Ever Oasis director on choosing 3DS over Switch, Mana inspirations, lack of multiplayer

USgamer was able to send out some questions to Ever Oasis director Koichi Ishii. Among the topics talked about include choosing 3DS over Switch, inspirations taken from working on the Mana series, and the game’s lack of multiplayer.

Read up on Ishii’s responses to these areas below. Find the full interview on USgamer here.

On why 3DS was chosen over Switch…

Kishii: The big reason is that more people own the 3DS than the Switch. We also felt that the unique 3D feature would allow the players to immerse themselves in the world of Ever Oasis, so that’s how we decided to develop this for the 3DS. 

On inspirations from working on the Mana series…

Kishii: There are some features in the battle system that were carried over from the Mana series. I’ve always wanted to change the overall concept of single-character action games and party-based RPGs. I strived to find a way while I was creating the battle system for the Mana series. The image I had for Final Fantasy 11, where players formed a party with other players and ran around, finally came together when I worked on Zelda, and this resulted in the visual appearance of Ever Oasis. The system itself might be closer to the battles from the Mana series. 

The party being comprised of three people is also a shared characteristic. At minimum, we need a Fighter, Wizard and a Cleric in a party for a RPG. We were very aware of this in the Secret of Mana. Also three was already cutting it pretty close back in the day due to hardware limitations. 

In terms of changing characters and controlling them (…), we determined that a three-character party would be best where players would be able to choose instinctively and without stress.  

On whether multiplayer was considered…

Kishii: What you feel from an experience differs depending on who you shared the experience with compared with just by yourself. I’ve always felt strongly about making this a multiplayer game, but decided to first focus on building the world and the play cycle. A multiplayer element was incorporated into the Secret of Mana, but this was under the assumption that friends, siblings and family members will be playing together. The time you have to play with family and friends as a child isn’t a large chunk of time. That “time” turns into precious memories. So, that’s why we incorporated this feature. If I were to get an opportunity to create another game, then I want the first thing I incorporate to be the multiplayer element.