While new lands are accessible, they’re often not hospitable since local monsters outrank the player. Also early on, players can control an exotic cruiseship-like vessel to venture across foreign tides.

Gamers can freely explore the beautiful settings across the world map, warping at will for fast travel. As the game opens up, players will enjoy a less linear approach, which is similar to classic Final Fantasy titles where the initial gameplay feels like it’s on rails for a while before it widens at a major plot point. With the release of the second part, Fantasian is now less story-driven and more quest-driven. My drive to create games comes out of a desire to tell a story on that base.The beautiful overworld map begs to be explored by either walking or sailing - will an airship be revealed? It sure beats me, but it’s the best genre for getting immersed into a game’s world and story. I’d like to try making something like that sometime. You could use AR to visualize music or sound, for example. And I’d like to try making something interesting that isn’t necessarily a game, if I happen to get a good idea. I’m very interested in new technologies like VR and AR. I suppose I’ll probably take a similar approach to whatever comes next. Working on Fantasian, I strove to make sure that I was doing what came most naturally to me. I haven’t really thought about what I’ll do after Fantasian. I’m interested in making something that’s not a game I keep busy until 7pm, when I stop for dinner and a glass of wine. When 3pm rolls around in Hawaii, it’s 10am in Japan, so the studio there starts working, and I sit in on their meetings. Once that’s done, I start on my own work. By the time I pour a cup of coffee and head to my desk, it’s not quite the middle of the night in Japan, so I have a chance to briefly catch up with staff there in real-time. If it’s a pretty one, I spend some time taking pictures of it. My office connects to the roof, and I start my workday by stepping out there to get a good look at the sunrise. Going out to the ocean while it’s still dark and watching as the sunrise reflects on a sea of glass - it’s magical. There’s no substitute for these experiences. I’ve ridden waves and seen the beauty around me in brief moments standing on top of the ocean. As a surfer, I’ve paddled right next to sea turtles. When in Hawaii, I’ve relied on e-mail and video calls to get work done the pandemic hasn’t been a very big change as far as that goes. I’ve split my time between Japan and Hawaii for the past twenty years or so. Which means I have until then to get my hands on a PlayStation 5! I’m looking forward to playing it once Fantasian part two is out the door. Final Fantasy VII Remake came out right while I was busy developing Fantasian, so I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. Since they’re old comrades of mine, it’s always fun to catch up. I’m still in touch with Kitase, Matsuno, Tabata, and a few other people. I still have to play Final Fantasy VII Remake It was a very complicated process, so we had our work cut out for us. It also let us apply various post-effects. Since we had the 3D data, we could use it to let the dioramas interact with the digital 3D character models. It’s like you’re actually walking around on those diorama photos. The result is something that feels more real than just applying a texture to a 3D model. We used a technique called 'projection mapping' to apply those studio photographs to the 3D data. Then we had to take a whole other set of diorama photographs - this time in a studio with proper lighting. Then we used a tool - the same tool they use to make 3D models of cities from drone camera footage - to render the dioramas as three-dimensional data. We took around two or three hundred photos of the dioramas in Fantasian, capturing them from all sorts of angles. One day, I held one of Terra Wars‘ dioramas and thought, 'it’d be fun to walk around and have an adventure on this.' That idea led to using dioramas in Fantasian. Before Fantasian, I made another game called Terra Wars, which also used dioramas. I think that has a major impact on Fantasian. Back in school, I was a modeling fanatic.

Fantasian diorama