GRIN + FINAL FANTASY? not anymore.

[Symmetric-XBA]

When Swedish game developer GRIN unfortunately closed its doors last week, their website's farewell notice teased an "unreleased masterpiece" that the studio was never allowed to complete. Now that the dust has settled, we've heard from multiple ex-GRIN sources that the masterpiece in question was, in fact, an unannounced Final Fantasy game. Moreover, we've also been told by a source close to the project that Square Enix hadn't paid GRIN for their work on the game -- potentially contributing to the studio's closure.
Word first leaked out about GRIN's possible involvement with the Final Fantasy series when former employees began posting résumés describing their work on the game. Former environment artist Tomislav Spajic's LinkedIn profile states, "I worked on Bionic Commando, Terminator and a unannounced Final Fantasy project," while ex-GRIN technical artist Erik Lindqvist's page reads, "During 2009 I've been working on the preproduction for an unannounced, and now canceled project with the production name 'Fortress' for Square Enix."

Spajic's portfolio also features numerous art assets from "Fortress", as well as a couple of screens from "Cult" -- yet another unannounced, dead-in-the-water GRIN project. If you want to catch a glimpse of the Final Fantasy game that will never be, check out all of the images below.

As for Square Enix' involvement in all this, our source alleges that the Japanese publisher withheld payment for GRIN's work on "Fortress". Why they would neglect to pay the developer is unclear, although it's possible that Square was unsatisfied with GRIN's results. Whatever the case may be, losing what must have been a multi-million dollar contract could have inflicted a devastating blow to even a financially stable company.







Sadly I can honestly say that i will miss that this project won't be released. I can still dream though lol

[Symmetric-XBA]

[Symmetric-XBA]

[Symmetric-XBA]

yeah how sick would this game have been right? lol

[bdavid81]

Wow, those shots are damn beautiful! We could easily see this happen though, as it's concept art, and it can be slightly changed and re-used.

[Variation-XBA]

Wonder why the project can't just be moved to another dev

[Symmetric-XBA]

thats a good question. the project named "fortress" that GRIN was workin on could be transferred, but here's hoping. As of now this has become one of those titles you wish made the cut, but didn't. Obv, Square-Enix didn't like what GRIN was doing and you can only imagine what pulling a multi-million contract away from a struggling company can do for it.