These past two weeks were chock full of game releases. One title particularly caught our eye – Full Circle, a JRPG inspired by PlayStation One games! We had the opportunity to chat with the solo developer and learn more about his inspirations, his journey, and upcoming plans for Full Circle. Check out our conversation below!
Q: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us and share more about yourself. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Adolfo Juan Fernando Gazzo Castañeda. I’m a sound engineer, music producer and composer from Peru and I’ve been working in the audio industry for over 15 years. I always wanted to create a video game, even before I knew how to play an instrument. But as a composer I also always dreamed of writing a soundtrack for a JRPG, so I taught myself game development from scratch and now I’m developing my own JRPG called Full Circle. Doesn’t mean I’ll always work alone, I know it sounds crazy. But at some point I might use some freelancers here and there to save some time.
Q: Every player has a set of games that defined their early childhood gaming experience. Which games compromised of your childhood experiences, and what made the most lasting impression?
I grew up with SNES games and loved Secret of Mana. However, with the first PlayStation I absolutely fell in love with the JRPG genre. Back then every time I went to get games it was always about “what new RPG will I discover today?” and there were so many that stood out. Still thinking about the first time I played Breath of Fire or Legend of Dragoon. My god, Lunar was so damn fine. The early Final Fantasy games. That’s my jam. Even until today.
Q: When developing Full Circle, how do you plan on celebrating the games you held most dear? Which elements are you hoping will resonate with new players who missed the early PlayStation era of gaming?
Basically the same I grew up with were also the ones I tried to held most dear. However, one element which I hope will resonate with players who missed the golden era is the fact that not everything will be tracked and explained. Like, today you have quest markers, full descriptions of everything all the times. Sometimes that’s overexplaining or feels like an exposition drop. I want to let the game speak more for itself, like it was in that era. Call it environmental story telling or whatever you want. Let the characters speak. Let NPCs tell you their story. Don’t write everything down. Find things which are not marked at all. Take the player seriously again.
Q: Quite a few games are leaning into nostalgia these days. How are you hoping nostalgia manifests in Full Circle while balancing the modern player-friendly JRPG features that many expect? What nostalgic game design choice did you attempt to implement, only to find that it didn’t work in a modern setting?
On the one side you can definitely see and feel the heritage of Full Circle, it’s quite obvious. But in the same way I’m not trying to be super nostalgic. Yes, it takes certain mechanics and ideas from the games I grew up with, like the Square QTEs from Legend of Dragoon. But they work differently here, the combat system is not built around them. They are not the core system. I’m trying to create something new after all, not a mashup. My belief is that sometimes it is better to look at things from a farer distance and take influences from other media and games from different genres. If you are too deep into one thing, you end up copying things. I don’t want that, I want to use what works and adjust where adjustments are needed. Like, for example, back in the days most battles were random encounters. I experimented with that, but back in the days it was solved that way due to technical limitations. I am still experimenting with the system, offering a mix and also a tool which will warn you when you get closer to a possible encounter for example.
Q: Full Circle looks absolutely gorgeous. The 2.5D perspective is a refreshing art style implemented in modern JRPGs (like Octopath Traveler) and other genres (such as Unicorn Overlord and the upcoming The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales). What drew you to this art style for Full Circle?
While the game has just been officially announced, I was posting stuff on Twitter and Youtube before. Like since quite some years now actually. And especially in the beginning people often compared the looks with Octopath Traveler. In fact I’ve never played them. I know trailers and screenshots but that’s about it. Also the comparisons stopped at some point, I think because Full Circle is also quite different in how it approaches the style. The truth is I already had the visual direction defined before Octopath even came out. I think it’s the natural evolution of what many PS1 games were already doing with 2D sprites on 3D environments. My thoughts on the visual approach had been like “What would a Breath of Fire III look like nowadays?” And over the years I got better with post-processing and pixel art. I’m partially colorblind which I never really thought about but my publisher once told me that this might be the reason why people really enjoy the colors. For me it just looks realistic haha.
Q: If a player notices an Easter Egg in Full Circle, what do you hope that they find?
Depends on the player. If said player grew up with the same games I hope they’ll giggle or cheer when they find a reference. If it’s a player who never experienced those games I hope they will still enjoy the hidden stuff which they cannot understand and will just take it as a given. But I also hope they’ll find some of the more modern references I placed.
Q: What do you hope players take away from Full Circle?
Hope. See, development started during the COVID pandemic when everyone, including myself, was trying to isolate themselves. Isolation is quite a topic in the game with the Shelters the flying cities offer. At that time there was also a political crisis in my country, Peru. And the media went nuts, social media was even worse. No one trusted anyone anymore. And honestly I see a lot of that same energy today. There’s a very doomer attitude on social media these days and I’d love for Full Circle to offer a narrative that doesn’t feed into that but counters it with hope. All that influenced the game in a way and the world of Full Circle is harsh, unforgiving. And quite doomed I’d say. But there is also hope. I’m a positive person after all and I never give up hope. And I hope (pun intended) that players can gather some hope from the game. But also beyond the message, I want them to feel like they’ve had a refreshing experience, something different from recent titles. And that they’ve created memories for their future. That’d be quite an achievement.
How about that, folks? I’m absolutely looking forward to Full Circle and will keep an eye on it as it continues to evolve. Many thanks to Adolfo and the folks assisting 2nd Player Games in setting this up!
