Iwata Asks - Iwata, Takahashi, Sakaguchi talk games in Japan, RPG direction and more

The following Iwata Asks features Xenoblade director Tetsuya Takahashi and The Last Story director Hironobu Sakaguchi…

- First time the two have met up since their days at Square
- Takahashi left Sakaguchi’s team in order to do new things
- he was interested in using 3D in different ways from FFVII
- 90% of the team had no idea how to utilize 3D at this time
- the Final Fantasy series main programmer through Final Fantasy III was a foreigner
- the foreigner didn’t know any Japanese, but he and Sakaguchi shared steak dinners every night
- Iwata believes some JRPGs aren’t successful worldwide because they reuse the same conversations and situations
- “Because of this, RPGs need a change.” - Sakaguchi
- Japanese-developed titles are good at showing feelings and detail, and Sakaguchi feels that if creators value these areas, they will find worldwide success
- all three devs know that there is content that the entire world can enjoy, much like the case with foreign movies that gain acceptance in Japan
- “This is one topic we game creators in Japan will have to clear going forward.” - Iwata

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