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Hiroyuki Ito

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Hiroyuki Ito
Born
伊藤 裕之
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Video game producer, director, designer

Hiroyuki Ito (伊藤 裕之, Itō Hiroyuki), is a Japanese game producer, director and designer who works for Square Enix. He is known as the director of Final Fantasy VI (1994), Final Fantasy IX (2000) and Final Fantasy XII (2006) and as the creator of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system in the Final Fantasy series.

Biography

After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University, Ito joined Square in 1987.[1] He initially worked on Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II as a debugger but first became genuinely involved with game development while creating sound effects for Final Fantasy III.[2] His next major role was as the designer of the Active Time Battle system for Final Fantasy IV.[2][3] Square filed a Japanese patent application related to the ATB system on 16 July 1991 and a corresponding US application on 16 March 1992. One Japanese patent (JP2794230) and two US patents (US5390937 and US5649862) were granted based on these applications.[4] For Final Fantasy V, Ito designed the fully customizable Job system.[3][5] He also created the 'Chicken Knife or Brave Blade' choosing event.[5] Final Fantasy VI marked the first time that Ito became a director on a game. For this title, he was in charge of all battle aspects.[6] He was also responsible for the battle systems in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy Tactics before he once more took on the role of director with Final Fantasy IX.[2] Ito had the idea to make its protagonist Zidane Tribal flirtatious towards women.[7]

In mid-2005, Square Enix announced that Yasumi Matsuno had left the company due to an illness but would be acting as a supervisor on Final Fantasy XII. Ito was appointed as the director of the game. Matsuno apologized for the long development time of the project but guaranteed players that it was "progressing in its development under the hands of excellent staffs".[8] Ito created the License Board of Final Fantasy XII with the intention to give the player much freedom in developing characters to their liking without becoming too complicated.[9] At the Square Enix Party 2007 pre-conference meeting in May 2007, he was introduced on stage as the producer and director of the newly announced Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System.[10] He stated later that he considered the game design and battle system of Final Fantasy XII a "definitive contribution to the gaming lexicon" and that it had "the potential to shine in future games".[11] In about 2012, Ito was tasked by producer Shinichi Tatsuke with the creation of a battle system for a new game. However, the plan changed and he was told a week later that there was a different project to consider. Tatsuke now requested a concept for a social game which he felt was an interesting opportunity to have Ito work on, given his experience with simple Nintendo Entertainment System game systems. This concept became Guardian Cross.[12] In September 2012, Ito said that he would work on another Final Fantasy game if the company's president wished for it.[3] The corporate executive of Square Enix's 1st Production Department, Shinji Hashimoto, mentioned in July 2013 that Ito was "planning and doing some proposals for a new project" and "putting some ideas together".[13]

Game design and impact

As the game designer of a Final Fantasy game, Ito tries to balance the story and event scenes with the gameplay.[14] When he begins his work on a title, he does not consider the story at hand but rather adapts his game system to it as closely as possible over the time. He thinks that it is his job to smoothly implement a game so the people in charge of the stories do not have to worry about this aspect.[3] He also believes that the most important factor of the Final Fantasy series is the player's feeling of accomplishment after beating the game and seeing "The End" on the screen.[15] Professional sports were the primary inspiration behind Ito's battle systems.[3] The monsters in Final Fantasy IV and the Gambit system in Final Fantasy XII resemble aspects of the NFL in that their actions are based on the most likely outcome of a specific situation.[3][15] The Active Time Battle system was similarly inspired by Formula One, as Ito had the idea to give characters different speed values after seeing a race in which the cars passed each other. These values would then become the basis for the battle system and dictate when it will be a character's turn.[2][3][16]

At the CESA 2006 Japan Game Awards held on 22 September 2006, Ito accepted the "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" for Final Fantasy XII. He thanked the development team, longtime fans and new players alike and said that the team was grateful for the awards as they could not possibly think about the game's reception during its creation.[17] His comment at the ceremony was: "I did my best to bring new and innovative elements to this work. I'm very happy that something like this, which was one of the more challenging games to create in the Final Fantasy series, has received this award. To return the favor to the users who've played this game and who regard it so highly, I'm determined to continue creating by always reminding myself of the need to rise to new challenges."[18] Tetsuya Nomura considers Ito one of his four "seniors" at the company and a likely influence on his battle planning.[19] He also stated that he was taught the basics of game design by Ito.[20]

Works

Year Title Platform(s) Credit(s) Ref.
1987 Aliens: Alien 2 MSX Developer [3]
Final Fantasy Nintendo Entertainment System Debugger [2]
1988 Final Fantasy II Nintendo Entertainment System Debugger
1989 Square's Tom Sawyer Nintendo Entertainment System Planning
Final Fantasy Legend Game Boy Scenario staff, cartography
1990 Final Fantasy III Nintendo Entertainment System Sound effects [2]
Rad Racer II Nintendo Entertainment System Game design
1991 Final Fantasy IV Super Nintendo Entertainment System Battle design
1992 Final Fantasy V Super Nintendo Entertainment System Battle plan
1994 Final Fantasy VI Super Nintendo Entertainment System Director, battle system designer [6]
1995 Chrono Trigger Super Nintendo Entertainment System Event plan
1996 Super Mario RPG Super Nintendo Entertainment System Special thanks
1997 Final Fantasy Tactics PlayStation Game design, battle system main planner
1999 Final Fantasy VIII PlayStation Battle system designer [21]
2000 Final Fantasy IX PlayStation Director, battle system designer [2]
2006 Final Fantasy XII PlayStation 2 Director, game design, battle director [9][15][22]
Final Fantasy V Advance Game Boy Advance Supervisor
Final Fantasy VI Advance Game Boy Advance Supervisor
2007 Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System PlayStation 2 Producer, director, game design [10]
Final Fantasy IV DS Nintendo DS Battle supervisor
2009 Crawlian Browser game Producer [23]
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord Wii Special thanks
Gyromancer Xbox 360, Windows Special thanks
2011 Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy PlayStation Portable Special thanks
2012 Guardian Cross iOS, Android Original concept [24]
2014 Deadman's Cross iOS, Android, PlayStation Vita Battle design [25]
Murdered: Soul Suspect PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows Special thanks
2015 Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Arcade Special thanks
2016 Guardian Codex iOS, Android Special thanks
2017 Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age PlayStation 4 Supervisor [26]
2021 Dungeon Encounters PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows Director [27]

References

  1. ^ Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix. pp. 322–327.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy IX Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix. pp. 578–582.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Parish, Jeremy (22 October 2012). "Final Fantasy's Hiroyuki Ito and the Science of Battle". 1UP.com. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  4. ^ "List of patent family members for US Patent No. 5390937". espacenet. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  5. ^ a b Coxon, Sachi (22 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 1". RPGamer. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  6. ^ a b "The Making Of... Final Fantasy VI". Edge. No. 251. Future Publishing. March 2013. pp. 124–127.
  7. ^ Coxon, Sachi (24 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 3". RPGamer. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  8. ^ Niizumi, Hirohiko (1 August 2005). "FFXII producer steps down". News. GameSpot. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  9. ^ a b Boyes, Emma (26 October 2006). "Q&A: Final Fantasy XII producer Akitoshi Kawazu". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  10. ^ a b Mielke, James (10 May 2007). "Square Enix 2007 Conference Report". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  11. ^ Mielke, James (9 October 2007). "Square Enix Talks about the Ivalice Alliance". 1UP.com. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  12. ^ 【徹底ガイド】人と魔獣があやなす"深化"を遂げたカードバトル『ガーディアン・クルス』 (in Japanese). Famitsu. 29 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  13. ^ Donaldson, Alex (24 July 2013). "Talking Talent, Western Development & Sequels with Final Fantasy Producer Shinji Hashimoto". RPG Site. Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  14. ^ Dave Zdyrko (20 September 2000). "The Final Fantasy IX Team Spills All". IGN. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  15. ^ a b c "Video interview with FINAL FANTASY XII Directors". FINAL FANTASY XII Collector's Edition Bonus DVD. Square Enix. 31 October 2006. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021.
  16. ^ Jeremy Parish. "A Conversation With the Creator of Final Fantasy IV". 1UP.com. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  17. ^ "『 日本ゲーム大賞 2006 』 Award Ceremony" (in Japanese). Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA). Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  18. ^ "Japan Game Awards 2006: Final Fantasy XII". Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA). Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  19. ^ "Vol. 11: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] 3: Square's Intentions". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  20. ^ Sato (13 March 2014). "How Final Fantasy V Was A Turning Point In Tetsuya Nomura's Career". Siliconera. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  21. ^ Square Co., Ltd. (9 September 1999). Final Fantasy VIII. Square Electronic Arts L.L.C. Scene: staff credits.
  22. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (1 August 2005). "Changes to Final Fantasy XII Staff". IGN. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
  23. ^ 「スクエニ メンバーズ」会員60万人突破＆パズルゲーム配信開始 (in Japanese). 4gamer. 30 April 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  24. ^ "About this Game". Square Enix. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  25. ^ "Information". Square Enix. 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  26. ^ "The "FFXII" turned into HD "FFXII the Zodiac Age" will be released in 2017 in the PS4". Famitsu. 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  27. ^ @SquareEnix (1 October 2021). "Strategize to survive in a brand new dungeon crawler. Producer: Hiroaki Kato Director: Hiroyuki Ito Character Design: Ryoma Ito Music: Nobuo Uematsu An all-star team are bringing #DungeonEncounters to Switch, PS4 and Steam on October 14th: http://sqex.link/sgzq" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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