Yeah, I think the whole point of Smith's response is that you can't tell what parts or how much of Matsuno's vision was missed, I'm sure like movies, a lot of game developers finish later parts of the game/story as they're dealing with earlier parts, or even beforehand.

Really fascinating read, and I'm actually kinda glad him and Joe (also a cool dude) are moving on to the development side of things. That said, I hope they don't fail on that end and get disappointed. Some things I thought were interesting:

- even developers on FFX-2 had a "WTF" moment with the light-hearted departure from the first game's more serious tone. Very sad that Smith admitted that he had to justify it in his own mind...

- mentioning Erik Wolpaw at Valve as someone he respects... I don't know much about who he is or what else he's done, but I interviewed him about Portal 2 and the guy is a huge asshole.

- I definitely think he and other contributors to the FFXII project are under non-disclosure agreements about what really happened with Matsuno's departure. The fact that after all these years he has to put forth the self-described "company line" means there's probably some kind of legal obligation here. Either an NDA about the situation, something that he can never reveal unsettling info about SE, or just a general wish to continue doing business and creatively collaborating with the company.

- "The Laughing Scene." I always assumed this was intentional, and I was surprised to see people on the internet who honestly believe it wasn't, although Smith's comments here gave it some credence...

- just how big FFX's "I love you" is as a first for the series and a monumental decision at the time. Nojima also scores points for being excited about the idea, "giving them something to talk about."

- creating the Al-Bhed language.

Personally I wished they spent more time on his most recent collaboration with Matsuno, Tactics Ogre, but I guess there's really not much to say, as Smith said in the article it's always just consistently solid stuff.