The great Final Fantasy XVI Staff Debate: Who do you want?

[LeonBlade]

But it’s not only XV - we need to be able to do more and bring back that impact that Final Fantasy gave us when we ourselves played it for the first time.

Meaning, in addition to XV.

Maybe we won’t do that before Final Fantasy XVI. Maybe it’ll be even further in the future. But I still feel we need to continue to strive to improve... There’s a long road ahead.

You're reading this as if he's praising XVI or something when he clearly isn't. He's simply saying that FF has a long way to go to get back to it's glory days, and one or even two games isn't going to fix that.

Everything else you said falls in line with this I don't even want to spend the time going over it.

 

[Sora96]

Kitase did the game design for FF13. It was his idea to make the game so linear, as he was basing it off his game design in FF10. Toriyama just directed under Kitase's supervision.

This is correct. Kitase is also the head of division 1, and Tabata said it himself as division 2's head if a project fails it's the division head's responsibility.

 

[Nova_Somnus]

This is correct. Kitase is also the head of division 1, and Tabata said it himself as division 2's head if a project fails it's the division head's responsibility.

Precisely. Some FF fans just don't want to direct blame at Kitase because he directed FF7. Well, guess what? George Lucas directed Star Wars IV, but he still went on to make the utter garbage that was Star Wars I-III.

Thankfully, the amount of Kitase haters has been growing since the FF13 trilogy ended. It's good to see he's finally getting what he deserves. Hopefully, that will show him that he's not immune to fanbase criticism and Toriyama's not his meat shield.

 

[Sora96]

Precisely. Some FF fans just don't want to direct blame at Kitase because he directed FF7. Well, guess what? George Lucas directed Star Wars IV-VI, but he still went on to make the utter garbage that was Star Wars I-III.

Thankfully, the amount of Kitase haters has been growing since the FF13 trilogy ended. It's good to see he's finally getting what h deserves. Hopefully, that will show him that he's not immune to fanbase backlash and Toriyama's not his meat shield.

Lucas didn't direct episodes V and VI.

 

[Nova_Somnus]

Lucas didn't direct episodes V and VI.

Yeah, I know. I've edited my post.

Getting back to Kitase, there's people that claim that Toriyama never directed FF10, and it was instead directed by Kitase. They created this false belief just because they don't want to believe Toriyama directed one of their fave FF games. The belief is wrong, though. Kitase was originally the director of FF10, but he eventually stepped up to producer and Toriyama became one of three directors instead. The exact same thing happened during development of FF6. Sakaguchi was originally the director, but he stepped up to producer and Ito and Kitase became the directors instead.

It's completely ridiculous that people don't give Toriyama credit for directing FF10, especially when Square Enix themselves do, and even mention he was the director in the credits of the game. If more people accepted that Toriyama directed FF10 and not Kitase, Toriyama would be less hated than he currently is. After all, nobody would want to outright hate the director of one of their favourite games of all time.

 

[Sora96]

Yeah, I know. I've edited my post.

Getting back to Kitase, there's people that claim that Toriyama never directed FF10, and it was instead directed by Kitase. They created this false belief just because they don't want to believe Toriyama directed one of their fave FF games. The belief is wrong, though. Kitase was originally the director of FF10, but he eventually stepped up to producer and Toriyama became one of three directors instead. The exact same thing happened during development of FF6. Sakaguchi was originally the director, but he stepped up to producer and Ito and Kitase became the directors instead.

It's completely ridiculous that people don't give Toriyama credit for directing FF10, especially when Square Enix themselves do, and even mention he was the director in the credits of the game. If more people accepted that Toriyama directed FF10 and not Kitase, Toriyama would be less hated than he currently is. After all, nobody would want to outright hate the director of one of their favourite games of all time.

Completely correct, it annoys me too. I thought Ito was already a director on VI though.

 

[Nova_Somnus]

Completely correct, it annoys me too. I thought Ito was already a director on VI though.

Nah, brah. Sakaguchi was director. Kitase was event director and Ito was game design director. When Sakaguchi became producer, he put both Kitase and Ito in his place as director, but they still had their same roles of event director and game design director. Here's a quote from Kitase on the matter:

1UP: But you did work on FFV, the first one you were really involved in. Can you talk a bit about your work and objectives with the game?

YK: With FFV, I was involved in creating what would be referred to as cutscenes -- we referred to them as event scenes -- and also the scenario text. Up until then, one person had always been responsible for this aspect of the games, but with FFV the amount of work involved in the storytelling and scenario really grew exponentially, so it was too much for one person to handle alone. So, I worked with Sakaguchi to take this task upon ourselves.

1UP: FFV was much funnier than previous games, with a lot of comedy elements in the cutscenes. Was that your doing?

YK: Sakaguchi was in charge of the overall plot, and because FFV was a relatively serious story, I wanted to be sure to inject spots with a little bit of comic relief and humor.

1UP: From there, you took a much bigger role with FFVI. Can you talk about what you wanted to accomplish with this game?

YK: With FFVI, my role was similar to what it had been with FFV, except that the volume of the game grew once again exponentially. So the team of people working on the event scenes and scenario side grew to about four or five. And, of course, Sakaguchi was the director and had primary control overseeing those aspects of the game as well. But he'd also become very busy at that time after becoming vice-president of the company and had a lot of other projects going on. He couldn't put 100% into FFVI, so I took charge of more of those event scenes.

http://www.1up.com/features/final-fantasy-kitase-story?pager.offset=1

If people want to claim Toriyama never directed FF10, then Kitase never directed FF6.

 

[APZonerunner]

Sakaguchi was never the director on FF6. He didn't direct anything after being promoted to Executive Vice President, which happened a year before, because that promotion meant he no longer had time. He heavily supervised Ito and Kitase's work, however, but he was never, ever director on FF6 for even a day of its development. He was also far more interested in Chrono Trigger, which was in development simultaneously, and spent a lot more time on that than FF6.

The was never any 'stepping up' to producer. When the FF6 project entered full production - with only characters and a plot framework in place (done in the tail end of FF5 production) - Sakaguchi made the decision right away that he wouldn't have the time to Direct thanks to his promotion to Executive Vice President eight months earlier. All this is in the Ultimania and is readily available if you can read Japanese.

He was involved at a top level but only in the same way that, say, Nomura has been involved with all the FF7 compilation efforts like Dirge, signing off on things, providing plot direction pointers, etcetera.

This thread is a bit of a bust (as, sadly, is 1Truth's long-lasting speculation) as I'm of the belief now that it's going to be somebody not on this list Directing FF16 when it comes around.

 

[Sora96]

This thread is a bit of a bust (as, sadly, is 1Truth's long-lasting speculation) as I'm of the belief now that it's going to be somebody not on this list Directing FF16 when it comes around.

What do you think Ito has been up to then?

 

[Nova_Somnus]

Sakaguchi was never the director on FF6. He didn't direct anything after being promoted to Executive Vice President, which happened a year before, because that promotion meant he no longer had time. He heavily supervised Ito and Kitase's work, however, but he was never, ever director on FF6 for even a day of its development. He was also far more interested in Chrono Trigger, which was in development simultaneously, and spent a lot more time on that than FF6.

The was never any 'stepping up' to producer. When the FF6 project entered full production - with only characters and a plot framework in place (done in the tail end of FF5 production) - Sakaguchi made the decision right away that he wouldn't have the time to Direct thanks to his promotion to Executive Vice President eight months earlier. All this is in the Ultimania and is readily available if you can read Japanese.

He was involved at a top level but only in the same way that, say, Nomura has been involved with all the FF7 compilation efforts like Dirge, signing off on things, providing plot direction pointers, etcetera.

Kitase says in that 1UP interview that Sakaguchi was the director of FF6 and he was just part of the event planners. So if Kitase doesn't see himself as the real director of FF6 and what you say is true about Sakaguchi never being director, it's safe to presume Ito was the real director of FF6. As if that man's track record could not get any better.

This thread is a bit of a bust (as, sadly, is 1Truth's long-lasting speculation) as I'm of the belief now that it's going to be somebody not on this list Directing FF16 when it comes around.

I highly doubt it's somebody other than Hiroyuki Ito. Yoshi-P has recently said that FF15 is not enough to restore FF to greatness and instead it's riding on FF16, so I'm sure Square Enix management will put their best FF director on what will be their biggest project to date. Besides, Ito's been gone from AAA gaming for almost 10 years now. Can you imagine if he spent all that time on planning documents and pre-production for FF16? It would already have all the makings of a masterpiece before development has even started. All Square Enix management would need to do is give him the massive budget and human resources necessary to make it.

 

[BladeRunner]

I'm of the belief now that it's going to be somebody not on this list Directing FF16 when it comes around.

Are you talking about someone specific?

Can you imagine if he spent all that time on planning documents and pre-production for FF16? It would already have all the makings of a masterpiece before development has even started. All Square Enix management would need to do is give him the massive budget and human resources necessary to make it.

Oh boy, you're just setting yourself up for a disappointment.

 

[APZonerunner]

Kitase says in that 1UP interview that Sakaguchi was the director of FF6 and he was just part of the event planners. So if Kitase doesn't see himself as the real director of FF6 and what you say is true about Sakaguchi never being director, it's safe to presume Ito was the real director of FF6. As if that man's track record could not get any better.

Given that he and Ito say the exact opposite in the interview given in the Square-sanctioned Ultimania, I'm going to go ahead and assume that is (as is often the case with these interviews) a rougher translation that loses some of the nuance combined with Kitase merely being humble. From the moment the starting pistol was fired on FF6 he and Ito were joint directors and Sakaguchi was merely overseeing. The 1up interview doesn't overturn multiple other sources, sorry - especially with how unreliable those on-the-fly translations can often be. Take it from me, I've done enough of those interviews in my time!

I highly doubt it's somebody other than Hiroyuki Ito. Yoshi-P has recently said that FF15 is not enough to restore FF to greatness and instead it's riding on FF16, so I'm sure Square Enix management will put their best FF director on what will be their biggest project to date. Besides, Ito's been gone from AAA gaming for almost 10 years now. Can you imagine if he spent all that time on planning documents and pre-production for FF16? It would already have all the makings of a masterpiece before development has even started. All Square Enix management would need to do is give him the massive budget and human resources necessary to make it.

I think you'll be disappointed, tbh.

Are you talking about someone specific?

I think SE feels the Tabata promotion has been quite successful and fresh blood is a potentially very good thing. I also think while Ito's genius is undeniable, it's also true that the two FFs he directed solo (or more or less solo - 9 and 12 - are two of the least-selling post-FF7 FFs. Even FFX-2 sold more than both, in fact. Ito may well be better as a systems man and an idea man than a director, at least if you're talking about mass-appeal and major sales, which is what they're chasing now more than ever. Ito may be better working on concepts and trying to flesh out something revolutionary even if it doesn't turn into a real product than directing a game.

If you're looking for some Tabata style new blood, there's a lot of names and faces who have either been in the background on FF for a long time or who have been directing B-tier SE games for a while. For instance: Hiroshi Takai (The Last Remnant Director, Battle Director on several SaGa games, Lead Planner on The Bouncer, and Assistant Director on FF14), Taro Yoko (Nier, Drakengard - outside Square but precisely the sort that could be tempted to join to direct a major project), Hiroki Chiba (Lead Event roles on CT, CC, FF7 & 10, Lead Writer on Type-0, Writer on LR:FF13, Event Director on FF8).

I wouldn't even write off the chances of somebody unexpected like Watanabe just catapulting up to a Directorial position. These kind of jumps are how the likes of Kitase and Nomura got their first big breaks, too, and currently the company is on a Tabata and Yoshida - both relatively unknown - high. They'll quite possibly want to replicate that success. Notably, it is usually the Writers, the Artists, the Planners and such who go on to Direct - not so much the Programmers. In that respect Ito is the odd one out.

Disclaimer: I'm a huge Ito fan, 9 is my favourite FF. I'm also a realist, however.

 

[Sora96]

Given that he and Ito say the exact opposite in the interview given in the Square-sanctioned Ultimania, I'm going to go ahead and assume that is (as is often the case with these interviews) a rougher translation that loses some of the nuance combined with Kitase merely being humble. From the moment the starting pistol was fired on FF6 he and Ito were joint directors and Sakaguchi was merely overseeing. The 1up interview doesn't overturn multiple other sources, sorry - especially with how unreliable those on-the-fly translations can often be. Take it from me, I've done enough of those interviews in my time!



I think you'll be disappointed, tbh.



I think SE feels the Tabata promotion has been quite successful and fresh blood is a potentially very good thing. I also think while Ito's genius is undeniable, it's also true that the two FFs he directed solo (or more or less solo - 9 and 12 - are two of the least-selling post-FF7 FFs. Even FFX-2 sold more than both, in fact. Ito may well be better as a systems man and an idea man than a director, at least if you're talking about mass-appeal and major sales, which is what they're chasing now more than ever. Ito may be better working on concepts and trying to flesh out something revolutionary even if it doesn't turn into a real product than directing a game.

If you're looking for some Tabata style new blood, there's a lot of names and faces who have either been in the background on FF for a long time or who have been directing B-tier SE games for a while. For instance: Hiroshi Takai (The Last Remnant Director, Battle Director on several SaGa games, Lead Planner on The Bouncer, and Assistant Director on FF14), Taro Yoko (Nier, Drakengard - outside Square but precisely the sort that could be tempted to join to direct a major project), Hiroki Chiba (Lead Event roles on CT, CC, FF7 & 10, Lead Writer on Type-0, Writer on LR:FF13, Event Director on FF8).

I wouldn't even write off the chances of somebody unexpected like Watanabe just catapulting up to a Directorial position. These kind of jumps are how the likes of Kitase and Nomura got their first big breaks, too, and currently the company is on a Tabata and Yoshida - both relatively unknown - high. They'll quite possibly want to replicate that success. Notably, it is usually the Writers, the Artists, the Planners and such who go on to Direct - not so much the Programmers. In that respect Ito is the odd one out.

Disclaimer: I'm a huge Ito fan, 9 is my favourite FF. I'm also a realist, however.

I think Yuji Abe (Lightning Returns Game Design Director) could direct XVI.

 

[AnGer-dono]

@APZonerunner: Yoko is probably too much of an oddball to head a project bearing the FF name. He would have to dial his special kind of crazy way back to work on such a mainstream franchise - remember, Drakengard 3, his last game, was about a sex-crazed murderous goddess with a flower in her eye - and as much as I would like to see someone like this being at the helm of a FF game, it is very likely not bound to happen, seeing how executives wanted Yoko to make Zero male and remove the flower from her eye during the conception of Drakengard 3. To make a comparison to the movie industry, imagine Tarantino helming a Marvel franchise film.

From the names you posted, I can see Takai being announced as the director of FF XVI, seeing how he already has a director's credit attached to his name.

 

[APZonerunner]

@AnGer-dono I was really just throwing out names, but there are plenty like those three, all of whom are very valid! That said, the Tarantino comparison does make me grin - stranger things have happened! Tarantino almost directed a Bond film, for instance (which would've been amazing) but they couldn't come to an agreement on money. Such a project would be interesting though, wouldn't it?!

 

[Nova_Somnus]

I think SE feels the Tabata promotion has been quite successful and fresh blood is a potentially very good thing. I also think while Ito's genius is undeniable, it's also true that the two FFs he directed solo (or more or less solo - 9 and 12 - are two of the least-selling post-FF7 FFs. Even FFX-2 sold more than both, in fact. Ito may well be better as a systems man and an idea man than a director, at least if you're talking about mass-appeal and major sales, which is what they're chasing now more than ever. Ito may be better working on concepts and trying to flesh out something revolutionary even if it doesn't turn into a real product than directing a game.

I can understand your stance on sales, but I think Square Enix management know that games Ito directs have been more critically acclaimed than any other FF director. In order to return FF back into gaming's elite tier, they need to make a really tremendous game first and foremost; the high sales will follow naturally from that. As I said before, if Ito has been doing planning documents for FF16 for the past 10 years, you can be sure the scope and scale of the game must be enormous by now, probably more than any JRPG or WRPG ever made. All Square Enix management need to do is fund it and give him enough human resources to actually make it.

I think Yuji Abe (Lightning Returns Game Design Director) could direct XVI.

No chance he'll get the director seat over Ito, especially seeing as he's likely working on Toriyama's new game.

From the names you posted, I can see Takai being announced as the director of FF XVI, seeing how he already has a director's credit attached to his name.

No, brah. He's the Assistant Director of FF14, so he'll be stuck on that for 10 years just like Yoshi-P. Really, the only big FF name that's got their hands free (and for years at that) is Ito. That's why it makes the most sense to believe he's already helming FF16.

 

[Jenova]

It's quite sad, but Taro Yoko's chances of directing a Final Fantasy game are even lower than Ito's at this point.

 

[AnGer-dono]

@Nova_Somnus: His hands free for years? Ito did work on two mobile games, Guardian Cross and Deadman's Cross, the latter was released last year. There is a slim chance he is indeed involved with something larger, as Hashimoto has stated back in 2013 that Ito's been "planning and doing some proposals for a new project", but only time will tell whether or not this will come to fruition, and if so, if it'll be a FF game.

@APZonerunner: Interesting tidbit, I did not know Tarantino doing Bond was an idea. However, I think SE is looking for something more conservative after the rather experimental approaches with XIII and XV and Yoko would not be an appropriate candidate for that.

 

[BladeRunner]

@Nova_Somnus: His hands free for years? Ito did work on two mobile games, Guardian Cross and Deadman's Cross, the latter was released last year.

Oh no, he wasn't! It was just a decoy to make people think he wasn't working for the last 10 years on super secret FFXVI project which will be the most amazingest masterpiece of a game a human mind ever conceived. All glory to Ito!

 

[Lulcielid]

Oh no, he wasn't! It was just a decoy to make people think he wasn't working for the last 10 years on super secret FFXVI project which will be the most amazingest masterpiece of a game a human mind ever conceived. All glory to Ito!

Thats a lie ! Kitase is working on the masterpiece that will be FFXVI!!! Knee before Kitase-sensei you peasant gamer