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A Conversation With the Creator of Final Fantasy IV (Takashi Tokita interview)

Jeremy, Parish, and Tokita, Takashi. 2011. “A Conversation With the Creator of Final Fantasy IV (Takashi Tokita interview).” 1UP.com, A Conversation With the Creator of Final Fantasy IV, page 3 of 5. Ziff Davis.

Cite as
1UP, Tokita on FFIV
Original
http://www.1up.com/features/final-fantasy-iv-creator-conversation?pager.offset=2
sha256
1030513a9749fb642bba23f78ed508ce7a06be300c8426d92bd469eb3c800d3c
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20131103104110id_/http://www.1up.com/features/final-fantasy-iv-creator-conversation?pager.offset=2
Accessed
2026-10-23
Licence
© Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.
Credit
Interview by Jeremy Parish, 1UP.com; answers by Takashi Tokita. Archived copy captured 3 November 2013.
Notes
Tokita, introduced as the creator of Final Fantasy IV, answers questions about its story-driven design, the Active Time Battle system, and the North American release. He attributes the idea of Active Time Battle to Hiroyuki Itoh watching a Formula One race, says the system was meant to make up for the smaller scope for customizing characters, says he spent about three weeks in Seattle working with Nintendo of America, and says the U.S. version was made a little easier. The archived copy is page 3 of a five-page article.

Cited on

Claims (3)

Takashi Tokita told 1UP that the idea of Active Time Battle came from the planner Hiroyuki Ito, who was watching a Formula One race and saw the cars overtake one another: from that came characters whose speed differs by type. Tokita said it also let the team build enemies like those of shooting and action games, which change shape or fight as a wall closes in.page 3, answer on the inspiration for Active Time Battlepage 3, next answerInterview
Tokita said that by sparing players the confusion of older games about where to go next, the team raised the game's story-driven impact, and that Active Time Battle, new at the time, helped make up for the smaller scope for customizing characters.page 3, answer on the story-driven designpage 3, answer on character customizationInterview
Tokita, who said he spent about three weeks in Seattle working with Nintendo of America on the release, said the biggest change in the U.S. version was making it "a little bit easier". Only the first Final Fantasy had come out in the United States, and Final Fantasy II and III had experimental elements, so the team balanced the game as a follow- up to the first, with the youngest of the NES's players in mind.page 3, answer on his part in the North American versionpage 3, answer on the changes to the U.S. versionInterview