![]() ![]() For the past ten years I have been focused more on the mobile space, and so it was a challenge to create something like this. Similarly with Fantasian, I felt once more that I wanted to create a full-scale console game. I don’t mean to compliment myself here, but as I age it reminds me that we can’t lose that spirit of pushing through and fighting back against the status quo. What I feel now is… the courage that I needed to push through and to create a project like that. It was a real uphill battle in so many ways. Looking back, The Spirits Within was an absolutely insane project for the time. How do you feel about it now, 20 years later? That was a hugely ambitious movie that was way ahead of its time. Lastly, I wanted to ask about the feature film you directed- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Combining that with more tools we have today, bringing in some of the technological advancements we have, that’s what I set out to make. ![]() I wanted to return to my roots in a way, and do something I enjoy that I am really good at. Let’s be honest: I am in the latter chapters of my game development career. ![]() But really, going back to those more classical RPGs that you talk about-looking back at my career, that’s really what I excelled in. I don’t know how intentional I would say it was. Would you say Fantasian is an attempt to channel that nostalgia, to capture that spirit of fondness people have for the old games? Obviously a lot of people have nostalgia for the games they grew up with. What they’ve done with the visuals, and allowing players to control those characters in that way, is phenomenal. Take the Final Fantasy VII remake for example, which was recently released. And I think a lot of the visual expression and how much we’ve pushed the boundaries is fascinating. But are there things about modern triple-A blockbuster games that impress you? We caught up with Hironobu-san by Zoom in Honolulu to look back at his career highlights, his inspirations and interests in modern gaming, and his one-time foray into directing movies. ![]() The game surprise dropped last week across Apple’s mobile platforms, including iPhone and iPad, as part of Apple Arcade. Inspired by many of the retro games that built his reputation, Fantasian will be instantly familiar to fans of the early Final Fantasy titles. But this year, he’s returning at last to the genre that made him famous, bringing his classic touch to a throwback 2D RPG title called Fantasian. Hironobu-san left Square Enix and Final Fantasy behind in the early 2000s, and over the course of the past decade, he’s been mainly working on mobile games in Japan. A revered elder statesman of the medium, his place in the annals of gaming history is absolutely secure. His work on the first six Final Fantasy games, in particular, has been so widely imitated that he is arguably among the most influential designers of the 2D console era. The Japanese game designer, director, and producer is responsible for creating a handful of the most famous and acclaimed video games of all time, including the immortal classics Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. In the world of video games, Hironobu Sakaguchi is a legend. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |