During PAX in late August, we had a chance to sit down with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to check out his upcoming mobile game. Terra Battle is a new take on mobile RPGs, with a grid-based strategy system that will have your fingers dancing across the glass.

In order to do damage, you’ll need to flank enemy monsters. Thankfully, you can nudge your party members as you’re moving around and line up characters to include their attacks.

It’s a unique systems that is perfectly suited for touch devices. You’ll be able to check it out for yourself on October 9, when the game comes to iOS and Android devices. It’s free-to-play, so you can give it a try without committing to it long-term.

The more people that download it, the more will be added to the game. Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker studio calls this a “download starter” (in the spirit of Kickstarter, but without the financial contributions). You can read more about that in our preview.

Our Take

I have some reservations about the game’s energy-based system, but the gameplay is clever enough that I will be giving it a try. It carries the aesthetic of classic Square Enix titles, but offers something new in terms of gameplay that I haven’t seen done before in mobile.