Final Fantasy series producer Yoshinori Kitase says that Final Fantasy 10's iconic Blitzball minigame was inspired in-part by Pod Racing in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace – so he's pleased that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took inspiration from Square Enix's series, too.
Kitase – who served as game director of Final Fantasy 10 – spoke to IGN about being "very happy" that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was so inspired by Final Fantasy because he himself was inspired by movies he enjoyed when he was young – particularly Star Wars.
"I think I like Star Wars so much that I was afraid of using anything related to [it]," Kitase says, recalling the fear that his work would become something identical to the films. He explains, "I don't think there's something from the movie that I used directly as an inspiration for my games."
However, he does admit to a couple of major inspirations, namely Biggs and Wedge – recurring names used in the series starting with Final Fantasy 6 – who are named after Luke Skywalker's wingmen during the attack on the Death Star in the original Star Wars (Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles). He recalls, "I wasn't sure about the name I was going to use for those characters. And I ended up using the names of characters from Star Wars."
Another major inspiration came when Kitase was creating the fictional sport Blitzball for inclusion in the game. He recalls, "I used an idea from Star Wars Episode 1 where there's this [pod] race and the fact of using sport inside a fantasy context, I took this idea directly from Star Wars."
Frankly, I'm more impressed that he was able to be inspired by a film that released two years earlier, which is a massive reminder of how much quicker sequels to games released, and how on fire Square Enix was at that point. Kitase directed Final Fantasy 8 which released three months before The Phantom Menace, and two years later Final Fantasy 10 – inspired by The Phantom Menace – arrived on shelves.
