 Although Sakaguchi's previous RPGs from Mistwalker had been released for the Xbox 360, The Last Story was created for the Wii. According to Sakaguchi, this was because Nintendo's Shinji Hatano shared their vision of a role-playing game that did not follow genre conversions, and so Sakaguchi accepted his offer of collaboration. After being contacted regarding both The Last Story and fellow Wii ARPG Xenoblade Chronicles, Hatano said that the games should be made for a wide audience and using a "romanticist approach". When explaining why The Last Story was exclusive to the Wii, Sakaguchi said that it was because a large proportion of the late development staff, including the testers, came from Nintendo. In a later interview, he said that working with the Wii, which did not use high-definition graphics, presented challenges as some of his ideas could not be implemented due to technical restrictions. Despite this, the team aimed to create a game that would look good when compared to games on high-definition consoles. Matsumoto stated that Nintendo had a strong influence on the game, which did not always sit well with him despite their suggestions ultimately improving the game. He also stated that Nintendo's creative and development aid in fine-tuning the game was the reason for its extended development.
