Famitsu’s Final Fantasy IV DS Interview
Joining the Japanese Famitsu magazine in this interview is Producer Tomoya Asano (left), who was also the producer for Final Fantasy III DS and Executive Producer, Director Takashi Tokita (right), the planner for the original SNES version FFIV who wrote the scenarios and events.
The original article can be found on the
magazine website or in the June 1st issue.
What was the reason behind your decision to port “Final Fantasy IV” to the Nintendo DS?
Asano: This time I wanted to succeed what we managed to achieve with the DS version of “Final Fantasy III”.
Towards the end of FFIII’s development, I could really feel how great the players’ reaction was towards the game so by all means; I wanted to continue the work and discussed it with Tokita.
Tokita: Playing the DS version of FFIII, I felt that
the hardware managed to achieve both quality and a good atmosphere. It’s because of those factors that I think Final Fantasy III was really well re-made. I thought we could manage another game just as good and interesting if we ported “Final Fantasy IV” in the same style.
The logo design has been updated, hasn’t it?
Asano: We really disputed whether to change the logo or not. In the end, we asked Mr. Amano to draw it for us and he came up with something really good.
Tokita: I think
he managed to create a logo that makes you feel the dramatic side of the game. Mr Amano too is very attached to his FFIV characters. In comparison to the Famicom at the time, the Super Famicom console was what really allowed Mr. Amano to realize his world so he really put in a lot of effort to create them.
Is the team who was involved with the development of FFIII behind this too?
Asano: Yes. Matrix,
the company who developed the DS version of FFIII will be working on it. They have been with us since Dragon Quest V’s remake. As for staff from our own company we have Mr. Tokita as the director and Hiroyuki Itou, who’s helped with the Final Fantasy series’ battle system designs, supervising the battle system side of things.
Tokita: The actual in-game characters have been designed to follow Mr. Amano’s designs.
Will the original development team be participating too?
Asano: Of course. When we made the DS version of FFIII we had the original team members such as Hiromichi Tanaka and Kazuhiko Aoki joining us so that we could bring over the same qualities of the original version.
How long did it take to develop the original version?
Tokita: We didn’t have a large team working on it. With around 14 people working on everything including the graphics and sound I think it took around a year.
How big is the team this time?
Tokita: We have a
total of around 50 people I think.
Asano: Around the
same number of people we had during the development of FFIII.
Mr. Tokita too was one of the original development staff, yes?
Tokita: Yes. I’m a member of the old Squaresoft staff and working as the planner
I created all the game events alone. Final Fantasy IV was the first game that I had to do that when I was working on the beta version.
I even had to come up with all the ideas and work on the pixel art. The pressure was really big knowing that if I didn’t work on the game myself, it wouldn’t be completed.
And what is the best thing about FFIV?
Tokita: Well to me,
Final Fantasy IV is a great compilation that took all the best parts of Final Fantasy I, II and III. The characters are portrayed with the jobs from III and the story element is drawn from II… In Final Fantasy I there was the 4 Chaos but in Final Fantasy IV there’s the Four Kings. With such enemies in the game, it really adds to the story and mood, acting as symbols for the game. It’s what we had in mind when we made the original version.
With this port, how much of the development will you be involved with?
Tokita: I wrote all of the scenarios myself back then but this time I’ll be re-checking all of it. 16 years ago I was still a young man so I want to try and see if there’s any parts that I feel my inexperience had a bad effect on or maybe I wasn’t expressive enough at the time. I wrote the scenarios so that there wasn’t too much script that would hinder the story’s mood. The character images were already very strong and every character’s role was set so extraneous script wasn’t necessary. There was plenty of variety with the young and old characters alike.
Is the main story staying the way it is?
Tokita: Well, k
eeping the main story we’ve added new original events. The GBA version of the game had some but this time we’ve taken it to another level. When we made the Super Famicom version, only a quarter of the scenarios we wrote were actually used. In the port this time
we’ve been working to flesh out the parts we cut out but at the same time, cutting out the parts that we think are extraneous.
Asano: There will of course be
completely new sub events but, we’ll also be touching on the key parts of the game that have never been revealed in any of the Final Fantasy IV ports thus far.
So there’s still parts of the game that hasn’t been brought to light?
Tokita: There are parts that are unclear or haven’t been looked at in depth. When we first made the game we really didn’t think that far but, by making sure events are kept consistent I think the drama will be raised to another level this time.
You’ve been trying new ideas for this port?
Tokita: Well we haven’t been going as far as, “Oh no! What should we do for new ideas?” They’ve all been coming along naturally.
And that’s the major selling point this time round, yes?
Tokita: I think the ideas will make the greatest impact on those who have played Final Fantasy IV countless times.
Have the event scenes in FFIV been improved upon?
Asano: Yes, our development team has greater experience and skill now after all. When we were remaking Final Fantasy III, the concept was to let players have lots of with all the jobs but with Final Fantasy IV, the concept is about the scenarios and the drama that they bring. Thus, it’s important the scenes really do their part.
Tokita: People are saying that it’s only now that Final Fantasy games are picking up on drama but I think Final Fantasy IV have parts that brought out the same effects too
Asano: The
event scenes are really becoming elaborate pieces of work. It’s the first time we’ve been working directly with the company’s concepts team after all.
What about the time when Final Fantasy III was being remade?
Asano: We didn’t have to work with the concepts team then.
Tokita: The concepts team at our company is comprised of people who came from the Anime industry. The leader is Mr. Yoshinori Kanada who helped with the classic “Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Space Cruiser Yamato)” show and some other Ghibli titles.
Asano: You’ll definitely recognize his illustrations the moment you see them. He’s been helping with the main event scenes of the recent Final Fantasy series too.
Tokita: All the movies and scenes are based on the concept art we receive from him and his team.
So how long are the event scenes in total?
Asano: All the important scenes have been created in an entirely different manner compared to the time we worked on the DS version of FFIII and we’ve also added in some other interesting events too. There’s
mainly around 60 minutes of events and with them all at FFIII’s level, it’s a lot of content.
Will Final Fantasy IV have some DS specific features just like FFIII?
Asano: With FFIII we concentrated on the stylus but with Final Fantasy IV, we’ve been looking at what we could do with the dual screens. It’s important that we use the two screens so that the player can have a comfortable playing experience. For example, making the help window bigger during battles.
You’re trying to make players more aware of things?
Asano: Yes, we are partly. Those who played the original Final Fantasy IV always used “Aim” or the “Sage’s Staff” a lot in certain situations. For such situations
we want to display the hit success rate for enemies so that players can employ strategies. We’ve designed the layout so that it would display such essential bits of information.
Tokita: The
“Active Time Battle” system from FFIV has been brought over but unlike the usual turn-based games, magic that affects the timing of your party members really decides your fate in battles. I think the key really is displaying the kind of information that’ll allow players to decide how to best make use of the different characteristics that each job has. And that’s where Itou is supervising battles to make playing the game on two screens easier.
Asano: The
bottom screen will be used to display supplementary bits of information in detail but you’ll be able to play the game with the top screen alone.
Tokita: You can probably name the system, “New ATB System for DS” if you really wanted to (Laughs).
Can you just play the game with the top screen once you’re used to the battle system?
Asano: Yes you could.
If you wanted to play it strategically you can just peek at the bottom screen.
Are the two screens being used for anything else outside of battles?
Asano: Dungeons are auto-mapped on the bottom screen as you explore them. You could have fun completing the maps 100%.
Can you move around by just tapping the map with the stylus?
Asano: Yes,
the feature of being able to control the characters swiftly like in DS version of FFIII remains in this remake.
Can you play the game completely with the stylus this time too?
Asano: No,
you can’t play the entire game with it. It’s been included as a supplement feature this time. You could play DS version of FFIII completely with the stylus but this time I don’t want to make players feel like they have to use it. Without the commands being displayed on the bottom screen this time, I think players won’t feel the stress of something like, “Hey, I can’t tap on those commands.”
So the basic controls are the traditional buttons?
Asano: Mainly with the D-Pad. But of course,
there will be touch screen based mini games too that should prove to be more enjoyable than the DS version of Final Fantasy’s Mognet. Mognet was really just a communication tool so by using mini games this time, they act as an extension to the main game and I’m sure we’ll get feedback about it from the players.
Will there be Wi-Fi support?
Tokita: The DS has been out for quite sometime now thus
I don’t think making use of its touch screen and Wi-Fi features is a necessity now. Particularly in the case of an RPG.
Why was there a new dungeon in the GBA version?
Tokita: The biggest dungeon in the GBA version would have to be the last battle where you could use all the separated characters.
I wanted to have that part in the original version but time and storage limits didn’t permit it.
Will there be new elements in this version too?
Asano: The concept behind this port is about showing the events that we’ve created so, the inconsistent parts where you can choose characters to see their part of the story has been cut out… To compensate, a new system has been used.
What will this new system be?
Tokita: It’s a
system that will make the players want to play the game twice. That’s probably the greatest attraction of this remake.
Asano: It’s so great that you could call this a brand new game but, that’s not all there is to it.
Will it be a system that has never been used before?
Asano: Well, it’s
not really something that hasn’t been used before (Laughs) But you can say that the new system is suited for Final Fantasy IV. There are also a few other new systems we’ve added but
the main idea we have in mind is to portray the dramatic side of the game.
There are a number of other new systems too?
Asano: A lot I think but they’ve all been created without forgetting they’re going to be used for Final Fantasy IV. They shouldn’t differ so much as to make the game feel different from the original.
Have the graphics been a focus point?
Tokita: Mr Amano’s original illustrations have been. They were all done in water colours so transforming them into actual in-game graphics was a challenge.
Asano: In addition to that,
the characters have to be able to act out the scenes we’ve put into the game. That is why we’ve added an extra body part to their models.
So each character models will have a total of 4 body parts?
Asano: Yes, the character models in the DS version of FFIII only had 3 body parts.
This was done with the dramatic scenes in mind?
Tokita: It was
hard to achieve because adding too many parts meant it would look too cramped on the DS screens. That’s why I think we’ve managed to create character models that are really well balanced out. I think those who like cute characters will find them OK and for those who like cool looking characters, they’ll still find the models acceptable.
Will there be extras like the monster encyclopedia in the DS version of FFIII?
Asano: Of course.
We’re preparing some extras.
Have the monsters been re-designed from scratch?
Asano: Just like when we designed the monsters for the DS version of FFIII, we’ve refined them for this remake. With DS version of FFIII, the number of monsters that you could encounter each time was limited due to the designs. However, with the number of party members increased up to five in Final Fantasy VI it just wouldn’t be satisfying enough if we kept to that same limit. Thus,
we’ve been working on it so that the same number of enemies appearing in battles, is the same as in the Super Famicom version.
And finally, your message to the fans?
Tokita: I think I’ll change the image of the game if I said that it’s going to be the “complete version” so… Well, there’s a lot of other ways to describe it such as “remake” or “renewal version” but
I think the easiest way to describe this port is that it will be a “New Final Fantasy IV”. It’ll be just like meeting a girl who you’ve known since you were young but she hasn’t changed at all. She’s just grown much more beautiful. You might not get what I’m trying to say but, that’s the idea (Laughs).
Asano: To me,
Final Fantasy IV was the first game that made me cry. We want to remake the game treasuring those very events and drama that did it, without ruining anything. I think both fans of Final Fantasy IV and those who play it for the first time will enjoy it.
ZWAME Jogos: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth já se encontra disponível para a PlayStation 5. Podem ler a nossa análise no Portal Jogos.
