Square Enix on Final Fantasy X’s infamous laughing scene, divisive Blitzball reaction, possibility of X-3

Game Informer recently had a chance to speak with Final Fantasy X producer Yoshinori Kitase. During the discussion, Kitase commented on the now infamous laughing scene, the divisive reaction to Blitzball, and the possibility of Final Fantasy X-3 happening.

Below are those excerpts:

On the laughing scene…

Even in the real world, actions taken by two people in a budding romance are generally embarrassing memories when you look back on them. I believe that this scene depicts that mental state very well. This scene of course is still made fun of by fans, but I imagine that it is because it greatly touched “something” in everyone’s heart for it to be such a memorable scene even after 18 years.

On the divisive reaction to Blitzball…

No, we did not imagine this reaction. Blitzball was something that I pretty much created on my own (half of it was for my own enjoyment as well). This was because we originally did not plan for it to be something that was necessary to play in order to progress the story, but to keep it as an optional feature (where only the players that wanted to play would take a detour and play, like the secret minigame “15 Puzzle” in the original Final Fantasy). However, Blitzball eventually became a mandatory route for the story, and the game was changed so that you needed to play Blitzball to obtain a powerful weapon. I do feel sorry to have made some fans suffer because of this, but it would be appreciated if you can regard it as a characteristic of games from that era.

On the possibility of Final Fantasy X-3…

The idea comes up from time to time when a few close people that had worked on the original Final Fantasy X talk with each other. However, it is merely standard chitchat and there have been no movements to realize it because, once the project begins, there is no doubt that it would become a massive project with hundreds of staff working on it (and I have an ongoing project that I need to finish before then!).

You can read Game Informer’s full interview with Kitase here.