By Spencer . Siliconera . [June 4, 2010]
As a special treat for Siliconera readers, we contacted luminary scenario writer and game designer Soraya Saga about spoke to her past works. Soraya wrote the scenario for Xenogears with her husband, Tetsuya Takahashi, and came up with the back story for Edgar and Sabin in Final Fantasy VI.
More on those characters and Ms. Saga's thoughts on the state of RPGs today are below.
How did you get started in the video game industry?
Soraya Saga: In the beginning of the 90s, I joined Square Co., Ltd. as a graphic designer by answering a job advertisement in the computer magazine ASCII.
Over the years, you had many job, spanning from design to script writing. Which is generally the hardest and why? Which did you find to be the most rewarding?
Both are rewarding in much the same way, but if I had to choose, I find it slightly harder to design because it requires more workspace. The advantage of writing is it can be done anywhere.
How do you create and mold characters? Do you base them on people you know, art, or events in the story?
Mainly based on the plot. First I see them as elements in a larger whole, imagine their possible motivations and relationships, then try to think from their perspective. My personal exper
iences and point of view might be partly reflected in characters, but usually I don't base them on actual persons.
The Figaro brothers, Edgar and Sabin, from Final Fantasy VI are memorable characters. Can you tell us how you designed them and the doujinshi you wrote?
Thank you. When the project started there was a list of playable class names, like "one thief, one gambler and two magitek knights". The staff used to bring along ideas to create stories, as my friends took a gambler, a ninja and a painter, I chose a monk and a machinist to design and write. Personally I really like desert landscapes, therefore they naturally became the kings on the sand.
I have a habit of coming up with ridiculously detailed ideas about character’s backgrounds. Thankfully the company took open-minded attitude to the doujinshi subculture back then, so I put brothers' tales of childhood that didn’t fit in the game into a privately-printed booklet after the game came out. The most part I wrote in that booklet was just trivial things, though.
In general, there are often many things that aren't used in games. I used to think all the story must be told, but these days I feel there should be room for viewers' imagination.
Can you tell us about the development of Soma Bringer? Will it ever come to North America and are there any plans to revisit this universe?
Soma Bringer is an RPG for DS. The team focused on developing an enjoyable co-op gameplay, so I tried to make the story simple and clear not to interrupt the fun of playing. As far as I know, whether it'll be released internationally or not has not yet been determined.
What do you think about the state of RPGs today?
With the technological advances, RPGs have remarkably become beautiful and dramatic, but we learnt from our own experience that games shouldn't be something just to watch. It’s not that games don’t need good stories, it's that we developers should think first of what gamers are looking forward. Now we’re trying to get back to basics, to provide sheer enjoyment of games again.
Come back next week for part two where we talk about Xenogears and Xenosaga.
By Spencer . Siliconera . [June 11, 2010]
In the second half of our chat with Soraya Saga, we focus almost entirely on the Xeno series. There's a little tiny bit about Titus 12, an unreleased game, and Super Robot Taisen too.
Saga wrote the scenario for Xenogears and the first two Xenosaga games, but I'll let her tell you more about her involvement in those projects.
Going way back, can you tell us about the origin of Xenogears? How did development of such an ambitious story begin and how did you weave in elements from philosophers like Nietzsche and psychologists such as Jung and Freud?
Soraya Saga: I and Tetsuya Takahashi originally submitted it as a script idea for Final Fantasy VII. While we were told that it was too dark and complicated for a fantasy, the boss was kind enough to give Takahashi a chance to launch a new project. Then Takahashi and I wrote up the full screenplay which contained cutscene-dialogues in final form, thus the project was born.
The works of Nietzsche, Freud and Jung happened to be part of common interests I shared with Takahashi. Xenogears is basically a story about "where do we come from, what are we, where are we going". In that respect, we were inspired by those concepts a lot.
Xenogears feels like it was cut short. The Perfect Works book I have on my bookshelf has a ton of other content like unused Gears and art. Can you tell us what other ideas you planned for Xenogears?
Thank you for having it on your bookshelf. Yeah, there was a ton of unused ideas, maybe we could have put them in if it were a seasons-long TV series or something like that.
How did you feel when you got to start the Xenosaga series?
We missed Xenogears so much but overall Xenosaga seemed a fresh start full of hope.
Xenosaga and Xenogears, especially Billy's story, are packed with biblical references. Why did you pick this source and are there any other works or media that inspired these games?
Regardless of differences in religion, I've always had a deep interest in the power of belief people have. Biblical references in the game might catch the notice first because it's widely known, but also a variety of religious ideas can be seen throughout the game.
KOS-MOS, even today, is still loved by fans. Can you tell us how you created her? Were there any alternate designs or storylines?
KOS-MOS is literally the brain daughter of Takahashi. We tend to depict human characters as a strong will in a fragile flesh and blood. So, we wanted KOS-MOS to be a complement to it by being the delicate pieces of soul in an unbreakable vessel. Storywise, we couldn't fully show her background in the game, but I think it must be left veiled for now.
There were several unused designs of her by Kouichi Mugitani and Kunihiko Tanaka. Some of them can be seen in Mugitani's doujinshis.
Xenosaga was originally supposed to be six games, but was sadly also cut short. Can you share any ideas that didn't make it through or were not used in the way you wanted them to be presented due to the change?
It's so complicated. To fill the unexpected gap that was generated in the episode II, the subsequent plot had to shift its course to some extent from where it was supposed to be. There were many major changes, but what's done cannot be undone, so there's no looking back on those might-have-beens.
Personally speaking, what do you consider is the connection between Xenogears and Xenosaga?
I think all Xeno works are, so to speak, like rivers and lakes that once sprung from our mind, eventually became independent. They sure are kin, but not lineal.
The Super Robot Taisen series is very popular in Japan. How do you feel about having characters you worked with in a spinoff to such a legendary series?
My husband (Takahashi) and son are huge fans of the series. We're feeling very honored.
Are there any crossovers you personally want to see with characters you created?
Transformers: War for Cybertron. Weltall-Id and KOS-MOS would make a good fight.
Some images of "Titus 12" popped up. Can you tell us about this project?
That was a draft proposal for a sci-fi RPG I wrote at the request of Monolithsoft circa 2000 to 2004.
The previous Xeno works were heavy on cutscenes. How do you balance a dramatic story with gameplay and what have you learned over the years?
Keeping balance between those elements is the most important task we must work at. As you know, the heavy volume of story has been a core factor of Xeno works. But now we realized that too heavily orienting toward visuals and stories would ruin the fundamental reason for the existence of games.
Special thanks to Ms. Saga for her time and all the Siliconera readers who sent us questions. Her latest work, Xenoblade, is out in Japan now.
(Note: Soraya Saga didn't actually work on Xenoblade. Her latest work as of this interview was still Soma Bringer.)
No comments:
Post a Comment