Hironobu Sakaguchi interview

[09.02.99] » In the latest issue of GameWEEK, Square's Hironobu Sakaguchi sits down to discuss Final Fantasy VIII, the PlayStation 2, and future titles in the company's flagship series.

   While the pre-Final Fantasy VIII hype is definitely far more subdued than the mania which met Final Fantasy VII, Square's highly anticipated RPG has gone anything but unnoticed. The September 1st issue of GameWEEK magazine contains an interview with FF series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, discussing issues ranging from PlayStation 2 development to Nintendo's Pokémon. Of particular note is Sakaguchi's skillful evasion of GameWEEK's FF IX queries -- although, when asked if FF IX would see a 2000 release, he curiously replies: "I mean, if there is a nine, then it'll be in the year 2000. They should come on a yearly basis, right?"

   The full text is available below:

   GameWEEK: The last time we met, Final Fantasy VII had just come out and you were pretty excited over its sales in the United States. Now Final Fantasy VIII is out, and it's already a major hit in Japan. I read that Square has sold 3.5 million copies.

   Hironobu Sakaguchi: The number is up to 3.6 million, at this point.

   GW: Does that make it the biggest game of the year in Japan last year?

   HS: Yes.

   GW: And are sales up to expectation?

   HS: We had to raise the cost of the game 1,000 yen because it has four CDs. It sold for 7,800 yen rather than the 6,800 yen [that past games have sold for]. I was worried that it might affect sales, but obviously it hasn't. Yes, the game's sales lived up to my expectation.

   GW: For the U.S., do you expect it to match sales of Final Fantasy VII?

   HS: I would hope so, and also Europe as well. I just returned from Japan yesterday, and the staff there is working on the European version right now.

   GW: Has work begun on the PC version as well?

   HS: That is being worked on in the Los Angeles office. I also had a chance to check the PC version in Japan, and it has a higher resolution than the PlayStation version. The graphics are a lot prettier.

   GW: Were you satisfied with the game? Was anything left out for lack of time or space?

   HS: Because I was going back and forth to Japan so much, I basically produced the game in two different countries. It was difficult trying to be involved all the time, so I had to let my director make many of the decisions. I'm very satisfied with what was done.

   GW: What are some of the differences between Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, besides the new characters?

   HS: the biggest difference between the games is the characters. The characters in number seven were sort of stumpy cartoon characters. We switched the characters' heights to regular human scale, and because of the size of the characters, we had to work a lot more on the animations in order to show the expression. That drastically increased the amount of animations they had to work on. The other big difference is the FMV (Full-Motion Video) movies within the game. In FF VII, the only time the characters were actually included in the FMVs was in the ending; that long, long movie at the end. This time, the movie director wanted to include the characters themselves inside the FMV, so now there are a lot more movies inside FF VIII in which you can actually see the characters well.

   GW: Any other differences you care to elaborate on?

   HS: Well, another thing about the characters is that there is a "consistency" in the characters in FF VIII. There were differences in the characters when they showed up in the battles or in the movies in FF VII. You saw three different versions of the characters, whereas in FF VIII, they wanted to maintain consistency in the characters. Obviously, there was a lot more detail, facial expressions, and actual acting on screen. The big difference and the challenge was to maintain the characters's setting in the low-polygon battle and field scenes. We spent a lot more time working on details such as expressions and gestures.

   GW: Was PlayStation strong enough to support all of that?

   HS: I could always wish for more power, but as far as the game went, PlayStation did everything I wanted it to do.

   GW: Back in July, 1997, you held a briefing for several journalists in these offices in which you said that things had to move to DVD.

   HS: Did I say they "had to" or did I say I "wanted them to?"

   GW: You said that the next platform would...

   HS: Oh, I said the next platform should be... [laughs] Maybe I did say that.

   GW: Did you already know that PlayStation 2 would be DVD?

   HS: No, no no. I said that I wished that it could be.

   GW: What do you know about Nintendo's Dolphin? Any chance we'll see a Final Fantasy IX or FF X on it?

   HS: When is the Dolphin coming out?

   GW: Nintendo says 2000, but most people are predicting 2001.

   HS: So even if you were to see a Final Fantasy game on Dolphin, it would have to be FF X if Dolphin is coming out in 2001.

   GW: That means that we'll see FF IX in 2000?

   HS: Yes, 2000. [laughs again] I mean, if there is a nine, then it'll be in the year 2000. They should come on a yearly basis, right?

   GW: Would that be both U.S. and Japan in 2000?

   HS: Actually, no. It would be staggered. The English version would come later just like [the English version of] FF VIII.

   GW: So if there were an FF IX, we could see it possibly on Dolphin in the U.S. and PlayStation 2 in Japan?

   HS: I really don't know anything about Dolphin. I don't know much about the specs of the machine. If it's a good machine, there would definitely be a possibility of making games for it.

   GW: How do you feel about Dreamcast?

   HS: Speaking from the technological side, I think it's very good hardware. In terms of whether I'm considering developing software for it, the Dreamcast market in Japan is too small. Since Sega basically closed down at one point in the U.S., it virtually has no market here or in Europe. So from a sales point of view, I don't think that there is a strong possibility to work with Dreamcast.

   GW: But if Sega were to amass a strong market, Square might be interested?

   HS: Yes.

   GW: Final Fantasy VII obviously did well in the United States, but I don't think any RPG since then has done nearly as well. Am I correct about this?

   HS: That's true on all hardware - PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo 64. No RPG has come close to FF VII.

   GW: Square has released a Final Fantasy Collection CD in Japan. Has it sold well?

   HS: Pretty well. It sold around 300,000 to 400,000 units. It did very well, considering it's a collection of older games.

   GW: Super Famicom games?

   HS: It's Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI.

   GW: Okay. Will the Collections CD come to America?

   HS: No. We are planning a Final Fantasy Anthology which is going to be a compilation of Final Fantasy V and VI. In addition, it's going to include a music compilation CD from V and VI as well. That will be out late this year.

   GW: Now FF V was never released in America and FF VI was released as Final Fantasy III on Super Nintendo correct?

   HS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   GW: Square Soft seems very commited to staying with Sony in the future. Have you started work on any PlayStation 2 projects?

   HS: PlayStation 2? No. Wait; let me rephrase that - I don't know.

   GW: Would it be possible that you would release FF IX in both PSX and PlayStation 2 versions?

   HS: PlayStation 2 is backwards compatible, meaning that games made for one unit will probably work on the other.

   GW: It would work on both, but it wouldn't be enhanced at all....

   HS: Right, that's true.

   GW: And knowing your thirst for quality and graphics, I would assume that you are very interested in tapping into the most powerful hardware....

   HS: There are many different projects that would be good for PlayStation 2.

   GW: At Square Soft's investor relations meeting, Mr. Takechi (Square Soft president Tomoyuki Takechi) said that the company would apply the technologies from the Final Fantasy movie into future games. How will you do that?

   HS: One answer to that is the demo you saw of the old man on PlayStation 2. (One of the many things Sony showed at the unveiling of PlayStation 2 was a demonstration of the system's ability to show facial expressions. The demo showed an old man's face that could be manipulated to look happy or angry. The demo had been prepared by Square Soft.) The data and calculations for that character are straight out of the movie. It's all transferred directly from the movie and runnind on [PS 2]. Many of the tools and plug-ins that have been developed for the movie project will be used in developing PlayStation 2 software.

   GW: Is the transfer pretty straight forward?

   HS: Yes.

   GW: If you want to get a feel for the industry in Tokyo, you can simply go to Akihabara (Tokyo's Electronics district) to see how people react to games. America doesn't have anything like that. Do you miss it since you are living here now?

   HS: The biggest point of disapointment about the U.S. for me is that it doesn't have an Akihabara or the equivalent thereof, but I don't rely on that city to be my only testing grounds.

   GW: Last time we spoke, your N64 had been in the closet, and was just coming out for Zelda.

   HS: It came out for Zelda, and now it's being used for Pikachu by my daughter.

   GW: What do you think of Pokemon?

   HS: In all honesty, I didn't think much of it at first, however, my daughter was playing it so often that I decided to take a look at it, and, lo and behold, it actually was a well-made game. The Pokemon card games are also very well made.

   Many thanks to Arpad Korossy for the interview transcription.