Hironobu Sakaguchi Says Lost Odyssey’s Great Combat Was ‘Thanks To’ Veteran FF2 Developer

Eternal Anima is an upcoming turn-based JRPG helmed by Katsuhisa Higuchi, a veteran developer whose resume stretches back to the earliest days of Final Fantasy. That history also saw him work alongside series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi on numerous releases including Chrono Cross, with the Xbox 360 cult classic Lost Odyssey becoming their major post-Square collaboration. Now, the two longtime colleagues have reunited to discuss the upcoming game and reminisce on their shared history.

In Famitsu issue 1964, Sakaguchi recalled that he and Higuchi had known each other for 40 years, since around 1988. “In terms of title, it started when I had him in charge of the battle mechanics for Final Fantasy 2. Before long — not just about battle calculations, but also overall progression systems and balance adjustments — he ended up getting involved in almost everything,” explained Sakaguchi, adding that Higuchi didn’t look like a ‘typical’ programmer.

“It might be a stereotype, but many programmers had very narrow interests (laughs),” he continued. Back then, Sakaguchi would see programmers working on RPGs despite having little interest in the genre, preferring to spend their free time playing something completely different, like racing games instead. Higuchi, on the other hand, was a gamer through and through. He enjoyed playing RPGs as well as other types of games and was also an ‘ideas guy’ who had a knack for number-crunching.

Higuchi himself stated that he has spent decades working as a battle programmer and simply loves tinkering with how to make combat work in this genre. In fact, he believes battles account for the overwhelming majority of what makes an RPG enjoyable. “What makes an RPG fun, 70% to 80% of it comes down to its battles, I think,” he said.

Of course, the duo’s collaboration on Lost Odyssey isn’t some newly unearthed piece of JRPG history. He’s credited as the game’s technical director after all, but Sakaguchi is now putting a much bigger emphasis on what exactly Higuchi brought to the finished product. While many praised the narrative and side-stories in the ‘A Thousand Years of Dreams’ quests, written by Sakaguchi and famed Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu, its QTE-hybrid combat has also earned plenty of respect over the years. More recently, it was even touted as an inspiration for the award-winning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

“Even after I founded Mistwalker, I had him participate in Lost Odyssey,” Sakaguchi said. “I really love the battle system in Lost Odyssey, they came together very nicely, and that was all thanks to Higuchi.” That’s some serious praise coming from someone as highly regarded as the creator of Final Fantasy himself.

But designing battle systems thoroughly wasn’t the only thing Higuchi picked up from working with Sakaguchi for years. He also learned the importance of making a strong first impression to wow the audience. “Sakaguchi-san always demands an impact at the beginning,” Higuchi explained. “For example, with the original Final Fantasy, after defeating the first boss, when you cross the bridge, the title appears in a cinematic presentation.” Sakaguchi echoed the sentiment, saying that having a strong hook is important. While standing out isn’t everything, he feels simply following an expected formula can leave players feeling something is lacking.

That attention to detail apparently extends to even the smallest parts of his games. Sakaguchi said he still makes a point of checking everything himself rather than leaving the designs entirely to his team. “Even I get really bothered with treasure chests’ content,” he admitted, joking that he’ll see one and immediately think, “‘Having this here is definitely wrong, right?’ or something like that (laugh).”

And after nearly four decades of working together, some of that meticulousness seems to have rubbed off on Higuchi. He said he naturally adopted a similar approach: letting his staff first make what they envision, then stepping in as director to adjust and bring everything together. “From past experience, if I tell people, ‘Do this, aah, do that’ right from the start, you end up erasing what each member wants to put into the game,” he explained.

For those curious, Lost Odyssey is playable through backward compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X and recently got a native PC port through a fan recompilation project. Higuchi’s Eternal Anima itself is planned to be released on March 3, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. For more news and interviews, keep an eye on GameObserver.