Kess Entertainment is about to launch the Kickstarter for their new Final Fantasy board game, Final Fantasy: Origins of Light. Group up with your friends, form parties inspired by Final Fantasy I, II, and III and take on massive foes, with multiple game modes across multiple games. Ahead of its launch, we got to sit down with some of the design team to learn about how the game works, what kinds of enhancements are looking to be made through the Kickstarter, and when players can get their hands on the game.

Update: The date that the Kickstarter for Final Fantasy: Origins of Light will launch is October 20th, 2026.

In Final Fantasy: Origins of Light players will move as a group through a game board based on the map of each of the Final Fantasy games. Progressing through, players will encounter combat against standard monsters and larger boss fights and visit towns where they can spend Gil to heal themselves and purchase a variety of weapons, items, and magics, all culminating in a fight against each game's 'big boss' to try to win the game.

Venture back into the fantastical world of Final Fantasy I, II, and III as a lifelong fan, or battle the forces of darkness for the very first time in this rich, role-playing experience for up to four players!

Final Fantasy: Origins of Light will be a 2-4 player game with varying playtime based on each of the campaigns included. There is also a ruleset for a 1 player mode for those who want to go adventuring on their own.

Setting Out On Adventure In Final Fantasy: Origins Of Light

Each player will have a part of four characters that they'll select at the start of the adventure. Each not only has their own stats, but also abilities and limitations to what equipment they can wield and magic they can use. If you've always played through FF1 as a Thief, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage, then you can do the same here. Alexander Kessler, President at Kess, would even recommend that, with the added bonus of "getting a lot of Gil off the Thief being a tank." As you progress through the game and level up your characters, there will also be opportunities for them to get job promotions.

As an added twist, how you set up the game and play through it will be different depending on which Final Fantasy version you're playing through.

• Final Fantasy I is the most basic way to play through the game. Each player gets to build their team from the 6 Hero classes: Fighter, Monk, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage. Origins of Light is its most straightforward in Final Fantasy I.

• Final Fantasy II has nine characters that each player can pick from, made up of the named characters from the game. You can form a party with Firion, Guy, Leon, and Richard. The world of Final Fantasy II shakes up the gameplay formula by offering empty spaces that get filled by drawing tiles, creating a Roguelite game mode. Whether you pick a standard encounter, treasure, or a boss creature will be random creating an experience you can continue to return to.

• Final Fantasy III shakes up the formula once again by being a drafting game. The number of playable characters balloons to 24 different choices based on a variety of classes that are included in the game. Here you get to the more complicated job roles like Dark Knight, Bard, Geomancer, and more.

Additional Roguelite Game Modes And Final Fantasy IV Already On The Horizon

In addition to the three campaigns on the back of the Final Fantasy II world map will be an additional map that FF I and FF II characters can play on in their own roguelite mode. This means that no matter which characters you want to use you can in a Quick Play mode.

As part of the Kickstarter's different backing tiers there is also a hint to a Final Fantasy IV mode. We were told that this will be a two-player variant of the game, but not much more was revealed.

For those picking up the game it was recommended that you start with Final Fantasy I as it's the simplest to get your feet under you. It was warned that the game could be tough at times and that whether you're playing FF1, FF2, or FF3 "each increases in complexity, but not as much difficulty."

When asked about the standard length of each of the campaigns, I was advised that Final Fantasy I should take about 60 minutes per player, Final Fantasy II will be the fastest at 90 minutes total, and Final Fantasy III will have one less boss fight but the drafting will add time so it should be in line with Final Fantasy II.

An interesting note from the design side of things that I learned in my discussion with the team at Kess was that all of the character assets, maps, item/summon images, monsters, and bosses are all the official sprites provided by Square Enix and while the in-game town isn't representative of a specific location in Final Fantasy it was generated by Square Enix specifically for Final Fantasy: Origins of Light.

Final Fantasy: Origins Of Light Kickstarter Tiers And Delivery

Final Fantasy: Origins of Light has a number of tiers available to players on their Kickstarter. Starting at the bottom, you can get a copy of the game at MSRP. Upgrade 1 includes premium components such as metal Gil and lenticular summons; Upgrade 2 includes the Final Fantasy IV expansion; Upgrade 3 includes everything.

There are also a number of add-ons available, including premium maps, card sleeves, and a premium game board.

As to when the game arrives, assuming that it manages to fully fund through its Kickstarter period the plans are for the game to be in player's hands by May or June 2027.