Tokita: FFIV Complete Collection makes "concessions" to the old school

Takashi Tokita, lead designer on Final Fantasy IV, has compared a preference for 16-bit gaming to the indie film movement and discussed the difficulty of satisfying a nostalgic fanbase.

"The specs of the technology powering games have certainly increased since [the SNES era], and that’s part of the reason why the games have been changing," Tokita told Games Radar.

"But nowadays, I think that there’s more of a focus on high-concept stuff. In the movie industry, for a long time, they were focusing too much on effects and visual flair.

"Eventually there was a bit of a backlash towards that, and people began to move back towards the conceptual, indie type movies. I guess there are similar feelings towards us from some players, as well…"

Tokita said the Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection, which bundles the remade game, sequel The After Years and a brand new Interlude for the PSP, has been packed with goodies with appeal for the nostalgia demographic.

"We’ve made a lot of concessions to old-school players as well – you can change the music back to the original Super Famicom score, you’ve got the old illustrations… everything we’ve packed in here goes beyond just the games themselves," he said.

The designer also commented on the decision to add voice acting to the game, much to the hardcore fanbase's horror.

"Out of all the things we’ve done in the past with the remakes, the thing that actually caused the most controversy was the addition of voice acting in the DS version. People have their own image of how these characters sound, so when actual voices are attached, they either like it or don’t like it.

"The voices in the Japanese version of FFIV on DS are a reflection of the image I personally had of the characters, but I guess they weren’t the same for everyone."

Thanks, GoNintendo.