World of Final Fantasy almost ended up completely different says Tetsuya Nomura, who spoke at length on the game in the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation. Speaking with the magazine, Nomura explained what happened and how they went from simulation game to the spin on classic RPGs we see today.

“There is concept art on our official Twitter, but we originally wanted to create a different game with that world,” said Nomura. “It was more of a simulation game, completely different from WOFF. During that other game’s development, we made characters that are now our Primero and Oobito, and we connected them both into the setting of the game, and then proposed a system in which one could freely switch between them.

“We had a lot of troubles, and the game was temporarily reduced to a blank slate, and we decided to go ahead and use the loads of chibi character designs for Pictlogica FF instead. After that, Chiba (Director Hiroki Chiba) was the one who decided to include Primero and Oobito in the newly designed WOFF.”

Going forward, Nomura designed several characters for World of Final Fantasy including protagonists Reynn and Lann as well as Enna Kros and a fourth female character.

Additionally, Nomura was involved in voice casting and checking the game for problems. “As far as the content goes, I’m entrusting that to the staff,” said Nomura. “I occasionally ask them to show me things, but rather than giving them instructions, I’m just checking for problems. I guess I just have specifically nudged at the battle tempo and the ability to easily see the UI.”

Via: KH13.