Category: Video Games

A post on the official Japanese Twitter / X account for the upcoming game Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy received a reply from none other than veteran developer Akitoshi Kawazu, who surprised users by revealing new information about the inspiration behind a Final Fantasy II character.

Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is Square Enix’s upcoming free-to-play mobile game, slated for a 2026 release. Featuring cel-shaded graphics, Dissidia Duellum takes beloved Final Fantasy characters from throughout the RPG series’ history and transports them to modern Tokyo, where they take on monsters in 3vs3 battles. Two teams of Final Fantasy characters will race to fight their way through roaming monsters to beat the boss faster than the opposing team. The game will also feature voiced story segments.

Dissidia Duellum will not only let you put protagonists like Cloud, Squall, and Lightning in your party, but a whole host of other characters are also making a return, some in the form of special abilities. The official X account recently revealed that Minwu, a character from 1988’s Final Fantasy II, will be lending power to your party with his teleport ability.

ミン=ウは漢字で表記すると、呉明、となります。モデルは戦国時代の呉起。孫呉の兵法という形で孫氏と並び立つ兵法家という評価です。

— 河津秋敏 (@SaGa30kawazu) October 19, 2025

Veteran dev Akitoshi Kawazu, battle designer for Final Fantasy I and II as well as the key creator of the SaGa series, responded to this post with some insight into Minwu’s original inspiration. In his post, Kawazu revealed that Minwu was modelled on Wu Qi, a real life military general and philosopher from China’s Warring States period. He explained that when Minwu’s name is written in kanji characters, it contains the same character for Wu as Wu Qi (rendered as 呉 in Japanese, and 吳 in traditional Chinese). For the Japanese release of Final Fantasy II, Minwu’s name was written phonetically in katakana (a script used for foreign loan words) just like the rest of the game’s cast of characters, so the reference to Wu Qi was not apparent to players.

In Final Fantasy II, Minwu is a white wizard from Mysidia who temporarily joins your party. He serves the Flynn royal family in exile as an advisor when the Palemecian Empire’s attack forces them to flee. He plays a key role in organizing rebel forces and the quest for the Ultima Tome.

Another reason Minwu’s inspiration is not readily apparent is his physical appearance. With his turban and dark skin, he does not visually resemble Wu Qi. However, his strategic role as an advisor plus his loyalty to the Flynn royal family and Princess Hilda does bear some resemblance to Wu Qi’s appointment as the head of Chu State and his fealty to King Dao. Sadly, both meet tragic ends.

Kawazu’s comment attracted many appreciative responses from other users. “It makes me extremely happy to receive new information about FFII in this day and age. Thank you,” said one commenter. Others were eager for more insight into the 37-year-old game: “I wonder if there are any behind-the-scenes revelations or inspirations for other Final Fantasy II characters?”

Dissidia Duellum is scheduled to launch on iOS and Android in 2026. Those in Canada and the U.S. can sign up for the closed beta in November to get a sneak peak at the game.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Luigi’s Mansion is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch Online library. Debuting on October 30, the GameCube classic arrives just in time for Halloween, and means the entire trilogy, along with Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Luigi’s Mansion 3, is now playable on Nintendo Switch 2.

Luigi’s Mansion released way back in 2001 and sees Luigi win a creepy old mansion. It’s all very exciting right up until his brother Mario mysteriously disappears, leaving Luigi to rid the mansion of Boos and ghouls in order to find the missing Mario.

Luigi’s won a mansion! The bad news is that it’s crawling with ghosts… 😱

Discover what frights await in Luigi’s Mansion, coming to Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics on #NintendoSwitch2 for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members on Oct 30! pic.twitter.com/vG0OfgwEP2

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 22, 2025

As yet there’s no word on how the classic game will make use of Nintendo Switch 2‘s most hyped features, including its new mouse controls, but we do know it’ll be playable for Switch 2 owners who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription-based online gaming service for the Nintendo Switch gaming platform. Memberships include online functionality, allowing you to compete or cooperate with friends, as well as a collection of classic Nintendo games spanning four decades, including titles from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and, most recently, the new GameCube library. A free seven-day trial is also available.

The GameCube library currently includes The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, and Soulcalibur 2. Further titles thought to be joining the service include Super Mario Sunshine, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and more. Most recently, Super Mario Strikers, Klonoa Empire of Dreams, Mr. Driller 2, and Mario Paint were added to the library of GameCube classics.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

There’s no question that one of the biggest talking points during last week’s Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show came out of Dead Space creator Glen Schofield’s opening keynote address, regarding his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in games development. In addition to speaking with Schofield, IGN managed to get some time with another industry veteran, Meghan Morgan Juinio, to ask for her thoughts on the controversial practice that has previously been met with anger from Call of Duty fans, but also major support from games industry executives like EA CEO Andrew Wilson.

“I think if we don’t embrace it, I think we’re selling ourselves short,” said Juinio, who recently vacated her role as director of product development at Santa Monica Studio after 10 years and two hugely successful God of War games. “AI is a tool, and something that will augment us. At least for right now, that’s how I see it. It’s going to evolve whether you’re onboard with it or not, so I want to be at the forefront of helping to guide how that goes and how we use it.”

Juinio went on to compare the use of generative AI to the procedurally-generated content that’s been a part of games development for decades now, pointing to SpeedTree – a tool for generating trees in real time – which was used as early as 2002 for the foliage in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. She also recalled a time when animators were pushing back against motion capture and the use of procedural generation to blend animation frames rather than key them by hand. Both procedurally generated assets and animations have long become standard practices in games development, and Juinio seems just as confident that generative AI will also find its place.

“Personally, I’m super positive,” said Juinio. “Like [Glen Schofield said in his keynote address], this is the next big technological advancement that’s coming. In fact it’s here already, and I think as leaders in the video game industry it is on us to figure out not just can we do it with AI, but should we? And it’s a case-by-case type of decision making process and what’s true for game X might not be true next year for game Y.”

When asked if she thought the increasing adoption of generative AI might help mitigate the swelling costs of AAA-games development, Juinio was clear that the use of AI in games development is unlikely to be the be-all end-all solution to the post-pandemic pattern of regular studio closures and the bursting of the blockbuster game bubble.

“I wouldn’t necessarily put it into an either/or kind of scenario in that way, because to me the size and scale and beauty of the game isn’t the main thing,” said Juinio. “At its heart, the game [needs] to be fun. [Ideally] at its heart the story is fantastic, it’s human, players connect to it, and it’s fun to play.”

“And yes it looks beautiful, and yes the music is immersive. But the music could be really immersive and the gameplay could be not good, or the story [might] not be engaging, and I don’t think it would resonate with players as much. And so at least for right now, I don’t see AI replacing the fun gameplay that is at the heart of a game like God of War.”

Although Juinio seems adament that generative AI in games development is here to stay, she also remains confident that it will never be able to rival the heart and soul that can only come from a human touch, and that the adoptance of AI will only be a positive if there’s an equal amount of investment made into developers to help them get the best results out of it.

“At the end of the day you still need game developers to come up with the ideas,” said Juinio. “The story of God of War is very much a human story that is based on human experiences.”

“At least as of today, I don’t see that going away.”

Earlier this month the makers of Battlefield 6 stated that there was currently no way to implement the use of generative AI into the daily work of its development team, despite regarding the burgeoning technology as “very seducing”.

Indeed the debate over generative AI is bigger than in-game assets. At the start of October, Nintendo issued a statement in response to claims around generative AI, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calling Sora 2 copyrighted character videos “interactive fan fiction.”

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN’s Sydney office. He attended Gamescom Asia x Thai Game Show 2025 as a guest of the event organiser.