Ito: Final Fantasy battles are based on NFL

[Jiro]

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]

[Del Murder]

Did he also do the FFXIII version of ATB? Cause that one sucked.

I've always loved ATB. To me it is the best RPG battle system because it blends action, flow, and strategy without favoring any element too heavily.

[Bolivar]

Nope. He didn't work on FFX or FFVII either.

From what I've read, he started off as a sound programmer on FFI and somehow worked his way up over the NES generation to be in charge of the combat for FFIV, when he invented ATB, IMO one of the great gaming ideas to ever come out of the medium. FFV is where he stepped up into the director-like position he's been in ever since. While Sakaguchi is listed as Director in the English manuals, he was in charge of everything that happened in the battle screen (basically the gameplay) while Yoshinori Kitase was in charge of everything that happened on the field screen (basically the story). They formalized these duties with Ito and Kitase co-directing Final Fantasy VI, and I think the results speak for themselves. After that, he helped the Quest team to merge the Ogre Battle universe with the Final Fantasy mythos (result = Ivalice) on Final Fantasy Tactics while Kitase and the rest of the team worked on FFVII. He didn't "direct" FFVIII, but he was credited for the Junction system I believe, which a lot of people will probably consider as his one misstep. Sakaguchi chose him to be the sole Director of Final Fantasy IX. I wish I knew what he was doing now, but his last major project was as co-Director of Final Fantasy XII.

He's probably my favorite developer who's worked on the franchise. A lot of people categorize JRPGs as games with horrible gameplay that we only tolerate because of the awesome stories, but I've never looked at it that way. As a kid I fell for the stories, but as I've matured into an adult, what kept me replaying favorites and sticking with the genre was deep customization and strategic combat. Hiroyuki Ito's systems are the gold standard of what it means to be a Japanese Role Playing Game.

I'm amazed at how he's taken real life mechanics from professional sports and incorporated them into his titles. I knew about the American football's influence on FFXII, but I didn't know it went deeper beyond that until I read the article. It seems like he was really dying to talk about the NFL with Jeremy Parish and it's a shame he was stuck with a non-fan.

But I know we have some NFL fans here and EoFF is getting tighter with Square Enix, what're the chances we could get an interview with him here?

[Slothy]

Interesting. I think I'd seen him compare FFXII's gambit system to football before in the sense of assigning plays the characters then execute much like a coach, but I hadn't seen him compare the battle systems in earlier games to it in that way. Makes quite a bit of sense in retrospect actually.

He didn't "direct" FFVIII, but he was credited for the Junction system I believe, which a lot of people will probably consider as his one misstep.

I'd agree that's his biggest misstep, but I often wonder how much of that was him because I'm not sure how big his role in FFVIII was. The junction system was a great idea that suffered from poor balance. Sometimes I wonder if that was because other people implemented the idea throughout the game for him and missed some things, or if they simply didn't have time to iterate on it some more to get the balancing right, or if they simply missed it. Still, like you, I consider him my favourite developer on the FF series. He's played a fairly sizable role in all of my favourites that's hard to ignore. I wish they'd get him working on something new, or tell us about it if he already is.

[Wolf Kanno]

From what I read, he came up with the concept of the Junction system (and Triple Triad) and then was pulled early from the team to work on FF Gaiden which eventually became FFIX. Things like the Draw command were added by the VIII team after he left so things may have turned out differently had he stayed on. He also worked on Chrono Trigger between VI and Tactics as a co-director.

A supposed translation of his interviews from the FFIX and XII Ultimania's also goes into detail about what he contributed to games like VI, CT and IX. He's apparently the go to guy for merging gameplay with story scenes cause he thinks just watching a story scene unfold gets a bit too boring so things like the Opera scene, the Banquet with Gestahl, Crono's trial, and Zidane and Blank's fight scene are examples of him trying make the story sequences a bit more interactive and immersive.

Considering his accomplishments, I'm actually surprised he wasn't tapped to be the lead of the main FF development team instead of Toriyama. Though it's probably because Kitase is the head of Division 1 while Ito was given his own division. Interesting enough, when Sakaguchi was asked recently who at Squenix could make Final Fantasy into a leading series of the genre, Sakaguchi said Ito.

I wonder what he's been doing since FFXII International though? I mean he hasn't been on a major project since 2007.

[Bolivar]

I think he's making a tapping shooter for iOS/Android...

I'm not sure why he wasn't given one of the Fabula Nova Crystalis games or at least FFXIV (non-online), since it seems they've always rotated. I thought Minagawa would've gotten another directorial chance as well, but I'm at least glad he directed the Tactics Ogre remake.

[Wolf Kanno]

Ito is credited with creating the concept of the iOS game Guardian Cross but apparently he did nothing else for it. Minegawa was brought in to help FFXIV get revamped which is why he hasn't been doing anything since Tactics Ogre.

I'm honestly hoping Ito got tapped for FFXV and that's why he's been MIA from the spotlight.

[Bolivar]

Super secret mindblowing project, please.

[Flying Arrow]

He also worked on Chrono Trigger between VI and Tactics as a co-director.

A supposed translation of his interviews from the FFIX and XII Ultimania's also goes into detail about what he contributed to games like VI, CT and IX. He's apparently the go to guy for merging gameplay with story scenes cause he thinks just watching a story scene unfold gets a bit too boring so things like the Opera scene, the Banquet with Gestahl, Crono's trial, and Zidane and Blank's fight scene are examples of him trying make the story sequences a bit more interactive and immersive.

Considering his accomplishments, I'm actually surprised he wasn't tapped to be the lead of the main FF development team instead of Toriyama. Though it's probably because Kitase is the head of Division 1 while Ito was given his own division. Interesting enough, when Sakaguchi was asked recently who at Squenix could make Final Fantasy into a leading series of the genre, Sakaguchi said Ito.

I wonder what he's been doing since FFXII International though? I mean he hasn't been on a major project since 2007.

This is really, really interesting. I've never done a lot of reading into Ito's work with the series. He seems like a really reliable, lunchbucket type of employee. Someone who never calls in sick and just gets trout done.

From what I read, he came up with the concept of the Junction system (and Triple Triad) and then was pulled early from the team to work on FF Gaiden which eventually became FFIX. Things like the Draw command were added by the VIII team after he left so things may have turned out differently had he stayed on.

How quickly things go wrong without the right people. Really makes me wish for a FFVIII: Ito Edition though.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I have learned something today. THANK YOU