Alongside Ever Crisis, Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier is the other newly announced mobile game by Square Enix, which focuses on a surprising genre – Battle Royale.

In an interview with Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura talks about how First Soldier was made to compete as a new player in the genre that was popularized by titles such as PUBG, Apex Legends, and Fornite. This new foray will hopefully pique the interest of some of the Battle Royale players who may not have heard or know of Final Fantasy VII, so this could be their entry point into the series.

Nomura continues to detail the different “styles” in the game, which is sort of your “job class” in Final Fantasy terms, that will let you command different sets of skills and abilities. Nomura also says that there is an advantage to using a style continuously, but the details for that will be revealed some other time.

You can see the full transcript of the interview below as sent over by a press release:

• FFVII FS is a battle royale style game and so somewhat of a surprising (?) entry in the FFVII series. I have a feeling that because of this it is designed to appeal not just to FFVII fans, but also to other types of player too. On the other hand, there are quite a few rivals out there in the battle royale genre, such as PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends and Knives Out, so what audience are you targeting for THE FIRST SOLDIER?

“It is not unique to FFVII by any means, but the fan demographics for long running IP series do tend to become quite fixed, making it something of a challenge for us to appeal outside of that existing fan group. There is a strong belief that we should not be sitting on our laurels with the weight of the FFVII name behind us though, and so we set about developing FFVII FS with the gumption to compete as a new challenger in what is the hottest gaming genre right now. I think that many in the core audience for this genre will not know about FFVII or maybe even never have played a FINAL FANTASY game at all. I do want people to discover an interest in the world of FFVII from this game, but it goes without saying that if we are going to do it properly then there can be no half measures, and we are putting everything we have into getting the content of the game right too. It is a genre that we do not really have any experience in, but also one that a lot of FFVII fans might not have tried before, so I hope that we can all take on this new challenge together.“

• Do the three “Basic Trooper” gauges at the top left of the screen represent your teammates? Also, I would imagine that the fist, sword and rod icons indicate their jobs, but can you change jobs for each battle?

“The main FFVII game does not have a job system, but we have added a lot of classic FF elements to give FFVII FS its own strong individuality within the battle royal genre. As you have correctly inferred here, each player on a team can select a job-like play style called a “style” for a match and these icons represent the styles chosen. Each style has its own unique skills and abilities, and you can change the one you set for each battle. There are advantages to continuously using the same style, but we will reveal exactly what exactly those are at a later date.“

• Are there any plans for a beta test or the like?

“We do have plans for a closed beta test, so please watch out for more information on that in
future.”

• What are you personally focusing on and taking most care with for FFVII FS?

“The majority of the player experience comes from the actual gameplay itself, so I am personally putting my emphasis on how the controls and gameplay actually feels. However, I think that the one aspect battle royal game fans are most concerned about is the balance. The game’s producer, Mr. Ichikawa, was also the one of those who proposed the original idea and he himself is a big battle royale player. He will really be the voice of the player base on the team and provide expert opinions on what needs focus and where the fine tuning needs to be. I am also giving my own, inexpert feedback, but Mr. Ichikawa is really knowledgeable, and he will always respond to my ideas in terms of how they would affect the balancing of a battle royal game, so I can safely make my reckless proposals, knowing that he is there to keep them in check. Also, with the game being for smartphone platforms, I am making sure that the team does not disappoint in terms of the graphics.”

Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier is scheduled to release sometime later this year for iOS and Android devices.