Ito: Final Fantasy battles are based on NFL

The battle systems in Final Fantasy form the crux of the gameplay; without battles, there would be very little else to pass the time between story events. With such an important role to play, it's a wonder that Hiroyuki Ito is an uncommon name. Ito created the turn-based battle system that Final Fantasy began with, and has played a major role in shaping each subsequent version, even pioneering the ATB system.

In an interview with 1UP, Ito revealed the inspiration behind Final Fantasy's turn-based battle system: American Football. He cited the concept of two teams lining up on opposite sides, each with pre-set plays, ready to execute. Ito had another interesting influence when it came down to creating the Active Time Battle system too; he tried to create "action-like game with no action elements" by using techniques from racing games.

"At the time, there was a shift going on in Formula One racing, where they introduced semi-automatic transmissions," Ito said.

"People are shifting gears, but there's no clutch pedal in the car. It's half of the process of the manual transmission built into an automatic."

"I felt that by drawing inspiration from that kind of system, implementing that kind of system would give people the illusion that they're doing much more to drive the action than might actually be real, because of a lot of the processes are automatic."

You can find out more about the history of Final Fantasy's battle system, as well as see what a character Hiroyuki Ito actually is with the full interview linked below.

[Source: 1UP]