Posted by Dean on
July 19, 2008
For a previous interview with Hashimoto and Kitase please click here. This time Hashimoto and Kitase spoke to Gamespy about what to expect in Final Fantasy XIII. They even give their perspective on the bad news circulating around the internet concerning fan boys dismay.
- So, big news, what fueled the decision to take Final Fantasy XIII out of exclusivity on the PS3?
Shinji Hashimoto: The decision was basically made when we considered the install base and overseas appeal of the Xbox 360, so we wanted to answer the needs of supplying the game to as many of our fans as possible.
- In terms of the legacy of the series, will this change anything from the players’ point of view?
Hashimoto: It’s more related to how the gaming industry has changed, because it has always been that one console was the leader with the others following behind. But now, we are in a time when the PS3 and 360 are on the same level and there are so many different platforms for the player to choose from that Final Fantasy must evolve to meet the different needs of those players.
- Is there any impact that moving to Microsoft’s technology could have on the White Engine, because initially we were told that the PS3 would be the best platform for exploiting what the engine could do.
Yoshinori Kitase: Well, the White Engine is actually called the Crystal Tool now, but it’s basically the same thing and essentially it’s a collection of tools for game development that are necessary for game development. The order of development is that first we will develop FF13 for the PS3 and make it specific to that hardware to try to accommodate all the functionality offered by it and then, after the PS3 version is complete, we are going to develop the Xbox 360 version. So, in that sense, we don’t really have much to discuss about the development of the Xbox 360 version right now, but that’s the order of our development cycle.
The new face of 21st Century Final Fantasy
- Are there any inspirations that stand out from the series’ history that are going into FF13?
Kitase: Of course, the platform is completely different since the last Final Fantasy was on the PS2, and now that we’re moving to the PS3 and Xbox 360 there’s going to be a big difference there in memory capacity and the medium is completely different, so it’ll be a totally different thing. Because of the advanced hardware, we’ll be able to expand the Final Fantasy world even more and create a more realistic feel, so there’ll be monsters wandering around the field and we can make huge monsters or a great number of monsters, so in line with that realism, it will feel like those creatures are actually living in that world and generally be more interactive.
- So, speaking of that world, over the course of the series there have been a number of worlds created. We’ve become very familiar with the world of Final Fantasy VII with Midgar and Shinra and we’ve come to know the world of Ivalice because there have been a ton of games in the Ivalice Alliance. Is there anything that you can share with us about the world of Fabula Nova Crystalis?
Kitase: There’s not too much we can disclose in regards to the details of the world, but we can say that there’s the Fabula Nova Crystalis, or the legend of the crystal, and it’s a mythology that exists within the game world and it’s analogous to the real world. Like, we have Greek mythology and other mythologies with different gods and different traditions and even though it may not be a real world, these things remain in our world as maybe names of regions or monuments in the real world as well. So, the world of FF13 will be similar to that in that these kinds of stories exist, but the world of FF13 is a real world that is not necessarily connected directly to that mythological world, but there are still monuments of that world that exist as reminders.
- The fact that the game will be on the 360, does that in any way sway the story? What I mean by that is, there are some people who’ve only played on the 360 and they may have very little understanding of the story, so was that taken into account in terms of the story?
Kitase: There’s no real difference or additions that were incorporated because of coming to the 360. Traditionally, the Final Fantasy series has been created so that you don’t really need to know any backstory or any sidestories in order to enjoy each game and so we’ll be approaching FF13 in this way as well. Of course, there’s also probably a lot of people that are just now coming to the series, so we want to make the game available to as many people as possible in a way they can enjoy.
- There’s been quite a bit of commentary around the Internet following the announcement that the game’s coming to 360, both good and bad, so what is the response of the team, specifically in regards to the negative commentary?
Kitase: There are many different kinds of negative comments, but the one that stands out particularly is that the move to multiplatform is very bad because it means that we won’t maximize the new features of each piece of hardware and will kind of become more generic so that it can fit both platforms, but, as mentioned earlier, the game is going to be completed for the PS3 first, so we’re going to maximize our use of that hardware and take advantage of all of its features, creating the game specifically tailored to the PS3 and then transition to the Xbox 360 and exploit that hardware to its fullest. So, the team is confident in the power of both platforms and not worried about that part at all.
Hashimoto: Just to clarify, in building a 360 version in addition to the PS3 version, it’s important to note that we’re not changing our minds and switching over to the Xbox 360 or anything like that, but rather simply creating a game for the PS3 while realizing that there could be more people playing the game if we also offer it on the Xbox 360 as well.
Source: Gamespy
