Final Fantasy X and X-2 producer reflects on the innovative PS2 titles
We put a lot of ‘new’ in Final Fantasy X. It was the first game in the Final Fantasy series to be built in full 3D, we introduced new types of presentation, a new battle system… it even came out on new hardware. It also spawned the first direct sequel in the series’ history – Final Fantasy X-2.
This game was similarly fresh, and had a very different style, tone, and structure to the rest of the series.
I worked as producer on Final Fantasy X and its sequel. With both available on PlayStation Now in Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster, I thought I’d share some memories of working on these very special games.
Final Fantasy X was the first game in the series to be developed for the PS2. There are always challenges and decisions to be made when working with new hardware, and that was certainly the case for Final Fantasy X.
One key decision we faced was around the visuals. Even though the PS2 offered a big increase in power from the original PlayStation, there was still a limit to the hardware specs, so to depict the new graphical style, we had to choose whether to prioritize resolution or the number of colors.
Initially, we thought it would be beneficial to use more colors – we thought that would help us really depict the world of Spira in a vibrant way. However, when we looked at the trends in other companies’ games released while we were working on development, it became increasingly clear that fans were hoping for higher resolution next-gen games.
As a result, we switched from focusing on the number of colors to making the game as high resolution as possible – and we did this about six months before the master deadline!
This meant we had to make major modifications to the game we’d made so far, which was a big risk in terms
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