Interview: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
We get the dirt on both the upcoming Nintendo DS and Wii versions of the game.I know you've done character designs for previous Square games, but is Crystal Bearers the first game you're directing?
Itahana: It's not the first time I've directed a game. I've directed a game called Code Age Commander, which is not released in the US, so it'll be my first North American game.
Will the game be closer to the GameCube or Nintendo DS designs or will it be its own thing?
Itahana: There's a much more action oriented take. The key differences are that the previous games focused on multiplayer, and Crystal Bearers will be a more single player experience.
Did you look at the likes and dislikes of the GameCube game and apply that to the Nintendo DS Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates?
Kamiyama: The original Crystal Chronicles was a learning experience in a multiplayer design, using the Game Boy Advance to work with the console game. We took input both internally and externally to create a better and multiplayer experience. This time around, in the multiplayer modes there will be many more options and features that will make the game more fun for the entire group. We focused so much on the multiplayer in the original Crystal Chronicles that maybe we didn't make the single player experience as elaborate as we should have. That's an area that we focused on in Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fate. It was a busy schedule for the staff.
What sort of changes did you make to the game to create a better single player experience?
Kamiyama: Final Fantasy games are all about the story, and that's where Ring of Fates shines. It's an action game with that rich Final Fantasy experience.
In the original Crystal Chronicles, you could level up your character but once the game's complete you couldn't do anything with that levelled character or the items collected. Does Ring of Fates have a similar focus to encourage levelling up and crafting and collecting items?
Kamiyama: Nice question! Yes, we learned lessons from the past version. The crafting and levelling feature is still in the game. But we've made it more indepth where you'll be able to craft items and see them in use on the character physically. We can't go into any details on how this affects multiplayer.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is known for being a multiplayer experience, and when the DS version was announced many people made the assumption that the online function of the system would be utilized, and it appears that this isn't the case. Were people just assuming that Wi-Fi would be a focus, or were there actually plans to support the function in the project?
Kamiyama: We're treading on pretty confidential waters here (laughs). There is a Wi-Fi feature in Crystal Chronicles DS, but we're not ready to reveal it yet. But just for you, we'll mention that. We planned the full multiplayer to support Wi-Fi, but the dilemma that we faced with Wi-Fi was location. The play styles between local, where you're face-to-face with your partners, and Wi-Fi, where you're miles away, are completely different. We focused on local wireless so you could be with your friends and interact with them. There are many actions in the multiplayer where, for example, you'll need to carry another person on your back, and it's very difficult to communicate with the other players to do that over Wi-Fi. There's also the issue of lag and we wanted the experience to be as seamless as possible. There is a Wi-Fi feature, but nothing to announce yet.
The original Crystal Chronicles and Ring of Fates share a similar art style, and it seems that Crystal Bearers isn't sharing this style. Why is that?
Itahana: For Crystal Bearers, we wanted to use the same world obviously, but we wanted to take the story in a different direction. We wanted to focus on a complete hero character -- the Crystal Chronicles series follows characters who become heroes as the story progresses. We wanted to develop the story where the main character starts out as a hero already, and have the story begin that way. We wanted a more mature look for this hero, and the Crystal Chronicles style was a little too "cute" for the mature hero concept. In a solo player environment, you can concentrate on the art around the hero character.
The style of the character of Crystal Bearers seems almost like a combination of "Skies of Arcadia/Eternal Arcadia" meets "The Little Prince." Is that an accurate assessment?
Itahana: I don't get where the Little Prince comparison comes in, but like what we've discussed about the hero character, I wanted a hero that was war beaten with a rugged look to show the character's background.
Can you abuse your Moogle with paint in the DS game like you could in the original Crystal Chronicles?
Kamiyama: In the original game, that feature was put in close to two weeks before the game was locked down as final. When I thought of it, I drew on a chopsticks wrapper the whole idea and showed it to Itahana as something we should put in. We presented the idea to Kawazu, and when he left without saying anything about it, I took it as, "Hey, let's put it in." (laughs) So we did, and it became pretty popular. So now with the DS version we're putting it in again, and with the touch screen we can make it even better.