Wizards of the Coast has unveiled the first four of its forthcoming Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy cards, and confirmed legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano is involved.
The Final Fantasy crossover will launch on 13th June and consists of four decks based on Final Fantasies 6, 7, 10, and 14. It’s the lead card from each of these decks that’s now been revealed: Terra, Cloud, Tidus, and Y’shtola.
Each deck will consist of 100 cards, including both reprints of existing cards with new Final Fantasy art and brand new cards, and will tell the story of that particular Final Fantasy game.
“Final Fantasy games are so rich with flavor, beloved characters, and unique settings that choosing a single game as the theme provided more than enough material to design a full deck of cards around,” Magic’s senior game designer Daniel Holt told IGN. “Approaching each deck as a single game also provided the opportunity to dive deep into the lore of each, capturing even more beloved moments from across the game’s storyline that we may not have been able to achieve otherwise.”
Holt said the development team has “so many passionate Final Fantasy fans”, with the four games partially chosen because they’re favourites among the team. However, each brought its own unique challenges in adaptation. For instance, how will the Final Fantasy 7 deck balance the original game with its Remake trilogy?
“Our core approach to Final Fantasy 7 was to capture the original PS1 game’s narrative, while using Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth‘s modern aesthetics to push the fidelity of each character design, story moment, and memorable location to the next level,” said principal narrative game designer Dillon Deveney. “With that in mind, if a scene existed in both games, we had our choice of showing it as the original game did, how the modern version interpreted it, or a unique fusion of both. Hopefully, this deck feels familiar and nostalgic to players of both the original game and the modern series!”
And while each deck has the lead character from each game as its Commander, Final Fantasy 14 is an MMORPG without an equivalent lead.
“For Y’shtola, it came down to a mix of popularity of the character as well as being a spellcaster, her story and character development offered a wide range of abilities and moments to pull from to lead the deck,” said Holt, adding the deck specifically reflects her story arc in expansion Shadowbringers.
Meanwhile, the official Magic: The Gathering account stated the crossover has “brought together esteemed artists from around the world” – and confirmed legendary Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano is involved.
More details on the crossover are expected later today, with a reveal on the Magic: The Gathering Twitch channel at 10am PT (that’s 6pm UK time).
All four decks will be available individually as a regular version (MSRP $69.99) or as a collector’s edition (MSRP $149.99).
This isn’t the first time a video game has been adapted into Magic cards, following the likes of Fallout, Tomb Raider, and Assassin’s Creed in recent years.
Earlier this month, Hasbro announced a Magic: The Gathering film and TV series, which it aims to be a “multimedia universe that thrills longstanding fans and creates a broad wave of new ones”.
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