Production of "Romancing SaGa 3" was troublesome for series creator Akitoshi Kawazu; while he wanted to return to the narrative and gameplay style of the original "Romancing SaGa", he was unsure how to do it while innovating on the design. An early suggestion was to make the game a direct sequel to "Romancing SaGa", but Kawazu wanted it to be an entirely original work. With this game, Kawazu became "more proactive" in designing side quests that players could enjoy and get lost in. Kawazu gathered ideas from the development team, which led to the character-specific mechanics such as Mikhail's war campaign and Thomas's trading mini-game. They were originally grander than the final versions, with Kawazu intending players to clear the whole game using these character-specific mechanics. Ultimately the battle system was the strongest element out of the implemented mechanics, so it became the dominant gameplay feature.