04/28/2008: "A Plethora of Crisis Core Interviews"
Three interviews relating to Crisis Core have surfaced online in the past few days, two (one at SPOnG and one at Pocket Gamer) with Executive Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Producer Hideki Imaizumi and one at bit-tech.net with just Kitase. Highlights from all three of these interviews after the cut.
In the SPOnG interview, Imaizumi discusses why the PSP was chosen:
In terms of the hardware that was chosen, at the time the PS3 was not really an option – we didn’t even know exactly it would be available to develop on at the time the concept was brought up. When the concept did come up it coincided with the Japanese launch of the PSP. It was going to be the new hardware to develop on. So, whereas there was that familiarity with the PS2 and it would probably have been easily developed on the PS2 as well, there was this interest on the developers’ side… this motivation to explore new avenues. Newer hardware obviously is going to be a more exciting experience than kind of doing the same thing that we’ve done for years and years.
When asked by Pocket Gamer why the DS wasn't chosen as the platform (considering its popularity compared to the PSP), the producers reply with this, as singled out at Cubed3:
The DS was already out at the time we came up with the concept of Crisis Core. It really wasn't an option to begin with and it wasn't something we regretted later because whereas, yes, there are a lot of DSs out there - but does that mean that our products sell in relation to that? That our sales grow with how many DSs or PSPs there are out there?
It's not really the case. How much the product sells really depends on the game itself, who it's targeted to and all sorts of different factors. It's not really always about the hardware. Especially in terms of this game where the demographic was higher teens to young adults as opposed to small children. The PSP seemed closer to that demographic than DS in general. So we feel we really made the right choice.
We'll make a DS game called Brain Age: Final Fantasy for DS [laughs].
Also from the Pocket Gamer interview, when asked if fan input had any influence over Crisis Core's direction, the producers responded:
It would be too much to say we reference fan opinions and such. Obviously as a creator you need to have your own voice but of course we look at fan responses to certain parts of the stories and characters.
From bit-tech.net, Kitase answers the question, "Given how established and popular the Final Fantasy VII universe is, were there any parts or characters which you wanted to go back and look at again specifically?":
Nibelheim. It was a huge part of the story in the original game and marked the turning point for many of the characters like Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack in this game and Tifa to a degree too. We really wanted to revisit that place and relay the event from a different perspective.
In fact, we took such great care to do it that we actually reused all the same camera angles as we did in Final Fantasy VII. Even though I was the executive producer, I stepped down to the role of event planner for that section and actually worked that entire section myself too. That was definitely the area we wanted to look at the closest.
Finally, the future of the FFVII franchise is discussed. From the Pocket Gamer interview:
We don't have any concrete plans as of right now. The teams that work on the Compilation are all currently working on large titles such as Final Fantasy XIII and right now it's hard to come up with any solid projects for them to work on during this time. As the same time we can't really say that it's over. We don't want to say that as we would like to keep a window of opportunity open for future titles.
And, in discussing the original FFVII staff's involvement:
It's kind of hard to put anyone at the top really. Anything related to the stories Mr Nojima - who's actually no longer with Square Enix, he's with a different organisation - he's really still the top authority in that matter. Anything relating to characters and a little of the back story, that's Mr Nomura, the character designer's domain. There are four major people involved in the FFVII universe. If one of those people died it might disrupt the balance..!
Kitase's thoughts, from the SPOnG interview:
I feel a degree of completion, the satisfaction of the story having come full circle – that a certain milestone has been reached with the compilation. But whether it’s the final – excuse the pun – whether it is the final product in the series I’d rather not say yet. I’d rather leave windows of opportunity open.
In order for a remake to work is that the – excuse the pun, again – the core members of the original team need to come together to work on it. This would include myself; Mr Nomura, the character designer; Mr Naora, the Art Director… all these people would have to work on it together for it to really work.
Now, obviously I believe each of these members have solid images in their heads of what a remake would be like, but to transfer that to an actual project at this point is logistically difficult because all of the core members are involved in their own projects right now. Rather large projects, actually, such as XIII and Vs XIII, and a lot of these projects are going to take a while. Perhaps after all of that’s concluded we can start afresh with another project, but right now it’s difficult to say.
Posted by Reeve at 09:00 AM EST
