Final Fantasy Explorers Producer On Making The Game Fun, Interesting, And Different

With Final Fantasy Explorers now released in North America and on its way to Europe, Siliconera got the chance to talk with producer Hiroyuki Miura and ask him a little bit about the 3DS game.

You can read the full interview below:

1.    What inspired the concept for Final Fantasy Explorers and what makes fighting summon monsters interesting as a plot device?

Hiroyuki Miura: We wanted to create an action RPG that fits the look and feel of FINAL FANTASY, with the ability for players to play with their friends. To that, we tried to add a fresh take by having the players choose specific roles like Attacker, Tank, and Healer. As a plot device, the eidolons are symbolic of the natural world, which forms the basis for conflict with the expanding human civilization.

2.    Square Enix made multiplayer Final Fantasy games before, with the Crystal Chronicles series and MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV. How did you design multiplayer for Final Fantasy Explorers to be different?

This game may be similar to both in that it is a multiplayer game. However, this game was developed as an action RPG with the roles more prominently figuring in, so the gameplay should have a different feel.

3.    In single player mode you can bring monsters with you. How did you pick monsters for Final Fantasy Explorers? Were there any monsters you wanted to add but didn’t make it, and what monster combinations do you recommend?

We mainly picked monsters that have become staples in the FINAL FANTASY series. The monsters vary according to your playing style, so it would be difficult to give recommendations. However, I feel that the chocobo that heals, and the cactuar that boosts your speed, are incredibly useful! And on top of that, they’re cute!

4.    Collecting loot is what makes games like Final Fantasy Explorers and Monster Hunter a lot of fun. How did you balance rare item drops? How does the luck stat come into play and what other ways can players increase their chance of getting rare loot other than playing as Thief?

Player feedback received during user testing helped us to develop and fine-tune the rare item drop rate. Items can be obtained through battles with monsters, including eidolons, so if you want more loot, I’d recommend taking on more battles.

5.    One of the critiques from the Japanese release was AP recharging. I recall from playing the Japanese version too that AP was consumed when running and when using abilities. There’s a decent amount of walking to get to battles and wait periods for AP to recover to dash again. Did Square Enix tweak the game from the Japanese release when making the international version?

As in the Japanese version, the balance is set so that the player can increase “resonance” by battling monsters on the way to fighting the eidolons. If you don’t fight on the way but only run past everything, you would of course lose your AP from running, and if that’s all you do, then the distance may seem long. If running didn’t expend AP, then you would be able to run from enemies forever. That would make for an uninteresting game, so we tried to avoid that.

Final Fantasy Explorers is available now for the 3DS in North America and will release on January 29th in Europe.