‘Final Fantasy VI’ Being Remade For iOS, Android This Winter

Final Fantasy VI will be remade for iOS and Android this winter, Square Enix announced Wednesday.

Final Fantasy VI was originally released as Final Fantasy III in North America in 1994, but the game won’t be a straight port, Square director and producer Takashi Tokita told Kotaku.

“It is basically like a remake of the original VI,” Tokita said. “But there have been some enhancements.”

Tokita explained that the graphics will be refined for cellphones. Similar to the recent mobile release of Final Fantasy V, the graphics will still be 2D, but they’ll be sharpened.

“The battle systems have been altered for the other [mobile remakes] for Final Fantasy and VI will be the same. For instance grinding was an issue and people had to spend a lot of time leveling up,” Tokita said. “Now on the mobile devices the battle systems have been adjusted so you don’t have to fight as much and can enjoy the game for what it is.”

The first five Final Fantasy games have already been remade for iOS and Android, starting with Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II in 2010. An enhanced port of Final Fantasy V was released for iOS on March 28, and for Android on September 26. The game has new high resolution graphics and new gameplay features such as eight-way movement and auto battle.

Square Enix recently defended the pricing of its Legacy Final Fantasy collection.

“In the beginning we did receive some concerns about the pricing, but customers have played it and saw the value and have been content with the pricing,” Takashi Tokita told Polygon.

Tokita also said the price is justified because the games have not been watered down. Instead, they are mobile ports with a “new polish on the graphics” that retain the same gameplay elements of the originals.

Tokita also said later games — including Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX — weren’t completely ruled out, but would require more manpower than the earlier installments.

“Technology-wise it would be very difficult to bring a games like Final Fantasy 7 and beyond from the PlayStation era [to mobile] — they require a lot more memory and processing speed,” he said. “It could be something that is possible within the next few years. But as for the actual development of it, we just have to see how well [Legacy collection] does.”