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Questions from the Audience:
Q: I’ve been a big fan of Final Fantasy for a long time. Is there any deliberate parallel between Final Fantasy and The Last Story?
HS: It’s not really answering the question directly, but my daughter once told me that Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, how come you can only give such similar names to your games? So for the next game, I’ll definitely give it a different name!
Q: When it comes to games design, do you have any particular way of how you tackle the actual designing of the game? Is there anything you like to do in a particular order, or does it just come as it comes?
HS: Often ideas come to me while I’m taking a shower or waiting for a wave when I’m surfing, and “gathering” was one of those ideas which came to me during these. Of course, new ideas always need to be experimented, and that was no different for the gathering system where at first, the gathering caused the enemies to all come to the protagonist at once and batter the protagonist, so there was a lot of trial and error involved in the game design.
Q: You’re very famous for your collaboration with Nobuo Uematsu, so I have two questions. Have you ever totally disagreed with the music he presents you with, and secondly, has he ever presented you with music that actually gives you an idea to further develop the game, for instance come up with a new character or a new city or town – something new for the game based on the music?
HS: My answer to your first question is usually I give the story plot to Uematsu-san, and I receive about three pieces of music from him. The only times I’ve rejected them was for the first Final Fantasy and for this Last Story. The reason why I did that for The Last Story was because I changed the system completely, so I wanted a completely different style of music from the Final Fantasy franchise. After I rejected the three pieces of music from him, I didn’t hear from him for about a month, and I thought, using the example of a married couple, that our twenty-five year marriage was going to come to an end! But eventually he came back with the music which is now in the game.
KM: And some flowers to apologise, right? [audience laughs]
HS: To answer to your second question, because Uemastu-san’s music is so melodious and it has a huge influence, there are times when I receive the music and sometimes edit the game around that music.
Q: What drives you to be the best designer you can possibly be? What are you influenced by?
HS: In terms of the storyline for my games, often what inspires me is a birth of a child or a death of a close person, and on the system side, often what inspires me is playground games you play as a child.
Q: How do you think the RPG has evolved over the past twenty five years?
HS: Okay, I’d need about thirty minutes to explain that. But I think there are three main things. Firstly the transition from 2D to 3D, for example with Final Fantasy VII. This was a huge turning point, I believe. Another thing is the increased usage of the internet and the incorporation of online elements has also given an additional dimension to gaming. Thirdly, with the evolution of hardware, games have evolved greatly in terms of graphics and sound than what I knew twenty five years ago, so we’ve come a long way since twenty five years ago when I was creating the first Final Fantasy.
I also believe that the characters in JRPGs and the relationship with one another and the world view of these characters are all influenced by manga and anime.
Q: Earlier you mentioned how you get your ideas for your games. I was wondering what made you move to iPhone for your next game?
HS: I’m making three games for iOS – a small project and a platformer. The first one is a surfing game – I’m not joking! I’m a big Apple fan.
Q: What advice would you give to an aspiring game designer?
HS: One of the first few games that I designed ended up as failures, so when it came to Final Fantasy I, I gave it its name because I thought that if this fails this will be my final game and I’ll leave the video games industry. Looking back, the reason why I failed was because I kept on copying what was already on the market, so my advice would be to free yourself and follow what you believe would be good for the game.
Q: With The Last Story centred upon Lazulis Island, would it be an ambition of yours to expand upon it and serialise it into further instalments?
HS: It’s a good idea, but I don’t know whether I will be doing it.
Q: You must be grateful for the huge success of Final Fantasy, but I’ve always wondered whether you ever get tired about all the questions about Final Fantasy?
HS: I had six interviews this morning and there were so many questions about Final Fantasy! So yeah, you’re right – I am really tired of it!
Q: You’ve helped to create so many games over the last three decades – which game are you most proud of?
HS: Probably it would be Final Fantasy I. I have a lot of memories from that time and it was my starting point as well. The main programmer at the time was in charge of the debug, but her visa ran out at the time and we had to carry it on over the telephone because back in the day there was no email communication! So that was quite memorable.
Q: When you’re starting a new game, does the concept for the combat system and overall mechanics come first, or is it the story that comes first, and how does the interplay between those two things develop as your game design goes on?
HS: For The Last Story, it was definitely the system which came first. I felt that if I started working on the story too early, I’d have to adapt the system to the story so I left the story until a bit later on. But of course there are times when I do start the story first – Lost Odyssey was one example when I first started off scripting the story.
Q: With The Last Story being a Wii exclusive, what are your thoughts on the future of dedicated video games consoles like the Wii at a time when an increasing number of people are playing games on their smart-phones and tablets?
HS: I’m also creating three games for the smartphone, I can’t be certain about what will happen in the future, but images outputted by PCs and consoles are always going to be of higher quality, so they will never disappear off the face of the earth. But at the same time, the smartphone market is increasing rapidly, so it really remains to be seen.
KM: Could you ever see yourself creating a 30-40 hour game for a smartphone?
HS: MMORPGs are also very fun to play, and I don’t think it would be a surprise if they become 30-40 hour games on the smartphone as well.
Q: This is going to be another Final Fantasy related question, I’m afraid, but now that you’re detached from the franchise, what do you think of Final Fantasy XIII and the direction it’s going in?
HS: Have you played it?
Q: No, I haven’t.
HS: Oh, well in that case it’s fun, so please play it!
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