During the anime convention „Animagic“ in Bonn, we had the chance to talk to Hideo Baba who is the producer of the „Tales Of“-Saga. We asked him a few questions about Tales Of Xillia. Have fun!
JPGames-Melvin: The „Tales of“-Saga is very sucessful and popular. Were you already thinking about „Tales of Xillia 2“ during the development of the first game?
Hideo Baba: In the very early stages of the development of the first game I had no plans for a sequel. Tales of Xillia is a very special title for Japan, because the game celebrates the 15th anniversary of the franchise. Because of the anniversary, we decided to create a greater concept of the story arch which includes the past and the future of the story line. In the later stages of the development of the game we started to think about other story lines for a possible new game.
JPGames-Melvin: Were there any features of the first title that you decided to improve upon in the sequel?
Hideo Baba: Tales of Xillia has many core players that want to have more player abilities. In the original game the level cap was at level 100 but in Tales of Xillia 2 the maximum level will be at 200.
JPGames-Melvin: In the game you can follow the story from two perspectives. How did this idea come to you?
Hideo Baba: Because of the anniversary of the franchise we wanted to include something new in the way we tell the story so we decided two include two perspectives.
JPGames-Melvin: „Tales of Xillia“ has a very beautiful soundtrack composed by Motoi Sakuraba. Did you give him any directions during the composition of the soundtrack?
Hideo Baba: Before he started composing a soundtrack I told him many things about the atmosphere of the game so he could compose a fitting soundtrack for the game.
JPGames-Melvin: When it was announced that Tales of Symphonia HD was going to have a „Dual Audio“-Feature the reactions from fans was very positive. Are you planning to include Dual Audio for Tales of Xillia 2?
Hideo Baba: Actually, I get many requests from german or european fans for japanese voice-overs. There are many problems that make it difficult to include japanese voice-overs in western versions of video games like licensing problems or various costs. It took a long time to solve the problems that hindered Tales of Symphonia from including japanese voices but we finally could make it available for the HD version. As of now we don’t have any plans to include japanese voice-overs in Tales of Xillia 2 because it takes such a long time to solve the problems for the inclusion of japanese voice-overs.
JPGames-Melvin: You produce games that have been released in Japan and the western territory. What is in your opinion the key difference between the Japanese and the western audience?
Hideo Baba: I don’t feel that there is a big difference between the different audiences because both Japanese and European gamers have a really great passion for video games. It’s very interesting to see cosplayers in Japan and Europe. Generally japanese people are a bit shorter than the european people, so japanese cosplayers look very cute and european cosplayers very cool and impressive.
JPGames-Melvin: 2013 is also the year of a new generation of video game consoles launching. Do you think greater hardware power will grant you more ways to execute game concepts?
Hideo Baba: As of now we have no plans to release new titles for the PS4 or the Xbox One. Of course, the improved CPUs and GPUs will be important for the new generation of consoles but I think the greater memory of the consoles will prove to be very crucial.
JPGames-Melvin: Thank you very much for the interview!