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More Details on Final Fantasy X Square's PlayOnline site announced that the title of the theme song for Final Fantasy X will be Suteki Dane (Isn't it beautiful) for the Japanese version, sung by a Japanese folk singer named Rikki. A U.S. version of the song has not been announced. More details of the game were revealed in an interview of the development team by Dengeki magazine. Art
Director: Yusuke Naora Among the highlights: There will be a transition between the field mode to the dungeon mode, but the team designed it so that the camera work and other aspects will be the same in either place. Players will not be able to control the camera themselves, but Naora assured Dengeki that the camera angles will always be at the best angle to see the map. Not all the events will use real-time graphics. In fact, half of the events will be done with CG movies. Kitase commented, "For large scale events, it's more effective to show it using CG movies." The development team explained Sin as something similar to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. Sin does not come in a form of a single solid entity, but will appear as a variety of things. Summoners are perceived as idols and celebrities in FFX. There are other summoners besides Yuna in the game, and numerous different summoned beasts. The ultimate summon spell is pursued by every summoner. However, it is not known whether the spell will call a summoned beast or some other unknown entity. Furthermore, Yuna is the only summoner in the player's group, unlike FFIX that features two summoners. The role of Tidus seems to be a bodyguard for Yuna, which is similar to the main character's role in FFIX. Nomura commented that he was asked to intentionally design Yuna with an Asian flare. The game draws imagery from Southeast Asia, and the buildings and cities will reflect Asian culture -- X will not have the futuristic, cyber look of VII and VIII. Tidus is the only character that doesn't seem to fit into the Asian imagery. This was intentionally done because his character is a special being; Tidus does not belong in Yuna's world. Tidus is unfamiliar with even the most common practices, and according to Nojima, his most common phrase is "What's that?" Blitzball, a game played in FFX, is sort of a cross between basketball and soccer with a touch of rugby. The games consist of six players on each team, and the goal is to pass and shoot the ball to score points (doesn't that describe just about every ball-based game?). Blitzball will appear as a mini-game (if the development team's wishes are met), but more importantly, the game is an integral part of the storyline. The battles are still based on random encounters. As you walk through the field, monsters will appear and your view will switch to the battle screen. However, for key battles and boss fights, the field will become the battle mode. Originally, the team planned to use this method for every fight, but they were unable to make it happen in FFX.The battle system designer, Tsuchida, hopes that future FF titles will be able to integrate seamless transitions between field and battle modes. The battles will basically consist of three members on the screen at any given time like FFVII and VIII, but during the battle, other members of your party will be able to come in constantly. Tsuchida explained that even though the PS2 enables you to display numerous characters on the screen at once, they elected to not do so because inputting commands for all the characters would ruin the tempo of the battles. Therefore, a system was devised in which you can call characters that have the skill you want at any time. Limit Break-esque special moves exist in FFX. However, Tsuchida wanted to emphasize more unique, personal moves, so the moves may be differentiated by things like elements, magic, and attack patterns. However, characters themselves will not have elemental differences like water, fire, wind, ice, etc. Certain events will be triggered depending on the choices you will make. For example, the love aspects of the game may turn out somewhat differently if you make certain choices. Chocobos will be in the game as a form of transportation. This time, they went for a more realistic look for the design of the Chocobos rather than the cartoonish look of Chocobos in previous FF games. The team slyly hinted that marquee Final Fantasy characters like Cid may be in the FFX, but they did not confirm for certain that they would be in the game. Another FF trademark -- flying ships -- will definitely appear in the game. 30 January,2001 Source: Final Fantasy IX Site |