Posted in: Final Fantasy, Games, Square Enix, Video Games | Tagged: , ,


Square Enix Publishes Part 2 Interview With Final Fantasy Devs

Last week, Square Enix published Part 1 of an interview with a pair of original developers from Final Fantasy, and this week they released Part 2. This is a special long-form interview with the original director of FFXI Koichi Ishii, and the illustrator behind several logos, illustrations, and characters for the Final Fantasy series, Yoshitaka Amano. We have a snippet below of the second part of the "We Discuss Vana'Diel" for Final Fantasy XI, as you can check out Part 2 in its entirety here.

Square Enix Published Interview With Original Final Fantasy XI Devs
Credit: Square Enix

 

Not only was FFXI a brand-new title in the [Final Fantasy] series, it was also an MMORPG for home consoles, something that was unprecedented in Japan. Did that cause any additional difficulties?

Ishii: As you know, the MMORPG genre was still mostly unrecognized in Japan at the time. Evaluating the situation not only as a director, but also from a producer's point of view, I felt that a major hurdle would be getting people who were unfamiliar with MMORPGs to understand the world within the game. So I decided to meet with Mr. Amano, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, for counsel about my vision for FFXI.

 

Mr. Amano, what were your thoughts when Mr. Ishii told you about FFXI?

Amano: I was impressed that online games allowed players from around the globe to play together. But at the same time, I was unsure how to convey that kind of world through an illustration.

Ishii: My initial idea was to convey the vastness of the in-game world, using something that could be recognized by audiences that were unfamiliar with MMORPGs or had yet to play FFXI, and I believed a world map would do the trick. I shared this idea with Mr. Amano and it seemed like he thought of something, so I ended our first meeting with a sense of relief for the time being. When I later visited Mr. Amano for our next meeting, I found four enormous sheets of paper laid out in his studio, each one the size of a tatami mat*. I thought, "Man, he must be working on a huge commission." So out of curiosity, I asked, "What are you going to draw on these?" When he replied, "That's going to be the world map for FFXI," I couldn't help but go, "Huh??" (laughs)

Square Enix Publishes Part 2 Interview With Final Fantasy Devs
The folding screen world map from Final Fantasy XI, created by Yoshitaka Amano. Courtesy of Square Enix.

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Gavin SheehanAbout Gavin Sheehan

Gavin is the current Games Editor for Bleeding Cool. He has been a lifelong geek who can chat with you about comics, television, video games, and even pro wrestling. He can also teach you how to play Star Trek chess, be your Mercy on Overwatch, recommend random cool music, and goes rogue in D&D. He also enjoys hundreds of other geeky things that can't be covered in a single paragraph. Follow @TheGavinSheehan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vero, for random pictures and musings.
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