Daisuke Watanabe
{{Short description|Japanese video game writer (born 1974)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|03|11}}{{cite book|title=Go/Kagewaza (業・影技)|last=Watanabe|first=Daisuke|
location=Tokyo|publisher=Take Shobo (竹書房)|year=1996|isbn=4-8124-0136-4|language=ja}}
| birth_place = Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
| occupation =video game writer
}}
{{nihongo|Daisuke Watanabe|渡辺 大祐|Watanabe Daisuke}} is a Japanese video game writer employed by Square Enix. He is mostly known for his work on the role-playing video game series Final Fantasy and the action RPG series Kingdom Hearts.
Career
Watanabe first became interested in writing in junior high school in 1988, after reading the Wizardry novel Tonariawase no Hai to Seishun by Benny Matsuyama. Before he joined Square, Watanabe wrote manga novelizations.{{cite web|url=http://www.famitsu.com/news/201407/11056946.html|work=ファイナルファンタジーXIII REMINISCENCE -tracer of memories|title=著者、渡辺大祐氏にインタビュー|trans-title=Final Fantasy XIII: Reminiscence -tracer of memories: Interview with author Daisuke Watanabe|publisher=Famitsu|date=2014-07-11|access-date=2014-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711075338/http://www.famitsu.com/news/201407/11056946.html|archive-date=2014-07-11|url-status=live|language=ja}} Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy game that he worked on as scenario writer.{{cite book | title=Final Fantasy X Ultimania Omega (ファイナルファンタジーX アルティマニアΩ)| publisher=Square Enix | pages=191–193, 476 | author=Studio BentStuff | language=ja|date=2002-01-31|isbn=978-4887870215}} Among others, he was responsible for the dialog in the Zanarkand Ruins which he almost wrote in one single night. He joined the Final Fantasy XIII team in early 2004 but left it again about half a year later. He instead became part of the Final Fantasy XII development team in November 2004.{{cite book | year=2006 | editor=Studio BentStuff | title=Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania | publisher=Square Enix | language=ja | isbn=4-7575-1696-7}} The original scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno left that project in August 2005 due to sickness.{{cite web|last=Niizumi |first=Hirohiko |title=FFXII producer steps down |url=http://uk.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/01/news_6130121.html |website=GameSpot |access-date=20 March 2011 |date=1 August 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108192205/http://www.gamespot.com/news/ffxii-producer-steps-down-6130121|archive-date=2012-11-08 }} Hiroshi Minagawa, the co-director of Final Fantasy XII, expressed his regrets that many of the story ideas by Watanabe had to be dropped so the game could meet the deadline for the release.{{refn|group=note|Hiroshi Minagawa: In the course of development, Jun Akiyama and Daisuke Watanabe came up with many ideas but ultimately we had to abandon many of them. I'd heard their original ideas and I wish we could have included them all. Once we began development and many of the systems were in place, the team had many progressive ideas. It was the most enjoyable part of the project. But as we approached the project's end, I had to point out features we had to drop in order for the game to be finished. Which is unfortunate, since I'm sure people would have enjoyed the game that much more if we could have left all our original ideas in.{{cite web|title=Video interview with FINAL FANTASY XII Directors|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYIzjBbO2FQ|work=FINAL FANTASY XII Collector's Edition Bonus DVD|publisher=Square Enix Co., Ltd|access-date=8 April 2011|date=31 October 2006}}}} In March 2006, Watanabe rejoined the Final Fantasy XIII team after Kazushige Nojima and Motomu Toriyama had conceived a mythology and story for the game, respectively. He was shown a rough outline of the plot until chapter eight and was asked by Toriyama to flesh things out and to correct how it would all connect. Watanabe decided how Toriyama's rudimentary cutscene ideas should play out, wrote the script and adjusted the personality of each character to emphasize what the story tried to express.{{cite book |title=Final Fantasy XIII Scenario Ultimania |publisher=Studio Bentstuff |location=Tokyo |isbn=978-4-7575-2775-1 |pages=388–390 |language=ja |date=2010-02-01}} He said that the Final Fantasy XIII series was an exhausting project with little time to breathe and that his feelings toward it were "complicated". Watanabe not only wrote the scripts for the games but also a three-part novella titled Final Fantasy XIII Reminiscence: tracer of memories that was published in the Japanese game magazine Famitsu.
Works
Notes
{{Reflist|group=note}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=1082674}}
- [http://ffx.sakura.ne.jp/staff.htm#watanabe Profile at ffx.sakura.ne.jp]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Daisuke}}
Category:Final Fantasy designers
Category:Japanese video game designers