As Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi wrapped up the second and final part of his latest RPG, Fantasian, he's had family on his mind. Just like he did during the development of Final Fantasy 6 — a game he worked on at the time his daughter was born.
"I wanted to have a scene in Final Fantasy 6 where there's a child who's born,” he tells me. “This idea of bringing new life into the world and what that means and the kind of gravity that it has."
Speaking to IGN over Zoom ahead of the launch of Fantasian's second half, Sakaguchi is warm and easygoing, laughing often and complimenting my cat when she interrupts the call (her name is Robo, after a character in Chrono Trigger, which he was a designer on). He brings up his family often as we chat, at one point telling me that his daughter is getting married in October. So as he worked on the second part of Fantasian, he has thought frequently about the family-themed parallels between that and Final Fantasy 6.
"In Fantasian, there's definitely a relationship depicted between a parent and child and there's certain connections that I draw of course from my real-life experiences that, perhaps naturally or perhaps it might be a message that I want to say or subtly put into the story. I would say it's partially age, partially personal experience, but there's a lot of things that you carry going into development like this."
It's understandable that Sakaguchi has been particularly reflective about his personal life and career throughout the development of Fantasian. He's said in other interviews (and reiterated during our discussion) that while he's not committing to it being his last game ever, and that he still has ideas of things he would like to create, he would nonetheless be "very satisfied" with Fantasian if it turned out to be "the final cherry on top" of his career.
"I think [composer Nobuo Uematsu and I] didn't leave anything on the table and there are no regrets with how it turned out," he says.
The first part of Fantasian launched earlier this year on Apple Arcade, with Part 2 just announced for release this Friday. It follows the story of a young man who has lost his memories and has been pulled through dimensions. Though in many respects it's a traditional, turn-based RPG, Fantasian is immediately visually striking thanks to its backgrounds, which are composed of nearly 160 handmade dioramas, all 3D scanned to serve as game environments.
These dioramas were, naturally, one of the more intensive elements of Fantasian's development, and one of the things Sakaguchi is referencing when he talks about the amount of effort it took. I ask Sakaguchi what, precisely, one does with 160 handmade dioramas once they’re done being scanned for use in a game. He tells me they’re currently taken apart and stored in a warehouse on the outskirts of Tokyo owned by one of the diorama artists — a convenient solution, but one that also illustrates the sheer scope of the project.
I think [composer Nobuo Uematsu and I] didn't leave anything on the table and there are no regrets with how it turned out.
"Ironically, because of the sheer volume, the other day I wanted to take some photos of the King's throne, the throne room,” he says. “I asked [the artist], ‘Hey, can you get that throne?’ and it took him three days to assemble the whole thing together because he stored them safely and took apart certain parts that don't need to be together when stored. So to find what we were looking for and create that photograph, it took us three days to go through all the dioramas."
Sakaguchi has said in interviews for the game earlier this year that a game development pipeline with dioramas like this “probably shouldn’t exist.” I ask him if, having now completed one, he still feels the same way.
"I think there is something to be said about ignorance being bliss,” he replies with a laugh. “Before we dove into it, I thought it was going to be a bit more manageable, but of course taking these physical, handcrafted dioramas and really capturing the essence of it, and dropping into a game, which is, of course, mostly digital, it turned out to be a bigger challenge than I think any of us expected. So it'll depend on the fans' reaction. We'll see what they say, if the fans really like and crave that diorama feel and look, then perhaps we can revisit it, but I think I definitely underestimated, shall we say, how challenging the pipeline might be."
That challenge was increased somewhat by what Sakaguchi acknowledges was an expansion of scope as he worked on the scenario. He tells me that while he had a general overview of both parts early on, he “got a little greedy” with what he wanted to add — especially as he began working on Part 2. He points to Fantasian’s boss encounters as a particular element he wanted to flesh out further, suggesting that the AI and algorithms for bosses in Part 2 are far more complex and rewarding than Part 1’s. The final boss, he tells me, is a 40 to 50-minute encounter all on its own.
Such a fight might be surprising in comparison to other mobile titles, but it’s a fairly typical, meaty length for the kind of traditional JRPG that Sakaguchi has historically dealt in. He tells me he’s actually a bit surprised at how well Fantasian’s been received specifically because of those more traditional elements, which he thinks have become a bit less popular over the decades since he first pioneered them in Final Fantasy.
But genre popularity wasn’t really what Sakaguchi was after in making Fantasian anyway.
"There was a point in video game history where some of the turn-based styles of games in general trended out and people wanted action, they wanted real-time, they wanted to get that instant feedback to their inputs, and trends shifted away from this kind of style RPG,” he says. “I would argue perhaps even now, there are a lot of fans that gravitate toward that more instant, action-y type of experience. Because of that, I guess that it was a little bit unexpected how well the game was received.
"But for me, personally, let's be honest, I'm nearing the end of my game development career and as one of my final projects, I wanted to make something that I thought was, personally, very enjoyable and fun. And something that I knew I was really good at crafting. Perhaps that was what we poured into Fantasian. Whatever the style of game is, we are in an era where fans are more receptive to different styles of experiences, so in this case, both Uematsu-san and myself, we took all the energy we have left and poured into this thing.”
The sense of achievement I hope will give the player some energy to act on something that they've been meaning to.
Development on Fantasian is essentially done for Sakaguchi, so he’s more recently been spending a lot of time putting together trailers and promotional materials. While familial themes certainly aren’t the only threads running through the game — at one point in our interview, Sakaguchi tells me that some of the game’s discussion of order and chaos was inspired by the novel Origin by Dan Brown — it’s family that Sakaguchi keeps coming back to, even at this stage in the process. He tells me that recently, as he was listening to one particular song with vocals on the Fantasian soundtrack and putting together in-game images for promotional materials, he was once again reminded of the importance of parent-child relationships, saying that his work on the game has prompted him to reflect on them even further.
“Just listening to the music, letting it affect me and editing these clips, reminded me also of the time my mother passed away. And last night actually, my wife and I, we ended up spending about three hours talking about our parents and different kinds of human relationships. So I would definitely say that that would not have happened had Fantasian not been completed and had I not developed Fantasian.”
Maybe Fantasian will end up being Sakaguchi’s swan song, or maybe not. Regardless, Sakaguchi wants to leave players with a positive message. He references the challenge of the game’s boss battles, saying he hopes people are left with a sense of fulfillment and achievement by the end of Fantasian’s last encounter.
And in terms of story, he wants the ultimate message of Fantasian to be one of hope for the future.
“I attempted to write a very uplifting and warm experience for the players…plus the sense of achievement I hope will give them a little push or nudge and give the player some energy to then pass forward or act on something that they've been meaning to.
"That's, to me, what I hope the whole experience will leave behind."
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
