The Last Story chief discusses the game's visual fidelity, as well as his thoughts on the HD development process...

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been chatting to Hironobu Sakaguchi again, this time on the graphical side of The Last Story. The Mistwalker head and Final Fantasy creator has plenty of experience working on top-end graphical systems, having developed Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360. It doesn't take much to imagine the stark difference a developer would face when turning to work on a non-HD system.

Sakaguchi explained that working on a HD system involved a lot of time creating a "solid pipeline" for a game, only after which could graphics and motion data be placed into the project. He acknowledged that creating a Wii game such as The Last Story required a very different approach, with the team opting to making a preliminary 'prototype' and then working from there.

Iwata-san suggested that the Wii framework allowed developers to build a game through a process of experimentation. Sakaguchi agreed, but went on to state his concern for the pressures of HD development in contrast.

"To be honest, I personally feel that the HD visuals that are now the trend are still too much for a game world. You end up putting all your effort into preserving the quality of the visuals."

Of course, that's not to say there aren't developers who can balance the effort with preserving high-quality gameplay, but it's interesting to hear the concern straight from a producer's mouth.

As for The Last Story, Sakaguchi was keen to emphasise the commitment to making the game look great.

"I absolutely did not want the visual quality to drop just because it's on the non-HD Wii. In the end, I truly believe we reached a point where it does not lose out to other hardware. The feel of the rocks, the feel of the water and so forth -- we really went deep with the creation. Also, another important area is motion... Even if you compare the visuals to other hardware, there's no disadvantage what-so-ever."

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For the full low down on Iwata's altercation with The Last Story team (which does make some fascinating reading), hit the link here.

The Last Story is set to hit Japan in January.