Resonance of Fate Director Talks About JRPGs Future News

Takayuki Suguro (tri-Ace Director), Mitsuhiro Shimano (SEGA Japan, Producer)

Square-Enix hasn't disclosed exactly how much Final Fantasy XIII cost to develop, but recent comments from the publisher's president Yoichi Wada suggest that a dwindling Japanese market and spiralling budgets could force the company to move beyond its typical remit.

"Internally and externally I feel there’s an expectation of Square Enix to offer something new," Wada-san recently claimed.  "I really think that the Final Fantasy team could create something completely different, but at the moment they’re strictly catering to the particular audience they have now."

At a recent event demonstrating the latest build of SEGA's Resonance of Fate, TVG posed the question to tri-Ace's Takayuki Suguro.

"With Resonance of Fate we have tried to be innovative, but in the Japanese market in particular the traditional JRPG does have a very good fanbase and there is still the demand for those type of games," Suguro-san claimed.  "That's because those types of games are perceived as tradition, rather than being viewed in a negative way."

"That might be the reason why the traditional JRPG is not viewed more positively in the Western market, because it's not being seen as tradition but as gameplay from 10-20 years ago," he added.  "People may not have the positive feeling that Japanese people would appreciate in the Western market."

However, the dwindling Japanese market and rocketing development costs place pressure on the developers to create titles that appeal beyond their traditional borders, which is an aspect that Saguro-san acknowledged.

"Because developing games on the current generation consoles does take a lot of development cost and time you need to think about the worldwide market," he noted.  "When you perceive it that way it's natural for people to begin developing games for Western audiences, not being a super traditional Japanese game."

"It's not like Japanese developers should look to develop Western orientated games," he added.  "Traditional Japanese RPGs do have a strong demand in the Japanese market, but it is also true that those people are actually loosing interest in the traditional Japanese game, which means even if you want to succeed in the market you have to come up with something new."

"Trying something new is something that's going to be needed in the future of Japanese development.  With Resonance of Fate we want that to be the first title to set such tones to Japanese developers."

"There isn't any difference between what's fun in a game; if a game is fun it's going to be the same in every market.  Our focus is on creating a game that is fun to everybody."

TVG will be bringing you our latest impressions of Resonance of Fate from a hands-on demo shortly.