As a long-time producer and director of Final Fantasy games, Yoshinori Kitase is one of the main contributors to Square Enix’s flagship RPG series. We spoke to Kitase about running the brand, keeping development ambitions at bay and redesigning a classic like Final Fantasy VII.
Is it correct that Square Enix is the only company that you have worked for in the gaming industry?
Yes. I was in an animation studio for a year before I came here, and that’s it.
How did you get to Square?
I joined the company in 1990, and that was about the time we switched from Nintendo to Super Nintendo. Of course, the graphics were nowhere near where they are today, but when I started thinking that I wanted to move from the animation world to the gaming world, I really wanted to go to a place that had a strong focus on storylines – and that’s why I was interested in Square.
Final Fantasy VI
What drew you away from film and animation towards games?
I’ve always liked video games; I’ve always played her and I was interested in her. But when I was studying, I focused on film, which led to animation. The company I was working for at the time mainly made commercials and short videos and the like. But I really wanted to start doing things that are longer. I played a lot of games as a hobby. At that moment – it was just good timing – I was playing Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and I found that games are a very good medium for telling stories in a longer form. I thought, “This will be the future.”
You are the producer of the remake of Final Fantasy VII, a game you previously worked on. How did experience try to introduce it to a new audience?
When we made the first game, we were completely free. We could do what we wanted. The second time there were many fans of the first game. We had to take care of them to a certain extent, which was a good but very difficult thing. For the past 20 years, the people who played the series had the image of Cloud being built and built. And this picture of what Final Fantasy VII is and who those characters are is pretty concrete. When we did Final Fantasy VII Remake, we had to think: “Is it okay to create a new cloud?” Will people say, “No, this is not a cloud. It would not do that.” Or will people be receptive to it? It was really interesting to find out.
How can you balance your own desire to do something creatively interesting instead of reworking familiar ground?
I don’t think this is just me – I think everyone here wants to do something new. It’s really wonderful that a game you’ve worked on is so loved by so many people. Even when we were out promoting Final Fantasy XIII, people kept asking us, “When will the Final Fantasy VII remake come out?” At this point, the graphics are quite old. I want people to see it as something new. I want people to experience it with new eyes. So I think the feeling that people want to relive it is part of the reason why I decided to remake it.
I really love films; Star Wars Episode IV was real time for me. Star Wars Episode IV? Appeared almost 50 years ago? Even if I look back now, I still find many of the special effects impressive – in a way, they feel pretty fresh. But for the people who are in my son, he looks at it and says, “It looks like they only have a few toys to play with.” new – this is what it looks like for someone who is used to the newest and best CG. I really think that everyone can go back and play the original Final Fantasy VII, and it would still be fun, but it will look like that to them – and I want to be able to bring people something that looks new and fresh.
Is there a committee at Square Enix that directs Final Fantasy as a brand?
Is it so famous Yes, it does. It still exists. (Laughs) Does it seem world famous? With a bit of a Yoda character like at the Jedi Council meetings?
Yes exactly! Is it like this
(Laughs) Mr. (Shinji) Hashimoto is the brand manager, so he’s kind of a Yoda!
Final Fantasy VIII
How are these meetings? Final Fantasy title producers meet to talk about the future – which ideas fit and don’t fit the series?
Obviously, Final Fantasy is a series that has a long and intricate past. Therefore, the committee mainly takes care that the assets that make up the history and image of the series are preserved. But there really is no element in which these people say “you can’t” or “you can’t”.
The committee really exists to ensure that – for example characters like Cloud – if there is a connection with a large company, maybe he’s in a commercial, it’s the position of the committee to say, “Oh, he wouldn’t” , Don’t say that. “Or” No, he would never wear that. “Provide these types of policies to protect and manage what we’ve already set out.
When it comes to new creations, I don’t think it is there to limit people. We want to provide the producers and directors of all new Final Fantasy games with a very open and inviting base to create anything they want. There won’t be anything like, “This is the kind of animal that Chocobos are, and they have always been like that, so you can’t do that to them – they would never do that.” It has never been like this for the people who create the new games.
Of course, everyone in the committee has different opinions. This is only my opinion. There will be people who say, “No, no, the chocobo has never done that. Why should it start now? “But my personal attitude is:” Just because a chocobo has never done it does not mean that it cannot. Why not show people a new side of Chocobos? “
Final Fantasy X
To what extent can you create the game you want while working on a game? How much do you need to consider other titles and competitors?
When new games come out while we are developing something – for example Spider-Man – we buy a copy of the game and play it all in the field to see what kind of technology, elements and graphics we use. There are many times that these games try to achieve something that we want to achieve. When we play them, we can sometimes find clues on how to move something that we put on a roadblock. But when we look at these games all the time and say, “We want our graphics to be better than that.” Or “We want this feature to be better than that.” If you continue like this, things will keep going and on also the release date. It just never stops. For this reason, it is very important to have a clear idea of what story you want to tell and what kind of things you want your audience to experience. Of course, many of these games have a lot of very good elements that they do; It is important that you have your core idea in order not to be influenced. If you don’t, it is really easy to think, “What if we added this? What if we added?” But that will lose the central focus of your game. It is therefore very important to stay strong.
It’s really rare for someone to be in a company for so long – and mostly work on a franchise. What about your job these days, which is the most exciting and challenging for you?
I’ve been in the Final Fantasy series since Final Fantasy V; From I to IV it was Messrs. (Akitoshi) Kawazu and (Hironobu) Sakaguchi. And one day, I imagine that I will entrust the Final Fantasy series to someone else. We’ve already got Mr. (Naoki) Yoshida to make Final Fantasy XIV – and I’m not saying it will happen right away or tomorrow or something. But trying to create Final Fantasy as a series that appeals to a new generation of fans – and entrusting that series to the next generation of developers – is one of the challenges that I look forward to years.
Career highlights
1990: After working in an animation studio at college, Kitase gets his first job in the gaming industry at Square
1991: The Game Boy title Seiken Densetsu is released. This is the first game Kitase is working on. It’s called Final Fantasy Adventure in North America and is the first game in the mana series
1994: Final Fantasy VI (originally Final Fantasy III in North America) is released on SNES, which Kitase runs together with Hiroyuki Ito. It is the last 16-bit entry in the series and is one of the most popular among fans
1995: Chrono Trigger starts on SNES in order to gain broad recognition thanks to the collaboration of a top-class development team. Kitase is one of the game’s directors
1997: Kitase is the director of Final Fantasy VII, which sets a new genre standard with 3D graphics, great kinematics and a story that captures the imaginations of players around the world
2001: Square releases Final Fantasy X for PS2 with Kitase as the producer of the title
2009: Kitase is the producer of Final Fantasy XIII, followed by Final Fantasy XIII-2 in 2011 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII in 2013
2015: After years of rumors, Final Fantasy VII Remake will be announced at E3 2015. Several key contributors to the original are involved in the project, including Kitase as a producer, Tetsuya Nomura as a director, and Kazushige Nojima as an author. The game is expected to be released on March 3, 2020
This article originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of Game Informer.
