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interview

Turrican

Factor 5 was responsible for some notable Star Wars games on the N64 and GameCube many years ago. The studio is also well-known for the Turrican series, which is now returning on Switch.

Factor 5 studio founder Julian Eggebrecht spoke about the past, present, and future of Turrican in an interview with Eurogamer. One interesting subject discussed was Tornado, a spiritual successor planned as a 3D title and was initially pitched as a Nintendo-published project. Sadly, it was put on hold and never touched again so that Star Wars: Rogue Squadron could be ready for the GameCube’s launch.

Eggebrecht said:

Takahisa Taura was given his first shot at directing a game with Astral Chain. He had worked as a designer for a full decade prior, but that wasn’t enough to offset a bit of the uneasiness he felt.

Taura spoke about the distress he experienced while developing Astral Chain in a previous issue of Famitsu, which also featured supervisor Hideki Kamiya from PlatinumGames and Yoko Taro from Square Enix. It was Kamiya who ended up guiding him through while the team was “trying to nail down the action mechanics.”

Here’s our full translation of the interview excerpt: 

Hollow Knight: Silksong

There’s no doubt that if you played the original Hollow Knight, you’ll be interested in Hollow Knight: Silksong. However, Team Cherry is hoping to grab new players as well.

The studio told EDGE this month that Silksong is intended to test players in a “comparable” way to the first game. At the same time, co-director Ari Gibson mentioned that the new title, with its own lore and characters, is intended to be “a perfect jumping on-point for new players.”

Gibson added:

Monster Hunter Rise

Capcom recently shared an interview with Monster Hunter Rise sound director Kosuke Tanaka and lead composer Satoshi Hori. Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion centered around the game’s sound and music.

Tanaka and Hori commented on topics like the sound effects, recording the music, and approach to returning tunes from past titles. We also get some insight into why Capcom wanted to have the hunters talk this time around.

Here’s the full discussion:

Bravely Default II

In a recent interview with Japanese publication Famitsu, Bravely Default II producer Masashi Takahashi commented on how the coronavirus pandemic impacted Bravely Default II’s development. Voice recording for foreign releases of the game had to be handled entirely remotely, and voice actors recorded from their homes while receiving coaching and guidance remotely. Takahashi also shared how the Japanese studios were impacted by the pandemic and why the team ultimately decided to delay the game.

Takahashi went on to say that the team needed extra time “in order to seriously address the opinions of fans who played the demo and produce something the development team was satisfied with”.

Nintendo Everything’s translation of the interview excerpts between Famitsu and Takahashi can be found below.

Among Us

Among Us wasn’t always the breakout game fans know of today. In an interview shared by Nintendo, Innersloth co-founder Forest Willard discussed the title’s origins.

Among Us went through quite a few changes during development. Willard said that players “would draw a role card and roam around a house aimlessly while ‘the mafia’ person secretly ‘killed’ players by drawing a finger across someone’s neck. The tasks also “changed several times” and the ship was initially “always in crisis while the crewmates attempted to hold it together and Impostors could do tasks wrong to hinder players.”

The same interview also touched on how long it took to create Among Us. Since the game was “originally so much smaller,” the team wrapped up development in about seven months.

Here’s the full interview from Nintendo:

Monolith Soft

In a previous issue of Famitsu, the publication spoke with Monolith Soft president Hirohide Sugiura. One of the topics discussed was how Monolith Soft has grown in scale, and Sugiura’s vision for the future.

He shared the following with the Japanese magazine:

BioShock: The Collection

Update: After looking at Automaton Media piece again, we’ve verified that our translation is correct. However, the publication may have mixed up its transcript. The site should have written “GPU” instead of “CPU” for the line: “The CPU’s performance can be changed rather quickly by reducing the resolution and graphics settings, so CPU optimization is usually the priority.”


Last year, new collections from 2K made their way to Switch. BioShock: The Collection, XCOM 2 Collection, and Borderlands Legendary Collection ended up on the platform. 

Aside from Borderlands, Virtuos was responsible for everything else. And during an interview with Automaton Media, the studio’s Andy Fong and Lukas Codr shared interesting details about the Switch ports of the BioShock games and XCOM 2. The two spoke about the actual porting process, difficulties encountered along the way, and how long it took to complete development.

You can read our full translation below by Nintendo Everything’s Oni Dino.

Suikoden

Suikoden came to be thanks to the ideas from Yoshitaka Murayama. He acted as director, producer, and writer on the series’ initial releases, but he also worked on later entries as well. Murayama ended up leaving Konami around two decades ago, but he’s not opposed to revisiting the series.

Speaking with Nintendo Everything, Murayama mentioned that the new JRPG Eiyuden Chronicle is his current focus and the fact that he’s in complete control of the IP is certainly a plus. At the same time, he would be “more than happy to work on another Suikoden game if the chance presented itself in the future.”

Murayama’s full words:

Dark Souls: Remastered

In a previous interview with Automaton Media, key developers from Virtuos (Andy Fong and Lukas Codr) sat down to detail their porting process for Switch games. Keen readers might recognize the studio’s name from the likes of Dark Souls: Remastered, BioShock: The Collection, XCOM 2 Collection, and more.

During the interview, Virtuos confirmed that the studio has a dedicated team to work on Switch projects. The developers also spoke about developing for TV / handheld modes and where the company’s strengths lie when it comes to handling Switch ports.

Check below the break for the full translation of the excerpt by Nintendo Everything’s Oni Dino.


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