In a recent interview as part of the Final Fantasy XI – We are Vana’Diel series, SaGa series director Akitoshi Kawazu shared some interesting tidbits about his future at Square Enix. According to Kawazu, he wants to develop a new SaGa game in a different genre while still appealing to traditional SaGa fans. In addition, Kawazu plans to expand his development team. Here’s what he had to say:
The SaGa series reached its 30th anniversary in 2019. Is there anything you want to try with future SaGa games, or anything you want to do outside of the series?
Kawazu: I plan on continuing to expand the SaGa team. I also have aspirations to embellish the series and its gaming experience, and to that end, we’d have to succeed a lot more.
Everyone in the team has challenged themselves in various areas, and I’ll also continue to do so myself. I still have a lot of games that I’d like to try making.
Matsui: What kind of games do you want to make? Perhaps something related to TRPGs?
Kawazu: That’d be nice too. Other than that, maybe VR games, or action games, which would be completely different from my previous works.
I’d like to come up with something related to the SaGa series that isn’t an RPG but still can be enjoyed by SaGa fans. Permanently moving on to a new genre of games would be letting down fans of the older games, but it’d be nice if we could continue creating games in the traditional style while also expanding our horizons for a broader audience.
My time as a game developer is limited, so I’d like to spend much less time on each game. With that said, there’s been some projects that were supposed to be quick but just never seem to get done. (laughs wryly)
It would certainly be interesting to see a new SaGa game that isn’t a traditional RPG. Currently, a new SaGa series game is in the works and will likely be a major RPG entry for Kawazu. We can’t wait to receive more details in 2022. In the meantime, stay tuned at Final Weapon for the latest Japanese gaming news and updates!
