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Genki Yokota

Xenoblade 3 10-year life span

Nintendo and Monolith Soft have discussed the more serious story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and having the 10-year life span as a major plot point.

Monolith Soft senior director and chief creative officer Tetsuya Takahashi, the studio’s director and producer Koh Kojima, and Nintendo director and producer Genki Yokota weighed in. Kojima actually initially felt that Takakhashi ” was deliberately trying to remove the sense of ‘Xenoblade-ness’ of the series” because of how serious the world is and having a different design. However, through “trial and error”, the team “found a good balance” and captured the series’ essence. 

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Nintendo has shared a new interview with some of the key developers behind Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. They include producer Shigekazu Yamada, director Yuki Sakamoto, executive director Tetsuya Takahashi, and co-producer Genki Yokoto.

Though the interview was short, some interesting comments were shared. The team was asked about topics like why Xenoblade Chronicles still resonates with long-time fans to this day, how remastering the music came about, and more.

Here’s the full discussion:

Shulk - Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. features well-known characters like Mario and Link, but it also gives a chance for other types of franchises to shine. With Xenoblade, the series was able to first represent Shulk in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS. He later returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well.

Speaking about Shulk in Smash Bros., Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition producer Shigekazu Yamada told USgamer:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This month’s issue of Nintendo Dream has a massive Fire Emblem: Three Houses developer interview. Directors Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota addressed a variety of topics, including Cindered Shadows, user feedback, increasing the amount of save slots, the new outfits, the roles of Nintendo, Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo (including Nintendo’s requests), how the team went about creating the houses and students, and plenty more.

Due to the length of the interview – which is more than a dozen pages long – we’ve decided to split up the interview into two parts. We’re publishing the first half today and the second half tomorrow. 

Here’s our full translation of the first half:

In the most recent issue of Nintendo Dream, the Japanese magazine published a massive Fire Emblem: Three Houses developer interview. Directors Genki Yokota (Nintendo) and Toshiyuki Kusakihara (Intelligent Systems) weighed in on various topics concerning the Switch game.

At one point of the discussion, it’s revealed that Claude is “a false name.” The Golden Deer leader should actually be known as “Khalid”, according to Kusakihara.

Here’s our translation of the excerpt:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Last week, Famitsu spoke with Fire Emblem: Three Houses co-directors Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota. The two discussed fan reactions, the game’s difficulty, the new Cindered Shadows DLC, and more. Famitsu also asked why we didn’t end up seeing an all-encompassing route similar to Revelation in Fire Emblem Fates.

We have a full translation of the interview below. Note that if you haven’t completed the game yet, you may want to hold off on reading the discussion until later.

This week’s issue of Famitsu has a big Fire Emblem: Three Houses developer interview. Director Toshiyuki Kusakihara of Intelligent Systems, along with Nintendo’s Genki Yokota, participated in the lengthy discussion.

During the interview, Kusakihara and Yokota discussed Fire Emblem: Three Houses origins, what it was like to work with Koei Tecmo, the game’s Japanese title, what to expect from the Expansion Pass, and more. You can read our full translation below.

With Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota appearing at Japan Expo, a few outlets have shared interviews with the Fire Emblem: Three Houses developers. Jeuxvideo was one site that was able to speak with them and commented on the future of the weapon triangle, taking full advantage of Switch, the amount of time to complete the game, and amiibo support.

Below are those excerpts, courtesy of Serenes Forest:

Koei Tecmo is working on Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but it sounds like the game was mostly done by Intelligent Systems. Nintendo director Genki Yokota told VG247 that Intelligent Systems was primarily responsible for the main plot, the game system, ideas, and gameplay mechanics. Meanwhile, Koei Tecmo assisted on the programming side of things.

Intelligent Systems director Toshiyuki Kusakihara said that Three Houses “wouldn’t have been possible” without Koei Tecmo’s help. Yokota was more optimistic, but said that not having Koei Tecmo would have required much more development time.

Kotaku has a very interesting article up covering the localization of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Nintendo’s localizations in general. The site spoke with Monolith Soft CEO Tetsuya Takahashi, Nintendo’s Genki Yokota, and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

Takahashi himself commented on the changes that were made for Xenoblade Chronicles X in the west, like removing a bikini for one of the characters (Lin). We also have confirmation that Nintendo of Europe is handling Xenoblade Chronicles 2 like the original Wii game instead of Nintendo of America. There’s talk here about Nintendo’s localization process as well.

Find comments from Kotaku’s article below. You can read the full thing here.


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