You definitely have a very distinguished career and a history of making games that mean something to a lot of people. I'm curious if you can pick one--what is the game from your past that means the most to you?
I think for me, all of them. The reason I say that is when I'm creating games, and once we complete a game, there's always this phase of post-mortem where I think to myself, "I could have done this better, or I could have changed that." It's not limited to just what I think of it. I also take in some of the players' feedback and other people's thoughts and think about, "Maybe if I do this next, people will enjoy it more. Maybe if I do that or change this, it would turn out better."
It's the cycle I go through for every game that I am a part of. If we started with Xenogears, there is a post-mortem that happened there that I put to use in Xenosaga. Then we went into a different title and then to Xenoblade and to X. It's just a reiterative cycle. To me, every single game is an opportunity to learn, and it's also an opportunity to challenge myself.
What step in the cycle does Xenoblade Chronicles 2 represent?
I think in terms of Xenoblade 2, there's always--like I mentioned--things that I wished I could have done or thought I should have done differently. I feel like Xenoblade 2 is my opportunity and my way to put all of that into reality. I say all of that, but I probably can't do everything in that title, and I'm sure that when this game is done, I'll have more post-mortem things to think about and more changes and different things that I'd like to do. That'll be carried out to the next title, whatever it is that I work on. It's this cycle that really keeps me going, but obviously if you're stuck on one point, you can't move forward, and the game will never be made, so there's certain times where you have to kind of draw the line and say, "This is how far I'm going to go this time. Whatever is left, I'll carry it on to the next game." That's kind of how I see it, but Xenoblade 2 is kind of like a culmination of all the things that I have done--and would like to have done--from my past.