Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is one of Square Enix’s many mobile games and one of their biggest crossover titles yet. This spin-off offers tactical turn-based combat based on the Dissidia series and follows its own main story surrounding the core characters from the Final Fantasy franchise.
We recently had the chance to speak with Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia producer Jin Fujiwara. He discussed a bit about the process that goes into selecting new characters as well as their future plans for the Global version.
Irwyn: Is there any chance that you could introduce any more characters to the Global version first before the Japanese version?
Jin Fujiwara: As Beatrix was very well-received last time, we may release another character in the Global version first again if we receive a lot of requests to do so.
I: Why did you choose Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX as the first exclusive character for the global version?
JF: When we received the suggestion to release a character in the Global version first for the first anniversary, we took a look at the list of the characters that we were planning to release in the Japanese version in the near future, and asked our North American operations team to select the character that they thought Global players would the most excited for.
I: Could you describe the process when deciding which character gets added next into the game?
JF: We used to have a limitation on which character to release depending on the type of weapon they used. This was because the number of weapons we had per type was not balanced at that time.
Recently, we mostly select characters based on what active part they can potentially take in the main story of the game. We also sometimes select a character based on their unpredictability, or by hoping that it will create hype among the players.
I: Are there any plans for adding more cosmetics to Opera Omnia, such as weapon skins?
JF: Yes, we do have plans. We’ve received a lot of requests especially for weapon skins, so at the very minimum, we want to add the ability for you to change the appearance of your weapon to another weapon that has already been implemented into the game.
I: Have you thought about collaborating with other Final Fantasy mobile titles such as Mobius, Record Keeper, and Brave Exvius?
JF: It does come up in our conversations once in a while, but we don’t have any plans for a collaboration at this time. We still have many characters from the mainline series that have yet to join the roster, so we would like to prioritize that first.
I: Has the Opera Omnia team ever considered collaborating with other non-Final Fantasy titles? Do you have any hint on what may have caught your attention?
JF: We have considered it before, but we unfortunately ended up giving up on the idea because it gave rise to many limitations when we thought of what active role the character would have in the world of DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY OPERA OMNIA.
I: What factors does the team look into when choosing and designing a character’s abilities?
JF: We first think about the type of character it would be, taking into consideration what kind of role they held in what kind of situation in their original title.
If we decide that the character will be an attacker, for example, then we think about what kind of situations in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY OPERA OMNIA that the character may be able to shine in, and apply abilities that they had in the original title to those situations. We make adjustments to the character from there.
I: From a story perspective, how would you approach a hypothetical addition of Final Fantasy VI’s Mog when Opera Omnia has its own Moogle?
JF: I believe he would appear as a result of being summoned by Materia, just like the other characters. This is because Mog in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY OPERA OMNIA is DISSIDIA’s Mog, and is a different existence than other Moogles that are fighting in other titles from the series.
If we introduce Mog from FINAL FANTASY VI, then we could talk about the Moogle situations in the different worlds.
I: Do you have any plans to port Opera Omnia to consoles or PC?
JF: Mobile games are structured on the premise that they are easy to play on devices such as smartphones. As such, I do wonder if anyone would want to have the same experience on a console or PC.
If we were to port the game to a console or PC, I would want to release it as a title that gives the player a different gameplay experience.
I: Do you have any message you’d like to convey to the western fans of Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia?
JF: Thank you very much for your continual support. We cannot avoid updating the Japanese version first, but we do want to continue to provide special experiences to you as well by making changes unique to the Global version, such as Ace’s special skin, or releasing Beatrix first globally.
We hope that you continue to enjoy the game through our second year of operation as well.
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is available to play on iOS and Android devices.
