Dengeki PlayStation approached a number of professionals in the Japanese gaming industry in celebration of their 600th issue. Each person was asked different questions, with the one pointed at Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata being, “Which company’s title would you like to work on as a member of their staff?” Tabata responded, a fun answer for a fun question, with his aspirations to make a Zelda game.
Here’s Tabata’s full answer, as provided by Nintendo Everything:
It seems that there’s a little bit of Nintendo in every Japanese game developer.
Hajime Tabata’s answer certainly isn’t to be taken as any sort of breaking news. It’s just a very hard at work developer opening up a bit and having fun with a cheerful, friendly interview question. Right now Tabata is neck deep, if not drowning, in the development of Final Fantasy XV. With a launch date in 2016, Tabata will be spending a lot of long nights in the studio making sure everything comes together. For him to look inwards and think about how fun it would be to make a Legend of Zelda game next is a testament to how Nintendo’s games always make people smile.
Then Final Fantasy’s heavy influence on Tabata comes through a little bit more strongly. He doesn’t want just any Zelda, or even the Zelda that Nintendo’s currently working on. He wants one with the technology of Final Fantasy XV. He wants one with his team’s know-how. At this point everyone is probably thinking of a spikey-haired, edgey Link shouting out as Ganon stabs Zelda with a samurai sword, but Tabata probably just means giving a Zelda game the graphically brilliant, cinematic, and dramatic characteristics he strives for in his own projects.
Let’s not start placing bets on an open-world, third-person action game being next in line for Hajime Tabata at Square Enix, nor will he be jumping ship to Nintendo anytime soon. It’s just fun to think about what could be if those two worlds collided. … Nope, all I can see is Cloud as Link and Ganon as Sephiroth. Everything is ruined.
Source: Nintendo Everything
