While the We are Vana’Diel series of interviews focus on Final Fantasy XI, sometimes other games and series are discussed. This happened when SaGa series General Director Akitoshi Kawazu took part. His interview touched on things he’d like to do with SaGa games in the future. He noted, “I’d like to come up with something related to the SaGa series that isn’t an RPG but still can be enjoyed by SaGa fans.”
Here are Kawazu’s comments from the interview. First, he affirmed his desire to continue making SaGa games.
I plan on continuing to expand the SaGa team. I also have aspirations to embellish the series and its gaming experience, and to that end, we’d have to succeed a lot more.
Everyone in the team has challenged themselves in various areas, and I’ll also continue to do so myself. I still have a lot of games that I’d like to try making.
After that, Kawazu went on to discuss what sorts of games or projects related to the series he’d like to make. He specifically mentioned action games or VR titles. Then, he offered the following statement.
I’d like to come up with something related to the SaGa series that isn’t an RPG but still can be enjoyed by SaGa fans. Permanently moving on to a new genre of games would be letting down fans of the older games, but it’d be nice if we could continue creating games in the traditional style while also expanding our horizons for a broader audience.
My time as a game developer is limited, so I’d like to spend much less time on each game. With that said, there’s been some projects that were supposed to be quick but just never seem to get done.
While SaGa series releases are more often releasing worldwide, it is only recently that games began appearing outside Japan. For example, SaGa: Scarlet Grace broke the trend of Japan-only entries when its ports appeared worldwide in 2019. Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe is available on mobile devices worldwide as well. Most recently, SaGa Frontier Remastered appeared everywhere.