Wii U Controller Will Push JRPG Strategizing, Says The Last Story Lead Designer

Back in June, The Last Story’s lead designer, Takuya Matsumoto, revealed that Mistwalker were interested in the idea of developing role-playing games for the Wii U. Matsumoto, who works at Marvelous AQL, collaborated with Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker on the game.

Recently, we asked Matsumoto what he’d like to do with the Wii U, to push JRPGs forward. He replied that he feels the Wii U’s new controller with a screen built into it is useful for organizing information, and that he was interested in taking advantage of this.

“I feel that the Wii U’s interface, as with other tablet devices, works best for browsing and arranging information,” Matsumoto told Siliconera.

“One merit is the ability to use a touch screen to directly manipulate information, such as looking up a monster’s weak point or, like with a car’s GPS, as a tool to understand battlefield conditions on a sub screen. This special feature will likely bring about opportunities for deep research into JRPG strategy.”

He added: “Also, I think that things like saving information gathered during gameplay, adding to your own character’s memories and experiences, and sharing with other players via Wi-Fi and the Miiverse will become an experience typical to the Wii U.”

The Last Story is being published by Xseed in North America.