Details from the latest Iwata Asks
The latest Iwata Asks is different than what we’ve become accustomed to. Although it was posted on The Last Story website, RPGs in general are the focus of the latest column. Satoru Iwata, Xenoblade director Tetsuya Takahashi, and The Last Story director Hironobu Sakaguchi participated in the interview.
– Takahashi and Sakaguchi were both working at Square in the 90s
– Takahashi was a graphic designer on Final fantasy IV through VI
– Takahashi left in 1999, met up with Sakaguchi again three years later
– The Iwata Asks gathering is the first time Takahashi and Sakaguchi have met in 8 years
– Takahashi left Sakaguchi’s team to do new things (before leaving Square and after Final Fantasy VI)
– He was hoping to use 3D in different ways from VII, with fully 3D maps
– 90% of his team was unaware about using 3D at the time
– Sakaguchi’s team was similar when working on Final Fantasy VII
– Up to III, the Final Fantasy main programmer was foreign, couldn’t speak Japanese
– Sakaguchi and the programmer ate steak every night because it was the only thing the programmer could eat
– Iwata thinks one reason Japanese RPGs aren’t as successful outside of Japan is due to the excessive use of the same patterns and conventions
– Sakaguchi: “Because of this, RPGs need a change”
– Sakaguchi feels that Japanese-developed titles show feelings and detail well, thinks they can be accepted worldwide if creators value these areas
– Iwata, Sakaguchi, and Takahashi agree that there are things all people can find interesting in spite of cultural differences like foreign movies
– Sakaguchi thinks the answer to this is near and RPGs can succeed if they work towards this target
– Iwata: “This is one topic we game creators in Japan will have to clear going forward”
– There appear to be no hints of releasing Xenoblade/The Last Story overseas
