HiromichiTanaka
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Austin GDC: Live at the Hiromichi Tanaka keynote
Hiromichi Tanaka is the executive officer of Square Enix and the producer of company's entry into the MMO market, Final Fantasy XI. This morning at the Austin Game Developer's Conference he's going to be talking to us about the challenges of cross-platform design with a design post-mortum of Final Fantasy XI.11:06 AM CST: We were supposed to get started at 11AM CST, but the event seems to be running fashionably late.11:08 AM CST: Introducing Hiromichi Tanaka speaking on Launching Final Fantasy XI on Multiple Platforms.
Producer preps for FFIII in Europe, doesn't pan possible FFVII
CVG recently sat down with Final Fantasy III producer Hiromichi Tanaka for a chat about the game's release in Europe this week. Much of the interview is given over to discussing the game's unexpected levels of success in Japan and the U.S., and hopes for Europe, though Tanaka had a few interesting things to say about both remakes and the DS. He said that in order to achieve the impressive look and effect of FFIII, they were forced to focus the handheld's power on only one screen, which certainly explains a lot. Since they were getting the chance to give the game a complete visual update, they wanted it to be as beautiful as possible.But the part of the interview that will stick out and serve as fodder for FF-themed debate is the mention of Final Fantasy VII. CVG mentioned that FFVII is the game many fans hope and pray for on the DS, and Tanaka offered this cryptic response: "The main thing is the timing." If nothing else, it's not a no, so we'll put this one down as a possibility.[Thanks, zshadow!]
FFIII producers speak out, show off
The Japanese Touch Generations DS website has a fantastically long interview with Final Fantasy III producers Hiromichi Tanaka and Tomoya Asano, complete with clips from the game to illustrate key points. Go Nintendo linked up a couple of translations for those of us who are not quite kanji-inclined. The interview covers a wide range of subjects, but a lot of focus is given over to the evolution of the original game to its upcoming debut on the DS. The producers hash over the job system, make some comparisons to the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, and discuss the evolution of the characters into fully-realized personalities. And they promise shorter load times over what we saw at E3. It is a veritable cornucopia of Final Fantasy goodness.As an interesting aside, this interview seems to be available only on the Japanese side of the Touch Generations website. That says a lot about non-traditional gamers in Japan versus the rest of the world. Anyone else feeling a weird urge to buy their moms a DS and a copy of Final Fantasy III as soon as it hits the shelves? [Via Go Nintendo]
