Director on Super Mario Odyssey – throwable cap planned from the start, more

This information comes from Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura…

On how a throwable cap was integral from the start…

“As far as the hat action goes it was included in one of the prototypes the staff had come up with. It was part of the game right from the beginning. We have several different themes that arose from those prototypes, and one of those was focusing on the Joy-Con [motion controls].”

On how it’s not always clear what you can interact with, which is intentional…

“Because throwing the cap is a new action, we want players to feel empowered or encouraged to go ahead and try this action wherever they feel it might work. There are certain topographical hints near areas where you’re going to be looking, and you might say ‘That looks like some place my hat might reach or might attach to.’ So there are some hidden elements like that, that players will start to get used to.”

“The game’s structure isn’t designed so that you have side quests, it’s more that as you’re traveling around the different kingdoms or areas, you’ll find something that attracts your attention and there may be some sort of a quest around that, but it’s all about going and finding and collecting the Power Moons. You need a certain number of Moons to unlock a new kingdom, so some of these what we might consider side quests, are solving some issue within a kingdom, but the real goal of that is to provide you with enough Power Moons to move on with the main storyline.”

On including a buddy character…

“Mario has always been a hat-wearing character, but because of the new action involved in this hat, we decided to make it into a character. Part of it was we wanted to have someone Mario would go on this adventure with, and there are more details about this that we’ll be revealing at a later date.”

On how the retro-future city is of no particular era…

“In our game design we’re focused on the gameplay elements themselves and how the game plays out. We looked for art styles or level design that works well with that gameplay. There is no actual setting in a specific time period. But another bit of information is that Pauline makes an appearance, and we think that this is tied in with her character, so there’s some back and forth exploration going on in that area as well.”