Hironobu Sakaguchi shares details on Cry On.
Source: IGN
December 22, 2005 – Hironobu Sakaguchi is back! Following years in the spotlight as the father of Final Fantasy, Sakaguchi fell from grace due to the whole Final Fantasy movie debacle. But the calendar turned 2005, and our favorite moustached producer was thrust back into the spotlight, working as head of Mistwalker, developer of a number of titles for Xbox 360 and DS, all of which were announced this year. Sakaguchi had such a presence in 2005, in fact, that readers of Famitsu recently selected him as the developer most representative of the 2005 game market (he placed well above Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who came in at 8, and even Bill Gates, who came in at 7).
Sakaguchi, still with a full moustache, is featured in the latest Famitsu in a four page interview in which he discusses his upcoming projects, with particular attention placed on the most recent announcement, Cry On. Joining him for the interview is Cavia’s Kimihiko Fujisaka (Drag-On Dragoon), who’s doing character designs for the new title.
Many of the points discussed in the interview were already revealed at Cry On’s announcement earlier in the week. To this, Sakaguchi adds new details on the on the game’s storyline. The game’s setting is meant to resemble the Middle Ages, with a heavy focus on machines, including transportation air craft. The people of this time period place tiny “Bogle” creatures on their roofs to act as a protecting charm. The Bogles, were once powerful giants who lived alongside humans, but are now given the name “Soulless.” Recently, humans have decided to revive them for war purposes using a special skill that transform them into giant form.
The story begins when main character Sally is given this special skill from her father, the King. The Bogle that she takes into her company is different from other Bogles in that it can speak human languages.
You take control of Sally, starting off the game with your tiny Bogle riding on Sally’s shoulder. The game will require you to cross mountains, climb trees and engage in other activities difficult for a little girl. Once you’ve collected a particular item, the Bogle will transform into a giant, and end up placing Sally on his shoulder.
One of the concepts of the game, Sakaguchi reveals, is to let players experience the difference in traveling through the world as Sally and as the Bogle. The scale, playable character and perspective will change as you play the game, switching off between Sally and the Bogle.
Each time the Bogle transforms, the resulting giant will be different. Sakaguchi gives a hint at what we can expect, suggesting that you can use a stone to destroy the surroundings, then attach the fragments to the Bogle, making it bigger and giving it a different shape. This change will happen in real time. Sakaguchi wanted the Bogle’s design to differ with each transformation in order to avoid giving it the image of a robot, instead giving players the feeling that they’re dealing with a mysterious, living creature.
Gameplay will take different forms depending on which character you’re controlling. Sakaguchi wants to give the game more of a puzzle/RPG focus when playing as Sally, as he doesn’t want her to wield a sword. The action will come when players use Bogle. In terms of division of play time between the two characters, we can expect 15 minutes of Sally time, to finish off with a minute of time with the Bogle.
Even when playing as the Bogle, Cry On isn’t a pure action game. The game is focused on the scenarios which are being crafted by Sakaguchi himself. Sakaguchi mentions a couple of possible situations: saving people as part of the storyline and using Bogle to raise a ship out of the water.
We can expect a unique control system for all this. Sakaguchi is currently looking at a number of control schemes, including using the two analogue sticks for pulling, grabbing and raising objects. He expects players to pick up on the control scheme as they progress through the game, eventually being quite capable with the use of the analogue sticks.
Visually, the game will use cell shading for its visuals, although Sakaguchi is quick to point out that it’s not the kind of cell shading we’re used to seeing. At the game’s unveiling this past week, publisher AQ Interactive showed a trailer for the title featuring what many believed to be hand-drawn animation resembling a Miyazaki movie. The animation was actually computer generated, and Sakaguchi is promising a final game that looks quite similar to it.
We’re going to have to wait quite a while to play Cry On, though. Sakaguchi reveals that the game’s scenario is currently half complete, with a final play time expected to be in the 30 to 40 hour range. Although he’s not willing to give a specific time frame, Sakaguchi states that development will take another 1.5 to 2 years.
