Famitsu recently posted an interview with Final Fantasy Agito producer Hajime Tabata on their website where he discusses the strange history of the title and it’s rebirth on smartphones as well as his ambitions to bring both Agito and Type-0overseas. He finishes discussing his excitement about working on a huge next gen title like Final Fantasy XV and the charms of smartphone titles.
Original text was posted here, my translation is below.
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Final Fantasy Agito takes place in the same realm as Final Fantasy Type-0, the big PSP hit from Hajime Tabata
A new development in the story started in the 2011 PlayStation Portable title, Final Fantasy Type-0. We interviewed the producer Hajime Tabata about the new title available on smartphones.
Become a cadet and plunge into the world of Final Fantasy Type-0!
In Final Fantasy Type-0, young men and women battle relentlessly, aiming to be the savior Agito and refining their skills at an institute of magic. In Type-0, history repeats itself in a slightly different form each time. The first round of that repeated history is the setting in the smartphone title, Final Fantasy Agito, available for free with additional in game purchases. In short, it is the original storyline. The player controls a single cadet and trains by going on missions every day in order to become Agito.
Famitsu.com is publishing an interview with Hajime Tabata, the director of Type-0 and producer of Agito, getting the scoop on the new title. This article includes corrections from the article published originally in Famitsu Weekly magazine released 2013/09/26.
Storyline
The world of Orience has continued a period of war lasting a long 1000 years.
People have continued fighting nonstop over four crystals.
A dictator invades, aiming to bring an end to the war and gain world domination.
Amidst the raging war, a light of hope that will save humanity from ruin, Agito…
The Agito cadets, young men and women who have gathered aiming to become Agito.
In order to end the war they throw themselves into the battlefield.
War or peace, allegiance or opposition.
The cadet’s decision will determine the future of the world.
It’s the first round of a repeating spiral, exceeding 600 million times.
Experience the first time around in a 600 million year cycle.
– Tell me the details regarding the release of Agito.
Tabata: First of all, I wanted to depict a story where the main characters of Type-0 followed a different fate. Many people who played Type-0 voiced this opinion, and many members of the staff had said the same thing, so that’s how it started. Before Type-0 was a PSP title, it was originally planned as a mobile phone game called Agito*. That title was suitable so I figured that I’d capitalize on it and reboot that project. A lot of time had passed since the original Agito plan, and if we were going to release it now, we’d do it for smartphones. In the end we came up with a story that players could experience live that included elements from the original plan for Final Fantasy Agito XIII while being different than Type-0.
*When Final Fantasy Type-0 was initially announced, it was called Final Fantasy Agito XIII and was included in the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy series. It was originally being developed for mobile phones, similar to how Kingdom Hearts Coded was originally released as a mobile phone game. Before development was finished, the title was changed to Final Fantasy Type-0 and the platform was changed to PlayStation Portable.
– So since Type-0 had a cruel outcome, you wanted Agito to have a different process and outcome?
Tabata: In Type-0, the history of the world of Orience is in an endless cycle of repeating itself and has done so over 600 million times. The secret movie in Type-0 implies that’s the case. In Agito, you’ll be able to experience the first round of that cycle, participating as an Agito cadet.
– The color of the cloak for Class Zero members is different in Agito than in Type-0.
Tabata: Right, it’s because they aren’t members of Class Zero. Even their personalities are a little different. In the beginning of the story, Class Zero doesn’t exist yet. The player starts in Class Twelve and as you grow, you gradually rank up to Class Eleven and so on.
– How does the new character Miyuu Kagirohi fit in?
Tabata: She’s the president of student council. It’s an important position in the story this time. When we were developing Agito XIII for mobile phones, depicting daily life in the magical academy was going to play a greater role. Agito plays up that factor, letting players enjoy the academy life more.
– The character visuals in the cutscenes are more expressive than in Type-0.
Tabata: One of our goals was to make conversation exchanges with characters feel more familiar. The game itself is in 3D, but when you are in conversations the quality improves and you can see the finer details of the character’s expressions. This is where we use the image processing technique called “Motion Portrait.” With it, the facial expressions change naturally and they react to where you tap them. These kind of interactions with the characters are only possible on smartphones, and since it’s a familiar device, being able to get closer to the characters than you could in Type-0 is one of Agito’s features. This time the members of Class Zero appear as familiar people who you interact with as your friends and comrades.
– What’s the pink heart shaped mark that appears during conversations with characters?
Tabata: Tapping that mark will deepen your bond with the character. Through life in the magical academy the player will meet various characters and build relationships with them little by little.
– That reminds me of “Tokimeki Final Fantasy Magical Academy Pericitrium Suzaku – My Love is Protected by Divine Crystals,” the fake project announced at a Final Fantasy exhibition held in September 2012.
Tabata: Development for Agito had only just started when Tokimeki was revealed. You could say that Tokimeki was more or less what I had in mind except for the serious components of Agito. (Laughs) Since I started Agito with the idea about making a game based on Type-0’s secret movie, the mood of Tokimeki was close to that. By the way, that secret movie is used in Agito.
– Will the the secret movie also play the shocking song, “Colorful Falling Love”?
Tabata: Our composer Ishimoto has written a new song, temporarily called “Colorful Falling Love 2” which will be used. Agito has this sort of feel, so there are parts where the staff are seriously overdoing it. (Laughs)
– We should take the overdone parts seriously! (Laughs) Incidentally, Agito’s story depicts a different destiny than the one in Type-0, but will it’s story have a real ending?
Tabata: It does. The same way that the mobile title, Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII ended, it has a “to be continued” type ending. And once you finish the story, you can start it from the beginning again, continuing the cycle of history repeating.
– I see. Since this is the first of 600 million cycles, it’s the sort of thing that you experience one by one. When you start the story over again, does the same story repeat?
Tabata: When we were doing the original story for Agito XIII, there was a “decision system” where the player could make choices that would would have gradually affected the storyline. In Agito, options for pivotal turning points in the story will appear and the outcome will be determined by the players majority vote, so that’s how the story will be effected here. In the 2nd round, different choices may be made and the options themselves may increase. This sort of “live” sensation is unique to this work.
– How is the pace of the first round of the cycle?
Tabata: With Before Crisis, we distributed 24 episodes over a two year period, but I think the first cycle of Agito will be shorter, and have a “play repeatedly” type of pace. I’m still considering how many chapters the first cycle will include, but we’re planning on distributing chapters once every 2 weeks. So, this just for example, if the in game events of Type-0 took place over a 3 month period and it took the player about 3 months in reality to play, there’d be a “live” sensation created by the time link, right? Thinking in this direction, I’m figuring out what the time standard for the period of 1 cycle should be so it lines up with reality.
– With the system in Type-0, you pass time talking to people, going to class, etc. and went on missions at specific times. How does the flow of time work in Agito?
Tabata: The missions in Agito don’t come at certain times, you can go on them whenever you like.
– When battles occur on missions, are they action oriented?
Tabata: No, you basically fight automatically. The player can do things like select the target or invoke abilities. Abilities take time to charge ATB style, so you can’t fire a single one off successively, but you can invoke several abilities in a row. The “kill sight” component from Type-0 is back, in battle it will display a red mark on an enemy. When you tap it, it will deal a large amount of damage if not kill the enemy. It’s not a game for home consoles, so we’re aware that the gameplay is easy and simple. Additionally, battles are fast paced and adhere to playing hastily, for example if you tap another area in the battlefield, your character dashes right over immediately.
– Looking at the battle screenshots, there are icons with the kanji 必 and 隊. Are those special moves?
Tabata: That’s right, 必 is a high power attack that can be unleashed when a gauge accumulates over time.
– And what about 隊?
Tabata: This has to do with the game’s cycle system, but first let me explain that the content in each chapter of Agito is split into two phases. They are the “Solo Play Phase” and “Multiplayer Phase.” Within the 2 week period of a chapter, the first 10 days are in the solo phase, the last 4 days are in the multiplayer phase. During the solo phase you go on missions individually, but during the multiplayer phase you can challenge strong bosses with members of a platoon (team). When the new chapter begins, you’re automatically put into a platoon and job, and basically the play style is to level up that job during the solo phase so you are prepared for the multiplayer phase.
– So the idea is that you have a job.
Tabata: Right. Each job has specific abilities, for example, knights can acquire a team ability called “Protect” that lowers the rate of attacks on players besides themselves. During the solo phase you go on mission earning points so you can acquire the abilities. The team abilities can be used during the multiplayer phase boss fights, so that’s when you see the 隊 mark and can invoke those specific special moves to benefit your team members.
– Will that have on an effect on players logged in at the same time?
Tabata: More or less, even if you’re timing is off, it’ll still have an effect. Of course, there are more merits if you are playing at the same time. Being able to play asynchronously with others but having a better benefit if you did play simultaneously was one of the elements from the original Agito XIII that carried over.
– Your platoon members will probably get mad if you don’t keep up your job training. (Laughs)
Tabata: With this system you can make friends with players outside your platoon, so you can get away with slacking off. I wanted you to be able to contribute to a team regardless of your playstyle. Since you fight continuously in boss fights, you’ll die really quick if you’re weak. But even if that happens, we’re planning a system where you can still help out your team. In Before Crisis we had the “rescue” system* and we plan on putting something similar into Agito.
*When a player’s HP dropped to zero or they failed to meet mission requirements, you could save them in rescue mode. You could earn items by rescuing players.
– In battle you have three party members including yourself, but how do you determine the other two?
Tabata: On general missions, you can choose two other team members from the players in your platoon or friends list or random players you don’t know. In boss battles you only have your platoon members. You select them and then AI data controls them.
– I see. By the way, are there summons?
Tabata: Yes there are. In Type-0, if there character doing the summon died accidently, they became out of commission during that mission. This time you possess the “God of War License” so you won’t die when you summon.Summons don’t include just beasts, but also members of Class Zero that you’ve befriended. I considered having Class Zero members become party members, but instead they work like summons, you call them, they attack and then leave.
– Listening to what you say, it sounds like the RPG elements make a greater impression than the social elements.
Tabata: It’s an RPG where you play as an Agito cadet. You can customize your character, from abilities to weapons and armor, and even collect material on the battlefields to enhance your weapon. The battles themselves are enjoyable. As for it being a smartphone game, we’ve made an RPG that is uncomplicated and stresses having fun in a short amount of time.
– Besides academy life and a judgement system, what else did you want to implement in Agito?
Tabata:We wanted it to be free to play all the way to the ending. I absolutely didn’t want to charge for it. (Laughs)
– Well then, are there parts that you have to pay for?
Tabata: You need stamina to go on missions and it refills automatically over time, but if you want to play immediately you can pay for an item that refills it instantly. You can also buy items to use as gacha currency or continue when you die mid-mission. For instance, if you defeat all the stages of a mission you can keep what you obtained and take it back the academy, but if you die in the middle of a mission you can’t bring back the items. If you use the special currency to continue, then you can continue to play and keep the items.
– What do you think about the balance of earnings from free to play games?
Tabata: To be honest, since I manage a lot of mobile staff in my position, I rely on them for that knowledge. But as a company, our objective is to have Square Enix content on a variety of platforms, and Agito’s development has followed that policy. Looking at the business effects when developing content for smartphones and predicting their future significance is really important. As a creator, I don’t want to make games that greedily charge players. The staff that worked on Agito strongly felt the same, and we are groping for a solution so that when a player pays for a service, it’s not something that we feel isn’t worthwhile.
– Was the Type-0 team in charge of development?
Tabata: Type-0 staff as well as mobile company Tayutau K.K. worked together on development. Our director was Masayasu Nishida who did level design on Type-0, and our art director was Sayako Hoshino, who fussed in great detail over the design of the character’s panties.
– I looked when you move around in game, but I see in the battle scenes that panties are completely visible! (Laughs) By the way, you worked on Before Crisis and now on Agito, so I wanted to ask what has changed the most concerning developing games that aren’t “dedicated” games?
Tabata: Thanks to smartphones and tablets, I think that the circumstances in which we choose games has changed the most. When you are looking for a game, the choices lineup and you can filter and sort them. There are so many to choose from, you judge them by their icon, summary, reviews, and then download. This is way that we viewed a gameshop before. On top of that, there are no monthly fees, most of them are basically free. It’s complicated, but my wife has trained the kids not to pay for games, so by no means will they download pay-to-play games. (Wry laughter)
– Having worked on packaged games as well, you must feel a little uneasy. Is it possible you’ll develop this title for PS Vita or other hardware?
Tabata: Right now Kakusansei Million Arthur has precedent, so there’s a possibility. However, I’m also looking into developing Agito for overseas markets, but since Type-0 hasn’t been released overseas, I’ll have to figure out what to do about that first.
– You had the idea to change Type-0 into it’s own brand so the title went from Agito XIII to Type-0. Besides this development on smartphones, have you had any ideas regarding new Type-0 developments for home consoles or maybe a continuation of The Third Birthday?
Tabata:Final Fantasy XV comes first. The other day I participated in an official announcement as Co. Director, but the Type-0 team was all there with me, and development is progressing well. Hereafter the engine development and game development side are coming along steadily and it’s breaking into an important phase.
– This is the first time that you have worked on titles for systems that Square Enix has deferred, but now that the new generation is upon us, how do you feel about working on a big title like that?
Tabata: I never really had a burning desire to make a game for PS3 or Xbox 360. But as for the PS4 and Xbox One, the visual level is outstanding, and I’m more motivated by them. The quality is so grand that when you look at something on a big screen, you can totally be absorbed by that world. If you think it, you can make it. Just like when you go on a trip abroad, you can make something that gives you culture shock. Even artists who felt like until now they couldn’t realize their vision will be enchanted.
– But manufacturing is difficult, isn’t it?
Tabata: Indeed. When we were developing for PSP, we didn’t care if the character’s weapons glitched and went through their cloaks, but the next gen display is so realistic, you can’t get away with that kind of sloppiness. But we’ve been working closely with Takeshi Nozue’s Visual Works team, so our team has gotten better and making high end CG works.
– It’s really possible to make even greater works than before on the next gen systems. But on the other hand, what is it about smartphone titles that you find charming?
Tabata: I like that you can design games that fit into our lifestyles. They’re close at hand for players and offer a lot of variety. While the device is easily accessible, it’s for this reason that you don’t want to play with it for long periods. With smartphone games, you play quickly, understand quickly, and get results quickly. I think the true essence of smartphone games is that they offer a fun way to waste spare time.
– I think out of all the titles that you’ve handled so far, the most accessible will definitely be Agito. On that note, has the chapter distribution time period been determined yet?
Tabata:Distribution will start this winter. There will be a stage event at Tokyo Game Show later this year and we plan on introducing a little content then.
– The specifications to run the game are quite high, what’s with that?
Tabata: That’s just how it is. The game will be compatible with iPhone 5/Android 4.0 and higher. I’d like service for both platforms to start at the same time as much as possible.
– Thank you for everything you shared. Do you have a final message to share with readers?
Tabata: New players and fans of Type-0 will undoubtedly both enjoy Agito. There are some parts you can pay for (laughs), but since it’s free, please download it. Since it’s unlike previous Square Enix content for smartphone devices, I’d like everyone to give it a try. I developed it making the best of my consumer and mobile device know how, so I hope you all enjoy it.
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