When you think about Final Fantasy, you likely think about the many, MANY, video games that have been made for it, and for good reason. The Final Fantasy saga is one of the biggest and most beloved games in all of history. But, as fans know, there are many other aspects to the franchise as well. Comics, movies, and even a card game that started out in 2016. The Final Fantasy Card Game has gotten so big that there are going to be World Championships for it soon.
With that IGN got to sit down with some of the team behind it and find out how the game got started in the first place.
We received a request to create a FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game from our contact at Square Enix headquarters. From there, the Chapter series was born and released in February 2011. I see this game as being very fortunate, since Hobby Japan was also looking into developing a new game from the ground up at that time and it all occurred by coincidence, where both companies’ intentions just happened to be in alignment.
Despite the success, there were some issues with the Final Fantasy Card Game though, mainly, there were restrictions that the dev team didn’t like. But, they were able to work through it via a revamp:
We initially released the Chapter series in Japan, which continued for about four years. But we started to notice there were certain limitations, such as the overall number of players. We decided to take a brief hiatus, but at the same time, we felt there was potential for expanding the game overseas due to FINAL FANTASY’s popularity in Europe and North America. That is when we made the bold decision to revamp the game and release it simultaneously worldwide rather than continue the previous series.
The revamp worked, and the game has been very successful, and with new characters and cards being brought in from various parts of the Final Fantasy universe, it appears that the success won’t die down soon.
