Hello Mr. Nakashima! I hope your travels are going well and staying healthy. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

What were the biggest challenges in transferring the ideas and elements of the popular mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius into a standalone RPG while giving Resonance an identity of its own?

The biggest challenge was that, while the original had many appealing qualities, from its meticulously crafted pixel art to its compelling story, it wasn’t originally designed with the level of quality and overall design philosophy expected of a console title. As a result, we had to remake and rebuild almost everything, from the maps to the battle system.

We also felt it was essential that the game be fully enjoyable even for players who had never experienced the original, so reworking the story from that perspective was another major challenge. Since all of this required a significant amount of development work, it was initially challenging to get everyone internally on board with our approach: this wasn’t simply an extension of the mobile game, but a new title that we wanted to build to the quality standards expected of a pixel art FINAL FANTASY (FF) on console. Once people were able to see the game actually taking shape, though, they understood what we were aiming for.

In recapturing the feeling of the classic Final Fantasy games, was there a particular moment, game, or experience from the earlier titles that served as a major inspiration during development?

FFV was a major source of inspiration in terms of the battle system. FFXVI wasn’t a direct reference, but I wanted to keep in mind the feeling I had when playing it, particularly its spectacle, visual flair, and cinematic quality, which have become such important aspects of modern FF games.

With FFV, I kept thinking about whether we could make its job system easier to understand and more approachable, while at the same time adding even more depth. And with FFXVI, I kept wondering whether there was some way to capture the grandeur and visual excitement of its cinematic sequences, despite the inherent limitations of pixel art.

How did you and the team settle on the title Final Fantasy Resonance, and did it influence the game’s theme?

We actually spent quite a long time considering a wide range of possible titles before arriving at this one. The development team and I would narrow the list down, only to discover that some names sounded unnatural to native speakers of other languages or carried unintended connotations, so we would go back and reconsider them. At one point, we even considered choosing a title that could be abbreviated as “FFBE.”

In the end, though, when we stepped back and looked at the game as a whole, both in terms of its story and its battle system, “Resonance” felt like the right word to express what the game is about. The story explores the idea of resonance across generations through the crystals, and that same concept is reflected in the gameplay, where resonance with vision crystals becomes a source of power for the player.

Both the development team and others within the company who had played portions of the game, including the sections featured in the demo, felt that it had reached a level of quality where it could stand on its own. That reinforced our desire to give it a title that wasn’t directly tied to the mobile game.

Using guest characters from other Final Fantasy games as Visions is a fun way to connect the series’ history. Before they were standalone characters you could play as in the mobile game.

How did the idea come about the change from playable characters to Visions and how did you decide which characters could be included in Resonance?

We knew from the beginning that, in creating a console title, we wanted the protagonists of the mainline FF games to be part of it, since they have always been an important part of FFBE’s identity. But at the same time, we wanted players to experience a rich, substantial story in which Rain and the rest of the FFBE cast were unquestionably the main characters.

That led us to introduce the FF protagonists as visions rather than as conventional playable characters. We also didn’t want them to feel like they were there simply for the sake of making an appearance. Their presence needed to make sense within the story, and we wanted them to add something meaningful to the gameplay as well.

Director Furuya, Battle Director Shirakami, and Co-Producer Kimura eventually arrived at an approach that, in a sense, combines FFV’s job system with FFVI’s emphasis on giving each character a distinct identity. That ultimately led to the battle system we have today. Another thing we were very conscious of was treating every character and every mainline entry in the series with equal care. Whenever you obtain a vision, we wanted the experience surrounding it to be rewarding regardless of whether you know the original title or are encountering that character for the first time.

Our starting point, then, was to feature one character from each mainline FF title. With the FFBE characters, we wanted to include as many as we reasonably could, but we also wanted to portray each of them with enough depth that players could form a genuine attachment to them. We therefore looked at things like how much room there was to build on their existing characterization and background, and whether they had qualities that would let them shine in battle. In the end, we focused on choosing the characters we felt would make the game as enjoyable as possible.

For players who have never experienced Brave Exvius or a classic Final Fantasy game, what do you hope their first experience with Final Fantasy Resonance will be?

Ideally, I hoped this game could bring together the core appeal that has defined FF since its beginnings and become someone’s first FF if they’ve never experienced the series before, or a way to rediscover FF if they’ve been away from the series for a while.

FF has such a long history, and although each title is essentially a standalone experience, I think there are still people who might look at the series and wonder, “Can I really jump in at this point?” I also imagine there are many players who have drifted away from FF over the years as its visual styles and battle systems have evolved. I think this game has become a very accessible FF for those players as well: one they can easily immerse themselves in, with a clear, classic story and a bright, adventurous tone.

After spending so much time developing Resonance, is there a particular character, Vision, location, or feature that has become especially memorable to you personally?

I don’t want to give too much away about exactly who the character is, but I would say the woman who appears in the prologue and is referred to as the “Archwitch.” Obviously, our goal has been to make the entire game a satisfying experience, but the section from the prologue through Chapter 2 was especially important in establishing the core of the game experience.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve probably played through it more than a hundred times. Because I revisited that part of the game so many times during development, she was probably the character I thought about the most, particularly in terms of how we could make her portrayal even more compelling. And after experiencing the story as a whole, I personally came away feeling that, in the end, this really was her story.

Looking at all the Visions available, what would be your ideal team to take into battle?

I wouldn’t say there’s any one definitive “best” party. In fact, I think that’s one of the things that makes the battle system so fun and gives it so much depth.

There are countless possibilities, and part of the enjoyment is figuring out your own party composition and adjusting it depending on the enemy you’re trying to defeat or the situation you’re facing. Personally, though, I really enjoyed building a party around Shantotto and using powerful AoE attacks to tear through battles at a satisfying pace.

I also liked developing characters like Zidane and Squall and using them to take on tougher enemies. They can be a little tricky to use, and you may not immediately realize how strong they are, but once you learn how to use them effectively, they can become extremely powerful.

Oh! I really enjoyed having Shantotto on the team but I’ve found myself using Bartz and Cecil for a lot of the battles.

Is there a “special guest” character like Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, or another Square Enix character like Sora from Kingdom Hearts you want to see in the game?

I should mention upfront that we currently don’t have any plans for guest characters like that to appear.

It’s important to us that FF RESONANCE has a complete, self-contained world of its own, and we would never want to introduce characters from other games unless we could do them justice. So I think the bar for something like that would be very high.

That said, purely hypothetically, I do think having boss characters from other FF games appear could open up some interesting new possibilities for battles and gameplay.

Oh that would be great to fight against those foes for a good challenge!

Depending on how well the game is received, would you like to see Resonance continue with a sequel or potentially become its own Final Fantasy sub-series?

At this point, we have no plans for a sequel. From the beginning, we’ve approached this game with the goal of delivering a story that feels satisfying and complete in its own right.

For me, one of the things FF must continue to do is take on new creative challenges and explore new forms of expression. That was something I felt was essential for this title as well.

So even if we were to make a sequel, I believe it would need to offer new ideas and experiences that weren’t present in the first game. In that sense, the bar would be extremely high. That reflects just how much the entire development team has poured into this game. We’ve put all of our ingenuity, passion, and creativity into it, determined to give it everything we have.

After working on Final Fantasy Resonance, what is one thing you have come to appreciate more about the Final Fantasy series?

There are so many, but since releasing the demo and seeing all the different reactions from players, the thing that has struck me most is that everyone has their own personal FF memories.

I’m an FF fan myself, of course, so there were certain elements we incorporated into RESONANCE thinking, “This feels like FF,” or “I think fans will really enjoy this.”

But then I would see reactions I had never anticipated, with people saying things like, “This feels so much like FFIV!” or “I can’t believe this enemy shows up here. This is amazing!”

Seeing those reactions has made me realize once again how incredibly fortunate I am to be involved with a series that is loved by so many people, and that has become the source of so many different memories for each and every player.

That has to be a great feeling to experience!

After everything you’ve learned from developing Final Fantasy Resonance, what non-Final Fantasy title or type of game would you like to work on next?

I don’t have a specific title in mind, but in terms of genre, I think it would have to be a traditional RPG.

This is just my personal impression, but looking at the industry globally, it seems that many of the biggest hits tend to be action games. After spending so much time on this project creating such a straightforward, classic RPG, however, I’ve really come to appreciate just how much untapped potential the genre still has.

I also learned a great deal from Team Asano and their approach to RPG development. So I think it’d be wonderful if I could take on the challenge of exploring new possibilities for the genre and perhaps even pushing its boundaries a little further.

And finally, the most important question: cats or dogs?

I have both a cat and a dog, so I love them equally. To be honest, I love animals in general.

I once did a farm stay in Thailand where I got to spend time with elephants, and I was surprised by just how affectionate they were, almost like cats and dogs. After that experience, I really fell in love with elephants too.

I would have never guessed! It sounds like you had a great experience with them.