To celebrate the launch of the second season of Mobius Final Fantasy in Japan, the Final Fantasy Portal Site released an interview with the director of the game, Motomu Toriyama.



Toriyama talks about the structure of the season, how it's different to the first season, teases the possibility of free quests, reveals that they have finished writing the overall story of the second season and more.



You can read it in full below thanks to @bk2128 who kindly it translated it.



Keep in mind there are spoilers for the end of the first season.





We talked with Mr. Motomu Toriyama, the director of Mobius Final Fantasy: Warriors of Ruin, regarding the story development of Warriors of Ruin, as well as the concept and behind-the-scenes talks on the Warriors of Light arc!



Q: Mobius Final Fantasy: Warriors of Ruin is finally going to start, but what kind of development will it have?



In the Warriors of Light arc, which served as the first part, the protagonist Wol descended on the world called Palamecia, and pursued the “Story of Hope” based on the existing “prophecy”. At the end, Wol and his friends concluded the Story of Hope by defeating Chaos. But as a result, the world of Palamecia and people’s memories; all of them became reset. And this marks the start of the world of “Warriors of Ruin arc”.



If you see this from Palamecia's perspective, it would be “ruin”, But from the perspectives of Wol & co, this world gains its “freedom” for the first time without being occupied by the Story of Hope. The Warriors of Light story ends, everybody’s memories got lost, and Palamecia’s structure got destroyed. How Wol & co live in this world without prophecies marks the introduction of the Warriors of Ruin arc. While “Ruin” is a keyword, [the story] didn’t develop with a dark taste from the beginning, as there are also chapters that leisurely depict the livelihood of characters that weren’t depicted in the first part.



Q: Is the protagonist in Warriors of Ruin still going to be Wol?



As you can see in the new logo we have drawn here, multiple character stories will progress in parallel. But while the episodes will affect each other, they are going to pile up as a single flow. The places where those stories intersect will become turning points in this story.



Wol is living in peace and is working like a vigilante corps for a village. His relation with Sarah was like “Princess and Warrior of Light” in the Warriors of Light arc, but in the Warriors of Ruin arc they will appear with a new, totally different relationship.



Q: What would happen to the memories of Wol and other characters?



The people of Palamecia lost their memories which got reset. But Meia –who is called a heretic– and Wol –who destroyed the Warriors of Light story– retains their memories. For Palamecia's people including Sarah, their memories are being reset. As the world is getting rebuilt, each of them build new relationships and start a new life. They lost memories of their origins and previous jobs, but things like the names they are called for and basic knowledge for daily activities still remain slightly. So the starting points are like being reset appropriately to their ages.



Q: Speaking about heresy, where did Garland go to at the end of the Warriors of Light arc?



Palamecia has a system where, if the Warriors of Light wish for it, they are permitted to send someone –including themselves– to the outer world. Garland wanted to save Sarah (by sending her to the outer world and liberate her from Palamecia), but in the end he entrusted her to Wol, and he ended up going to outer world by himself.



Q: Echo has also disappeared…



She’s… gone indeed. At least in front of Wol and others.



Echo disappeared after having followed Wol, but in the second part, there are multiple Echoes with different types, forming an Echo tribe. Palamecia’s system has collapsed, so this time they appear as “fairies” and can now be seen by ordinary people as well.



Echo no longer has the role as “the fairy who guides the Warriors of Light”, so each Echo will now live with their own thoughts. Of course since they exist in Palamecia’s system, there are Echoes that will want to restore Palamecia, and there are also other Echoes that want to use this opportunity to live freely.



Q: Although we’re already prepared for the parting with Echo, it still feels tough. Did the dev staffs also miss Echo? Also, what kind of story will be told after parting ways with Echo?



If Echo isn’t there, Wol would have his own monologues far more often; maybe you can say it’s a loss of Echo (wry laugh). With such a reason, in the Warriors of Ruin arc, there will be new sub-characters appearing around Wol. It may unexpectedly become a thriving daily life.



The major flow of the Palamecia system is broken. That means there is no guided story, which also means “freedom”, Wol himself is enjoying this free life, although he may also get bored with it. When Wol stagnates during his daily life, stories of characters other than him will take the lead. We’ll gradually tell what he himself will do.



Game-wise, that also has a meaning of increasing the degree of freedom, so things like Free Quests may come out. I’d like to see what would happen if we try to put in open world-like features to Mobius FF.



Q: What was the concept of the Warriors of Light arc?



The number one concept was “creating a proper RPG for smartphones”. Since this title is getting administered [on a regular basis], we keep in mind “what we must do to always continue to release new stories” so we did things like developing and writing stories. Due to the traits of smartphones, an episode must be made playable in a short time, so we want to make quick story developments with “swift” episodic paces, so the story needs to be a bit “crude”. I think the world setting has functioned rather well as we set it to be “The world of Palamecia itself is crude in the first place”, and I also think the game’s traits have matched well with the story.



Q: Were there occasions of the story changing mid-way while the game is still on service?



Yes, there were, because the features and graphic resources that compose a game weren’t fully lined up from the beginning. We hurriedly included the female character (Meia) right before release, so we needed time to prepare. If she wears a hood we could somewhat make it within 3 months, so at first we did things like having her just appear as “Mysterious Woman” at the tower event.



Other than that, the story outline didn’t change, but ultimately Princess Sarah deciding to fight was a major change that was unexpected even to the Palamecia system as well (laughs).



Q: Regarding Warriors of Ruin as well, have you already seen the goal?



Of course we have finished the overall story here as well. We have to split them into chapters that are released in a monthly interval, but the volume will be enormous when compared to the Warriors of Light arc.



Each character has their own episode, and it will begin with the story of the new character Sophie.



The Warriors of Ruin arc starts in a condition after the world has been reset once, so all people in the world start as “ordinary villagers”.



And as the system has been destroyed, the current condition of Palamecia is that it “has a stage setting but it cannot be moved. There are actors, but there are no scriptwriters or directors.”



For example, when someone among these “ordinary villagers” change to another position, when they start having different intentions and thoughts, everybody will have various doubts such as “Is this also actually included in the new Palamecia system? The Palamecia system should be already broken, but is it going to start moving again?” I think this kind of story development will end up making you think of things. Please look forward to it.



Source: Final Fantasy Portal Site - Japan