds behind the set. Now only players are left to pick up and play.

Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy will be available on June 13 in local game stores and sellers of large boxes.