Final Fantasy 3 Designer Didn't Think Moogles Were Special
It seems that the recent interview with Square-Enix's Hiromichi Tanaka and Koichi Ishii in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy 3 still has more to reveal about the game's development process, including some of the initial development of Moogles. Considering where the third title falls in the timeline of Final Fantasy games, development on some of these earlier games has gone fairly undocumented in the past, especially outside of Japan.
Currently, only the first section of the Final Fantasy 3 anniversary interview is available, focusing on Tanaka's experience and how development differed between the games that came before the third series entry, and after. It's likely that the next section of the interview, focused on Ishii, will give a better view at his work as an object designer and possibly dipping into his history as the director of the Mana series which just recently launched the incredible Trials of Mana remake.
One interesting insight that came from the interview with Tanaka is that one of the Final Fantasy series' most beloved creatures, the Moogle, was never intended to take off and become such a mascot for the series. While the flying balls of fluff made their first appearance in Final Fantasy 3, Tanaka says that at the time of development, he hadn't really thought much of them. Specifically, when asked about the Moogle's role in the game, Tanaka claimed, "How do I say this – it’s not a character that I remember at the time being in a special or important position, or even particularly memorable. It was just one character of many, and we added it in because we wanted someone to put in these caves. It was a race of cave people; we didn’t think it would become a mascot character."
Considering the impact that Moogles have had on the series ever since their initial appearance in Final Fantasy 3 and the way that fans have clung to them, it's interesting to think that they were little more than "cave people" in the minds of developers. In fact, what they thought about in terms of design was mostly limited to who they would be in that one particular game and how life in a cave may have affected their lifestyles. It just goes to show that even long time developers don't completely know what parts of these games will catch on like Moogles becoming such a mascot for Final Fantasy as a whole.
That being said, no matter what the original intent for the Moogles was in Final Fantasy 3 they've become a huge part of the overarching tapestry that defines the series as a whole. With Square-Enix's long running franchise continuing to break records, like the incredible sales of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it seems that those mascots and trends that started from early titles have done their job well enough. Hopefully, the new revelations from the next section of the 30th anniversary interview will give players even more insights on the development of the Final Fantasy series.
Final Fantasy 3 is available now on Android, iOS, PC, and Nintendo DS.
Source: Kotaku
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