The Legend Returns: Hironobu Sakaguchi on The Last Story

The man behind the Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi, made his return to the director's chair with The Last Story for Wii. This epic RPG hit Japanese store shelves in early 2011, and will finally be making it's way stateside this summer.

Recently IGN had the chance to chat via e-mail with Sakaguchi-san. We talked everything from The Last Story to his directorial return to his current projects. Check out the full interview below, then be sure to sound off with your own thoughts in the comments afterward.

IGN: How did you go about creating the battle system in The Last Story? It’s decidedly less traditional than many people were probably expecting - was this intentional?

Sakaguchi: In the three years of development, we dedicated the first year to research and development, mainly as a trial and error period for the battle system. The battle system in the game is the culmination of that phase.

IGN: The Last Story marks your first return to the director’s chair in quite some time. Was it difficult getting back into the swing of things, or is directing something like riding a bicycle?

Sakaguchi: Since I was working with the same members as the Blue Dragon team, I was able to get back into it fairly smoothly. Also, from my experience, the producer and director do the same type of workload in the initial development phase, which I think is another reason why it wasn’t so difficult getting back into things as a director. I guess I’m the type of creator that wants to get involved in the grunt work.

IGN: What was the greatest challenge you encountered in your quest to make a brand new RPG adventure from the ground up? Alternately, what was the most rewarding aspect of this project?

Sakaguchi: At the initial stage our plan was completely shot down by Nintendo. To create an entirely new world view and characters again was a bit challenging, but rewarding in the end. That would probably be the answer on both accounts.

IGN: Music always seems to play a huge role in your games, if only in terms of setting a certain atmosphere and tone. What tracks stand out to you from The Last Story? What’s the overall tone you hope to invoke as readers play through the story (whether it be through music, dialogue, backgrounds, etc.)?

Sakaguchi: That would be the track called “Toberumono (The Flying One).” There’s a lot of sentimental value attached to it since I wrote the lyrics, and it also voices the “foreignness” that the game has. The song is about the world you are in not being the place where you are meant to be. The phrase “going home” is used positively as you fly towards the future.

The tone I would like players to invoke while playing this game is “warmth” and a sense of “texture.” I want players to experience the sensation of a handmade craftwork that feels natural, yet very detailed, with beautiful workmanship.

IGN: Creating a game as vast and fresh as The Last Story must have taken quite a bit of trial and error. Was there anything you tried to fit in but for whatever reason just couldn’t make it work?

Sakaguchi: That would be the “Rewind Function.” This was a feature that when a mage’s magic was successful, an icon would appear for the player to shake the remote. By shaking the controller at that moment it would rewind the battle to just before the mage unleashed their magic. From there it would show the sequence again from an overhead view.

Using this feature, players would have been able to see who used what magic, check the battle situation and then strategize on what to do next. However, the feature slowed the battle tempo too much, so unfortunately we decided to take it out. You can still see remnants of this feature in the overheard view while in command mode, or while watching the Lazulis Knights cheating in the match at the arena.

IGN: Characters play a key role in The Last Story. How did you go about creating a cast of characters that players can relate to?

Sakaguchi: We put together most of the characters’ bios while creating the plot. Then, while Fujisaka (artist of The Last Story) was finalizing the illustrations, I’d get inspiration from the art which I used to fine tune their characteristics and backgrounds.

This title also has a lot of voices. In the dungeons the characters converse with each other about random things, and this was something that was very important for me in the game. Because I wanted to convey some of their personalities through this small talk, it was crucial to include some of the voice actors’ adlibs and make small changes to the actual scripts to keep refining them and carefully mold each character.

Characters matter in The Last Story.

IGN: As an overall experience, how was working on The Last Story different from working on other RPG franchises you’ve been linked to in the past (which shall remain nameless).

Sakaguchi: The biggest difference is the battle system. I was aiming to create something that would make people say, “This is the new RPG battle style,” if possible. Additionally, we were really careful about the collision detection in the background graphics. I wanted to be careful about those small aspects because I thought they would affect the overall feel of the “texture” of the game while walking around in the world.

IGN: What’s the one thing you want players to take away from The Last Story?

Sakaguchi: To feel as though they are having an adventure together with the characters. I would be very pleased if players are able to feel truly immersed in the world and share the moments together with the characters.

IGN: Now that development on The Last Story has concluded, what are you working on next?

Sakaguchi: Currently we are developing a surfing game for the iOS. It’s called Party Wave, and is scheduled to come out this July. It’s a small development project, but the environment is very free and open which reminds me of the early Final Fantasy titles.

I’m very excited as I’m involved in creating some number fonts which I haven’t done in a while and writing the music. I’m enjoying it, and at the same time I think it’ll become another title that has that handmade warmth to it. We are also developing two more iOS titles. We’ll be able to release these shortly as well.

IGN: Lastly, what was your experience creating a sweeping RPG for the Wii? Did you enjoy the creativity yielded by having technical limitations to work within, or do you ultimately wish you had created the game on more advanced hardware?

Sakaguchi: It’s unfortunate, but the final issue that always seemed to deny certain ideas was the SD resolution limitation. However, within those parameters we aimed to create a title with beautiful graphics that can compete with modern day specs. I would be pleased if people would view our efforts to their best by switching their cables to advanced connection cables or by playing it in the best environment possible. And though the resolution may be SD, I think players will really enjoy the sophisticated world.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/30/the-legend-returns-hironobu-sakaguchi-on-the-last-story