Aug 14th 1-2-3: Technology Pushing Innovation In Design - Final Fantasy 10
While my brother has been on a Metal Gear Solid kick, I have been on a Final Fantasy one.
This week, I will be talking about Final Fantasy 10, the fantastic follow-up to Final Fantasy 9.
If Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite, 10 is my extremely close second favorite in the series. It will always be a mainstay of my go-to games.
So what is the story behind Final Fantasy 10?
1: Technology Pushing Innovation in Design ( 4 minute read )
It is the early 2000s, and the next generation of video game consoles is here with the PlayStation 2.
Easily one of the most transformative consoles in history, the PS2 marked a shift into voice acting, detailed graphics, and rich and fully 3D worlds.
So which game was better to showcase a design and technical evolution, than Final Fantasy 10?
The development of Final Fantasy 10 started back in early 1999, with over 100 staff members and an unprecedented budget of 4 Billion Yen ($30 Million USD).
This would be the first fully voice acted Final Fantasy title, along moving away from pre-rendered backgrounds and transitioning into fully 3D environments.
Scenario writing was completed in the first 3-4 months of 2000, and a script and world aesthetic would be determined.
Instead of medieval fantasy and western palettes, FF10 would be inspired by the South Pacific, Thailand, and Japan. This meant that the look would be bright, clear, glassy, and colorfully rich.
This can be seen with all of the characters and settings in the in-game world of Spira, however it can be seen most in the protagonist, Tidus.
Representing sunlight, he is a bright and optimistic protagonist. He is a Blitzball player (an in-game competitive sport) who goes through dark and difficult situations with a constant sense of positivity.
This attitude exudes throughout all of the scenarios.
While all the other characters are burdened and dealing with the effects of Sin in the world, Tidus always maintains a can-do push-forward attitude that inspires and rallies his allies to push beyond their mental and physical limits to a stronger version of themselves.
Innovation may start with the technology, but it doesn’t end there.
The gameplay mechanics were also refined and refreshed.
The combat system returns to a turn based battle system, however with an entirely new level of strategic freedom, making this Final Fantasy one of the most puzzle-like in every scenario.
When you know the weaknesses and strengths of not only your enemies, but your entire party and their skills, battles can play out in an incredibly satisfying manner, with your knowledge of the game and your decisions being more important than ever.
This also showed in how character progression worked through the entirely new Sphere Grid.
The Sphere Grid was not only novel, it was highly customizable, allowing players to get creative about how they wanted to build out each of their party members.
What this created was a system where players could express themselves through their strategies even more than in previous entries, and let’s face it, much like everything in Final Fantasy 10 it also felt and looked super cool.
As always, none of the above is nearly as useful if not for a powerful and moving story, and boy does Final Fantasy 10 have it.
The story includes not only a special and memorable romance arc, but it also has the story of a father and son relationship. This added an emotional weight and complexity to the narrative, something that was absolutely uncommon back in 2001.
Technical upgrades allowed for facial capture and a new level of realism that created for some truly moving moments, along with some whimsical and hilarious moments as well (we all know the infamous laughing scene).
Overcoming loss and intergenerational guilt is explored deeply and satisfyingly throughout the entire story, with faith, burden, and self-sacrifice as leading virtues driving the story forward.
If you want to feel inspired to think of yourself less and to think of others more, play Final Fantasy 10.
Seeing as there was voice acting in this game unlike the previous entries, localization was also a challenge.
Fitting English dialogue into precise lip-sync timings was likened to “ writing four or five movies’ worth of dialogue entirely in haiku form” according to localization specialist, Alexander O Smith.
All of this work came together for its launch in July of 2001.
The game sold 8.5 million copies, earning critical acclaim, especially for its narrative, visuals and system and technological innovation.
10 shifted the landscape for FF, making for a more cinematic and visually dense world than previous titles, and paving the way for future titles to push the technology even further in FF 12, 13, 15, and most recently the masterpiece, FF16.
I know of people who are playing Final Fantasy 10 for the first time and even now admiring it for how it still stands as a fantastic and play-worthy title even today.
In my heart and mind, Final Fantasy 10 will always be a masterpiece and the game that ushered in a new generation of JRPG’s for decades to come.
So do yourself a favor, and play Final Fantasy 10.
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. How can the technology you have now inspire you to push your creativity?
II. What do you typically default to for aesthetic and design? What would mark a departure for you?
3: Inspirational Quotes From The Team
I. “The success of the Final Fantasy series can be attributed to constantly challenging the development team to try new things.” - Hironobu Sakaguchi, Executive Producer
II. “We have a written synopsis for a hypothetical Final Fantasy X‑3 … the possibilities of returning to Spira are not zero.” - Tetsuya Nomura, Character Designer
III. “Tidus’s original focus was on romance with Yuna, but… the addition of Jecht’s character and his feud with his son was added later… Kitase found the story between Tidus and Jecht to be more moving than the story between Tidus and Yuna." - Yoshinori Kitase, Producer
Thank you so much for reading!