The four people responsible for bringing FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2: Grimoire of the Rift to life shares secrets about the project’s development, the difficulties they faced, and behind-the-scenes details they can only tell us now that the project is complete. This SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS interview can be found by clicking here. Part 1 can be found by clicking here. Part 3 is yet to be uploaded. For those who have not got access to Part 2 of the inteview. You can find it below.

- Vaan and Penelo from FINAL FANTASY XII appear in the game, but was this always the plan?

Yuichi Murasawa: Yes, we planned from the beginning to have them in the game. Since FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2 is part of the Ivalice Alliance [See below], we wanted a common element to connect all of the games. With this in mind, we asked ourselves which characters would clearly embody this connection not only to those who had played the other games, but also to people who only played FFT-A2. The answer was Vaan and Penelo. We thought we’d let players see what they’d become after earning a bit of money and buying some new clothes. [Laughs] Al-Cid is only there because of the insistence of the producer. [Laughs]

Hiroaki Kato: I really wanted to include Balthier. I asked [Scenario & Event Director] Kyoko Kitahara, again and again to put him in, but she stubbornly refused. [Laughs] Since Al-Cid appeared in the game a little already, I thought maybe there was something we could do with him. Originally he was only in one or two scenes and that was it, but I asked them to at least make him a playable character. At first Mr. Murasawa heatedly opposed the idea. [Laughs]

Yuichi Murasawa: Al-Cid had too strong a personality. Here’s this unabashed playboy from FFXII, so what’s going to happen when we let the player control him? [Laughs] Looking back, though, I’m glad we decided to do it. He turned out less of a fighting unit and more of a fun character, but there’s no harm in having a few of those, is there?
The music was written with the feel of the previous title in mind.

- How many songs did you request for the game?

Hiroaki Kato: The last title had about 50 songs, so with the songs from that game and the new songs written for this game, we requested about 60 songs in total. We thought this would bring a smile to the face of those who’d played the previous game, while still giving them something new to listen to and enjoy.

- You were also the lead composer on the previous title. Did that work influence you here?

Hitoshi Sakimoto: Most of the music I write tends to be very heavy, but unusually, the work I did on FINAL FANTASY TACTICS ADVANCE had a light feel from the start. The impression that game left me with was one of having written very cheerful music. So I made a conscious effort to make the music for this title a continuation of that work by writing songs in the same style.

- Did you encounter any difficulties composing the music?

Hitoshi Sakimoto: I did my work on the previous title as a challenge for myself and as a project, but this time I knew there were people expecting the music to live up to the first title, so I felt a lot of pressure.

Hiroaki Kato: Even when we were talking on the phone, he’d always say things like, “Wow, the last title was easier, so much easier.” [Laughs]

Yuichi Murasawa: Unlike the last title, the game world was already fleshed out, and I’m sure that presented some problems. On the last title, nothing was set yet, so whatever you wrote at the time would set the standard for everything to come. This time when he first brought us some of the songs to listen to, I remember thinking “he’s on the wrong track” about some of them. [Laughs]

Hitoshi Sakimoto: My overriding impression from the last title was that it was a pleasant experience. But thinking back, I wasn’t sure specifically what I was drawing on when I was writing the music. So when I tried to draw on the same things again to make the music for this game, it was very difficult. By the latter half I had finally found the right direction, and things went much more smoothly from that point.

Hiroaki Kato: When the situation had improved, you could tell the difference the instant you heard one of the songs.

- Which song was done first?

Hiroaki Kato: The battle music.

Hitoshi Sakimoto: But that ended up being the last song finished.

Hiroaki Kato: At the end, Mr. Sakimoto said there was something he wanted to fix.

Hitoshi Sakimoto: Well, things hadn’t started out all that well. [Laughs] It had been bothering me. It was the first song I sent in. It was right down to the wire, but since I had a chance to swap in a new version, I told them I wanted to submit it again, and I got to fix it.

We had thought about using movies for the summon animations.

- The summoning system is very involved. Could you tell us how it took on its current form?

Yuichi Murasawa: In the last game, each race had one summoned beast that protected that race, for a total of only five summons in all. Because FFXII had since used thirteen summoned beasts, we wanted all thirteen of these to appear. This was much to the dismay of our effects lead. [Laughs] Since the number of summons no longer matched the number of races, we developed a summoning system that uses the Smash Gauge in combination with special accessories.

- The two-screen effects are stunning. Was this how you’d always planned on presenting the summons?

Yuichi Murasawa: We really wanted the effects there to stand out from the rest. One of the ways we chose to accomplish this was by using two screens. But the original idea was completely different. We’d thought about making the summons themselves be pre-rendered movies. But our effects team buckled down and showed us what they could do without using movies at all. When we saw what they’d made, we were amazed. The overall movement, the power, and the rotating map were all great, and we knew what we were seeing would work.

Hiroaki Kato: When the effects team showed us the sample they’d made, it was clear that it had a lot of potential.

Yuichi Murasawa: We even asked them if it could really be done. [Laughs] It’s a testimony to the skills of [lead visual effects designer] Jiro Mifune. And it’s not just the summons, but the effects throughout the game. It was really an extraordinary technical accomplishment that they could get so much out of so little. There was nothing in particular they were doing that was all that extraordinary. But that they were able to get such great results when everything was put together demonstrates an amazing sense of design.

Akitoshi Kawazu: From a technical standpoint, the effects not only for the summons but for everything use 3D, and the quality is extremely high.

Part 3 to come soon…

Source: http://member.square-enix.com/na/

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