It’sTheatrhythm Final Fantasyday! We already posted aboutSiliconera’s interviewwith producer Ichiro Hazama, but we were able to get some details of our own from him regarding some of the behind-the-scenes decisions that went into making the game.
For example,Theatrhythm Final Fantasywas not initially planned as a 25th anniversary title, but the timing coincidentally worked out. There was also a lot of in-fighting among the development staff as to which tracks to include, which eventually led to the team turning it over to Square Enix members in Japan to decide. Oh, andTheatrhythmmay not stay exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS going into the future.
When asked about the 3DS exclusivity ofTheatrhythm Final Fantasy, we were given a nebulous “There are currently no plans to go beyond 3DS, but we expect more users to enjoy this game, so it possibility could.” I can easily imagine a collection hitting mobile or PlayStation Vita with some of the DLC included at a later date. In terms of what the 3DS offered above the DS, however, Hazama noted that the increased memory and improved speakers on the 3DS made it a much better title than it would have been on the DS.
In terms of song selection, while the development staff did turn the decision over to fans (after too much internal argument over which tracks to include), and from there, Hazama explains, “We had to balance it out” because “We’d haveTheatrhythm Final Fantasy VII, for example.” Regarding “One-Winged Angel” fromFinal Fantasy VIIand “Clash on the Big Bridge” fromFinal Fantasy V, however, we were told “Those are the two main songs that we had to put when we started developing this game.”
We asked the obvious question about why they decided to develop a rhythm game based on theFinal Fantasyuniverse, and Hazama noted that the rich stories and key moments in theFinal Fantasyfranchise were usually tied to his memories of the music, so it was a natural pairing for him. When asked about the RPG elements and various types of stages included, he said to make the game accessible to as manyFinal Fantasyfans as possible, he wanted to add RPG elements to make them comfortable and not turn them off to the title based on it being a rhythm game.
Finally, we asked ifTheathythmwould become a franchise or would simply be expanded through DLC and were told,”We’re thinking big picture. Of course we want to make a franchise. The franchise isTheatrhythm, and could encompass other franchises likeTheatrhythm SaGaorTheatrhythm Seiken Densetsu.”
I’m excited aboutTheatrhythm Final Fantasy, and would love to see to extend to other popular Square Enix franchises.Theatrhythm Chrono, anyone?
