text: mobius final fantasy mobius final fantasy ( japanese : , hepburn : fainaru fantajī ) is an episodic role - playing video game developed and published by square enix for ios and android devices . it was released in japan in june 2015 , and will release internationally in august 2016 . the player controls wol , a man who wakes with amnesia in the world of palamecia , and must help conquer the dark forces attacking its people . the game features gameplay elements from previous final fantasy titles , including leveling , exploration via standard navigation and fast - travel systems , and turn - based combat tied to a job system . common themes were also drawn from the original final fantasy title , such as " warriors of light " and their fight against chaos and darkness . the game , which began development in 2013 , was developed around the concept of a mobile game on a similar level to a home console game : this goal promoted skepticism from both in - house staff and external sources . while some assets were outsourced , most of the development was done by square enix . multiple staff from previous final fantasy titles were involved in development , including producer yoshinori kitase , writer kazushige nojima , artists toshitaka matsuda and toshiyuki itahana , and composer mitsuto suzuki . the game registered over two million players within the first few weeks of release . square enix cited mobius final fantasy as one of the most successful titles they released on mobile in 2015 . the graphics and gameplay were praised by reviewers , although some called the overall combat experience " simple " . the game received several awards , including being named one of japan 's " itunes best of 2015 " by apple inc .. an english localization is currently in development . gameplay mobius final fantasy is a role - playing game designed for mobile phones . the player controls the game 's protagonist wol while navigating . players can customize settings , graphical quality , and adjust controls for their dominant hand . during local navigation on the field map , the player taps a location on a map and the character travels to that location . in some self - contained areas , the player can directly control the character . along with standard navigation , the player can navigate the game world using a fast - travel system , progressively unlocked as the player progresses through the story . many of the features in the game , such as the leveling system and exploration , are similar to those from previous home console final fantasy games . mobius features a tactics - focused , turn - based battle system , with players able to activate attacks by tapping enemies on screen . players can use standard melee attacks with close - range weapons such as swords , and magical attacks . during combat the player accumulates elements , which are necessary to activate abilities , the game 's form of summoned monsters . when ready for activation , a tile appears on - screen that the player touches to activate the ability . abilities have different attributes : the shiva ability unleashes an ice attack , while the fat chocobo ability raises defense for eight turns while automatically healing the player . elements can also be used by the player to strengthen their resistance to elemental attacks . if an enemy 's weakness is struck enough times , their " break gauge " meter will be drained and they will be left weakened , allowing the player to attack freely . a job system and character abilities related to them form a key part of the system . the player starts off with the onion swordsman job . each job can be leveled up using special " seed " items collected in battle to fill in a skill panel . once the panel is complete , the job will evolve , such as the onion warrior evolving into the pure warrior class . as jobs change or evolve , the character 's appearance will be altered to a degree . in the chapter two content update , samurai , assassin , and red mage jobs were added . in february 2016 , multiplayer functionality was added , enabling up to four players to take on bosses . plot wol , the main protagonist , awakes stricken with amnesia in the foreign world of palamecia . he is one of multiple " " , people brought to palamecia from other worlds and suffering from amnesia . palamecia is under attack from the armies of " chaos " , and wol must fulfill a prophecy in palamecia that one of the is a " warrior of light " who will free the world from its darkness . wol is aided on his journey by princess sarah lotte cornelia , the princess of a kingdom of palamecia , and mog , a moogle who volunteers to help in wol 's quest . chapter 2 , entitled " prediction and hope " , includes wol and mog adventuring through the ishtar desert and rune temple . a side quest was also included , entitled " el dorado of the oblivion " , which is set in the ruins of " gold volost of el dorado " . in chapter 3 , wol is traveling to see princess sarah , who is waiting at her castle when she is attacked and held captive by the armies of chaos . wol is then tasked with saving the princess and fighting against the overwhelming power of the chaos giants . in the chapter 4 prologue , wol and sarah begin an adventure to find the " rune of earth " to keep it out of the hands of chaos , and later in chapter 4 the story continues through new lands . in chapter 5 , wol journeys to find the source of the light that may give him the strength to conquer chaos . development the concept behind mobius was for a mobile experience comparable with console games . though it was possible to make a smartphone game equivalent to console games , it had yet to be done , so game producer yoshinori kitase sought to fill this perceived gap in the market . it was called the first final fantasy mobile game of this scale . while creation of some artwork and graphics was outsourced , most of the concept work and development was done in - house by square enix . instead of a new development team dedicated to mobiles , the production team was largely made up of veterans from the console final fantasy titles . the staff included scenario writer kazushige nojima and producer yoshinori kitase . the story is connected to the original final fantasy only thematically through its focus on " warriors of light " fighting against chaos and darkness : it is not a remake or directly related to the plot of the original . it is also considered by the team behind the game as a full entry in the series rather than a spin - off . speaking after the game 's initial release , nojima stated that he felt his scenario was too bulky for a mobile experience . development began in 2013 , and prompted skepticism from both square enix staff and its prospective platform managers , who were more used to the dominant 2d - based mobile games . one of the problems cited by director naoki hamaguchi was creating realistic facial expressions equivalent to those used in the 2013 film frozen . for development , the team used the unity game engine . after unity technologies updated the engine in 2015 to the unity 5 version , the game was also updated to run on the improved software . the team needed to take differences between different phone models into account to allow high performance . to help with development and overcome potential difficulties handling the unity engine , a special development environment and structure was created . the team used physically based rendering to create realistic lighting and environmental effects . the budget was far lower than graphically equivalent console titles , so the team were reluctant to buy in helping tools and had restrictions on staff numbers : one person was working on all the game 's backgrounds , while three were in charge of character designs . using experience from the development of final fantasy xiii , the team were able to create high - end graphics within mobile restrictions . after its reveal , some changes were made to the character 's initial costume : due to negative player feedback about the amount of skin shown , the onion swordsman outfit was adjusted to be more covering . music the music for mobius final fantasy was composed by mitsuto suzuki , whose previous work includes the 3rd birthday , final fantasy xiii - 2 and lightning returns : final fantasy xiii . when he was first asked to compose for the title , his impression was of a whole new setting that retained nostalgic elements from earlier games in the series , which he sought to incorporate into the score : a piece that encompassed this was his of " prelude " . as part of writing for the game , he needed to create new tracks for game updates , which put added pressure on him to create music that would appeal to players . a concept present from an early stage was changing the battle music depending on what job was equipped by the player : suzuki created an initial battle theme that acted as a base for other themes , then added elements like electronic elements and vocal work to give derivative tracks variety . the majority of the game 's choral work , such as with the game 's main theme , was done using synthesizers . suzuki also needed to do remixes of earlier final fantasy music , such as the " chocobo " theme , and pieces from other final fantasy games that would appear in special in - game events . suzuki estimated that he created between 40 - 50 songs for the game . the music was recorded at the red bull studios in tokyo . an official 2 - cd soundtrack album for the game , mobius final fantasy original soundtrack , was released through square enix 's music label on february 26 , 2015 under the catalog number sqex - - 5 . the music on the album covers chapters 1 to 3 . according to suzuki , this was due to the music feeling like it had reached a natural transition point by that stage of the game . release a trademark for its original title , " final fantasy " , was filed by square enix in october 2014 . the game was officially announced in famitsu two months later under the same name . two days later , a teaser site was opened in both english and japanese with a message from kitase about the team 's vision for the game . its final name was announced during a livestream by the company dedicated to the game . both titles , along with the logo artwork , took inspiration from the concept of the möbius strip . because of its origin , the title was changed from to mobius . it was also apparently done in preparation for an international release . pre - registration for mobius opened on april 27 , 2015 , with a special weapon and item available to those who registered . in late 2015 , no localization had been officially announced , though kitase revealed through the dedicated final fantasy mobile app that it was under consideration . in a later post on the app during first anniversary celebrations for the game , kitase confirmed that a localized version was in development . its international release was confirmed in july for august 3 . reception during its pre - registration period , the game received 200 , 000 registered users . by july 12 , just over a week after release , the game had one million registered players in japan . this number had expanded to over two million by the following month . speaking after release , kitase said that square enix considered the game a success as it introduced the mobile community to aaa - style graphics . in square enix 's 2015 annual report , mobius was noted as one of their successful mobile titles for the year , stating that the higher production values when compared to other mobile games on the market had contributed to its popularity . in addition , mobius was among the finalists for the 2015 unity awards for mobile games in the " best 3d visual experience " category , and was named among japan 's " 's best of 2015 " by apple inc .. dengeki mobile , in a pre - release review , praised the gameplay and strategy present in early random encounters and boss battles , although the reviewer had minor reservations about the quality of the entire game as they were not able to play through all of it . they also stated that players might encounter difficulties during some boss battles . the reviewer summed up the experience as " simple , yet engaging " . famitsu , in a similar feature , praised the gameplay and presentation , echoing many of dengeki 's compliments . one thing they noted was that the performance needed to be adjusted for different mobiles as running the game rapidly drained the phones batteries when on its highest settings . the reviewer also recommended tablets over mobile phones as a means of playing the game . western reviews were similarly mixed , with touch arcade praising the games visuals but calling the user interface an " overly busy nightmare " . kotaku examined the game in july 2015 and called the gameplay " monotonous " and lacking in plot , though it noted that many chapters were still to be released . for the western release of mobius , the pre - registration exceeded 125 , 000 registered users .