I'm not sure about indie games, but games of the Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile franchise are not AAA games and they would never get a big buget for production because they most like doesn't sell that much. I would consider them small-scale games. Also World of Final Fantasy was a nice spinoff with a much lower buget that the big AAA games. I don't think SE have to do always big budget games and it's also nice for them to test things out. The indie jrpg market is not that big that a nice indie production wouldn't get any recognition anymore if it's done well.
Yeah, I think if the interviewer was asking questions in English, they probably would have used the term "AA" or "small" for the type of games in question.
Semantics aside, everyone here knows what Kiryu is talking about.
