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Risa Tabata

Paper Mario: The Origami King

As part of a new interview with VGC, Paper Mario: The Origami King producer Kensuke Tanabe and assistant producer Risa Tabata have weighed in on fans’ reception to the series starting with Sticker Star.

Tabata said that the team avoids using the same idea twice since they want to “create new gameplay” and offer players “positive surprises”. Tanabe noted that he does check out some fan opinions after a game launches, but with cases in which he “can’t address those opinions exactly as fans want”, he tries to pursue “new, fun ideas.” Tanabe ultimately said “it’s difficult to satisfy certain fans with the adventure game direction if they think of Paper Mario games as simply being RPGs.”

Here’s the full roundup:

Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breaker

In an interview with Nintendo World Report, Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe and Risa Tabata as well as Vanpool’s spoke about the origins of the franchise and some of its influences.

When originally making Dillon’s Rolling Western, one of the first concepts was to have Goron tribe characters from The Legend of Zelda. Tanabe and Tsuda explained:

USGamer recently spoke with Risa Tabata, co-producer of Paper Mario: Color Splash. During the conversation, Tabata talked about topics such as working with Wii U and having more power, limited resources in battle in the form of cards, and giving Toads personality.

Continue on below for some notable excerpts from the interview. For the full talk, visit USgamer.

Paper Mario: Color Splash will have a big emphasis on story. Humor is a big part of that, as producer Risa Tabata told GameSpot.

She said:

“When we think of what we cannot do in a traditional Mario game, what we came to was, ‘Well, definitely humor.’ So we wanted to focus on humor as much as possible. All these different people got together in meetings room and basically very, very diligently and seriously thought of how we could do the stupidest, craziest things possible.”

Color Splash takes inspiration from the last game in the series, Sticker Star, through the use of cards. You’ll use cards in battle gathered throughout the adventure to take down enemies. They can also be painted to perform more powerful attacks.

Tabata said of the card variety:

“There are tons of different cards in the game. Obviously Mario is going to be throwing fireballs at some point. There’s kind of like a spring jump where you can actually jump a ton of different times on one end.”

Tabata also elaborated on the cards by saying that it’s possible to “open up more card slots, [and] the amount of paint you’re able to store in your hammer will expand.”

Something else fans can look forward to in Color Splash is variety. According to Tabata, levels will offer different types of challenges.

“We kind of focused on trying to have each course have a different feel. One course might be more focused on battle, but another course might focus more on puzzle-solving. There are definitely different places where you will need to have platforming skills.”

Lastly, Tabata had this to say on the game’s style:

“The artists spent a lot of time thinking like, ‘Maybe we can try this and it’ll look really like paper. Maybe we’ll have to do this to make it look like paper.’ The base of everything is made from cardboard and then on top of that you’re layering different types of paper.”

In E3 interviews, Paper Mario: Color Splash producer Risa Tabata has stressed the importance of story in this new title. That’s something Intelligent Systems is focusing on quite a bit, including the humor. Tabata also told Eurogamer that once you’ve completed the story, “you’ll probably cry.”

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The game may also have more story than Sticker Star, a game that was seemingly stripped of its narrative by generally beloved Nintendo design guru Shigeru Miyamoto, who other Nintendo developers said had suggested that game be as story-light as possible. Reminded of that comment, Tabata said,

At E3, Kotaku spoke with Nintendo producer Risa Tabata about Paper Mario: Color Splash. When the topic of story came up and how much plot the game will feature compared to Sticker Star, she said:

“This time we have–I don’t know if I want to say a proper story–but we have a story (laughs). It starts from kind of mysterious opening.. You’re not sure what is going on, and as you go through the story, you’ll realize, oh this is what happens. And there’s a lot of interesting stuff that happens with you and Huey.”

Tabata also said that Color Splash lets players carry 99 cards. That’s “a bit more than Sticker Star”, where you were more limited with the number of stickers that could be held. And as a response to criticism from the last game: “to make it a lot easier this time, we’ve put a lot of hints in the game.” Hints are optional, and will be shared by asking partner character Huey (the paint can) for advice.

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Gamasutra has several quotes up from producer Risa Tabata and Kensuke Tanabe, who work with external teams at Nintendo. Tabata has been involved with games such as Metroid Prime while Tanabe has been with the company for nearly three decades.

While speaking with Tabata and Tanabe, Gamasutra asked about how Nintendo tends to make its games, working with external developers, and even amiibo. Continue on below for their thoughts.

Although a little bit of doubt has been cast on the future of the Chibi-Robo series, there is at least one developer out there who wants to see the series continue, and in its traditional form. Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash assistant producer Risa Tabata told USgamer in an interview that she’d like to see another adventure-style entry.

Tabata’s words in full:

“I actually wouldn’t call this ‘smaller’ at all, especially in terms of the game’s scope. I think a lot of people will be more than satisfied with it. Personally, however, I think it’d be great if we could release another adventure-style Chibi-Robo.”

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Siliconera has posted its full interview with Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash assistant director Risa Tabata and series producer Kensuke Tanabe. The two teased more vehicle stages for the game, talked about the related amiibo, spoke about how the series would be “shiny” on Wii U, and left a message for fans.

You can find excerpts about these topics below. The entire interview is located on Siliconera.

Nintendo has posted a new developer chat video with Aya Kyogoku and Risa Tabata. The two talked about getting involved with gaming, what it’s like being a female developer at Nintendo, and what they’re most excited about among their current projects. They also shared a message for females who are interested in working in the industry. Watch the full discussion below.


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