If it weren’t for game director Hajime Tabata’s work in Square Enix, the past Final Fantasy games wouldn’t have gone down the action RPG route for good or ill. His claim to fame was Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation Portable, and with that he’s been instrumental in shaping Square Enix’s major games for a good while up until Final Fantasy XV, a game born out of the development hell project that was Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Which is why it was quite a shame that he left Square Enix in 2018 right after Final Fantasy XV shipped in 2016, due to differing philosophies of games business. Now he has his own company, JP Games, and he’s working on a couple of projects.

We caught up with the esteemed director about his new JRPG work and his thoughts on JRPGs these days, right after his Level Up KL 2024 Business Day closing speech and talk. Here’s what we know from Tabata-san; we also thank Wan Hazmer of Metronomik for translating his answers.

KKP: What can you tell us about Shallah, your new JRPG that is “cutting edge” and for “adults”? 

Hajime Tabata: It’s a new RPG with a Middle Eastern feel. We wanted to focus on the artwork of the game moreso that usual so that it really looks closer to Saudi Arabia.

Due to the original name being a bit controversial based on input from our partners from the Saudi Arabian government, we have renamed it to Project Jewel, or just Jewel. I can assure you that the game will have a lot of jewels!

KKP: Based on your talk about prioritizing scenario over story when making JRPGs, how would Jewel benefit from your lessons? 

HT: I think I will always try to make games that can be played creatively. The same applies to Jewel. The player can choose what to do, and whatever story comes out of it the player can shape it as they see fit while participating in the scenarios given.

How the players choose to conquer the world, or save it, is up to you.

KKP: Given that you started the trend of real-time turn-based JRPG combat when you directed Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII onward, does this mean you have to start over from scratch if you want to do the same kind of real-time combat system for Jewel? Possibly to avoid future lawsuits? 

HT: Honestly, I never even thought of taking one small part of the battle system from my titles in Square Enix and putting it in our game. I never thought about referencing something else from other JRPGs at all. 

For me, it’s all about when you want to make a game, you think about what is the framework of that game and what will be a great system for that game. So that is more important. That’s how I think.

Different people have different ways of making a game. Back in Square Enix, I’ve worked with many veterans who have worked on the early days of Final Fantasy, and when I became director,  I was always told to make a Final Fantasy game. And repeat the same thing again.

So I’ve never had this thinking at all that I have to borrow from my older Final Fantasy titles, or anywhere else for that matter. It’s always about coming up with new content.

KKP: There’s been a trend of JRPG remakes as of late: Romancing Saga 2, Persona 3 Reload, and Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D. Will this warp the JRPG scene and prevent new ideas from forming? 

HT: Since High Definition games have become common, remakes and remasters are not a recent trend. Ever since HD came out for general users, it has been like that ever since. Nowadays, games are a mass of technology, and in order to make them, you need a lot of budget and personnel.

The reality is that you can’t just create new things even if you want to due to costs and risks that may not be favourable to people investing in you. Creating new content and IPs might be very difficult for some developers. That being said though, if we continue to just remake the same game, it will tarnish the history of video games in general.

So for me, I will just continue making new IPs or new games. So when I was in Square Enix,  the company makes remasters, they make remakes, they also make new IPs. But when I got out of there and became independent, now I’m just creating new IPs for myself.

Both of the companies have different roles to play in this part. Square Enix is big enough to be able to afford profiting off of remakes and remasters. But as for me, I will still make new content.

KKP: You’ve talked about the East a lot in your Level Up closing panel. What about the West and their approach to storytelling and scenario: is it better for the industry or worse? 

HT: When you replay a game, there are so many reasons why. This is especially if the game has memorable scenes and events, but in contrast scenes that you wish could be improved upon.

We don’t even talk about just Last of Us or, you know, Baldur’s Gate 3 [since Larian Studios CEO is in Malaysia, so it’s been a focal point in Level Up KL 2024]. There are so many other Western-made games where you know even if it’s linear or open world, or even the user can do whatever they want. But there are many many types of different games that have very good storytelling.

Because the player gets very immersed in this kind of game, these expectations keep on growing. When the game answers those expectations and go beyond that, that is where the fun of the creation comes in. So that’s where we reference that. 

JP Games’ upcoming JRPG Jewel has no release date or platform at this point in time.