Square Enix surprised a lot of gamers last month when the Japanese publisher announced two new Final Fantasy VII games: The First Soldier, and Ever Crisis. The former title has already drawn a negative reception from fans due to its lore implications and the fact that it’s a battle royale game, while Ever Crisis on its own is intriguing as it takes the content from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and brings it all together into a Pocket Edition-esque format. Now, more information on both titles coming to the mobile platform has been revealed thanks to a recent Famitsu interview with director Tetsuya Nomura.

During the interview with Tetsuya Nomura, the director revealed that Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier is Square Enix’s attempt at widening its gaming audience beyond just fans of the long running series. Nomura talks about the Final Fantasy fan base being too “fixed,” so in order to attract fresh blood the aim is to infuse the franchise with a fresh genre. “I am developing “FFVII FS” with the spirit of participating in the hottest genre as a challenger,” Nomura said via free translation. This isn’t just a quick attempt at making money, though, with Nomura stating that the goal with The First Soldier is to create a compelling battle royale title with fun, balanced gameplay backed by stunning visuals despite the inherent hindrance of being designed for the mobile platform.

As for the gameplay, it’s revealed in the interview that The First Soldier will feature something akin to a job system that will let players customize their playstyle to their preferences. According to Nomura there will be benefits for continuing to use one playstyle for a longer period of time, though he aims to talk about these benefits at a later date. A closed beta test for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier is currently being planned.

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is a completely different chocobo in comparison to The First Soldier, with Square Enix essentially taking all the components of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series and combining them all into a cute streamlined package for the mobile platform. According to Nomura every chapter will be free-to-play, though there will be a gacha system in place for special weapons and outfits not obtainable in the original game.

As one would expect, implementing gameplay for all the parts of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is no easy task, and as such parts have been streamlined to get all the pieces to fit together. According to Nomura, the original Final Fantasy VII game is summarized in “about 10 chapters” in Ever Crisis, with the party escaping Midgar at around chapter 3. Ever Crisis will also include story components from The First Soldier, so it’ll be interesting to see how well everything FF7-related is laid out on the mobile platform.

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis and The First Soldier are currently in development for Android & iOS.

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