After teasing it back in December, Square Enix officially unveiled War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a Final Fantasy Tactics inspired "simulation RPG" for smartphones during their E3 2019 presentation. Interested in what this new mobile title would have to offer considering that Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is really well designed, I was eager to check out the game behind closed doors at E3 2019.

While you can check out my thoughts on the gameplay I saw in my preview, I was also able to talk with Kei Hirono, the Executive Producer of War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius as well as Hiroki Fujimoto, Producer of the global version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. During our talk, the pair of Producers revealed that War of the Visions has dual audio, discussed how their story based game will perform in a market dominated by games one can play in short bursts, hinted at what fans can expect in terms of crossovers and collaborations, and cementing their hopes for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius as a franchise.

Tomas Franzese: War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a story-driven strategy game, and those are typically seen as longer experiences. Most mobile games tend to be short games that people can pick up and play in five-minute bursts. In a market like that, how are you adapting this game to appeal to that audience that plays for a shorter amount of time? 

Kei Hirono: Being a mobile game, each and every play time would be composed around something more compact, something you can quickly experience. That is something we have kept in mind for this particular title. In terms of specific features or functions that have been placed to assist in that process, the auto mode, as well as the speed up mode, will enable people to quickly get through those aspects. [Square Enix] typically as a company and Final Fantasy titles in general place a lot of importance in our stories and telling our stories. So, we would hope for players to sit through and take their time and enjoy the story, really.

As you just saw, the main storyline and scenes associated with it are fully voiced, so it is the development team's hope that people would immerse themselves in the story and enjoy that aspect of it. As for the gameplay itself, it is actually something a bit quicker, something that you can get through quickly, so hopefully that strikes a nice balance between the two.

[pullquote]"We’re hoping to implement a feature that allows players to choose between the Japanese voices and the English voices."[/pullquote]

Hiroki Fujimoto: Even with Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a lot of our players spend more time on experiencing the game, unlike other puzzle type mobile games, which have much shorter gameplay times. A lot of our players have been properly delving themselves into the game, so as developers we are definitely creating this robust experience. Regardless of platform, whether it be mobile or console, as long as we are creating these robust experiences we hope people will tap into it and enjoy it.

TF: War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is fully voiced in Japanese. Do you know yet if it will be fully voiced in English yet in the west? If so, will it support dual audio?

KH: Yes, there will be English voices. In terms of the global version, we’re hoping to implement a feature that allows players to choose between the Japanese voices and the English voices.

TF: Because War of the Visions and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius are set in the same universe, is Square Enix hoping to cross over or feature collaborations between the two games?

KH: Yes, of course, especially because of the story itself is already tied together. War of the Visions actually takes place many years prior to the events that unfold Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. In the world of Lapis, War of the Visions takes place on the continent of Ardora. We can definitely see character crossovers and potentially events across the two titles moving forward. Even in the trailer itself, a Final Fantasy Brave Exvius original character has already made an appearance so we’d love everyone to look at that trailer again and maybe you’ll be able to spot them.

[pullquote]"We can definitely see character crossovers and potentially events across the two titles moving forward."[/pullquote]

TF: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius also features a lot of crossovers with other franchises or celebrities like Tomb Raider or Katy Perry. Do you plan on doing the same with War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?

KH: That’s definitely something that we will be considering, but we would like to launch the game, have players try and experience it first and foremost. Then we’ll see what types of players start associating themselves with the game; thereafter, we would like to consider what type of appropriate collaborations there may be for our player base at that moment in time. They are definitely something that we’ll be considering upon seeing what types of players enjoy the game when it launches.

TF: In a previous interview with DualShockers, you both stated that you would like to support Final Fantasy Brave Exvius for 30 years if you could. Does that still stand true? What kind of content trail can we expect for War of the Visions and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?

KH: Here we have the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius world, which is an original universe that we had built upon, and here we are exploring this opportunity to expand upon that world with War of the Visions. As long as we have these various outlets to expand upon the universe, we think that Final Fantasy Brave Exvius itself would also continue and it would mean the continuation of its universe. We definitely have an inclination towards continuing the series as long as we can.

You can’t really establish an IP unless you continue it for a long period of time, maybe even a decade if necessary. Considering how we’ve borrowed the Final Fantasy name for this particular series and franchise, it is our hope, task, and mission to continue it on as long as we can. We hope that our players will follow us through on this journey as well.


War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is currently in development for both a Japanese and western release on iOS and Android. Whenever plans become more concrete for War of the Visions' global release, DualShockers will be sure to let you know.