Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Q&A Feature

Due for release across Europe before the end of July, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is the final part in the so-called 'Compilation of Final Fantasy VII', a multi-title sphere of stories that have gone on to become one of the archetypal Japanese RPG universes to date. Set seven years before the iconic events of the original PlayStation title, Crisis Core unveils the story of Zack Fair, a 1st Class member of SOLDIER, the military arm of the Shinra Electric Power Company.

TVG caught up with Executive Producer, Yoshinori Kitase and Producer, Hideki Imaizumi at a round table Q&A session in London to find out more...

How difficult is it to create a story where the eventual outcome has already been determined?

Creating a story around an ending that is inevitable is a challenge, and there's enormous pressure to build a story around a famous happening. But it's also a fun challenge to do. It's like looking at historical figures who we know how they lived and how they died. If they're famous, then there'll be a lot of movies, a lot of books, and a lot of TV shows about these people, and they'll always approach these things from a different perspective. [So] you know how certain people die, you know how Caesar dies, but how it's presented is kinda different each time. Really, the challenge here was to present the perspective that basically honours the original title; that it ties in seamlessly into Final Fantasy VII. Obviously, that was a challenging experience, but also a lot of fun.

What inspired you to create a prequel to Final Fantasy VII?

Well, when you talk about inspirations for prequels, the original is obviously the greatest source. When you talk about that specifically, there have been several 'Compilation' titles that feature different characters within the universe. In terms of this project though, to bring Zack to life, this minor character in the original series that held such importance to the protagonist of 'VII', Cloud, whom he had such a profound effect on his life yet nobody knows much about him, we felt there was a lot of potential there to flesh out his story. In doing that, [it would] also enrich the original story as well - that was probably the primary motivation behind this title.

Is Crisis Core the final part in the 'Compilation of Final Fantasy VII'?

The degree of completion and satisfaction of the story coming full circle is very visible, and that a milestone has been reached with the Compilation. Whether it's the final product in the Compilation, we'd rather not say that yet. We'd like to leave windows of opportunity open.

You spoke about 'windows of opportunity' there; one of the things that Final Fantasy fans in Japan, America, and Europe have been clamouring for, is a remake of Final Fantasy VII. Is there any chance of this being done?

In order for a remake to work, the core members of the original team need to all come together to work on it. This would include Mr Kitase, Mr Nomura the character designer, Mr Nujima, Mr Nora the art director - all of these people would have to come together for it to really work.

Obviously, each of these members has solid ideas in their head of what a remake would be like, but to transfer that into a project at this point is logistically difficult, because all the core members are involved in their own projects - rather large projects - like Final Fantasy XIII and Versus Final Fantasy XIII. Those projects are going to take a while; perhaps after all that has been concluded, then they could start afresh on another project, but right now it's very difficult to say when that's going to be.

The general idea of Crisis Core came in two days; we talked about it for two days before deciding to do it. You can expect perhaps the probability of something spontaneous at some point; it's just hard to make an announcement like that beforehand when things are decided upon in that short amount of time sometimes.

Why was the decision made to create Crisis Core for PSP and not PlayStation 3?

At the time, the PlayStation 3 wasn't an option; we didn't even know when it would be available to develop on at the time the concept [of Crisis Core] was brought up. But when the concept did come up, it coincided with the Japanese launch of the PSP; it was the new hardware to develop on. Whereas there was familiarity with the PlayStation 2, and it could have been developed on PS2 as well, there was this interest on the developers' side to experiment with the new hardware. There's this motivation to explore new avenues; [developing for] new hardware is going to be a more exciting experience than doing the same thing we've been doing for years and years. So that contributed to the PSP choice - it coincided with the launch of the new hardware.

Ten years on from the release of Final Fantasy VII, there's been the launch of subsequent Final Fantasy instalments, and yet with the likes of Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children, Before Crisis, and of course, Crisis Core, you've gone back to the Final Fantasy VII universe time and again. What's so compelling and special about this universe in particular that's meant you've returned to it on multiple occasions?

It was a time of transition back then, when 'VII' was being created. The PS1 allowed for this all new realm of possibility for the creation, with 3D graphics, a vast improvement in terms of visuals and audio. At the time, I was a younger man, ten years younger, and I felt that I could revolutionise the industry and set the new standard.

So, it was a time with all this enthusiasm as a young creator, setting new standards for Role-Playing Games, and the new realm of possibility with the hardware. It wasn't only a huge impact for fans and users, but for creators too. Perhaps it's that impact that keeps bringing us back to that era. Looking back in retrospect, at the time it was hard to say, but with ten years having gone by, to a degree we succeeded. We did help usher in this new age for the genre, and to a degree, the industry. There is a special place in my heart for that time.

Crisis Core moves away from the standard turn-based combat system; what prompted the change?

You have to consider that this title also leaves [behind] the traditional party system; you only control Jack, and not a party. Story-wise, that was necessary as well, to make it [Crisis Core] about Zack. When you use a turn-based system around a single character, it doesn't work as well. The flow isn't right; you're waiting forever to control that one character to fight multiple enemies, and it doesn't work. What we did was to take some elements of the command selection structure, you can still select to cast spells and stuff like this, but we also incorporated new elements to keep the combat fresh.

The DMW [Digital Mind Wave] system, the 'wheel of fortune' slot-machine system, plus the classic Materia system that you saw in 'VII', all meld together to create a dynamic battle structure. So yes, you're controlling one character, but so many things are changing and moving at the same time, that it's always fresh. It was this kind of obvious revolution of how you keep a single player/single character battle system fresh at all times is why the change was made.

One of the motivations is that Zack is a SOLDIER of Shinra, and one of the things we wanted to do was show the power of this elite warrior, and how he gets even stronger as the story progresses. Really, a lot of the action elements make you feel like you're controlling this very adept warrior; you can press a button to evade, you can press a button to swing your sword and such. There's this kind of directness about it that shows the power of this SOLDIER operative; presentation-wise, it was very important to have this system as well.

Can you tell us more about the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) system?

In terms of the concept, what we really wanted was to have an element of luck to separate it from the action. To have this uncontrollable force, this twist of fate, within the combat where you slay some boss character twice, but one time you win because the slots matched and all your HP recovered, and another time you lose because you had none of these things and it was just too difficult to do without that kind of support. Even within the same battle, you have different results depending on the luck of the draw. We really wanted that element of luck in there just to make it so every time you fight this boss, it wouldn't be the same experience.

At the same time though, you shouldn't think of it as a completely random system. The levelling up system is tied into the DMW, and we get asked whether that means people can stay on Level 1 forever if they're unlucky...that's not the case. There is an internal experience counter, which will after a point spit that data into the DMW and affect the odds of levelling up. Sometimes you will get two levelling ups close together, and sometimes you won't level up for a while. But will you remain at Level 1 forever? No, that's just not possible probability wise.

Also, the Materia system is inextricably linked to the DMW system, and there are Materia that manipulate the DMW system. So there is that additional level of gameplay involved there. One of the concepts rejected was to have four fours in the DMW, then Zack would reduce a level (Four is a very unlucky number in Japanese as the word for four sounds like the word for death - TVG Team). It's not in there, but it's a little story.

With the Final Fantasy VII world already established, where there any locations or characters you specifically wanted to revisit?

For this title specifically, Nibelheim was an area that was a very big part of the original title. It was a crucial time for many of the main characters like Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack this time. We really wanted to revisit the place where this event happened, and relay a new image of the same event in a way in which the fans would be satisfied. We took great care to rebuild that scene, and do things like use the same camera angles from Final Fantasy VII to show the scene in Nibelheim. Just to get the same feeling, but do it with the modern hardware. We took so much care that Mr Katase, despite being Exceutive Producer, took care of that sequence himself and become Event Planner. It was the place we really wanted to revisit the most, and the characters, the ones we wanted to show again the most as well.

Square Enix has added the 'Hard Mode' for the release of Crisis Core outside of Japan; what prompted the move?

Well initially, when we released the Japanese version we didn't add the Hard Mode because it was an action Role-Playing Game that everybody could play and enjoy, and see it through to the end. This is what we really wanted the most. But after the release, even in Japan, more people were in tune with the action genre than we suspected. We saw that people were achieving a lot of things even at low levels, and it exceeded our expectations in terms of skill level.

We figured that once we moved the game out into the world, then we'd have even more players adept at the genre. Really to satisfy the whole spectrum of players out there, we realised that another difficulty mode would be the best thing to do. The Hard Mode is really very difficult; it's almost like not playing the same game. Things take forever to die...the hardcore players will be satisfied. That was our motivation for the Hard Mode in the overseas versions.

Crisis Core was first announced back four years ago at E3 2004; was there any particular reason as to why the game took so long, or was it so you could get it as perfect as possible?

Well first of all, we made the announcement too fast four years ago. That's something we'll work on in the future. For E3 three years ago, we had to create a demo for the game. We had to focus on creating this functional thing; whist we were doing that, we realised that we'd underestimated the spec of the PSP. [The PSP] had only just come out, and stuff wasn't really known about it, but once we tinkered with it, we realised that it wasn't that much different from a PS2. We could do a lot more things than we thought we could initially. The E3 demo was a learning experience right there, it set the standard for the rest of the game. We said "If we can do this much with the demo, then it has to be this way the entire game. We're going to make something much better than we thought we were going to make." We set ourselves an extra hurdle for ourselves because of that moment, and maybe that contributed to the lengthening of the development period.

TVG would like to thank Yoshinori Kitase and Hideki Imaizumi and for answering our questions, together with Alex Hutala and Charlotte Fraczek at Square Enix Europe. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is scheduled for launch on PSP across Europe during the second quarter. TVG's hands on preview of Crisis Core is coming soon.