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[DarknessTear]

Man, that's retarded, why my post is before GreekWolf's one although I posted it after?

Same thing happened to me :lol

Edit: lol it happened again

 

[GreekWolf]

b--bizz--ar--ooo--wooorld :lol

 

[Manp]

those kind of things keep happening... they're changing something in the matrix

 

[xaosslug]

I was hoping for realtime combat. Boo!

What is with the latest influx of retarded juniors?

I've always thought the mods approve a bunch of new members right around/before major gaming events to observe their behavior. :lol

 

[kallisto76]

nobuo uematsu had nothing to do with chrono trigger.

Nobuo Uematsu composed the following soundtracks:

* King's Knight (1986)
* Apple Town Monogatari
* Hanjuku Eiyuu (NES)
* Square's Tom Sawyer
* Rad Racer (1987)
* Final Fantasy I (1987)
* Final Fantasy II (1988) - Remixed by Tsuyoshi Sekito in Wonderswan Color and Playstation (2000, 2002)
* Makaitoushi SaGa (aka Final Fantasy Legend) (1989)
* Final Fantasy III (1990)
* SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu (aka Final Fantasy Legend 2) (1991)
* DynamiTracer
* Hataraku Chocobo
* Cleopatra no Mahou
* Cruise Chaser Blassty
* Final Fantasy IV (1991)
* Final Fantasy V (1992)
* Romancing SaGa 2 (1993) - with Kenji Ito
* Final Fantasy VI (1993)
* Chrono Trigger (1995) - with Yasunori Mitsuda and Noriko Matsueda (and with Tsuyoshi Sekito in Playstation version)
* Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1997) - with Yasunori Mitsuda and Junya Nakano
* Chocobo's Dungeon 2
* Final Fantasy VII (1997)
* Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
* Final Fantasy IX (2000)
* Final Fantasy X (2001) - with Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano
* Hanjuku Eiyuu Tai 3D (2002)
* Final Fantasy XI - Online (2002) - with Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka
* Tales of Symphonia (2004)
* Final Fantasy XII (2005) - with Hitoshi Sakimoto

 

[Blimblim]

Here is a rough translation of Sakaguchi's interview, done by mappy on my forum

Famitsu Lost Odyssey Interview



Hamamura(Famitsu Guy): It's been a long time, I heard you finally show us Lost Odyssey Demo, Right? Is it gone Gold?
Sakaguchi(Mistwalker): Yeah it's finalized at last. Let's start playing here.

- Sakaguchi start Lost Odyssey Demo. I can see its beautiful but really magnificent opening movie,
and it changed first ingame battle seamlessly.with Xbox360's power these gorgeous gameplay took our breath away.
His total playing time of this demo was almost 40min. He said it took you roughly 60min playing if first time.
We put some beautiful screens and some captions around pages. -


Hamamura : Wow..Now I can say the demo is finalized as you told.

Sakaguchi : Yup the demo is done.


Hamamura : I can be frankly to talk you this, but these goodness really approve the power of Next-Gen.

Sakaguchi : I've been to make these kind of things since early days of making plots.
For example, We couldn't put these crowds of soldiers in early developments.
But we made hard works and make its speed faster,then we can fill huge amounts of mobs in full of screen.


Hamamura : The first scene of opening reminds me LoTR movie. Massive amounts of mobs and soldiers were fighting like that.

Sakaguchi : Exactly,That's what I have been hoping to run real-time.


Hamamura : Yes, Actually I could understand if it was only a "Movie" though,
It didn't end as usual,but start gameplay seamlessly! I really thanks to Next-Gen to make these things possible.

Sakaguchi : It works and gets along somehow. But I think we can put more efforts in visuals for release day.
I can say it's only 80% done in visual aspects.


Hamamura : I also remembered that when you were SE employee, You showed us some of FF7 in development.
You still remember that??

Sakaguchi : Hey Hamamura. you changed your intonations in a Kansai accent. what's wrong with you (Laugh)


Hamamura : (Laugh) I'm sorry, yeah I know I'm really excited at this Demo.
Well,It was SNES era and we were very pleased it's visual quality. But we were really shocked at seeing FF7's pre-rendered CGIs
Cuz it showed us that we can play games in such a quality.

Sakaguchi : I can agree that.In LO we use almost same character model, texture's resolutions and artworks are almost same as well.
(I know they are different and) we can put lots of times in making "Movie" carefully, camera-works etc.
but we can make "real-times" looks almost same as "Movies", I think it's similar to Films.
We can check these 30 frames running and render them beautifully in real-time.


Hamamura : But, If you really want to make it Film-like, Only You should do was using real films.
But I can say there are lot of "feelings" from original artworks. It's really nice.

Sakaguchi : Kindly, Mr.Inoue did special efforts in these artworks, I want audiences also could "feel" his touch.
Actually, All of completed 3D model were checked by him. We send him 3D model datas which is rendered in several point of views.
He could correct some of them like "make this eyebrow little longer" then send us back. We had tons of these correction about details.
So, I believe Mr.Inoue is very satisfied as well.


Hamamura : Good thing that he's also satisfied.

Sakaguchi : And you can see that LO has low-color tones such as smokes, muddy water, dust etc.
I think you could feel that you were running in shallow muddy waters and jumping around.
Which is from Mr.Inoue's "Vagabond" manga, I wanted to make such atmospheres.
/* Vagabond : Inoue's VERY famous manga. one of his masterpieces.*/


Hamamura : I can admit it. I believe Next-Gen power really helps that, bringing originals to game as it is.

Sakaguchi : I believe Mr.Inoue's influence was really huge. Since hardware is Soo powerful,
we could make more eye-candy in monsters and visual effects. but we afraid them spoil Inoue's atmosphere.
Having been in Inoue's world, We could easily make a decision about LO's art directions.


Hamamura : Looks like its battle system is almost done as well.

Sakaguchi : No, this is pretty basic one. In this Demo version, we didn't implement two of key features,
character's "growing"(he didn't say LvLing) and "control-able".


Hamamura : Interesting. How it works?

Sakaguchi : Pardon?(Laugh)


Hamamura : c'mon

Sakaguchi : I can reveal only about "growing" though. Well there are some other guys who can't die like Kaim but will join your party.
In opposit there are "normal" people who can join your party as well.
When "normal" members are dying "abnormal" members have choice to merge their "ability" or not.


Hamamura : Ah, You told little about that at last interview we had.

Sakaguchi : Yeah.Who is able to "die" or not is depends on LO's game system, and it links to story.
I bet you will be WTF and hesitate to absorb some of their power.
It will knock your morals and make you dazzling. I wanna make LO's system like that.


Hamamura : It really sounds fun!

Sakaguchi : Yes, but I think LO will be really "unique" game,
main theme is "A man who can't die" and Kaim will be waking up even he is defeated.
I that terms there is no "game over" in this game. cuz you can't die.


Hamamura : It means never invincible but you "can't" die. In Demo, one soldier wondered and asked Kaim "why the hell you still alive?",
I got strong feeling at that scene.

Sakaguchi : That is main theme and make story driven. LO is so unique but It's gonna be new experience as well.


Hamamura : I noticed some fun factors, like you can kick a can and its movement is physically simulated.(Laugh)

Sakaguchi : Kicking is only you can do though.I think it's not proper way to use physics. much wastes of power.(Laugh)
I will implement physics into game systems as some secret or gimmicks or such.
But In Demo version, All you can do is Kicking a Can.


Hamamura : I also noticed that you can tear off posters. Kaim found it and gave a glance.

Sakaguchi : This kinds of fun is set as basic concept. LO has HUGE environments with LONG story.
So I wanted to put these "fun" much around to react your actions. But there are not enough in Demo.


Hamamura : I could find some amount of that though.

Sakaguchi : We will add them in final stage of development.
wanna put these useless fun factors, also wanna make NPC's extra stories as well.


Hamamura : When demo ended, there are short message appeared. What is this?

Sakaguchi : Mr.Shigematsu's work. yeah I know it's really short. The message tells you how the Demo ends.
it's not so loud but very meaningful. I like his choice of this word.


Hamamura : Yea. I was really moved.

Sakaguchi : You can check it out by playing Demo. You can see different massage in retail version.
It will be bit longer to tell about Story and its back-end.


Hamamura : I will. Speaking about Mr.Shigematsu, How much did he write up stories?

Sakaguchi : He is still working(Laugh) He has been busy on this since first day. He asked me "When is this finished???"(laugh)
I bet he already wrote up same amount of a novel. We implement it as Kaim's thousand year's dreams
and sometimes they appear as main scenario. there are tons of sad story.
Even most of them are shorter than normal "short story" it still makes me cry sometimes.


Hamamura : Everytime I can shed tears at his novels.


--

Hamamura : Let's go back to talk about Demo itself. How you willing to bring this Demo to customers?

Sakaguchi : You can play at TGS for sure. And we put Demo disc on Famitsu early November.
I think users can't play full of demo at TGS, So I hope them to check Famitsu and play everything.


Hamamura : I can't wait it as well. So when are you thinking final version will be released?

Sakaguchi : The release date should be 2007. I cant figure it though but we are trying to make it fast.
Since Demo is up. most of basic systems are already done.
So I need to work on map editing and some of event directions right now.


Hamamura : You're putting so much things to the last as you were.
Like last 20% of development takes same period of times of past 80%.

Sakaguchi : My staffs are already crying. They calls my corrections "Devil's Report" (Laugh)


Hamamura : (Laugh)Pls Do it more to make it better. Well Can I ask you about your other projects?

Sakaguchi : I'm pretty sure we can release Blue Dragon in this year. You can check it in TGS as well.
I can accept another interview about this.
If there are no problems in developing, I can say NDS game ASH will be out in 1st half of 2007.
Then Lost Odyssey and CryOn There are some of secret projects going on, but I can't tell atm.
Maybe We can talk about them near future.

Hamamura : Seems you are really gearing up so hard these days. Every your projects sounds fun!
I'm really looking forward them. Thanks.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Hamamura : You're putting so much things to the last as you were.
Like last 20% of development takes same period of times of past 80%.

Sakaguchi : My staffs are already crying. They calls my corrections "Devil's Report" (Laugh)

:lol

I hope that Mistwalker will do fine and that Sakaguchi will prove that he can still head up a great game. At least, MW games sound more interesting than most JRPGs. What's that ASH DS game all about?

 

[Uncle]

You get new abilites by getting your party members killed? Awesome.

 

[Wunderchu]

ooo, thanx Blimblim & mappy

 

[MightyHedgehog]

You get new abilites by getting your party members killed? Awesome.

Heh...well, it sounds like losing those party members that are able to die will change the story, as well as probably losing something uniquely theirs in the process, of course. It seems, from the rough translation anyway, that there is a system that is affected when you choose to impart other characters with the deceased one's abilities or not. Sounds a bit strategic from a skill point of view and probably, like seems to be mentioned in the translation, a determining factor in the way you move through the game's storyline(s). Sounds interesting, certainly.

And, yes, thanks to Blim and mappy for the translation.

 

[kallisto76]

Hamamura : Looks like its battle system is almost done as well.

Sakaguchi : No, this is pretty basic one. In this Demo version, we didn't implement two of key features,
character's "growing"(he didn't say LvLing) and "control-able".

it sounds like kotor's battle system, and i think it's good. I am also fascinated by the ability to absorb and merge powers from dying party members (higlander?)

Thanks to blim for having posted this huge interview, lots of interesting things

 

[Prine]

Sakaguchi : Yeah.Who is able to "die" or not is depends on LO's game system, and it links to story.
I bet you will be WTF and hesitate to absorb some of their power.

:lol :lol

 

[Uncle]

Heh...well, it sounds like losing those party members that are able to die will change the story, as well as probably losing something uniquely theirs in the process, of course.

Yes, I think so too. I wonder how much the deaths will change the game and story. It should be relatively easy to do tons of different styles to play through the game. The game takes place over a long period of time, but it's played in smaller segments (or else I have misunderstood something), right? So the deaths could have a butterfly effect eg. X died here so scenario Y that comes after it is different and so on.

 

[RegularMK]

i want it i want it i want it so bad

blue dragon too

i want them both

i want my next gen jrpg fix

now now now

unnggghhh

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Yes, I think so too. I wonder how much the deaths will change the game and story. It should be relatively easy to do tons of different styles to play through the game. The game takes place over a long period of time, but it's played in smaller segments (or else I have misunderstood something), right? So the deaths could have a butterfly effect eg. X died here so scenario Y that comes after it is different and so on.

Yeah, that sounds cool and might be what occurs. The translation/interview content doesn't seem to touch on exactly how much and exactly how things are affected by the death of characters. I can only assume that it's completely dependant on who they are in the world and what depends on them to be alive or dead. Sounds cool. I love games that engage the player in making choices that aren't so black and white but also persist with the decision's effects for the duration of the game's length.

 

[Teasel]

awesome! that was really appreciated blimblim

 

[Blimblim]

awesome! that was really appreciated blimblim

Thanks mappy, I just copy/pasted.

 

[Hunter D]

This game is going to own.

"There can be only one!"

 

[bud]

i don't get this. lost oddyssey won't be out 'til 2007 and we're getting all this info, while blue dragon is supposed to come out this year in japan and we know nothing about that game.

what gives?

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

i don't get this. lost oddyssey won't be out 'til 2007 and we're getting all this info, while blue dragon is supposed to come out this year in japan and we know nothing about that game.

what gives?

Obligatory "wait until TGS" post.

EDIT: I MEAN TGS not PS3 goddammit! Freudian slip?

 

[scorpian007]

Obligatory "wait until TGS" post.

QFT

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Sakaguchi : Kindly, Mr.Inoue did special efforts in these artworks, I want audiences also could "feel" his touch.
Actually, All of completed 3D model were checked by him. We send him 3D model datas which is rendered in several point of views.
He could correct some of them like "make this eyebrow little longer" then send us back. We had tons of these correction about details.
So, I believe Mr.Inoue is very satisfied as well.


Hamamura : Good thing that he's also satisfied.

Sakaguchi : And you can see that LO has low-color tones such as smokes, muddy water, dust etc.
I think you could feel that you were running in shallow muddy waters and jumping around.
Which is from Mr.Inoue's "Vagabond" manga, I wanted to make such atmospheres.
/* Vagabond : Inoue's VERY famous manga. one of his masterpieces.*/


Hamamura : I can admit it. I believe Next-Gen power really helps that, bringing originals to game as it is.

Sakaguchi : I believe Mr.Inoue's influence was really huge. Since hardware is Soo powerful,
we could make more eye-candy in monsters and visual effects. but we afraid them spoil Inoue's atmosphere.
Having been in Inoue's world, We could easily make a decision about LO's art directions.

Stoppit! I just fixed these pants, damn you!

This game sounds so fricking shit-hot. I'm really eager to see a less cartoony character designer have their work fully realized in an RPG. Here's hoping the PS3 can give us full on Amano designs for FFXXIX, not just CG hacks of them.

(I love Inoue!)

 

[Aryuken]

I cropped some of the scans Jonnyram posted in the famitsu thread (with thanks!). Should be relevant to the discussion

Ff13 what?

Lost odyssey is where its at baby.

 

[Blimblim]

Ff13 what?

Lost odyssey is where its at baby.

Was that really necessary?

 

[Drek]

This game sounds about a million times more compelling than Blue Dragon.

This generation change over is working out pretty nicely for me. I can play PS2 until holidays 2007, grab an X360 when this and Halo are out, likely with a nice price drop, and grab a PS3 when it sees a price drop shortly after. Too bad Nintendo is forcing Wii Sports on me, guess I'll grab a GC at some point to play Zelda. ;P

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Was that really necessary?

Probably not, but at this point I'm inclined to agree with him. Although I've never really been drawn to any of the many "FF but, you know a little different"s, I think Inoue on the decks and these cool gameplay improvements will make the wait for whenever I'll be able to play FFXII in back compat (i.e. when I'll actually be getting a PS3) a lot easier. (By which I mean, the demo and its awesomeness will give me the strength and fortitude I need.)

 

[Tieno]

I wonder why they aren't saying anything about distributing the LO demo via marketplace....weird!

Ff13 what?

Lost odyssey is where its at baby.

Don't destroy threads, please!

 

[TheJollyCorner]

holy crap this game looks awesome!
I love the art style- and the graphics look fabulous.

Day 1 for me.

Ff13 what?

Lost odyssey is where its at baby.

:lol :lol :lol let's not get carried away here.

 

[open_mouth_]

Microsoft seems to be (finally) doing some things right in Japan. I'm very interested in what they'll show at the TGS and whether or not any of their in-house stuff will be quality. But they're doing a nice mix of things for the future, on paper anyway, so far:

Winning 11
DOAX2
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey
Project Slypheed
CryOn
Phantasy Star Universe
Infinite Undiscovery (tri-ace)
Lost Planet
Resident Evil 5
Kingdom Under Fire 360
Viva Pinata
Forza Motorsport 2

not bad at all, though they could do more. They should flesh out XBLA with old school japanese stuff and some unique stuff and they need to grab a few more RPG exclusives. The more, the merrier.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Ff13 what?

Lost odyssey is where its at baby.

Shut-up.

I cropped some of the scans Jonnyram posted in the famitsu thread (with thanks!). Should be relevant to the discussion

This looks really nice. Lost Odyssey is being constructed with Unreal Engine 3, right? They sure weren't lying when they said that the CG and in-game models have little difference in appearance.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

The LO demo has seemingly broke Tim Rogers' brain....hopefully for good this time.

probably shouldn't say any more!!

just -- holy hell. i didn't know they were allowed to make stuff like this. you'd figure from all the ****ing bullshit that's been plopping out of game companies that making an "RPG" like this was illegal or some shit.

yeah . . . well. well!!

mother****!! i've only just watched the intro and am fighting some robots, though ****!!

this is the demo that'll be available on the TGS show floor, if you AHEM what i mean.

also they'll be giving it away in weekly famitsu in november.

yeah, yeah -- they can do it. ****, put previews in ****ing movie theaters of this.

holy shit. holy shit sakaguchi brought the ****ing hammer down.

also, takehiko inoue is god.

nobuo uematsu is a ****ing one-winged angel.

**** final fantasy!! **** that bullshit! this game is dark and ****ing weird and ****ing creepy as shit.

holy lord!!

my froth has been flash-boiled, so that there is no froth left, before any froth hath been expended

and...

just look up the famitsu scans for, uh . . . pictures, and then imagine it moving

i mean, it's really smooth

the battles are, well, kind of final fantasy ATB, which sakaguchi can use he wants because it's his ****ing system

it's just -- the overall QUALITY of it is so perfect, plus it has some serious VISION and BALLS and some creepyass music that reaches a hell of a techno-pound when the battles roll around

most of my froth that was is visual; it looks like what final fantasy vii's opening ten hours wanted to look like, only it accomplishes it 100%

if sakaguchi is aiming for squeenix's throat, and if blue dragon is half as good as this -- he's got them, he's got the ****ers

while they're selling their souls remaking SEIKEN DENSETSU FOR CELL PHONES, here's sakaguchi, saying he's going to make a masterpiece, and then putting a **** OF A LOT OF MONEY where his mouth is

yeah, i think the xbox 360 is sold to japan -- i think this is it, i think microsoft can do it with this game, that's what i'm saying

yeah, squeenix is dead

 

[Blimblim]

The LO demo has seemingly broke Tim Rogers' brain....hopefully for good this time.

One can hope.
m0dus: Count yourself lucky you never had to read one of this guy's stuff.

 

[PhatSaqs]

The LO demo has seemingly broke Tim Rogers' brain....hopefully for good this time.



and...

Who is this guy? :lol :lol

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Tim rogers?

The guy over at Insert Credit. Look up some of his reviews and be prepared to read about everything but what he's supposed to be writting about. You'll get pages of info on his dog, what he's eating, the humidity in the air, how much Pockey he can fit in his mouth at one time, etc. The man is clearly insane.

 

[DarknessTear]

I wonder if Tim Rogers knows that Uematsu only did 3 tracks so chances of it being all Uematsu music is low?

 

[Tieno]

One can hope.
m0dus: Count yourself lucky you never had to read one of this guy's stuff.

I see...I'm always careful with these kind of 'impressions'. They don't offer much insight, just a bunch of hyperbole statements.

 

[Blimblim]

I see...I'm always careful with these kind of 'impressions'. They don't offer much insight, just a bunch of hyperbole statements.

I'm not saying he's biased or anything like that, just that he's batshit insane.

 

[Aryuken]

Was that really necessary?

Hey i'm just excited, nothing wrong with that, cut me some slack man.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

I wonder if Tim Rogers knows that Uematsu only did 3 tracks so chances of it being all Uematsu music is low?

???

I wasn't aware of this. Where'd you hear this Drakness? Oh, and then who IS doing the soundtrack?

 

[DarknessTear]

???

I wasn't aware of this. Where'd you hear this Drakness? Oh, and then who IS doing the soundtrack?

It's something I can't find easily. It's a bit of old info. I believe it was said in a Play! VG Symphony interview.

 

[duckroll]

Uematsu is composing all of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. He just recently finished all of Blue Dragon's soundtrack, so he'll be working fulltime on Lost Odyysey from now on. For a game that's out in 2007, he has lots of time.

 

[Aryuken]

It's something I can't find easily. It's a bit of old info. I believe it was said in a Play! VG Symphony interview.

He had only made 3 tracks at the time....

 

[DarknessTear]

Bah, someone find the damn interview. I can't find it.

 

[neptunes]

Uematsu is composing all of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. He just recently finished all of Blue Dragon's soundtrack, so he'll be working fulltime on Lost Odyysey from now on. For a game that's out in 2007, he has lots of time.

Ahh sheeeit

more screens (or scans) please.

 

[DarknessTear]

Okay, I'm sorry, 10 tracks. No idea where I got 3... yet.

http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=518&page=4

Uematsu: Well, after that I have Lost Odyssey with Mistwalker, and... at this time I'll be composing ten songs for that, so that's my next project.

 

[Aryuken]

:lol :lol :lol let's not get carried away here.

Spoiler

Carried away? How so? Don't understand what you mean....

 

[charlequin]

I actually kinda like Tim Rogers, even if he's given to the absolute worst depths of blogghoroea, and also even if he is one of those obnoxiously indie twits who's too excited about their semi-hot asian girlfriend.

Lost Odyssey looks awesome, though. The screenshots alone really impress me just because the visual style is so unique -- it's realistic, which we're all used to, but it's got all those subtle clouds and wasteland colors, like Sakaguchi talks about in the interview. If it really delivers on mixing evolved FF-style RPG gameplay and AAA production values with a style that's both like and yet utterly unalike what FF has done, I'm completely and utterly sold. Hell, I'll buy a 360 for it.

Also, it's good to hear that ASH is still coming out for DS. :lol

EDIT: Are you sure that interview is accurate here? Every promo material they've released for LO has said "Soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu" in big giant letters.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

I'm excited. Are you excited? I'm excited.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Hamamura : I can be frankly to talk you this, but these goodness really approve the power of Next-Gen.

This is my favorite sentence all month.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Not quite. They do overall design on the titles. It's not like Artoon is getting set loose on Blue Dragon with just a five-page summary and a "go wild!" Mistwalker are basically having their own employees and contractors serve as the top tier managers and oversight and basically use the other companies to provide the low-level programmers and texture artists and whatnot.

We may see more of this in the future as big name talent flee and seek a way to make money off the successes of their former employers.