DarkLordMalik
Member
Full interview
He wasn't happy with the direction for FFXIII but he feels like Tabata is on the right track when it comes to the spirit of the series.
Regarding FFVII: Remake, I agree with what Sakaguchi says. It will be tough for SE to accomplish this task.
Bonus
He wasn't happy with the direction for FFXIII but he feels like Tabata is on the right track when it comes to the spirit of the series.
I'm going to paraphrase a quote from [original Final Fantasy composer] Nobuo Uematsu, from an interview I did with him many years ago. I asked him how he felt when you left Squaresoft. His response was "I think that the day Sakaguchi-san left Squaresoft, they should have stopped making Final Fantasy." Do you have a response to that?
When I first left the company, I did feel that Squaresoft was taking the games in a direction that I didn’t want them to, specifically with Final Fantasy XIII. I wasn’t particularly happy with it. But after leaving the company, and with time, I have come to accept that I was the one who left, so they were free to do what they wanted with it. And recently I have been looking at Final Fantasy XV, and although I’ve never known or worked with Tabata-san, by looking at his production I feel that he has adopted the spirit that I had when I first created the series. I feel that, in the hands of talented people, the original feel of the series is being brought back.
Regarding FFVII: Remake, I agree with what Sakaguchi says. It will be tough for SE to accomplish this task.
It’s something that fans have wanted for a long time. The expectation that it was going to be made was dwindling, so when they announced it at the Sony event it was an exciting moment.
Yeah, but remakes are difficult. Look at Star Wars. George Lucas added new CGI to the original and people still prefer to watch the originals rather than the remake. Not to say it’s a bad thing. I just think it’s difficult.
CyberConnect is responsible for the core development, and that's a very good studio. If you were to give them advice about what is essential to Final Fantasy VII, what would it be?
I think it’s quite challenging... I mean, we’ve seen previews of the new game and obviously all the visuals have changed. Which means all the fight scenes will also change accordingly, so they will probably keep the battles in real-time. I think that they must be making a brand new game that just shares the characters, story and world. So, there’s really nothing I can give in terms of advice. Do as you wish, I guess.
Bonus
Are there any series from the original PlayStation era, when Squaresoft was perhaps at its most prolific, that you think would be interesting to see come back now?
I would love to make a new Tobal game, because of Akira Toriyama.