To say that the team behind Magic: the next set of collaboration collaboration of Gathering is enthusiastic to launch would be an understatement.
“While we arrived at the Congress Center, there is this giant screen of the size of a hotel that says’ Magic: The Gathering-Final Fantasy on it,” said the main designer and the protagonist Gavin Verhey during a preview event of the press for the next set. “We just looked at each other and said:” Here’s what we were waiting for. It is finally happening. “”
Moments like this are what Verhey, the executive producer Zakeel Gordon, the main Dillon Deveney game designer and the Senior Game Designer Daniel Holt dreamed during the history of four years of the development of the set. While the team recalls their time to work on the expansion, both in the Square Enix offices in Japan and in the headquarters of the Wizards of the Coast Coast in Renton, Washington, our Zoom call lights up with smiles and laughter to the simple mention of cards such as Summon: Bahamut, names such as Yoshitaka Amanano and other Mali references.
For these four people, the release of Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy is the culmination of hard work, a celebration of the Magic and Final Fantasy and, ultimately, a declaration of victory. Gamespot sat with the panel for a long chat on the incursion of Final Fantasy in Magic: The Gathering, which starts on June 13th.
The design process
“I was planning the cards at 2 am” is a common phrase outside Verhey’s mouth. In this particular case, he is talking about Absolute virtue, the powerful boss of Final Fantasy XI and the paper that appeared during the panel. Gordon, Deveney and Holt nods consciously, anticipating where the story is going.
“I was trying to design an absolute virtue, and I couldn’t understand what to do,” says Verhey, “and I fell asleep at my desk-like an adult. Suddenly, I woke up and thought: ‘Ah! Protection from everything! Surprising.”
This does not mean that every conversation has gone so at swollen sails; Deveney used the word “lively” to describe some of the conversations between himself and Holt. “We only have so many design slots in [pre-constructed Commander] deck for new cards, “Deveney describes.” Who understands it? Who makes the cut? “
Deveney specifically recalls a discussion on the pre-construction deck of Final Fantasy XIV, which in itself was an Herculean task to be created. “To tell the truth, this is a game that works for over 10 years, with 14 years of content; we could probably make a whole whole of a single game,” says Deveney. “I played from the game from the launch and Daniel said he was playing him, so our perspectives were different.”
Deveney says that the difference in perspective has helped the two to develop the deck of the FF14 commander to be as authentic as possible for the game. Sometimes Deveney would like a character that Holt did not think was so important; Other times Deveney would not have taken no for an answer. “A particular character, I had to say ‘Daniel, if they don’t make it, I will be very angry, because someone will get angry with me if he doesn’t do it.’ ‘
A focus on the commander
With so much story to analyze, and only so much space to go around in an expansion set, choosing which products have received which cards or design have led to a more “lively” discussion. “We look at the entire product as a single experience, but then we have to look at every single-piece piece, commander, etc.”, says Deveney. “Sometimes I wonder if this is the only thing a fan buys, what do they expect to see? ‘”
For the commander in particular, on which Daniel Holt was mainly concentrated, it allows him to explore the four games that receive pre-Costruiti -ff 6, FF7, FF10 and FF14-such as their unique stories. As Holt says, “in the bouquets of the commander we had to go very deeply”.
“The bouquets of the commander were almost all their universes beyond the product in the way we approached them,” Holt continued. “Final Fantasy is his world, his own world of Ffvii. They do not cross. Everyone allows us to add different things; for example, the elves appear only in some games but not in others, so we have made some elf renewals in the deck for the game in which they were found.
“With Final Fantasy VI, we had a theme of recaling the cemetery, but it is not from death, is raising your allies”. We twisted some reprints to be a little more themed in that way.
Works of art
An interesting fact mentioned during the preview of the press was regarding some of the artists who contributed to the art of paper: nine of them, known for having designed the art of Final fantasy throughout history, had the opportunity to attract anyone or anything they wanted. This has opened some interesting opportunities; Even if they love he designed Kefka before, he had never designed Kefka’s final form in all his career, until now.
This led to what Verhey describes as one of the most beautiful moments of his life. “We are in Japan and we happened to be at the Square Enix office when the Kefka of Amaano’s piece arrived. Nobody had seen it yet, and arrived in this black art case provided by the same.”
“They put it on the table and we all stayed silent, staring at an original love job … but at a distance, because none of us wanted to approach too much and risk to frame him in some way”, continues Verhey. “Nobody sneezes, nobody does anything that can leave a mark on this.”
Deveney says that most artists attracted characters with whom they were familiar, but some took the opportunity to expand and try something new. “There were some artists who were just like, ‘Oh, I would like the opportunity to play with the toy of this other game, because I didn’t work on it and it seems really fun’, ‘,” explains Deveney. “They were like ‘Oh, I always wanted to draw this character!'”
However iconic the work of art Final Fantasy is, the soundtracks of each of these games are equally well known. The implementation of music in a physical card game, of course, is very difficult to do, but the team has tried to make it work. As Deveney says, “those discussions have been totally”.
“I will say that there are two or three cards that you could be happy to see” Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge “to the references to the famous song titles-o Moments in which you can listen to those songs to play-that we managed to get on the set,” says Deveney. “There is a wider discussion on musical rights and how it is a little different with every sector, but yes, we have been able to get some things inside that are very intentionally referenced.”
Choose a headliner
Recent magic sets have incorporated a headliner: a specific card that acts as a “chase” paper, with a limited number of prints and each numbered individually. The last set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, used Mox Jasper-La Gemma Mox focused on the dragon-like the headliner, with special art of the original Mox artist Dan Frazier.
For Final Fantasy, the team knew he wanted to choose something that every FF fan knows. Of course, they could have made the headliner a character like Cloud or Sephiroth, but FF7 fans would appreciate it to the fullest; Fans of other games may not have a lot of fun. That’s why, for Zakeel Gordon, the choice was simple: a Chocobo, in particular on the Chocobo travel.
“The Chocobo was the flagship character we wanted to push on the front line, because he is represented in the vast majority of games,” said Gordon. “If you are a fan of the franchise, but you only have a connection with certain games, you will recognize a chocobo, it doesn’t matter what.” The team has taken a specific game for multiple-varying paper depicting more colored chocolates of Final Fantasy Viii- but even if a player is not familiar with the Chocobo races, they will know what the bird is.
What is strange in this serialized Chocobo, however, is the number of prints-nine the previous headlines have seen 500 copies made, the chocobo on the golden travel will see only 77 prints. This was intentional, since the team wanted the card to feel even more special. “77 is, I think, the perfect vehicle for where we have made a serialization recently, explains Gordon,” where it is a little less rare than the “single ring”, but it is a little rarer than an “X of 500”. And, in the spirit of Final Fantasy 7, two Sevens seemed only the right number. “
Through the centuries
One last great feature of this new expansion is Final Fantasy: through the centuries, a bonus sheet of 64 cards-four cards for each of the 16 FF Mainline games. All 64 cards are reprints of magic cards previously released, but the art represented on each card comes from the authentic archives of Eniix squares. It is a history lesson in the form of cardboard and Dillon Deveney claims to have a lot of material to be analyzed-to be precise 5,000 works of art.
“We would ask all kinds of questions,” said Deveney, “what is the most tailor -made thing that someone would like to see on this game? What is the best version of this art? What is the best version of this character? Should we follow a sketched concept or a completely finished illustration? It would be a good land or a good land or a land or a spell or an art? anything. “
More cards were shown by the bonus sheet during the Pax East panel, including Zidane Tribal of FF9 such as Ragavan, Nimble Fimper and Firion of FF2, SwordMaster such as SRAM, Senior Edificer. Previously, Yuffie Kisaragi of FF7 had been revealed as Yuriko’s Reskin, the shadow of the tiger.
“The bonus sheet was a place where we could balance any game perfectly,” said Gordon. “We have assigned a” budget “for each game: there will be four cards, we will have a protagonist and an antagonist, and then we will find two moments; one perhaps is more guided by history and the other could be a little more mechanically guided.”
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While the panel signed the preview, the host and former MTG issuer Richard Hagon said that even if this is still magical: the gathering, there is something in the set of Final Fantasy that seems different. “You can absolutely play wonderful magic games with this set, the cards are there, the drawings are there. But the feelings are unique and special, and that’s what people will remember for a long time.” While the panel nodded with enthusiasm, that feeling came from the minds behind the set. Now, all that remains is that players can resume and play.
Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy will be available on June 13 in local games stores and Big Box dealers.