How does one follow up a zillion-selling, standard-setting smash hit? Square’s Final Fantasy team leads discussed that and much more with Famitsu as part of the press tour for Final Fantasy VIII, the second 3D Final Fantasy title and one that sought to break new ground in terms of cinematography, graphical fidelity and narrative pretensions—strangely, it continues to be passed over for remastering.
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Final Fantasy VII – 1997 Developer Interviews
This is a compilation of various Final Fantasy VII interviews from 1997 from Japanese magazine sources like Dengeki Playstation. All kinds of ground is covered, from the origins of the project, the challenges of getting the dev team up to speed with 3D, character design, and more.
Final Fantasy VI – 1994 Developer Interview
These Final Fantasy VI interviews first appeared in the 1994 editions of Game-On and Hippon Super magazines; I have joined them together and slightly edited them for content and readability. Although some names will be known to Final Fantasy fans (like veteran pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya), this is mainly a view from the trenches, with the spotlight on the lesser-known junior developers at Square.
Final Fantasy V – 1992 Developer Interview
In this interview, several key members of Square’s Final Fantasy V development team, including director Hironobu Sakaguchi, composer Nobuo Uematsu and then-fledgling designer Tetsuya Nomura, discuss their ambitions for the game and the challenges faced during production, and their desires to differentiate from and improve upon FFIV. (Though mainly taken from Famicon Tsuushin, portions were collated from brief interviews featured in Dengeki SFC and the GSLA).
Fatal Fury 3 – 1995 Developer Interview
This informative Fatal Fury 3 interview was originally featured in Neo Geo Freak magazine. The first half covers mechanic and system changes from the previous games, including the addition of an additional plane and oversway moves. The second half centers on the characters themselves, five of which were new for this entry. Finally, a nice collection of concept art showcases the early and rejected character designs.
Fantasy Zone – 2014 Developer Interview
Yoji Ishii is one of the luminaries of Sega history, designing and directing early arcade titles like Flicky and Fantasy Zone before moving into a producer role Ristar, Panzer Dragoon, and others. In this interview from STG Gameside, he gives a detailed account of Fantasy Zone’s creation and offers a unique view of Sega in the mid-80s: years before the Megadrive, still struggling to compete in the arcade market.
Fantasy Zone – 2002 Developer Interview
The first of these Fantasy Zone interviews from 2002 looks back at the making of the popular Mark III port, made by prolific console port director Mutsuhiro “Mucchan” Fujii. The second, from 1997, catches up with the original arcade team after the release of the Sega Ages port of Fantasy Zone.
The 1986 Famicom Crisis – Developer Interviews
Although remembered now as the wunderkind console that changed the entire trajectory of video games, the Famicom initially faced harsh criticism for a rash of quick, cash-in third party releases. This article from BEEP! magazine is a response from various industry leaders, including Nintendo, to that crisis and the preceding “Famicom Boom.” In the West, the NES was just taking off, so this particular moment in Japanese game history is still very dim to us.
Espgaluda – 2004 Developer Interviews
The first of these two Espgaluda interviews was found at the GSLA and sheds a little light Arika’s PS2 port. The second, longer interview is from Espgaluda composer SOU1’s page at theinterviews.jp, a sort of “question and answer” style blog.
Eschatos – 2011 Developer Interview
Eschatos is a vertical shmup released for the X360 by Qute Corp in April 2011. This interview was featured in STG Gameside #3 and covers the creation and design behind Eschatos, as well as its connections to M-kai’s previous handheld shmups, the highly regarded Cardinal Sins and Judgement Silversword. I’ve also appended a short interview for Ginga Force, Qute’s 2012 follow-up to Eschatos.