lestatdark said:
You've read right, Kitase himself told it when X-2 was revealed. |
Pretty sure that's not true. I actually found a interview with Yoshinori Kitase that IGN did that proves it untrue.
Behold:
IGN: Why was Final Fantasy X the first Final Fantasy game to be given a true sequel? At that time, our team was ready for a new challenge (for a new game, not a sequel) but we thought that creating a sequel to FFX would still be a challenge in a different way and so we made the decision to create a sequel. Motomu Toriyama: FFX was a "complete" product that it made it very difficult for us to just say good-bye to it. Also, the characters were so appealing that many fans wanted to see more of them. However, what really triggered us to move forward with a sequel was the inclusion of the "Eternal Calm" in FFX International (only released in Japan); a short story that depicted the world of Spira two years after the ending of the original story. IGN: Was it always the plan to be told in this manner? As two parts or even three-parts? Or is this the result of something that happened after the game had already been released? Kitase: No, it wasn't planned - as mentioned in the previous answer, it was triggered by fans reaction to "Eternal Calm." Toriyama: When we were working on FFX, there were no talks about a sequel. However, after completing FFX, we thought it would be nice to create a new story in this same world some day. Personally, I wanted to create a game where one could revisit the world and the characters - say, maybe once every two or three years. So, it was quite meaningful that we were able to do a sequel with FFX-2.
Kitase: We included a short story/movie titled "Eternal Calm" in FFX International, which was released in Japan in January 2002. "Eternal Calm" showed life in Spira, after the ending of the original story in FFX. Fan reaction was larger than we expected and we decided to continue the story of Yuna and surrounding characters in a sequel.