If you haven’t heard of CEDEC, think of it as a gathering of minds within the gaming industry alike GDC but held in Japan. Particularly of note, some Final Fantasy staff names were dropped in the production of a new large-scale American developed video game title. It appears that Dissidia: Final Fantasy director Yosuke Shiokawa and Final Fantasy XIII concept artist Yuki Matsuzawa. While they mainly detailed the development process of their current title, they happened to mention that it has been in the works for over a year and a half. The first year of development was conceptualizing the title, and building a prototype at 70% of the final quality of the game. The next several months after that have been the attempt to coordinate some of the development process in terms of creating the flow of the game as well as experimenting with the build that has been created.

This also marks the first large-scale project being developed by Square-Enix with an American development studio. Interestingly enough, Shiokawa made the comment that American audiences typically prefer protagonists that are more believable. That, and he had to relinquish the role of a top-down director (giving people specifications without feedback) to one where he would present his ideas to a group, and there would be a “free debate” over the concepts that would be incorporated into the game.

Could this possibly be the ill-fated Fortress (supposed Final Fantasy XII sequel) project that Square-Enix has been keeping afloat in the wake of Swedish developer GRIN’s bankruptcy?

Via: AndriaSang

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