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CVG posted up today their interview with notable video game icon and the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. The interview talks about Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and whether or not Sakaguchi’s new IPs can rival Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy empire. Most of the questions asked to Sakaguchi are some of the basics (like the Western differences in Blue Dragon that weren’t featured in the Eastern version; whether or not Mistwalker can actually succeed in achieveing worldwide simultaneous release of Lost Odyssey; the voice acting involved in Lost Odyssey; the nature of turn-based versus real time battle systems; etc…etc…etc…). To me, though, the most interesting and perhaps thought provoking part of the entire interview is the following:
What do you think the biggest differences are between Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs?
Sakaguchi: I’m not too familiar with Western RPGs! I’m a big fan of Gears of War and also EverQuest the online game, so Final Fantasy XI is an online game.
I really want to stick to what I want to create and what I envision, not depending on the trends that have been happening in the industry. I love trying to create a game that has he warming effect after you finish it. I want to kind of make the gamers warm-hearted, that’s what I’m trying to create.
Gears of War is great but after you finish playing there’s a great deal of exhilaration, but there’s no warm-heartedness there. So that’s what I’m trying to create.
The fact that the man wants his games to evoke this warmhearted feeling within gamers is a testament to his brilliance. I guess that’s why I hold Final Fantasy VI to be the best Final Fantasy thus far; and if you’ve played it, there’s no denying the many instances in the game where you’ve felt this warmheartedness. What do you think?
