Talking Final Fantasy III with Hiromichi Tanaka

Having made his mark as a designer on cult role-playing games such as the original Final Fantasies I, II and III, Secret of Mana, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross, you might think there isn't much that would get Square Enix's Hiromichi Tanaka excited anymore.

But having most recently worked on online RPG Final Fantasy XI, Tanaka-san is all worked up about the possibilities of networking.

"I think there's lots of potential for online games on platforms such as the DS, PSP and mobile phones," he said, when Pocket Gamer caught up with him in London during a recent press trip.

"Obviously you couldn't do games such as Final Fantasy XI because you need to show hundreds of onscreen players, but for less technically advanced games, it will certainly be possible," he continued.

"For example, in Final Fantasy III, we have an email function called Mognet. It's the first time, we used the network in such a manner so that one person could be online while the other is offline, but they can still communicate, because the mail is kept on a server. It's one example of a new way of using the network. Now personally I'm not working on such games, but I think Dragon Quest 9 will demonstrate something of that."

Announced formally during Square Enix's press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Dragon Quest franchise in December, Dragon Quest 9 will mark the first time a main game in the RPG series is released for DS. (Offshoot title Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime was released last year in Japan and the US, but sadly it seems it won't be making it to Europe.)

Few details have been revealed about Dragon Quest 9, but it's thought it will use the DS's wi-fi connectivity to enable co-operative multiplayer for up to four players.

Of course, Dragon Quest 9 wasn't what Tanaka was officially in London to talk about. As well as working on Final Fantasy XI, he also oversaw the development of the DS version of Final Fantasy III.

"When I was working on the original game, it was always my favourite, so when the chance came to work on the remake, luckily the timing was right for me to get involved," he explained.

The remake wasn't always destined for DS, he revealed. "When we decided to make Final Fantasy III again, it was designed for PlayStation 2," he said. "But we got into discussions with Nintendo and they persuaded us to make it for DS instead. Again, it was good timing from that point of view."

One tricky issue to deal with was how the development team should update the original, which, having been released 17 years ago, is now a rather old-fashioned game.

"What was hard was Final Fantasy III is a new experience for the European audience because this is the first time it has been released here – but in Japan there are fans of the original game, and they don't want you to change too much. It was a difficult balancing act to keep both audiences happy," Mr Tanaka told us.

For that reason, other than converting the game into 3D and the inclusion of Mognet, most of the other changes were subtle, such as balancing the job and battle systems, adding names to the four main characters, and a new intro movie. And with over 1.5 million copies of Final Fantasy III on DS sold in Japan and America, it looks like Square Enix and co-developer Matrix Software took the right approach.

As to the question of whether any other classic games will get updated, Tanaka remained tight-lipped. "Personally, I like to make new games," he admitted. "But, more generally, if the timing is right and we have the resources, there might be some possibilities."

The DS version of Final Fantasy III is due to be released in Europe in late Spring – we reckon either March or April. You can already check out our review of the American release.