Kickin’ it new old-school.
A couple week ago GR was invited to a sneak peek at the soon-to-be released Final Fantasy XIII. And because we’re so unbelievably super cool, we were given the additional privilege of having a lovely round table discussion with some key members of the development team: Designer Motomu Toriyama, Battle Director Yuji Abe, and Producer Yoshinori Kitase.
Along with fellow gaming journalist Rey Gutierrez from Destructiod, we sat down at a table much larger than necessary with the Eastern developers and a very polite, soft-spoken translator lady to talk about everything from dev cycles to the morbid cuteness of a Tonberry. And I’d like to think we learned a little something too, and maybe, just maybe, learned something about ourselves in the process. So here are the questions as asked in English, translated to Japanese, answered in Japanese, translated to English, audio recorded, and then transcribed by me. Enjoy!
Game Revolution: Final Fantasy is a twenty-year old franchise. What’s it like being a part of that legacy?
Abe: I’m the newest member of the team. And this is the first time I’ve worked on a Final Fantasy title. When VII came out, I was still just a consumer. I’d never been involved in creating games at all. Coming from there, when I was approached by the HR team and asked if I liked the series, I said, “Of course… it would be an honor to work with the team.”
GR: In the last three Final Fantasies, the way that the battle system works has changed dramatically. What do you feel is the most drastic change?
Abe: When we first decided to put together this battle system, the base concept was always to create something [sic] speedy and tactical. So that was always our goal and we were working towards creating a battle system that could achieve that sort of experience. The main difference between previous FFs and the battle system of XIII is there’s no real micro managing of each character, [each of their party members] within the system. It’s more about looking at the overall flow of the battle and changing your actions according to the tide of battle.
Destructiod: A female lead – talk about that. FF been known to have very strong male leads. XIII has a very beautiful, strong female lead. Talk to us about why you went that route.
Toriyama: Traditionally in FF games, the female characters – there have been female characters in leading roles, but they’ve always been very feminine. They didn’t really have this inner strength that Lightning has. And so we really wanted to create something, a character that was different, a female character that even guys could look to and think that she was really cool. She’s not just beautiful on the outside, [she’s also] very powerful… plus she has this great inner strength.
In creating the Fabula Nova Crystallis umberella for the entire Final Fantasy XIII project, we really wanted to take [FF] to the next level. And one of the main differentiating factors was to create this new type of hero for the series.
Destructoid: It took five years to develop FFXIII. Mass Effect games are being developed in two to three years. Talk about the challenges of trying to pierce into the western development cycle.
Kitase: The development side is always looking to be working in a productive environment and always looking to shorten the time spent in development. So that’s definitely moving forward, something we’ll be considering as well, but in terms of XIII, just going back and looking at what exactly was taking place throughout development: The game was first started up as a project for the PS2, but development from the high-def consoles point on was about three to four years. So it’s a little shorter than people might currently perceive it as. And also just in terms of localization, it’s fully lip-synched for different regions… Mass Effect 2 doesn’t have a localized Japanese version yet. When taking all that into consideration… it was a decent amount of time spent on XIII. It isn’t overwhelmingly long, but we definitely like to bring games to users as quickly as possible.
GR: It’s been said that there was enough game taken out to make another game. Are there any chances of seeing a direct sequel, like FFX-2 or a director’s cut?
Kitase: The content that was said to be cut from the final product are actually different ideas that arise in any kind of development environment where there’s a ton of ideas on the table at first, but the team selects the best out of those to create the final product. So there’s no plans to use that content that was set aside because it wasn’t a right fit… but you mentioned X-2… that sequel was created because players really reacted well to the content and the characters in the world of X. And so, because there was that demand, the team decided to create this additional component to the game. And so with XIII, aside from the fact that there’s this cut content that exists, if players really enjoy the world and there is a voice out there [from] players wanting to play more of the world of FFXIII, that is definitely something we’d consider.
Destructoid: Speaking of the world, how do you keep XIII fresh?
Kitase: It all comes down basically to putting a lot of time and effort into the planning and creating of these worlds. Before actually getting into the development of the game, about a year was spent just coming up with these concepts; like the futuristic city world of Cocoon – where essentially a planet is carved out and the city is placed within it. Those kinds of things are written on paper and then taken to the art team and then they would come up with different image boards. And there was a long process of selecting the right image and really putting a lot of time into carefully crafting this story and world, and it’s probably what contributes to creating a new and fresh world.
GR: Kind of along those same lines, what are some of the influences outside of gaming that you drew from when creating a game like FFXIII?
Kitase: With X the world was sort of more Asian-oriented and we were able to base the designs off of existing concepts and really work out the details that way. But with XIII, the base world is in the future, and the future doesn’t exist right now. So we didn’t really have any specific ideas to go off of. But the art team was sent to the US, they visited NASA and took these space technologies and military technologies and got inspiration from existing things that way. That was for the world of Cocoon, where all the futuristic elements are.
For the world of Pulse, where it’s a little bit more organic and nature-oriented, the art team looked to the grand canyon and how nature is evolving there. And also we wanted to create an organic world in which there were forms of nature that humans had never really seen before. Creating unique natural elements was something we put a lot of work into.
Destructoid: In the pre-production phase, name some of the things you knew had to be in FFXIII.
Kitase: Chocobos! [laughs] Going into development we knew that it had to be a really story-driven gaming experience where there would be a lot of drama and human relationships that would unfold. Also in terms of battle, the speedy and tactical elements were a must. What we really wanted to achieve was, while keeping the strategy element alive and strong within the battle system, still create an action-like and effective battle environment with really spectacular visual effects.
GR: Who or what is your favorite reoccurring character in the FF world, and also, who is your favorite new character?
Abe: I feel that Tonberry is really cute in his design. Having that adorable appearance, yet having the knife and stabbing… I like that character a lot. In the new game, I really like Ochu (the name of the character in the Japanese game we never found out in the American game). As soon as I saw the art designs for this character, I basically fell in love with it… I thought it was really cool. It’s something for players to look forward to when they go into battle.
Destructoid: What are some of the challenges going from a Sony console to a Microsoft console?
Toriyama: Obviously this is the first time [for us] creating for a 360 Microsoft console, so the programmers and engineers did have to put in a lot of effort to make it work, because it was the first time doing something like this. But when they were creating the basic engine, once they knew they were working for high-def consoles, they had actually started creating [the engine] with both the PS3 and 360 in mind before they actually knew they were going to be making a game for the 360. So that did, in a sense, act as a little bit of damage control. They didn’t go into panic when they had to create for the new console, but there was a lot of effort that went into creating for the 360.
We were set on creating only the PS3 version for Japan but when looking to the overseas market and analyzing the results from the year end sales and marketing trends and when we looked at what was going on in the global market at the end of 2007, we saw that the 360 was a vital aspect – especially in the North American market after doing some extensive analysis that it would be good to make the game available for both platforms. The ultimate goal is to have as many players as possible play your game. So in order to reach out to as many gamers as possible, the decision was made towards the early part of 2008 and then was announced at E3 that year.
GR: I’m curious if we’ll ever see another final fantasy that uses the more classic turn-based system.
All: [After a long deliberation between the three of them in Japanese] The final opinion of the three of us is that it’s not likely to go back to the turn-based system.
Abe: With each FF there’s the base concept and then the team works to create a battle system that best fits that. So, it’s not to say that the possibility is 0% that it will ever go back. But depending on what the concept of the game calls for, we’ll create a system that best fits that concept and that may be the form of turn-based battles.
Toriyama: Gamers today are really looking for [a] speed- and action-based battle system. So the current form that FFXIII has taken might become the base for future titles as well. It’s on a case-by-case basis, but we personally don’t think it will go back to slower-paced turn-based battle style.
Every FF game has a different team, so depending on that team’s preferences, there’s definitely a chance that turned-based battle may come back in a future FF title. But as far as the three development staff sitting in front of you, if we ever work on a future FF title, [we’re] probably going to try and evolve it even further from what XIII turned out to be. So, “no” from us, but “maybe” as a series.
Destructoid: Are there any plans for downloadable content in the next few months?
Kitase: We don’t have any plans for DLC at this time. Just because we really set out to create a full experience with XIII, so anyone who buys the packaged retail version will be able to enjoy the game fully with just the discs available.
