Final Fantasy Type-0
"Final Fantasy Type-0" was originally titled "Final Fantasy Agito XIII", envisioned as a game for mobile devices. It was conceived in 2005 as part of "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy", a subseries of "Final Fantasy" games linked by a common mythos. "Agito XIII" was the final original "Fabula Nova Crystallis" game to be created. The decision to make it a mobile game was based on the popularity of "". Hajime Tabata, who contributed to the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" mythos, was searching for a new project after finishing "Before Crisis" and became the game's director. "Before Crisis" producer Kosei Ito acted as producer before his move to Capcom prior to 2009. Beginning development in 2006, it was first announced at that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). It was said to offer on-the-go access to the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" universe, using gameplay functions exclusive to mobile phones of the time. The concept was to deliver a game for mobile platforms equivalent to a console game from the main "Final Fantasy" series, and to make it available in its entirety upon release rather than in episodic format.
Final Fantasy Type-0
The gameplay was inspired by the multi-character system of "Before Crisis", while the naming of magic styles after weapons of war made reference to first-person shooters. The combat was designed to be filled with tension and portray each playable character's personality on the battlefield. The Eidolons were originally not controlled in realtime, but during the development of Ifrit, Tabata did some testing with real-time commands. The results impressed him enough that he decided to overcome the technical difficulties involved and make the Eidolons controllable. Due to technical restrictions and the presence of the Academy Assist function, the game's artificial intelligence for playable characters needed to be limited to healing, survival and other minor actions. The game's multiplayer was deliberately designed around restricted segments. Its development was still ongoing during the summer of 2011, with a temporary stoppage of PlayStation Network that year negatively affecting its development. Because of the size of the project, debugging the game took far longer than anticipated. Between the release of the demo and the full game, adjustments were made to gameplay mechanics and the in-game camera. In a post-release interview, Tabata commented that he would have liked to expand the multiplayer functions to include an ad-hoc function and expanded cooperative gameplay, and create a more forgiving learning curve for players.