In an interview with the game's producer/scenario writer Hiroyuki Takahashi and director Shugo Takahashi published in the 1993 Megadrive Fan Attack Special book, they stated that the enemy "Paste" (called "Bubbling Ooze" in the English localization) was originally going to be named "Slime". Its name was not included due to copyright issues, so they tried other options to name it like "Ooze" or "Gel", neither of which got picked. They later came up with the name Paste, while the English release gave the enemies the unused name "Ooze". It's possible that 'Slime' couldn't be used due to a copyright for the iconic Dragon Quest enemy of the same name.
According to a 2001 V-Jump magazine interview with the game's designer Fumi Nakashima, she stated that her inspiration for the Al Bhed’s clothing came from bondage fashion. She recalled having various bondage books and magazines on her desks at work and her co-workers giving her "weird looks" in response to seeing them.
In a 1991 interview with the game's composer Yoko Shimomura published in vol. 62 of Gamest magazine, she stated that her idea for Dhalsim’s theme was inspired by a CD she owned of Indian and Pakistani music, and that she "may have gone a little too far" in selling the idea to the development team. She also thought using tsuzumi drums in the music would make it sound more Japanese, and more akin to "that fusion sound, the king of music that's great to listen to when you're driving around."
In a 1991 interview with the game's composer Yoko Shimomura published in vol. 62 of Gamest magazine interview, she was asked about the in-game music speeding up when the fighter's health gets low, and if the tempo of the songs themselves was actually speeding up. She responded:
"Ah, yeah, actually I wrote them all as separate compositions for that purpose. At first they only asked me to write one song for each stage, but later I said “it would be cool if the tempo got faster during the fight” and they liked the idea. Unfortunately it meant writing twice as many songs for me."
In a 1991 interview with Yoshiki Okamoto published in vol. 62 of Gamest magazine, he was asked how development on the game started. He responded:
"We started out wanting to make a fighting game. The game we finished then, however, was not Steet Fighter II. It was Final Fight. We originally titled it Street Fighter 89, but then all of the players complained that this wasn’t Street Fighter. So ultimately SF89 became Final Fight, and we started working on a separate sequel to Street Fighter. In that sense, Street Fighter II is a game that was made by the players."
Akira Nishitani was then asked if he played the first Street Fighter, and stated:
"It would be impossible to make a sequel if you didn’t understand the appeal of the original, so yeah, I played it quite a bit."
In a 2001 V-Jump magazine interview with the game's art director Yusuke Naora, he was asked where the idea for an "asian" themed world came from? He responded:
"Let’s see… after the cyberpunk and “near-future” settings of VII and VIII, we returned to our roots with FFIX. So the question became, what should we do next…? And to be honest, that question vexed us. Around that time, I happened to be looking through some books and travel pamphlets and randomly thought to myself, “you know, Asia is really nice too…” There haven’t been many fantasy games in that kind of setting. There have been games set in China, or with a Chinese atmosphere, but nothing with a Southeast Asian or similar setting. So I thought I’d try drawing some pictures to flesh out this vision I had, when lo and behold, I read Kazushige Nojima’s script and by chance it turned out to have the same feeling. Then it was like, OK, now we’ve got to do this. We all brainstorm ideas on our own, but when we meet up and share them, the ideas that happen to be similar to each other are always good ones."
In a 2001 V-Jump magazine interview with the game's character designer Tetsuya Nomura, he said that when designing Tidus' emblem, he thought of various things related to the ocean, like fishing hooks, fishbones, whale fins, and based his designs about them. He mentioned that Tidus' necklace is the emblem for his blitzball team, the Zanarkand Abes. And also stated that he came up with the idea before the Al Bhed language was written, but the shape design of the necklace is actually the combined letters of "T" + "J" from the start of Tidus & Jecht's names.
In a 2019 IGN Japan interview with the game's creator Tonnor, he was asked why he chose to release the game's soundtrack as DLC on Steam? He responded:
"The publisher was pushing hard for it (and there were requests from the testplayers too) so it was something I looked into after considering the need both for additional content for the Steam release, and as a nod to existing players who have been dedicated of fans of Hellsinker for a while now. I also managed to dig up a utility to extract the music resources from my old development machine, which allowed me to release the music in a lossless format."
According to the game's illustrator Mikael Leger, Elijah Kamski was originally going to own a pet android cat, but for unknown reasons, it was scrapped.
Alice was originally intended to be entirely mute, and only being able to communicate with the player using American Sign Language. Concept art of ASL books was also created, as well as a scrapped gameplay sequence where Kara would learn ASL that was intended to also teach players basic ASL signs. The reason for its removal is unknown.
According to game's director Chihiro Fujioka in a 1995 Family Computer Magazine and Haou interview, he was asked about how the development of the game started. He responded:
"We started around the beginning of last year. During a business meeting with Nintendo, the topic came up of us working on something together. Nintendo has Mario, and Square has RPGs… well, why not simply stick the two together? Being entirely different things, we had no idea how this would turn out… but that’s actually what made it so exciting."
"Getting everything straight during that first phase of the development really took a long time. Mario is Nintendo’s character, so there was a lot of back and forth with them, searching for a way forward that would satisfy both Square and Nintendo. Miyamoto is also on the main team, so yeah, I mean it just took a really long time before we could get down to brass tacks."
The interviewer followed up on this, asking if Square handled the basic ideas and development, with Nintendo checking on Fujioka's work progress. He responded:
"Yeah. With regard to the graphics, Nintendo has a certain style they like. It was the kind of thing where you think you’d get it perfect, only to realize, “oh, wait, this is wrong…” Our graphics team cried a lot. (laughs)"
In a 1995 Game-on! magazine interview, the game's composer Yoko Shimomura stated that she loved the music of Mario series, and that Super Mario Bros. was her first encounter of the series and video games in general. After she got the job to write the music for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, she "let her imagination run wild" as she composed the game's music, trying to get the sounds that fit with "Mario walking around a town chatting people up, Mario sleeping, Mario just living his life…" and described the writing process as "SOOO fun!".
According to the game's development team in an interview published in the Megadrive Fan Attack Special book in 1993, originally the Achilles Sword could cast Bolt, but if it was used against Talos, he would absorb all the damage and it would not hit the surrounding enemies. The team later changed this so Talos could not be targeted with magic at all.
During the motion-capture scene where David Anderson knocked out Donnel Udina by punching him in the face so that Commander Shepard and his crew can go after Saren Arterius in the Normandy SR-2, the game's cinematic lead Shane Welbourn (suited up as Anderson), accidentally clocked the actor who played Udina in the jaw.
In a 1999 interview in E.G.G.'s Complete Guide, according to the game's scenario writer, planner and supervisor Hiroaki Hara, and game designer (and designer of the titular E.G.G. mech) Hidetsugi Watanabe, they were asked when and why the mech was named the "Elemental Gimmick Gear"? Watanabe stated that he didn't give it any particular name, when he was working on the model. But Hara stated:
"That was something we started thinking about after the planning phase began. It looks like an egg—so the “EGG” was a simple association. Alone, the name “Egg” felt too simple and boring though. This unique powered suit runs from some mysterious combination of human energy and natural energy, so “Elemental Gimmick Gear”, abbreviated as E.G.G., seemed to fit perfectly."
According to Chris Priestly, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was almost not included in the game as a full squadmate. Writer Patrick Weekes was able to persuade the development team to include her in the game as a full squadmate.
According to Chris Priestly, Conrad Verner was almost cut from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, but enough members from the development team wanted him to stay that he was kept in both games.
According to the game's director and writer Shuntaro Tanaka in the Dreamcast Magazine interview published on September 10, 1999, he commented on the game's setting taking place in the skies:
"On a ship, you might scout a distant island on the horizon, but in the skies, things are hidden by clouds, and I think that makes the thrill of discovery all the more exciting. The seas have waves, but the sky has winds… we’ve prepared lots of little contrivances like that. At the beginning of the game, your map shows about 10 islands, but you’ll gradually find more—there’ll be exciting scenes where you discover whole new kingdoms beyond the clouds, lots of things like that."
"There’s all kinds of lands to discover, from huge continents to tiny islands. We want to have lots of varied terrain too, from vast sprawling deserts to smaller floating islands hidden within deep forests."
Since the game would have all kinds of varied terrain and islands, he elaborated that it would come with many different cultures to explore and discover. In particular, his team wanted to included a lot of “travelogue” elements, such as when the player heads to a new town, there would be many different shops and only local goods in that region.
In a June 1993 interview with game's producer and writer Hiroyuki Takahashi published in Dengeki Megadrive magazine, he was told about Shining Force II getting a lot of pressure for being better than the first Shining Force game and Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (released in Japan as "Shining Force Gaiden II: Jashin no Mezame"). He commented:
"Yeah. I always feel like we’re “battling” with the previous games, so to speak. That’s why we talked a lot together as a team, about how to deliver a satisfying ending for players. We’d built this story up for them, from the opening to the mid-game climax, so we knew their expectations would be running high."
"Finding the right tone for that ending has taken a lot of trial and error. One day, as I was working on it, my brother Shugo sat down beside me and quietly said, “Seeing as this game has turned into such a big production… I want to cry at the ending.” I then spent about a month thinking about how to do that. I came up with something, but deep down I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to do that to players at the end of the game. I showed the staff what I’d completed, not knowing what they’d think. Then one of the staff spoke, with tears welling up in their eyes, “This is really good!” So yeah, I’ve got some confidence in the story this time."
Later in an August 1993 interview published in the same magazine, Hiroyuki said the team objected to the idea of having an ending that would make people cry and would not include it in Shining Force II.
According to game's producer Akira Ushizawa in a 1998 interview published in volume 122 of Gamest magazine, he stated that the team originally designed the game hoping it would make it to home consoles because they did not think it would be played very widely in arcades.
According to a 2001 V-Jump magazine interview with the game's designer Fumi Nakashima, she stated that her inspiration for the Al Bhed’s clothing came from bondage fashion. She recalled having various bondage books and magazines on her desks at work and her co-workers giving her "weird looks" in response to seeing them.
In a 2001 V-Jump magazine interview with the game's character designer Tetsuya Nomura, he said that when designing Tidus' emblem, he thought of various things related to the ocean, like fishing hooks, fishbones, whale fins, and based his designs about them. He mentioned that Tidus' necklace is the emblem for his blitzball team, the Zanarkand Abes. And also stated that he came up with the idea before the Al Bhed language was written, but the shape design of the necklace is actually the combined letters of "T" + "J" from the start of Tidus & Jecht's names.
According to the game's illustrator Mikael Leger, Elijah Kamski was originally going to own a pet android cat, but for unknown reasons, it was scrapped.
