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rynlingThe first fifty pages of this book are somewhat interesting in terms of where the idea for Final Fantasy VII came from, but the rest of the book is corporate gossip. There’s a lot of hinting at things but not explaining them. For example, why were there so many errors in the original English translation? Because the circumstances were bad. How were they “bad,” exactly? No one will say.
There’s also a lot of discussion about why the Honolulu studio that produced the Spirits Within movie failed, but no one will come out and say what they mean. The closest anyone gets is Alexander Smith, who hints that there were a lot of tax breaks offered by the state of Hawaii that Square wasn’t interested taking advantage of. For example, the studio apparently could have saved millions of dollars by signing an agreement saying that they would employ local Hawaiians as 10% of their staff, but they refused to do the paperwork even though they could have easily hired local people as property maintenance staff and so on.
A lot of the Japanese people whom the interviewers talk with aren’t willing to step on anyone’s toes, while the members of the American and European staff have moved on during the past twenty years and don’t really remember the specifics of what they were doing in 1997. I wish the interviewers had asked more questions about the content of the game itself, because there just isn’t a lot of interesting information here. Unless you care about Japanese corporate structure, I guess.
The most interesting thing I learned came from a short interview with Tetsuya Nomura, who says that it was him who gave the protagonist the name Cloud, “as in overcast gray clouds, because he was a slightly depressed, moody character.” Nomura adds that he wanted to make Cloud “a more human, weak character with flaws,” and that Cloud was never intended to be a symbol of heroism.
These small flashes of insight are lovely, and I wish the book were more “tell us about these characters and the world you helped create” and less “tell us how you feel about your bosses and coworkers from twenty years ago.”
In terms of formatting and layout, the book is very stylish, but there are a lot of pages with magenta text printed against a slightly lighter magenta background. If you don’t read these pages in direct sunlight, they’re illegible. The staff bios at the back of the book are printed in tiny pink font, and I didn’t even try to read them. Hot pink magenta isn’t a color I associate with Final Fantasy VII, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
All things considered, I still think this is a cool book, but the Polygon article includes most of the good stuff and has the added benefit of being free.
There’s also a lot of discussion about why the Honolulu studio that produced the Spirits Within movie failed, but no one will come out and say what they mean. The closest anyone gets is Alexander Smith, who hints that there were a lot of tax breaks offered by the state of Hawaii that Square wasn’t interested taking advantage of. For example, the studio apparently could have saved millions of dollars by signing an agreement saying that they would employ local Hawaiians as 10% of their staff, but they refused to do the paperwork even though they could have easily hired local people as property maintenance staff and so on.
A lot of the Japanese people whom the interviewers talk with aren’t willing to step on anyone’s toes, while the members of the American and European staff have moved on during the past twenty years and don’t really remember the specifics of what they were doing in 1997. I wish the interviewers had asked more questions about the content of the game itself, because there just isn’t a lot of interesting information here. Unless you care about Japanese corporate structure, I guess.
The most interesting thing I learned came from a short interview with Tetsuya Nomura, who says that it was him who gave the protagonist the name Cloud, “as in overcast gray clouds, because he was a slightly depressed, moody character.” Nomura adds that he wanted to make Cloud “a more human, weak character with flaws,” and that Cloud was never intended to be a symbol of heroism.
These small flashes of insight are lovely, and I wish the book were more “tell us about these characters and the world you helped create” and less “tell us how you feel about your bosses and coworkers from twenty years ago.”
In terms of formatting and layout, the book is very stylish, but there are a lot of pages with magenta text printed against a slightly lighter magenta background. If you don’t read these pages in direct sunlight, they’re illegible. The staff bios at the back of the book are printed in tiny pink font, and I didn’t even try to read them. Hot pink magenta isn’t a color I associate with Final Fantasy VII, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
All things considered, I still think this is a cool book, but the Polygon article includes most of the good stuff and has the added benefit of being free.
