Naoki Yoshida is the architect of the Japanese game industry’s greatest comeback story since the original Final Fantasy game. Having cut his teeth at Square Enix on the Dragon Quest series, he led efforts to rescue the catastrophic Final Fantasy XIV, eventually transforming it into an MMO on par with the mighty World Of Warcraft. A scenario writer at heart, Yoshida crafted a reputation for adaptability and tenacity in the 1990s, though he has seen his fair share of disappointments. Here, he reflects on the many frustrations and surprises of a career spent steering or salvaging troubled projects.
FAR EAST OF EDEN III
Developer Red Company Publisher Hudson Soft Format PC-FX Release Unreleased
The first game I worked on was never released. I started my career at Hudson Soft in 1996. The company is famous for the Far East Of Eden series – when I joined, they were in the middle of development for the third one. The scenario had been completed, and the first thing I was asked to do was to take a massive amount of documents, all the text for the scenario, read everything through, then come back the next day to give everyone feedback. I think I was tasked to read through the main scenario because when I joined the company, I said that I wanted to be a scenario writer – it was a test to see what ideas I could come up with.
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Denne historien er fra March 2020-utgaven av Edge.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
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TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
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Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
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Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
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