Tetsuya Nomura talks Final Fantasy Versus XIII , Kingdom Hearts

Next-Gen has managed to do what few other game publications outside of Japan could hope to do at this point in time: Talk to Square Enix's backbone, Tetsuya Nomura himself about his ongoing project for the company; Final Fantasy XIII.

Well, not exactly XIII itself, but a game from the Fabula Nova Crystallis series. More specifically, the Final Fantasy-meets-Kingdom Hearts-and-Dirge of Cereberus hybrid, Final Fantasy Versus XIII. And what a talk it is! This is honestly the first time in a long while that a Square Enix interview has actually, genuinely got my attention for reasons other than screenshots or a trailer. You'll excuse me if I proceed to dissect various bits of the interview:

How do you consider that Versus XIII can offer this counterpoint to the Final Fantasy series?

The stories from the past entries in the Final Fantasy series are not exactly as I would have done, but that’s as it should be because I didn’t direct them. My only concern in terms of Versus XIII is that FF always talks about human emotion and psychologies in a broad way, and I want to go deeper in terms of offering some crude reality in terms of human emotion or human behaviour. The goal, when a player holds a controller and plays an RPG, is to make them believe in another world – to experience a dream in a fictional world. It will be different in Versus XIII because of the intrusion of the real world, and things that are really happening. There will be less fiction and more reality.

I must say, that is an extremely refreshing answer. No more "We have to create a fantasy world and make players relate to fantasy characters blah blah blah..." That's been done before. A lot. This is Nomura's answer to 20 years of fantasies. A change in style and ideology would be extremely welcome right about now. That answer right there just convinced me that this time around, the spin-off might actually best the main game in a series.

Moving on, Nomura makes comparisons between the game and his pet project Kingdom Hearts.

Those previous projects as director were the Kingdom Hearts games, which are much lighter than what we know of Versus XIII. Is the darker concept you have outlined a necessary change for you as director?

The world of Versus XIII might be a little closer to my personal taste than Kingdom Hearts, but the entire project owes something to Kingdom Hearts as well. When I first began KH I was part of the FF core team, and tried to bring elements of that into the development. The KH team was always inspired by FF, and I’d like to see that reversed. But as for the differences between KH and FF, KH is a lighter world of magic, fantasy, and people doing good things. I’ve been in that world for a very long time – perhaps too long.

Damn straight, Nomura. More power to you! This probably also explains why the Kingdom Hearts III teaser looks so different from what we've seen in past games in the franchise. Has Nomura decided it is time for the series to grow up a bit? After all, its fans probably have.

This might across as rather fanboyish, but I'm beginning to see why Tetsuya Nomura is so revered at Square. It's almost as if he's their Miyamoto. However, making that comparison might not be fair ... although, at this point I'm not very sure to whom. Hopefully we'll get to see a bit of the new Final Fantasy titles at E3. As a big fan of growth and change, I love that Square is finally taking the series in a different direction.

Nomura also talks about how developing for the PS3 doesn't really mean better graphics. Rather, it means seamless environments with several simultaneous events in progress. Highly recommended reading if you're into game design ideology.