Ukiyo Fantasy Fair Final Fantasy: Lab New

The fair asks a provocative question: What if the original “floating world” had inspired Final Fantasy instead of Western high fantasy?

For more updates on the Ukiyo Fantasy Fair and Final Fantasy Lab New, follow our dedicated FFXXI tracker or visit the official Square Enix experimental games portal. ukiyo fantasy fair, final fantasy lab new ukiyo fantasy fair final fantasy lab new

Walking through the fair, you don’t see Chocobos in armor. Instead, you see them rendered as Hokusai-style waves, their feathers turning into brushstroke feathers. Moogles become kokeshi dolls. And a full-blown, playable tech demo—codenamed —lets visitors explore a prototype region where every texture, character model, and particle effect mimics traditional Japanese woodblock printing. The Final Fantasy Lab New: An Experimental Reboot The Final Fantasy Lab New is the centerpiece of the fair. Unlike a mainline title, the Lab is an internal Square Enix initiative designed to prototype “what-if” scenarios for the franchise. Previous labs focused on VR chocobo racing or turn-based strategy hybrids. But Lab New is different. It’s an aesthetic upheaval. Visuals: The Woodblock Engine The Lab New demo runs on a modified version of the Unreal Engine 5, but you’d never know it. The developers—many of whom are trained in traditional ukiyo-e carving techniques—built a custom shader pipeline they call the “Nishiki-e Renderer.” Nishiki-e refers to multi-colored woodblock printing from the 1760s. The fair asks a provocative question: What if

Amano himself visited the Ukiyo Fantasy Fair on opening day. In a recorded statement, he said: “For years, I’ve seen my designs translated into 3D polygons. They lose the breath. This new lab—the woodblock engine—it brings back the grain, the mistake, the human hand. That is fantasy. Not perfection, but the feeling of a floating world.” The “New” in the lab’s name doesn’t just mean recent. It means shin (新) in the sense of a complete rebirth. The developers explicitly cited the Shin Hanga movement (early 20th-century “new prints”) as an inspiration—an art movement that blended traditional ukiyo-e techniques with Western light and perspective. Instead, you see them rendered as Hokusai-style waves,

Square Enix has responded by announcing that a free digital version of the Pilgrim of the Paper Sky demo will drop on PlayStation Store and Steam in December, allowing everyone to experience the woodblock rendering. The fair runs through mid-December at Bellesalle Akihabara, Tokyo. Tickets are available via Lawson Ticket. For international fans, a VR tour is planned for early 2025 via the PSVR2 and Meta Quest, including a playable slice of Final Fantasy Lab New .