Iwata Asks: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy details
Nintendo has published the English version of Iwata Asks: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. President Satoru Iwata led the discussion as always, and producer Ichiro Hazama was on hand to talk about the game.
Read on below for a summary of the interview. Hazama mentions his gaming origins, how Theatrhythm got started, and more.
“I Want to Make Games”
– Hazama first started playing console games from junior high school age onwards
– He didn’t own a console, so he played at friends’ houses
– Hazama was obsessed with Mario Bros. early on
– Early on, Hazama saw games as something that had to be enjoyed with friends
– Hazama’s parents were strict, which is probably why he couldn’t have a console of his own
– When he eventually moved out, Hazama purchased a SNES and Final Fantasy VI
– VI was Hazama’s first encounter with Final Fantasy
– Seeing VI’s opening sequence was “a pivotal moment” for Hazama
– He felt the cutscene was like something out of a movie
– Final Fantasy VI was the first game he bought and was instantly hooked
– Hazama: “I was working for Bandai (now Namco Bandai) in the games section at the time, but I was in procurement, so I never imagined I would one day be working for the company that made the game I was playing.”
– Hazama started thinking about maybe wanting to get involved with making games, but it wasn’t an immediate decision
– Shinji Hashimoto sort of tricked Hazama into joining Square Enix
– Hazama: “Well, because I was joining Squaresoft, I obviously thought I would be working with games, but as soon as I joined, they started a merchandising section, which I was put in charge of. They must have thought because I’d worked for Bandai, I’d be good with character goods and toys and all that stuff. (laughs)”
– Hazama was in game procurement at Bandai, so he didn’t have experience making merchandising products
– Because of this, it was a new experience, but Hazama didn’t mind at all
– He got to help out with other things while he was doing it
– Hazama was chatting with Nomura one day, and he mentioned that practically everyone who joined Square Enix loved games and had wanted to make them at some point
– Hazama said that he had similar thoughts earlier in his life, changing his vague idea into a concrete desire
– Everything clicked into place
– Nomura’s casual word changed Hazama’s life path
Theatrhythm is Born
– Iwata feels that there are two groups of people working on games
– The first group consists of those who are creative (drawing, programming, etc.) and then jump into development and work their way up
– Another group consists of those who have been working in completely unrelated areas, but wounded up with games for some reason and put what they learned in those other fields to work for them
– Iwata believes he’s from the first group and Hazama is from the second
– Hazama was always interested in games and he wasn’t working in too unrelated a field
– It took him awhile to make the jump though
– Iwata: “There are quite a lot of people who think, ‘I want to make games, but I don’t have any particularly relevant skills, so I’m not sure how to get started.’ I think you’re a great example to those people of how knuckling down and working hard until a path opens up can really pay dividends.”
– Hazama thinks that the people who actually create games are crazy in a good way
– Hazama: “Yes, because in a way, they’re naked and exposed in front of the whole world. The things they like, the things they believe – they’re baring their inner souls to the world, and sometimes people really knock them for that, but they just grin and bear it, and keep on going. It takes real faith to do that. And even among game creators, there are very few who can stand firm and see things through to the very end. So yes, I have a huge amount of respect for them.”
– Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is Hazama’s first project as a creator
– Even though he worked on games like Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, he had more of a supporting role
– Working with all those game creators like Nomura on Advent Children made him feel that he had to make the end consumer happy as well as those making the game happy
– The opposite happened with Advent Children
– Hazama: “Well, people told me this afterwards, but apparently, for the two weeks leading up to launch, I seemed nervous. I suppose I was frustrated, because although there was nothing left for me to do, I felt that I should be doing something. And Nomura, Nozue and everyone else kept saying, “It’ll be fine! It’ll sell!” (laughs) Of course, that’s what I should have been telling them!”
– Hazama ended up being supported by the people he saw as his job to support
– He was probably scared since it was the first time he’d been in that position
– Hazama first proposed the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy idea after Advent Children finished
– There were plans to make it for the DS, but there would have been a lot of compromises in terms of storage capacity and what could be done in terms of presentation
– When Hazama saw the 3DS, he thought, “Yes! Now we can do it!”
– He went to developer Indies Zero and they came up with a proposal for Nomura
– Nomura approved development on the same day
– The creators of the Final Fantasy games played Theatrhythm
A Very Personal FF Experience
– Hazama worked with Indies Zero president Masanobu Suzui at Bandai
– Suzui was at Bandai for a year and then went independent
– Hazama got Suzui to make a FF trading card game, around the FFIX days
– The love Suzui had for the series stayed with Hazama, so he thought Indies Zero was the only choice for Theatrhythm
– There were a lot of random events, but a lot of things came together nicely
– It was like the game was meant to be made
– A lot of Hazama’s connections came together
– In terms of presentation, it was a struggle
– There was some concern about how fans would react
– They were worried that if they only showed screenshots at press conferences and so forth, fans would write it off as being a completely different title packaged under the Final Fantasy banner
– The response to the first eShop demo was good
– Some said Theatrhythm made them want to play Final Fantasy games again
– The demo’s difficulty level got people talking
– Hazama: “And also, it’s not just about clearing the songs by skill alone – just like in an RPG, if you use the right abilities and equip the right items, even the most difficult challenges can be overcome more easily. However, if you’re aiming for a high score, you’ll receive the biggest bonuses for not using any abilities or other helpful features at all. That’s where the real differences in player skill will show.”
– Hazama didn’t want his own feelings to influence the choices for songs
– List of songs was based on the responses received from a survey sent out to their members
– Hazama: “Yes, it was. In a lot of ways, the FF games have become less and less the property of their creators as time has gone on. They belong to the fans now. And that’s why, with this title, where we’re focusing on the memories and feelings fans associate with the music of the series, it seemed logical to allow the fans to choose which songs would appear.”
– Hazama was happy with the songs that were chosen, but there were a few surprises
– Hazama: “Yes. This might be a strange way of putting it, but it feels like everyone who has worked on the series has always brought really nice ingredients to the pot, which is why the resulting mixture has always been so delicious. And for me, it has always been up to the individual tastes of players how they enjoy the resulting pot. Different players are attached to the different ingredients, but whether it’s the game system, the story, the music, the artwork or the characters, everything is densely connected together. That’s how I feel about the franchise.
– Hazama: “And with this title, we’ve intentionally separated out the artwork and the music. I understand that these two ingredients may not be the ones that define the FF experience for certain players, but I hope that by focusing on them, we have made a product that will allow those who do love them to have an experience that can be enjoyed on both a casual and a much deeper level. That’s what we’ve aimed to create, at least.”
Everyone’s Favorite Songs
– Stores are using the tagline “Play Your Memories” in Japan for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
– It’s a game that brings back fond memories for anyone who has played Final Fantasy
– Hazama said there’s no excuse not to try the game out thanks to the eShop demo
– Hazama: “Yes, it does. At first, I just had this vague idea that I wanted to recreate the emotion of playing an FF game through music and video, but we ended up incorporating the memories and feelings of our staff, and even of the players themselves, which is what really gives the game its own unique flavor.
– Nomura had a lot of ideas about how to sell the game to people
– Nomura came up with the aforementioned tagline
– Finally, he proofed the packaging and came up with the idea of combining the words “theater” and “rhythm”
– Nomura wanted a demo version since he thought people would understand how good it is after trying it out
– Nomura randomly called Hazama when he had ideas
– Hazama is grateful for Nomura’s involvement
– Hazama wanted to make a game that felt like it had been made by everybody
– Hazama on DLC: “As I mentioned before, we decided which songs to include by conducting a survey, but there were some that just didn’t fit as part of the overall collection. After a lot of soul-searching, we reluctantly removed these. Then there was the fact that we were also limited in the number of songs we could include anyway due to storage restrictions, which led to a lot of difficult choices. However, towards the end of development, we learnt that we would be able to offer downloadable content for purchase, which gave us the perfect opportunity to allow all the fans’ choices to be included. And on top of that, we also wanted to enter into this new challenge with Nintendo.”
– Game comes with over 70 songs
– Main hope is to provide a complete experience in the game purchased
– If players want, they can choose some extra tracks
– StreetPass is used to exchange ProfiCards
– Terra’s Theme from FFVI is Hazama’s favorite song
– Hazama: “When we presented our plans to make the game to Nintendo, the first thing the representative asked was if it would include the Rebel Army Theme!”
– That request was made before anything else
– The Rebel Army Theme made it into the final version
Becoming a Game Creator
– Looking back on development, Hazama would like to do it all again
– This is because of getting good feedback from the people around him and that it became more exciting as the project progressed
– Iwata says that Hazama was born to be a game creator since all creators have the same kind of self-perpetuating energy
– In one way, Hazama was lucky in that he was lucky enough to have an existing stockpile of creative energy from the previous installments to draw on, and to make his own
– Iwata: “Sometimes you have to generate that energy yourself. You could have had exactly the same team, but had to put all the ideas out there, and been forced to constantly make decisions and judgment calls. But in making what is essentially a homage to the FF series, some of that creative input was already there.”
– The creative input was already there with this project
– Hazama respects people who make games of their own and come up with the idea by themselves
– If the worst happens, they’re stuck with a problem title for a year, maybe more
– Hazama thinks it’ll be a long time before he can take on as much as the creators of Final Fantasy did, but he’s starting to think that it could happen one day
– Hazama: “My incredible team has created a game far more fun than even I could ever have imagined. But now our role is at an end. Now it’s up to you, the players, to make it your own. Your experiences and your memories are what will take it on the next step of the journey. I hope all fans of the Final Fantasy series will be able to enjoy it for a long time to come, and I highly recommend that you download the demo version! By the way, this demo version is different from the version before – it now enables you to try two new songs at three different difficulty levels.”
– Iwata says they’ll be doing everything it can to make the game reach as many people as possible
