Square Enix has released a preview trailer for their upcoming multiplayer mobile game Final Fantasy Grandmasters. The game looks to be a chibi interpretation of their long running online MMO Final Fantasy XI. In Final Fantasy Grandmasters, players take on the roles and races of hume, galka, elvaan, mithra and tarutaru and team up to face enemies of varying strength in real time battles. The game is free to play but will have built in microtransactions that will probably adhere to the standard architecture of current real money system, but we won’t know for sure until we get closer to release.
Fans of Final Fantasy XI (which I was one for many years) will instantly recognize not only the races, which seem to also encompass a number of that game’s classes, or ‘jobs’, but many of the monsters and locations from Final Fantasy XI appear to be revisited as well. Based on the meticulously recreated wardrobes of the characters shown in the preview, al of Final Fantasy XI‘s original advanced roles will be represented. The last group shot in the video shows, from left to right, Monk, Warrior, Black Mage, Paladin, White Mage, Thief, Dragoon and Red Mage. There is also gameplay footage of a four player party taking on a Behemoth in a snowy region, which could be Beaucedine Glacier. Again, we’ll just have to wait and see. The music itself is partly a new arrangement of Final Fantasy XI’s original opening march/character select screen.
For more details, including screenshots and finalized concept art, visit the official site here.
Final Fantasy Grandmasters is coming for Apple and Android markets in Japan sometime later this year. No word on a localization for western audiences just yet, but as soon as we hear something we’ll be sure to let you know. And while you anticipate the release of this game and hope for an official English translation, check out the trailer for the Japanese version!
