Growing up in Naha, Okinawa, Masashi Takahashi fell in love with games, even if he was too young to properly play them. Sitting watching his two big brothers before he was able to properly read, Takahashi patiently watched them play through Final Fantasy 3, lending a hand whenever he could. “They were there to explain a lot of things – they described difficult words to me like ‘chaos’, like ‘holy power’. These kinds of words I couldn’t understand by myself, so they helped, and it was fun to watch them playing.”
It was an experience shared by an entire generation. Over in Kanagawa, young Yasunori Nishiki, only a month younger than Takahashi, would also watch his older brother play through Square’s series, beginning with Final Fantasy 4 – “When I discovered that Kain had betrayed another character, it was a big shock!” he says – and the two have found themselves, all these years later, trying to rekindle some of that same magic, Takahashi in a producer role for the forthcoming RPG Octopath Traveler, Nishiki as its composer.
Octopath Traveler is a delicious reimagining of 16-bit era RPGs, told by Square Enix alongside core developers Acquire with detailed 2D pixel-art that combines with 3D dioramas that ape that same aesthetic, providing a new spin on an old favourite. For Square Enix’s Takahashi, it’s about recapturing a little of what’s been lost.
Source: Eurogamer 'We just created the game that we wanted to play as Japanese developers'