Insane Difficulty: Time/SpaceMage - Viewing Profile - Insane Difficulty

—Can you tell us about Figaro brothers’ backstory?

Tanaka: In the beginning of the planning, Edgar was the stereotypical “sleazeball.” But I thought was too cliched, so I removed that aspect of his personality. As for his love of women, because he lost his Mother as an infant, he has an especially strong attachment to women generally. Moreover, his first crush/love (an older woman—one of his Father’s cousins) was always very firm in telling him he must grow up to be a good man, so Edgar studied with great fervor the art of chivalry. Ultimately, this woman was killed in a political rivalry, and Edgar’s feelings toward her remained forever unrequited. Her spiritedness and lively wit, however, left their mark on Edgar and have influenced his personal vision of the ideal woman. He’s a little bit different from the typical “ladykiller” character because he was written by a woman (me!), so if anyone notices that I’ll be very happy.

Sabin, Gau, and Cyan act as a surrogate family for each other: it’s two children who have lost their fathers, and one father who has lost his child. Sabin, in particular, sees an aspect of himself in Gau. And they both share that connection to nature and what is natural. Terra senses that in Sabin when she calls him a “docile bear.” And he does kind of look like a big cuddly bear, doesn’t he? (laughs)

During the development, for the Tzen event in the World of Ruin, originally if the time ran out, Sabin would actually die! Then if you came back to Tzen with Edgar in your party, it would trigger a scene with Edgar wandering forlornly around Tzen in the middle of the night, searching through the rubble in vain for his brother… “I’m coming to save you!” But we decided that the World of Ruin already had more than enough dark stories, and changed it for the final version of the game. For Sabin fans, it’s a good thing we did!