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Hiroyuki Ito
Born
伊藤 裕之

(1965-12-30) December 30, 1965 (age 58)
Mie Prefecture, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Producer, director and designer of video games at Square Enix.

Hiroyuki Ito (伊藤 裕之, Itō Hiroyuki), also credited with the spelling Hiroyuki Itou, is a Japanese game producer, game director and game designer who has been working for Square Enix since 1987. He is famous for being the creator of various gameplay systems used in the Final Fantasy series. Notable examples of his work include the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, Ability Points (AP) system, Job Change system, Esper Magicite system, Relic system, Materia system, Charge Time Battle (CTB) system, Guardian Force system, Junction system, Triple Triad card game, Active Time Event (ATE) system, Mognet, Tetra Master card game, Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system, License Board system and Gambit system.

Hiroyuki Ito is also famous for being the director and game designer of Final Fantasy VI (1994), Final Fantasy IX (2000) and Final Fantasy XII (2006). He is also famous for being the game designer of Final Fantasy V (1992) and Final Fantasy Tactics (1997).

Career

Joining Square

Hiroyuki Ito joined Square in 1987 just after finishing college.[1]

Nintendo Entertainment System era

The first game Hiroyuki Ito worked on was Rad Racer as a debugger. After this game was released, Square was planning to close due to the poor sales and reception of their games. They decided to develop one last game called Final Fantasy. Hiroyuki Ito created the battle system for the game and based it on the NFL.[2] Ito went on to be a debugger for the sequel Final Fantasy II.

For Final Fantasy III he was responsible for the sound effects used in the game.[3]

Super Nintendo Entertainment System era

His next major role was as battle system designer for Final Fantasy IV.[4][5] The game was the first for the Super Nintendo and was initially being designed to have a turn-based battle system.[5] However, Ito was watching a Formula One race one day and upon seeing the racers pass each other at various speeds, he came up with an interesting idea of each character having a speed value and that affecting when it will be their turn.[6] He began to create an in-depth article with illustrations that explained his idea and the underlying gameplay mechanics that would make it function. He also took a lot of inspiration from the gameplay rules and mechanics of the NFL.[7] He called this new battle system, Active Time Battle (ATB).[5][8] In the ATB system, time does not stop while a player enters commands for a character. Instead, each character has an ATB gauge that gradually fills over real-time, based on their 'Speed' stat.[5] Once the ATB gauge is full, the player must think and act quickly to enter commands for the character lest they miss their chance to take their turn. The fact that enemies can attack even while a player is entering commands for their characters means there is an added sense of urgency and excitement in battles.[5] Hiroyuki Ito felt that the leap in power from NES to SNES should mean that the battle system in Final Fantasy also makes a similar leap.

Hiroyuki Ito next worked as the game designer of Final Fantasy V, where he refined the ATB system and also created the Ability Point (ABP) system and a new, fully customizable Job system.[5][8] He also introduced the ATB gauge that appears on the right side of the battle menu.[5] There were also a number of event scenes he created for the game, the most famous being the various encounters with Gilgamesh, a comic relief enemy he created. He also created the 'Chicken Knife or Brave Blade' choosing event.[9]

Hiroyuki Ito next worked as the game designer of Final Fantasy VI, where he was responsible for all the gameplay aspects such as the ATB system, Esper Magicite system, Relic system, the unique gameplay attributes of each of the playable characters, and all the various items, equipment, relics, espers and spells obtainable in the game. He decided to change the acronym of the ABP system to AP system as he felt the acronym should only include the first letter of the words 'Ability Point' like the acronym ATB for 'Active Time Battle'. He was also responsible for the structure, pacing and flow of the entire game and tried to strike a balance between the gameplay and event scenes so the game didn't feel too story-driven. He did this by mixing event scenes with gameplay and also making the player constantly have to explore the world map to get to new areas that would advance the story. He eventually became the co-director of Final Fantasy VI when the original director Hironobu Sakaguchi stepped down due to being too busy with other commitments.[10]

The next game Ito worked on was Chrono Trigger. The game was in development at the same time as Final Fantasy VI but by a different development team. When development of Final Fantasy VI was complete, Hironobu Sakaguchi moved Hiroyuki Ito and Yoshinori Kitase over to the Chrono Trigger team as he wanted to speed up the games development so it could be released early the next year. Hiroyuki Ito mainly worked as an event planner. However, his other responsibility in Chrono Trigger was the locations of enemies on the field map and how it would seamlessly transition into a battle. Due to battles taking place on the field map, he had to create a short event scene before each battle started that would transition the gameplay from exploration to battle.

PlayStation era

In September 1995, Yasumi Matsuno and a group of other fomer Quest Corporation employees joined Square. Hiroyuki Ito worked with them on a game that eventually become Final Fantasy Tactics. Hiroyuki Ito was the game designer and battle system main planner for the game where he created the Charge Time Battle (CTB) system and further evolved the Job system he created for Final Fantasy V to have even more customization.[11]

Hiroyuki Ito made his return to the main Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy VIII, where he was initially the game designer and battle system designer. However, during this time, Sakaguchi was developing the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at Honolulu and decided he also wanted to develop a Final Fantasy game at the same location. He pulled Hiroyuki Ito out of the Final Fantasy VIII project and brought him over to Honolulu to be the director and game designer of the game. Due to being pulled out of the Final Fantasy VIII project, Ito was only the battle system designer for the game.[12] His work on Final Fantasy VIII was the ATB system, Guardian Force system and Junction system. Hiroyuki Ito also created the concept of the Triple Triad card game, which went on to be developed for the game by another staff member when he left the project.

When Ito arrived in Honolulu, he was to lead development on a game that Sakaguchi had envisioned as a reflection of all past games in the numbered series. Ito was to serve as the director and game designer. Sakaguchi gave Ito a team of staff even larger than the team working on Final Fantasy VIII back in Tokyo. Added to this benefit, over half of this team were Hollywood CGI artists and animators, some of which had previously been employed by Industrial Light & Magic. As development progressed under Ito's direction, the amount of locations and content of the game grew exponentially. Sakaguchi eventually felt that the quality and scale of the game had surpassed both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. As a result of this, he decided the game should be called Final Fantasy IX. Ito's work on the game involved him being responsible for all the gameplay aspects such as the ATB system, Equipment Ability system, the unique gameplay attributes of each of the playable characters, and all the various items, equipment and spells obtainable in the game.[1] Also, as with Final Fantasy VI, he was responsible for the structure, pacing and flow of the entire game and tried to strike a balance between the gameplay and event scenes so the game didn't feel too story-driven. In further pursuit of this goal, he created the Active Time Event (ATE) system as a means of making the event scenes more interactive and part of the gameplay experience.[1]

The scenario for Final Fantasy IX was written by Hironobu Sakaguchi but it was largely edited and modified by Hiroyuki Ito during the course of development to eventually became the one used in the final game. For example, it was Ito's idea to make Zidane Tribal a man who is flirtatious with women.[1][13] Ito also wrote the lyrics for the theme song, "Melodies of Life".[1] Hiroyuki Ito has also stated that the main aim of the game was to return to roots of the Final Fantasy series and once again provide the player with a feeling of playing a game.[14]

PlayStation 2 era

When development of Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within were finished, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiroyuki Ito and other Square staff returned to Tokyo. Sakaguchi heard that Vagrant Story had become the first game developed by Square to get a perfect score from Famitsu. Sakaguchi felt a huge sense of pride about this and praised Yasumi Matsuno as a game director and game designer.[15][16] He played through Vagrant Story and took a deep interest in the seamless battle system, free camera, emphasis on dungeon exploration and political story. As a result of this, he decided that he wanted to make a main series Final Fantasy game that was like Vagrant Story. He made Ito become a permanent member of Product Development Division 4 to help develop the game. In terms of the initial staff structure, Hironobu Sakaguchi was the producer and he appointed Yasumi Matsuno and Hiroyuki Ito to be co-directors. Matsuno would direct the story and Ito would direct the gameplay. Development of the game was officially started in December 2000 as a small core team doing early concept and planning.[15] At Square's business strategy meeting in January 2001, the game was officially announced for PlayStation 2 as Final Fantasy XII and was stated to be in the early stages of development.[17]

Hiroyuki Ito focused on the game design and battle system. He took major influence from his game design in Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy Tactics and Yasumi Matsuno's battle system design in Vagrant Story.[18] The basic gameplay concept Ito came up with was for the game to prioritise exploration of a vast, fully realised world.[18] The reason for the long development cycle was due to Ito needing a large amount of time to create the large, interconnected maps and also the new seamless battle system to be used in the game.[18] As with when he created the ATB system, he took a lot of inspiration from the gameplay rules and mechanics of the NFL.[5][7][18] Ito called this new battle system Active Dimension Battle (ADB).[18] The ADB system eliminates random battles as enemies are now fully visible on the field map before they are engaged in battle, this giving the player some choice of if they want to fight them or not.[5][18] The battles take place on the field map and there's no separate battle maps used.[5][18] The ADB system also includes the ability for the player to still have full control over character movement while currently engaged in battle.[5][18] The distance between party members and enemies also influences battles due to various spells and abilities having an Area of Effect (AoE). The addition of AoE simply means that party members and enemies need to be within a certain range of each other for their spells and abilities to hit.[5][18]

Hiroyuki Ito initially had given the game a Job system called Zodiac Job System.[19] However, Ito eventually decided to drop this feature from the final game as he felt by including both the ADB system and Zodiac Job System, the gameplay would become too complicated for players.[19] As a result, he made it so there was only one License Board and all the spells and abilities in the game were available on this board. His design philosophy behind doing this was to give players the freedom to make characters the way that they want to.[20]

In late Summer 2004, Yasumi Matsuno fell ill and stepped away from the games development. At this point in time the game was roughly 70% complete. Matsuno appointed Hiroshi Minagawa to take his place as co-director and appointed Jun Akiyama to become the scenario director in his place. In November 2004, Akitoshi Kawazu joined the project as producer and Daisuke Watanabe and Miwa Shoda joined the project to help and assist Jun Akiyama with completing the script.[15] Though he joined the project as producer, Kawazu had no influence on what actually went into the game; his role was simply to motivate and support the existing development staff working on the game.[21] At the Square Enix Party 2005 event on 30 July 2005, the Japanese release date of Final Fantasy XII was announced to be 16 March 2006.[22] On 1 August 2005, Square Enix announced through the official Final Fantasy XII website that Yasumi Matsuno had left the company but would still be acting as a consultant on the game.[23] Matsuno included a statement where he basically apologised for how long Final Fantasy XII has been in development. However, he ended off by saying that development for the game was in the hands of excellent staff that he trusts such as Hiroshi Minagawa, Hiroyuki Ito and Jun Akiyama.[23]

When the game was eventually released in Japan, it received high praise from multiple Japanese newspapers and magazines. It also became the first Final Fantasy game to get a perfect score from Famitsu.[24] 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 as the producer of the game.[25] Upon receipt of the "Grand Award" at the award ceremony, he said that he was not expecting the game win two awards due to some gamers not liking the ADB system.[25] He stated that he felt that the changes in gameplay introduced in Final Fantasy XII were necessary to keep Final Fantasy being a series that was relevant and prominent in the constantly evolving games industry.[25] After the award ceremony, webpages for all the awarded games were launched on the official 2006 Japan Game Awards website. The page for Final Fantasy XII has a section titled "Comment from the Game Producer" and it contains the following statement from Hiroyuki Ito:

"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."

Hiroyuki Ito's message upon winning the "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" for Final Fantasy XII.[26]

At the Square Enix Party 2007 pre-conference meeting in May 2007, Ito was introduced on stage as the producer and director of the newly announced Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System.[27][28] The game has a wealth of new featues and changes from the original Final Fantasy XII. The most notable being that Ito added back the Zodiac Job System he removed from the original game.[19] After working as producer and director on Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, Ito expressed a desire to continue evolving the gameplay ideas he created for Final Fantasy XII and use them in various places.[19][29] He also stated that he feels the game design and battle system of Final Fantasy XII made a definitive contribution to the gaming lexicon. If current and future developers at both Square Enix and other companies used it as a reference, he believes it would have the potential to shine in future games.[30]

PlayStation 3 era

Hiroyuki Ito served as producer for Crawlian, a browser game released in April 2009.[31] He received a "Special Thanks" credit for Gyromancer, a puzzle and role-playing game released in November 2009.[32] He also received a "Special Thanks" credit for Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, a fighting game released in March 2011.[33] In November 2011, Yoshinori Kitase confirmed that Hiroyuki Ito was still working at Square Enix.[34]

In March 2012, Square Enix announced that Hiroyuki Ito had provided the original concept of an upcoming iOS and Android game called Guardian Cross.[35][36] However, in an interview published Famitsu later in the same month, the producer of the game, Shinichi Tatsuke, clarified that Hiroyuki Ito had only provided the original idea of the game and was not actually a member of the development team.[37] In May 2012, Dengeki revealed that Hiroyuki Ito had served as the battle system supervisor of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, an upcoming game for the Nintendo 3DS.[38] In September 2012, Hiroyuki Ito was interviewed at Tokyo Game Show 2012 and asked if he would consider returning to the Final Fantasy series. He replied, "I'm a working stiff, so if the president tells me to do it, I'll do it. [laughs] Talk to Mr. Wada."[2]

Game design

When working as the game designer of a Final Fantasy game, Hiroyuki Ito avoids making it story-driven; he instead balances the story and event scenes with the gameplay.[39] He further clarified his philosophy in the Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania:

"For me, the most important element of a RPG is the player feeling like they are taking the role of a character in a fully realised fantasy world. They can explore a vast world, visit various towns and dungeons, talk to numerous NPCs, customise the equipment and abilities of their character, collect a wide variety of items and battle many different types of monsters. The story and event scenes are also important, but they should be balanced with these aspects of RPG gameplay."

Hiroyuki Ito's philosophy on the game design of a RPG.[18]

Hiroyuki Ito believes that the most important element of Final Fantasy is keeping the games fun to play, no matter how much the technology in the industry improves.[40] He also believes the most notable aspect of the Final Fantasy series is the sense of accomplishment the player feels after finishing the game and seeing "The End" on the screen.[7]

Reception

Hiroyuki Ito has directed the most critically acclaimed Final Fantasy games released as of present date, according to Metacritic. The three Final Fantasy games that Hiroyuki Ito has directed have the highest aggregate review scores out of all games in the series.[41] Final Fantasy IX, which Hiroyuki Ito directed by himself, is the most critically acclaimed Final Fantasy game ever made, according to the website.[42] It is also the favorite Final Fantasy game of series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.[43] Final Fantasy XII is the first game in the series to get a perfect score from Famitsu magazine.[24] It is also the only game to make the highly regarded Japanese list, "New Japanese Styles Top 100" (Shin Nihon Yoshiki 100-sen), which is a prestigious list by the Japanese government which praises new inventions and new innovations.[44]

At a Q&A session for The Last Story at the BAFTA headquarters in London on 16 February 2012, Hironobu Sakaguchi was asked during an autograph signing, "Which employee still at Square Enix do you feel can once again make Final Fantasy a leading and respected series in the games industry?" Sakaguchi replied, "Hiroyuki Ito."

In an interview published by Nintendo in July 2012, Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of the Kingdom Hearts series and director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, stated that Hiroyuki Ito is a big influence on him when designing the battle system for his various games as director.[45] Nomura also stated that he regards Hiroyuki Ito as one of his four "seniors".[45]

Works

Release Title System Credit(s)
1987 Rad Racer Nintendo Entertainment System Debugger (uncredited)
1987 Final Fantasy Nintendo Entertainment System Battle system designer (uncredited)
1988 Final Fantasy II Nintendo Entertainment System Debugger (uncredited)
1989 Square's Tom Sawyer Nintendo Entertainment System Planning
1989 Final Fantasy Legend Game Boy Scenario writer, map designer
1990 Final Fantasy III Nintendo Entertainment System Sound effects
1990 Rad Racer II Nintendo Entertainment System Game designer
1991 Final Fantasy IV Super Nintendo Entertainment System Battle system designer
1992 Final Fantasy V Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game designer, battle system designer
1994 Final Fantasy VI Super Nintendo Entertainment System Director, game designer, battle system designer
1995 Chrono Trigger Super Nintendo Entertainment System Event planner
1996 Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Super Nintendo Entertainment System Special thanks
1997 Final Fantasy VII PlayStation Materia system original concept (uncredited)
1997 Final Fantasy Tactics PlayStation Game designer, battle system main planner
1999 Final Fantasy VIII PlayStation Battle system designer
2000 Final Fantasy IX PlayStation Director, game designer, battle system director, scenario writer, "Melodies of Life" lyricist
2000 Chocobo on the Job WonderSwan Color Game designer
2002 Final Fantasy XI PlayStation 2, Windows Special thanks
2006 Final Fantasy XII PlayStation 2 Director, game designer, battle system director
2006 Final Fantasy V Advance Game Boy Advance Supervisor
2006 Final Fantasy VI Advance Game Boy Advance Supervisor
2007 Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions PlayStation Portable Supervisor
2007 Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System PlayStation 2 Producer, director, game designer, battle system director
2007 Final Fantasy IV DS Nintendo DS Battle system supervisor
2009 Crawlian Browser game Producer
2009 Gyromancer Xbox 360, Windows Special thanks
2011 Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy PlayStation Portable Special thanks
2012 Guardian Cross iOS, Android Original concept
2012 Bravely Default: Flying Fairy Nintendo 3DS Battle system supervisor

The following credits belong to a different Hiroyuki Ito who was a former employee of Jupiter Corporation.[46][47]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy IX Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix.
  2. ^ a b Parish, Jeremy (22 October 2012). "Final Fantasy's Hiroyuki Ito and the Science of Battle". 1UP.com. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  3. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd., Matrix Software (14 November 2006). Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd., Matrix Software (22 July 2008). Final Fantasy IV (Nintendo DS). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Studio BentStuff. FINAL FANTASY 20th ANNIVERSARY ULTIMANIA File 3: Battle (in Japanese). Square Enix.
  6. ^ Jeremy Parish. "30 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Final Fantasy". 1UP.com. p. 6. Retrieved 27 April 2011. Takashi Tokita: The planner, Hiroyuki Itoh, was watching a Formula One race. Seeing all the cars pass each other, we thought of an interesting idea where character speed would differ depending on, I suppose, the type of character it is. So, that's where the initial idea came from.
  7. ^ a b c "Video interview with FINAL FANTASY XII Directors". FINAL FANTASY XII Collector's Edition Bonus DVD. Square Enix. 31 October 2006.
  8. ^ a b Coxon, Sachi (22 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 1". RPGamer. Hironobu Sakaguchi: The gameplay system [for FF9] will have a lot of customization. I cannot tell you in detail, but it will be a lot of fun... / Famitsu: I feel it to be a lot like FF6. / Hironobu Sakaguchi: Ito is the director. He made the active time battle, and after that, made several things, including the job change system.
  9. ^ Coxon, Sachi (22 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 1". RPGamer. Hironobu Sakaguchi: We'll try not to have places [in FF9] where the player can't progress because there isn't enough information. And, we want to increase the way we simply play. My favorite event is the chickenknife/braveblade choosing event which Ito made in FF5. I really want him to put in that kind of thing too. After all, Ito made that, and as I'm asking him, I think that kind of event will be in FF9. / Famitsu: In FF9, will you be able to cleverly put that kind of thing in? / Hironobu Sakaguchi: Yes. Ito said he has a lot of confidence.
  10. ^ Parish, Jeremy. "Final Fantasy: Kitase's Inside Story". Feature. 1UP.com. p. 2. Retrieved 1 December 2011. Yoshinori Kitase: With FFVI, my role was similar to what it had been with FFV, except that the volume of the game grew once again exponentially. So the team of people working on the event scenes and scenario side grew to about four or five. And, of course, Sakaguchi was the director and had primary control overseeing those aspects of the game as well. But he'd also become very busy at that time after becoming vice-president of the company and had a lot of other projects going on. He couldn't put 100% into FFVI, so I took charge of more of those event scenes.
  11. ^ Square Co., Ltd. (20 June 1997). Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation). Square Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.
  12. ^ Square Co., Ltd. (11 February 1999). Final Fantasy VIII (PlayStation). Square Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.
  13. ^ Coxon, Sachi (24 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 3". RPGamer. Famitsu: Sakaguchi was talking a lot about Zidane liking girls, is that so? / Hiroyuki Ito: I have put that in. (laughs)
  14. ^ Coxon, Sachi (24 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 3". RPGamer. Famitsu: What does it mean to you that FF9 is going back to the roots? / Hiroyuki Ito: I think FF9 will go back to the roots at the same time as standing on top of the rest of the series. It's not simply being nostalgic: it is the most developed [in the series]; however, yes, going back to the roots does mean to be nostalgic, too. / Famitsu: As a combination of a developed dramatic presentation, and nostalgic aspects, what is the aim of FF9? / Hiroyuki Ito: What's important is the real feeling of playing a game. That is what I meant by the roots of FF.
  15. ^ a b c Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix.
  16. ^ Coxon, Sachi (24 March 2000). "Interview with Square: Part 2". RPGamer. Famitsu: You are playing through Vagrant Story at the moment? As a creator like him, how are you finding Matsuno's work? / Hironobu Sakaguchi: When I saw it for the first time, before the game came out, I was very excited, and tears nearly came to me. I thought, "Thank you, Matsuno!" (Laughs)
  17. ^ "Square talks Nintendo, announces FFXII for the PS2". News. GameSpot. 22 January 2001. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix.
  19. ^ a b c d Studio BentStuff. Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania (in Japanese). Square Enix.
  20. ^ Rob Fahey (31 October 2006). "This Great Fantasy". Eurogamer. Retrieved 25 January 2011. Akitoshi Kawazu: The battle director, Ito-san, when he was making FFXII's license board, his design philosophy was to give players the freedom to make characters the way that they want to.
  21. ^ Rob Fahey (31 October 2006). "This Great Fantasy". Eurogamer. Retrieved 4 January 2012. Akitoshi Kawazu: To begin with, Matsuno-san and I are very much both game creators - to step in halfway through a project that someone else has started and expect to be able to finish that in the exact same way that they had planned, is not something that is necessarily completely realistic. But then, I wasn't necessarily doing the same thing that Matsuno-san had been doing up to that point. My primary goal at the time was to see the project through to completion, and to give encouragement and support to all of the members of the staff that were still there.
  22. ^ Niizumi, Hirohiko (30 July 2005). "Final Fantasy XII hitting Japan in March". News. GameSpot. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  23. ^ a b Niizumi, Hirohiko (1 August 2005). "FFXII producer steps down". News. GameSpot. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  24. ^ a b Lumb, Jonathan (8 March 2006). "FF XII Scores Perfect In Famitsu". 1UP.com. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  25. ^ a b c "『 日本ゲーム大賞　2006 』 Award Ceremony" (in Japanese). Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA). Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  26. ^ "『 日本ゲーム大賞　2006 』 Awarded Games: ファイナルファンタジー XII" (in Japanese). Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA). Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  27. ^ Mielke, James (10 May 2007). "Square Enix 2007 Conference Report". 1UP.com. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  28. ^ "スクウェア・エニックス、「SQUARE ENIX PARTY 2007」 プレカンファレンスミーティング開催 「ラスト レムナント」はPS3/Xbox 360で北米/日本同時発売". 10 May 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  29. ^ "FFインタビュー1 『ファイナルファンタジーXII インターナショナル ゾディアック ジョブシステム』". Interview. Famitsu.com. 25 May 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  30. ^ Mielke, James (9 October 2007). "Square Enix Talks about the Ivalice Alliance". 1UP.com. Retrieved 9 January 2012. 1UP: We really liked the innovation FFXII brought to the series, since it was so different to the previous games. Do you plan to make further use of this great style of RPG gaming in other titles? We'd hate to see it appear in one game only. / Hiroyuki Ito: I feel the game made a definitive contribution to the gaming lexicon. If current and future developers at both our company and others use it as a reference, I believe it has the potential to shine in future titles.
  31. ^ "「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.
  32. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd., PopCap Games (18 November 2009). Gyromancer (Xbox 360, Windows). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd. (3 March 2011). Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (PlayStation Portable). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.
  34. ^ Donaldson, Alex (16 November 2011). "Final Fantasy XIII-2 Yoshinori Kitase Interview". RPG Site. Retrieved 4 January 2012. RPG Site: We're over-running, but we have one last quick yes-or-no question from a reader. Hiroyuki Itou held various major roles on the Final Fantasy series right back to the original game in 1987, but he hasn't been credited in a production role of a game since 2007's Final Fantasy IV DS. Is he still with the company? / Yoshinori Kitase: (In English) Yes.
  35. ^ "GUARDIAN CROSS Official Website". Square Enix. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  36. ^ "GUARDIAN CROSS Members Site" (in Japanese). Square Enix. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  37. ^ "【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.
  38. ^ "オメガやガラフのジョブが出たら神ゲー確定!? 『ファイナルファンタジーV』好きが語る『ブレイブリーデフォルト』座談会！" (in Japanese). Dengeki. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  39. ^ Dave Zdyrko (20 September 2000). "The Final Fantasy IX Team Spills All". IGN. Retrieved 26 December 2010. IGN: What have been your biggest influences when working on the FF adventures? / Hiroyuki Itou: Although the FF series has evolved over the years, it is still an RPG. Since the FF series tends to be story-driven, I wanted to balance the story with the traditional gameplay of an RPG.
  40. ^ Dave Zdyrko (20 September 2000). "The Final Fantasy IX Team Spills All". IGN. Retrieved 26 December 2010. IGN: The Final Fantasy series is obviously hugely popular in Japan. What is it about the series that you think makes it so popular? / Hiroyuki Itou: Since many players from different backgrounds play the FF series, we've tried to incorporate various perspectives and values to which they can relate. And above all, we believe in keeping the games fun, no matter how much the technology in the industry improves.
  41. ^ "Search results for 'Final Fantasy' by score at Metacritic.com". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  42. ^ "Final Fantasy IX". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  43. ^ IGN Staff (5 April 2000). "Interview with Hironobu Sakaguchi". IGN. Retrieved 4 August 2011. IGN: What is your favorite Final Fantasy title? And please tell us why you chose that particular game. / Hironobu Sakaguchi: The upcoming Final Fantasy IX. This title (currently under development) is based on a reflection of all the previous works in the series. The coming installment is my "favorite," it's closest to my ideal view of what Final Fantasy should be.
  44. ^ "Corporate History". SQUARE ENIX. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  45. ^ a b "Vol. 11: KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance]". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. Retrieved 31 January 2013. Iwata: Back when you started out as a director, Nomura-san, how did you establish your own style in terms of what a director should be? / Nomura: The first directors I worked for were Sakaguchi-san and Kitase-san. I think those two had a big influence on me. When it comes to battle planning, I think I've been influenced by (Hiroyuki) Ito-san, who was the director of FFIX. My other influences include Monolith's (Tetsuya) Takahashi-san. He was in charge of graphics at Square, and looked after me in the early stages of my career. I imagine that those four would be my "seniors", as it were.
  46. ^ "Introduction to the Jupiter Corporation staff working on Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals". 18 September 2008. Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  47. ^ Arturo Molina (20 November 2010). "KH Re:coded Ultimania Nomura Interview (Director)". kh2.co.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2010. Tetsuya Nomura: The World Ends With You (2007 RPG developed for the DS) allowed players to be able to adjust the game level of difficulty whenever they wanted. Co-director Itou was originally the main producer for The World Ends With You, so you could also say that the blood from that game also flowed into Re:Coded.
  48. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd., Jupiter Corporation (7 December 2004). Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Game Boy Advance). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  49. ^ Square Enix Co., Ltd., Jupiter Corporation (22 April 2008). The World Ends with You (Nintendo DS). Square Enix Co., Ltd. Scene: staff credits.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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