Hironobu Sakaguchi talks The Last Story
IGN has published a new interview with The Last Story director Hironobu Sakaguchi. In case you’ve forgotten, the Wii RPG is due out in a little over a month.
Sakaguchi commented on the game’s battle system, what it was like being a director again after a long hiatus, how the team dealt with the Wii’s SD resolution limitation, and more.
You can find all of Sakaguchi’s remarks below.
Sakaguchi on creating the battle system in The Last Story:
“In the three years of development, we dedicated the first year to research and development, mainly as a trial and error period for the battle system. The battle system in the game is the culmination of that phase.”
Sakaguchi on any difficulties in returning to the director’s chair:
“Since I was working with the same members as the Blue Dragon team, I was able to get back into it fairly smoothly. Also, from my experience, the producer and director do the same type of workload in the initial development phase, which I think is another reason why it wasn’t so difficult getting back into things as a director. I guess I’m the type of creator that wants to get involved in the grunt work.”
Sakaguchi on the greatest challenge he encountered in making a new RPG adventure from the ground up/most rewarding aspect:
“At the initial stage our plan was completely shot down by Nintendo. To create an entirely new world view and characters again was a bit challenging, but rewarding in the end. That would probably be the answer on both accounts.”
Sakaugchi on the tracks that stand out to him from The Last Story and the overall tone he hopes to invoke as players experience the story:
“That would be the track called ‘Toberumono (The Flying One).’ There’s a lot of sentimental value attached to it since I wrote the lyrics, and it also voices the “foreignness” that the game has. The song is about the world you are in not being the place where you are meant to be. The phrase “going home” is used positively as you fly towards the future.
“The tone I would like players to invoke while playing this game is ‘warmth’ and a sense of ‘texture.’ I want players to experience the sensation of a handmade craftwork that feels natural, yet very detailed, with beautiful workmanship.
Sakaguchi on anything he couldn’t fit into The Last Story but wanted to:
“That would be the ‘Rewind Function.’ This was a feature that when a mage’s magic was successful, an icon would appear for the player to shake the remote. By shaking the controller at that moment it would rewind the battle to just before the mage unleashed their magic. From there it would show the sequence again from an overhead view.
“Using this feature, players would have been able to see who used what magic, check the battle situation and then strategize on what to do next. However, the feature slowed the battle tempo too much, so unfortunately we decided to take it out. You can still see remnants of this feature in the overheard view while in command mode, or while watching the Lazulis Knights cheating in the match at the arena.”
Sakaguchi on creating The Last Story’s characters:
“We put together most of the characters’ bios while creating the plot. Then, while Fujisaka (artist of The Last Story) was finalizing the illustrations, I’d get inspiration from the art which I used to fine tune their characteristics and backgrounds.
“This title also has a lot of voices. In the dungeons the characters converse with each other about random things, and this was something that was very important for me in the game. Because I wanted to convey some of their personalities through this small talk, it was crucial to include some of the voice actors’ adlibs and make small changes to the actual scripts to keep refining them and carefully mold each character.”
Sakaguchi on how working on The Last Story was different from working on other RPG franchises…
“The biggest difference is the battle system. I was aiming to create something that would make people say, ‘This is the new RPG battle style,’ if possible. Additionally, we were really careful about the collision detection in the background graphics. I wanted to be careful about those small aspects because I thought they would affect the overall feel of the “texture” of the game while walking around in the world.”
Sakaguchi on something he wants players to take away from The Last Story:
“To feel as though they are having an adventure together with the characters. I would be very pleased if players are able to feel truly immersed in the world and share the moments together with the characters.”
Sakaguchi on what he’s working on next:
“Currently we are developing a surfing game for the iOS. It’s called Party Wave, and is scheduled to come out this July. It’s a small development project, but the environment is very free and open which reminds me of the early Final Fantasy titles.
“I’m very excited as I’m involved in creating some number fonts which I haven’t done in a while and writing the music. I’m enjoying it, and at the same time I think it’ll become another title that has that handmade warmth to it. We are also developing two more iOS titles. We’ll be able to release these shortly as well.”
Sakaguchi on what it was like creating a sweeping RPG for Wii:
“It’s unfortunate, but the final issue that always seemed to deny certain ideas was the SD resolution limitation. However, within those parameters we aimed to create a title with beautiful graphics that can compete with modern day specs. I would be pleased if people would view our efforts to their best by switching their cables to advanced connection cables or by playing it in the best environment possible. And though the resolution may be SD, I think players will really enjoy the sophisticated world.”
