Two key members of the MTG x Final Fantasy team talk card design, fostering partnerships, and more.
“Universes Beyond partnerships can be five-, six-, sometimes seven-year relationships depending on the pipeline.”
“[Final Fantasy producer Shoichi] Ichikawa-san is so into it.
One of the team members over there owns a Black Lotus.
These are serious Magic players.”
Shepard says this is a common occurrence.
Well no, you didn’t tell me, but that’s awesome!"
Seeing them geek out as much as we were geeking out to be there was incredible."
“People will come out of the woodwork asking, ‘Hey, are we working on this?’
and we suddenly have someone who can help,” Verhey says.
“Even if they’re not in the game design space, they can tag in.”
There’s a ton of content to consider."
about a bunch of different things," Verhey continues.
Verhey says this wasn’t the first idea for summons during development, but it was the best one.
Verhey says including them allowed the team to explore key elements of the FF experience.
“Square Enix said, ‘We have this.
If you want to use it, you’re able to.’
And once they said that, we had to,” Verhey recalls.
“I’m happy to say that the answer is yes,” Verhey says.
The team has heard these complaints, and those desires are not lost on them.
“If someone’s like, ‘I love the Magic IP,’ we do too.
It’s very important to me in all the work my team does in addition to Universes Beyond.
Ultimately, as Shepard says, “We’re trying to give everyone everything that they want.”
We’ve grown the gathering by one more.”
Verhey says this all falls within normal Magic release parameters.
“I don’t think there’s ever an end to any partnership.
“So much like any other partnership, we can revisit it like we revisit our own worlds.
It’s a special set, and working on it has been an honor.”
Magic: The Gathering | Final Fantasylaunches June 13 in local game stores and big box retailers.
Prerelease events are scheduled to begin June 6 at local game stores and run right up to launch.
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