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Will Hiroyuki Ito (FF6/FF9/FF12 game director) return to direct FFXV?

anaron

Member
Desperation. The lack of any other veteran within S-E who remains untainted. The irrational belief that somehow the problems of a developer can be solved by simply turning to the right person who is available and has simply been untapped for a long time. It's the easiest and quickest solution to a complex problem, even if it is unrealistic.

Pretty much.
 

luca1980

Banned
Without Matsuno hype is half.
And given Se lol track record ffxv seems far away. Years from now. They have to fix a mmorpg announced years ago and still finish a game announced 6 years ago. Than Se will handle the next ff.
and things could be worse: what if next mainline ff is another team 1 project?
 
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I actually can't blame him too much. I did not love FFXII the first time I played it either. There's too many kingdoms, countries, characters, betrayaltons, and wars to really keep track of everything the first time through.

My second playthrough was almost like playing a different game. Everything made sense. And "boring" characters became "nuanced" and much more interesting.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Desperation. The lack of any other veteran within S-E who remains untainted. The irrational belief that somehow the problems of a developer can be solved by simply turning to the right person who is available and has simply been untapped for a long time. It's the easiest and quickest solution to a complex problem, even if it is unrealistic.

Yeah I feel it's pretty obvious that Square Enix's problems are far more deep rooted than a couple of people at the top.
 

Scum

Junior Member
Incidentally, Sakaguchi was asked what would be able to return the FF franchise to its previous glory, and he gave a simple answer: "Hiroyuki Ito."
Damn right! I'm still waiting for his response from that survey a while back.
 

duckroll

Member
Also, the shops/taverns in FFXII are stupidly, stupidly detailed. I bet it took over 100 people to create Rabanastre and Archades, each.

Yeah, but I think that credit goes to the art staff, Matsuno's taste as a director, and Minagawa's art direction. Ito probably had very little to do with the graphics. He's very much a game system designer, and doesn't seem to have experience doing much else.
 

Aeana

Member
No, he was the battle supervisor for FF4 DS. Not the original FF4. The original sucks.
Nah, he was one of the battle designers on FF4. Since he created ATB, and FF4 was the first game with ATB (just without the gauges), it's logical. He's in the credits.
 
Yeah, but I think that credit goes to the art staff, Matsuno's taste as a director, and Minagawa's art direction. Ito probably had very little to do with the graphics. He's very much a game system designer, and doesn't seem to have experience doing much else.

I was just commenting on the atmosphere generally. Ivalice's aesthetic is definitely Matsuno's.
 

Nibel

Member
He also created ATB and the FF5 job system.

So he is basically the man when it comes to Final Fantasy; didn't know that

I'm on #TeamIto - although I must admit that at this point everyone is better than Toriyama and whoever is responsible for FFXIII
 

Rpgmonkey

Member
Hopefully. He's at the top of my list of directors/game designers still working at Square, so I'd love for him to lead FFXV. Might be good.

Not that I really think one game or person can fix an entire brand/company, and I'm not sure what he (or most other people) could manage to put together amid all the other problems with Square.
 
He also created ATB and the FF5 job system.

Oh ok, so he's basically FF god then.


He cannot just be working on mobile stuff.


Hopefully. He's at the top of my list of directors/game designers still working at Square, so I'd love for him to lead FFXV. Might be good.

Not that I really think one game or person can fix an entire brand/company, and I'm not sure what he (or most other people) could manage to put together amid all the other problems with Square.


With how reactive developers are to critical/commercial reception these days, I'd say one game/person could actually shape the direction of a company these days. Just depends on how successful it is.
 

Aeana

Member
4? Worst?

Have you played 2 or 3?
I mean, 4 is certainly bad but those... wow.
I'm not going to start a ranking discussion, it was a tongue-in-cheek comment. But suffice it to say that I've probably played all of those games more times in the last 4 years alone than most people have played them ever. And for the record, 3 (the original, not the DS remake) is one of my favorites, and my appreciation for 2 is inversely proportional to my appreciation for 4. Every time I replay 2, I like it more and 4 less. 2 just does most of what 4 sets out to do better.
 

Toth

Member
I can't believe people still think Toriyama would have any influence on 15. The only reason FFXIII-2 and LR came out was because XIV failed, Versus is STILL not ready, and XV was not far enough in development to be released this year.
 
The Ito love around here amazes me.

I'd be interested to see this happen, since Ito has always had others to lean heavily on during development (Kitase, Sakaguchi, and Matsuno).

The guy is pretty fantastic in the technical elements of the FF games he's been assigned to, but even after 20+ years with the company he's never proven he can lead a FF team on his own. Not sure why everyone considers him such a savior.

You have to consider this - while it's true he has always had help in his directorial roles, 9 and 12 both had these people in a more hands-off role. Sakaguchi was transitioning out of development entirely, and Matsuno obviously left 12 after a period. He is qualified.

For whatever reason, though, when Sakaguchi left Square, he is on the record as saying that he left FF in the hands of Kitase; he talked in one interview of watching Kitase doing what was 'his role' in FFX and FFX-2 and realizing the time was right. Who knows why it wasn't Ito, or the pair as a team.

Unlike most, I'm not going to blindly hate Kitase - I think he's a good and talented developer, but I think Ito serves as the perfect counter-balance to his flaws. FF9 he wasn't there, I admit, and FF9 is still wonderful, but my point still stands. Kitase believes heavily in action-based mechanics, deeper story integration and this 'almost an interactive movie' future. His apprentice Toriyama thinks very similarly, and the result is those two working together to further that cause, pushing those ideas without much thought for the other side of the coin. Ito offers that other side of the coin.

There's a great anecdote in some Japanese ultimania or something for Chrono Trigger. That game was in trouble, and after FF6 both Kitase and Ito were bought over to the game to co-direct and help get it back on track. Supposedly Kitase checked out what there was, and embedded himself fixing the problems that were keeping the game from market - which is absolutely correct to do. Ito, though, saw a different problem - he felt that the game's story was too linear, and featured too much simple 'paging through text' just pressing A repeatedly. He focused his time on injecting more consequence and energy into the story itself, integrating story and gameplay more closely together.

The result was moments like the freedom in the Millenial Fair, and the trial sequence. In the originally intended CT none of that was there, and Crono just went straight to jail. All that weird action/consequence stuff was Ito, and that is absolutely an example of what the man does best - but based on FF12's development, Kitase may well be better at delivering actual product (or maybe not, based on 13 and Versus which, let's not forget, he is still associated with.) Hard to judge.

Anyway, my point is that the best possible outcome for the series would probably be for both of them to be involved... which will probably never happen anyway.
 
Yeah, but I think that credit goes to the art staff, Matsuno's taste as a director, and Minagawa's art direction. Ito probably had very little to do with the graphics. He's very much a game system designer, and doesn't seem to have experience doing much else.

This.

Ito also gets way too much credit for his 'direction' in FFVI, when the bulk of the story, characters, and events were designed by Sakaguchi and Kitase (especially Kitase, since he was really given a lot of creative freedom for the first time in the series).
Ito was more responsible for the direction of the battle system and character growth system.

That said, I think Kitase & Ito made a great team.
Kind of a shame FFVI & CT are their only major collaborations.

edit: APZonerunner... guess we were thinking about the same thing (i.e. another Kitase/Ito tagteam :p)
 

Aeana

Member
This.

Ito also gets way too much credit for his 'direction' in FFVI, when the bulk of the story, characters, and events were designed by Sakaguchi and Kitase (especially Kitase, since he was really given a lot of creative freedom for the first time in the series).
Ito was more responsible for the direction of the battle system and character growth system.

That said, I think Kitase & Ito made a great team.
Kind of a shame FFVI is their only major collaboration within the series.
I've never seen anyone give Ito credit for stories or characters. Not once.
 
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