New Iwata Asks interview (Sakaguchi and Sakamoto’s past connection, The Last Story conversation system)
– Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshio Sakamoto have a connection
– Connection they have is in regards to a 1987 adventure game
– Called Miho Nakayama’s Tokimeki High School
– Game was developed by Square
– Was published by Nintendo
– Sakamoto said the game is a text adventure game, make use of a phone
– Given a phone number midway through the game which you can call to hear hints about how to progress with messages from Miho Nakayama
– The telephone was swapped out in later versions with in-game messages that delivered the same info
– Square had approached Nintendo about making an adventure game that used a phone
– No talk back then about the game featuring Nakayama
– Sakamoto was in the meeting with Square
– Sakamoto was growing tired of the same old adventure games
– He pushed his superiors to go with the idea
– Sakamoto suggested that an idol be used instead of an original character
– Sakamoto believed the added flash would draw attention to the game
– Sakaguchi was on the development team, but not originally
– He joined closer towards the end of the game’s development
– The dev team went down to Kyoto for two weeks
– Sakaguchi and Sakamoto met for the first time during this period
– At first, Sakaguchi couldn’t believe Sakamoto worked for Nintendo
– Sakamoto’s hair was the same in the past as it is now
– Sakaguchi/Sakamoto/Iwata reminisce a lot about the past in this Iwata Asks, but discussed The Last Story as well
– Gameplay systems were a priority in The Last Story’s development according to Sakaguchi
– Sakaguchi suggested thinking about the game as “a game that has a story in it”
– Game has a solid story with a strong cinematic component, but gameplay is the strongest point
– Only the third time Sakaguchi has put emphasis on gameplay first
– Last time was Final Fantasy VII, thinking about how to use 3D in that game
– Other game was the original Final Fantasy: Trial and error phase for Sakaguchi, tried to see how the PC role-playing games at the time could be brought to the NES
– “In these 23 years, there have been only three instances where I considered gameplay systems first”
– Mario Club was used to test out gameplay systems for The Last Story
– Sakaguchi was visiting Mario Club for four days when this Iwata Asks was done
– Sakaguchi wanted to use Mario Club to see how beginners would react to the game
– Can see where players are having fun when watching them
– Test players wrote their opinion as well
– Sakaguchi a bit wary of written feedback because players will sometimes write only about what’s good or their feedback listing what they enjoyed will be different from how they actually reacted while playing
– Characters will converse as you run in the fields
– Sakaguchi thinks that it’ll allow players to get a better feel for their relationship with ally characters
– This was one area Sakauguchi wanted to convey with the game’s story
Thanks to Thomas N for the tip!
