The game is in hand: Japanese developers bring their legendary craftsmanship to new Xbox devices

It's a mindset that's embedded in Xbox's partners in Japan, where developers are just as thoughtful with storytelling as they are with crafting the animation that makes their games so distinctive.

"I believe Final Fantasy is a series that has significantly contributed to establishing this RPG (role playing game) genre within Japan," Hamaguchi says. "And particularly the emotionally resonant storytelling, depth of world building and compelling characters have influenced countless developers, both domestically and internationally."

The original Final Fantasy VII wove themes of life and death, environmentalism and self-discovery amidst a dystopian world dominated by an electric company exploiting the planet's life force for profit.

Overseeing a game that will be available to more players is also a source of creative motivation, says Hamaguchi. "It presents this challenge of what can we achieve with these specs and then creatively, it sparks this question: What unique experiences can this [new] device offer?"

New devices for a new era

Those devices are the Xbox ROG Ally and Xbox ROG Ally X - made in partnership with ASUS, Windows and AMD - introduced in June and available Oct. 16.

They run on Windows 11, which will feel familiar to PC gamers who are used to downloading games from their favorite storefronts, running apps like Discord, watching favorite streamers on Twitch and trying out mods (modified versions of games crafted by other players).

Playing on something significantly smaller than a laptop gives players even more freedom to catch up on games they may have started on a PC or console.

The Xbox ROG Ally handhelds are the latest addition to Xbox Play Anywhere. A user pays for a game once and can then pick up play on supported devices.

"Handheld devices like the Xbox ROG Ally deliver a wider reach as something that takes the console and PC experience further in a portable way," says Kato. "Developers don't have to create a specific version for it. It's actually what is on your TV or on your bigger screens, but it's going to be on a handheld that you can take out and play."

A natural convergence

Partners like Square Enix recognize the potential reach of the Xbox ROG Ally handhelds, which will allow them to design games that aren't limited to a certain environment or to one set of users. Being flexible and having options is always going to be a benefit to players, Hamaguchi says.

"And for us as a company as well, this is completely in line with our multi-platform strategy," he says. "I sense something of a natural convergence or synchronicity in the direction that both of the companies are pursuing."

Adds Hiroshi Takai, main director for Final Fantasy XVI, also at Square Enix: "As Final Fantasy XVI was originally designed with a specific piece of hardware in mind, it wasn't until we later began work on the Windows PC version - and optimizing the game for a variety of unique hardware environments - that the doors to porting the game to other platforms (handhelds included) opened to us."