One Fenix Down - Interview

Game Rant talked with the dev of One Fenix Down:

One Fenix Down Interview: Dev Talks Making a '90s-Inspired RPG in 2024

In a Game Rant interview, One Fenix Down's developer talks about how '90s RPGs influenced the development, story, and world of the game.

One Fenix Down has been in development for the last eight years, and the passion project-turned 40-hour RPG is hopefully going to get a demo and Kickstarter launch in the early summer. One Fenix Down is a product of love and nostalgia for classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, created by indie developer RC Dunn, who wants to offer linear gameplay with charming characters and a taste of the 1990s golden era of gaming.
 
Dunn told Game Rant in a recent interview that One Fenix Down offers new, modern options for JRPG lovers, but it's something that's still familiar to them, like "comfort food." He described his approach to the combat design, which mimics the mechanics of those old JRPGs, mentioning that the game title itself is a nod to an old Final Fantasy detail. Dunn also explained that, while fate and destiny is a "very philosophical question" that he never intended to address, it is evident in some spots of the game, especially in the personality of main protagonist Fenix. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: For our readers, can you tell us a bit about yourself and One Fenix Down?

Dunn: My name is RC Dunn. I work full-time and make games as a hobby. It's been a learning experience for me because I started around 2015 as just something to do after work. I put together some RPGs, and I've been working on One Fenix Down now for about eight years. It's really turned from a little side hobby into an actual full-fledged 40-hour RPG Adventure.

I would describe One Fenix Down as a retro-inspired classic turn-based RPG, and what that means is it's basically designed from the start to feel a lot like the games that a lot of us played in the '90s like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Like them, it is a slower-paced, 2D grand epic adventure where you have your protagonist and some epic story about saving the world—maybe it's a little generic story-wise—but I think it's like comfort food. It's a comfort game. A lot of people enjoy that sort of story and the characters that you can cherish.

Q: One of the first things that caught my attention, and probably others as well, is your art style in the game. I was immediately reminded of my favorite games from the '90s. What influenced you to use this kind of art style?

Dunn: My biggest influences were those Final Fantasies, so Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 6. Those are the ones that got me into not just playing RPGs, but playing games in general. I really want to go back and do justice to that 16-bit graphical style and have a lot of pixel art in my game. When you're running around the world, it’s 16-bit SNES-era-style graphics. When you get into combat, you have some really beautiful pixel art battlers that I got from a well-known Japanese artist. He’s making those and several other artists are working on the Pixel art enemy battlers.

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Thanks Couchpotato!