| Munkeh111 said: So if Ito isn't working on XVI, what has he been working on? |
The most recent info about Hiroyuki Ito was provided by Shinji Hashimoto (Final Fantasy Brand Director) at a Japan Expo interview in July 2013. Full quote and source:
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RPG Site: I can see Nomura-san's crew need the room back for their next interview, so I'm going to wrap up by betraying my inner fan and ask a more specific talent question - Hiroyuki Ito, the creator of ATB, the director of FF9 - my favourite, which of course you produced - and FF12... Is he still at the company - and is he working on anything that we already know about?
Hashimoto: [laughs] You're a very unique journalist, asking about Ito-san! Yeah. He's still at Square Enix. He's been planning and doing some proposals for a new project at the moment, so... Really, he's the kind of guy that wants to challenge new things all the time, so, yeah. At the moment, he's doing... [laughs] He's putting some ideas together.
RPG Site: I'm very interested to see what he does next. For RPG gameplay systems I really do feel he's one of the best there is; one of your strongest assets.
Hashimoto: Like you say, he's very talented and very involved. He's very, very in-depth... he likes the depth of the gameplay systems side of things. He really loves to go really deep on mechanics and things, and that takes time. I'm very excited to see his ideas soon!
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Also, the journalist that conducted the interview with Shinji Hashimoto provided details on what Hashimoto's body language was like when answering the questions about Hiroyuki Ito:
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RE Body language to Ito, he just seemed genuinely surprised I was asking, really. We chatted for a little while after the recorder went off about why I as a player feel Ito has something special. I was also telling him about how Sakaguchi said he believed Ito was 'the man' for FF in that BAFTA talk he did last year, to which Hashimoto chuckled and said that the two of them have a great mutual respect.
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Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=72615651&postcount=48
