Iwata Asks: Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir

A few days ago, Nintendo of Europe added the Iwata Asks: Spirit Camera interview to their website. Keisuke Kikuchi, Toshiharu Izuno, Kozo Makino, and Satoru Iwata participated in the discussion.

I’ve finally had a moment to read through and transcribe a number of points from the interview. You can find all of the details below. The group goes into the project’s development process including how the first pitch was essentially Fatal Frame ported to the 3DS, title ideas, and more.

Imagination is the Scariest Thing

– Izuno proposed the product concept and its contents
– In making the first Fatal Frame, the team wanted to create a title that would provide the scariest experience possible
– They determined that what people imagine in their mind was the scariest thing
– The team felt it was scarier when you’re imaginging scary thoughts rather than directly showing grotesque images/other depictions
– Games tend to throw throw a lot of things on the screen, but Fatal Frame is different
– Fatal Frame takes away from the full imagery/sounds so players naturally make up for what is lacking with their imagination
– Fatal Frame’s scariness is a 50-50 combination of what the game does and the player’s imagination
– Spirit Camera uses technological AR, but Kikuchi believes the series has always used it in the sense of embellishing what actually exists
– Kikuchi says Fatal Frame “was extremely well-suited for Wii”
– Kikuchi: “Yes. In the first game, we used an old-fashioned Japanese-style house as the setting to focus on the fear that an empty space can emit. And we have based our concept of fear on that since the second game as well. In the second game, we included a more phantasmal fear within a tragic story. Then, in the third game, Zero: Shisei no Koe, we portrayed a fear that eats away at everyday existence by adopting a structure of passing back and forth between the real world and a dream world. The AR Story mode in Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is similar to that.”
– Kikuchi on why the games feature cute girls: “People always mention that! (laughs) Most of the players are guys, so why are the protagonists girls? (laughs) The original reason was that while making the first game, when we were trying to think of how we could make the scariest game possible, we thought the players would share the characters’ fear if they saw scared facial expressions on a female character’s face. Also, it fit the game design to have a female with nothing but a camera facing the ghosts rather than having a tough man engage in combat with them. So we’ve made the protagonists of the series young girls who look like they might have a second sense and who also look beautiful when scared.”
– Innocence, fragility, and beauty are important
– According to Iwata, Tecmo Koei payed a lot of attention to the female characters on the boxart for Fatal Frame on Wii
– Kikuchi says their company’s culture places emphasis on the characters including facial expressions, how light strikes them, and how to make them more appealing
– Kikuchi: “If you make characters and animation and backgrounds and they conform to game operation and move according to the rules, that alone doesn’t make a game. There’s a moment somewhere along the way when a game is imbued with soul and life. For the Project Zero series, perhaps it felt that way because we focused on and placed a strong emphasis on the atmosphere, sounds and direction of the characters.”

The AR Book Breakthrough

– Spirit Camera development began when Nintendo showed the 3DS system to Kikuchi and his team
– Kikuchi fell in love with the 3DS immediately
– He felt it was the perfect fit for Fatal Frame because of its 3D, camera, and gyro sensor capabilities
– A lot of people at Nintendo believed 3DS was suited to horror as well
– Izuno knew Tecmo Koei was the only option for a horror game due to his experience with them working together on Fatal Frame
– Kikuchi’s team made a project proposal, but it didn’t go through
– Iwata said horror was more suited to home consoles and their proposal wasn’t convincing as to why it should be for a handheld
– After this, they went back to the drawing board
– Izuno and Makino participated in planning sessions from this point on
– First proposal was basically a typical Fatal Frame game ported onto 3DS
– Izuno thought an approach that only said, “This is a terrifying horror game” would narrow the demographic for the game
– Izuno wanted to take advantage of the 3DS’ portability and AR functionality
– AR was a single element in the first proposal; it was just an extension of previous Fatal Frames
– Thanks to Izuno’s suggestions and in-house ideas, they thought about making their project an adventure game with AR horror as the base
– New project’s design switched to something that could only be experienced on the 3DS
– Iwata: “The reason I didn’t give the first proposal an okay was because in my mind horror games should have fairly rich graphics and good sound, and you make the room dark and concentrate on them alone. I felt like if you made a game for the Nintendo 3DS system based on that home console concept, no matter how many new features you pack in, it would be a watered down version of the console version. I said that because, like Izuno-san said earlier, I thought adopting a different approach held the possibility of getting through to a broader base of people.”
– The team became more motivated, thinking “We’ve got to get this past the president!”
– Kikuchi is thankful for Iwata’s first rejection
– There were a number of obstacles in making the game
– Switching to a game with AR at the core was the first problem
– They also had problems having the prototype they made handle the AR markers
– The team considered using real objects as markers, but phones, clocks, and other items differ from house to house, so there were issues determining what it should recognize
– Izuno suggested including a book during a planning session
– All players would have the same environment if a book was provided with each copy of the game
– A book was suggested in-house as well, but it would have been too costly and a lot of work
– Nintendo suddenly suggested it, too
– Before the markers problem, they had been mulling over how it needed something else to get people to pick it up
– Makino: “About the same time as that proposal, we thought of the Story mode, Project Zero: The Purple Diary. Tecmo Koei Games put forth the idea of how a notebook whose owner is unknown would be scary. At that time, we were still putting the book on the lower screen. When we heard what Izuno-san had to say, we decided, ‘Well then, let’s include a real book.'”
– The book fixed their issues with the marker, but they needed to implement a way to handle it in the game
– If you think something is going to happen but doesn’t, it isn’t functioning as a marker
– The team tackled their issues by paying a lot of attention to game design that would run contrary to the players’ expectations
– The staff also dealt with the issue of looking at the real AR Book as the story progressed
– They came up with a way to flip the pages in a fun way when using the markers
– According to Makino, the team wanted the AR Book to be scary but function as a marker
– They had to think up forms of play using the book as well
– Although some ideas were scrapped, Makino feels it was worth working together with the designers at Tecmo Koei to turn it into something interesting
– Izuno: “Since we were including the book, we wanted to put in ideas aside from the Story mode that you could play many times, so advanced players would be able to play in increasing depth. Once development got into the homestretch, we talked it over a lot.”
– This is the Cursed Pages mode

AR Spreads the Horror

– Izuno believes they’ve made a type of horror that people will want to discuss with others
– He added that Spirit Camera mode adds a new form of play
– Spirit Camera mode’s Spirit Photography lets pictures taken with the 3DS to be haunting
– Their faces warp/creepy thing appear
– Spirit Camera has “Spirit Check” which shows the spirit possessing someone
– It changes for different faces/facial expressions
– It also gives comment such as “Today, this kind of spirit is haunting you”
– Kikuchi says they can call it a singles party game
– Spirit Challenge mode in the game: someone whose photo was taken attacks as a vengeful spirit and you have to fight it
– Iwata says people think of AR (partially because of the AR Games included with 3DS) as mostly taking a photo of a marker and seeing something pop up, but the Spirit Camera staff expanded on this
– There were a few people on the team who acted like, “No, not a scary game!” since they’re “scaredy-cats”
– The most scared female staff member still runs away even if she only sees the AR Book
– They were aiming for this, so that isn’t so bad
– Spirit Camera leaves an eerie feeling of fear rather than one of disgust
– Kikuchi thinks they were able to make it possible for more people to experience the game through AR features and different overall approach
– Settling on the name for the project was a little hard
– Izuno came up with the subtitle
– Regarding his thoughts about changing the name away from Fatal Frame, Kikuchi knew they needed a title with broad appeal but was also scary in line with the new product concept
– Kikuchi’s first idea was “Dr. Asou’s Spirit Camera”
– Dr. Asou invented the Camera Obscura of the Fatal Frame series
– That title didn’t work out because a lot of people didn’t know who that person was
– Another suggested title: “AR Horror Games”; Iwata rejected this
– Iwata: “When I first heard that one, it sounded derivative of AR Games. When people who had experienced AR Games played this game, it would be shockingly different than what they imagined, so while I could understand why you suggested that title, I thought it would give the wrong impression.”
– “Spirit camera” words hung around until the end
– They had a lot of subtitles laying around
– After asking people for their opinions, they settled on “Cursed Memoir”
– This conveys the product’s characteristics and atmosphere

Share the “Portable Fear” with Others

– Speaking about Nintendo having an influence on him, Kikuchi’s way of thinking toward expanding the entertainment experience influenced him in a big way
– Nintendo came in from different angles and made unreasonable demands
– Kikuchi: “That’s exactly right! (laughs) During development, it’s common for various problems to arise and you get stuck sometimes, but Nintendo can toss aside what they’ve built so far and continue on by coming up with one different approach after the other. That spirit of persistence had quite an influence on our staff. I also think it was great how the team was able to move as one together with Izuno-san and Makino-san. In my experience, when a project spans multiple companies, a development team working as a single entity doesn’t come together easily.”
– In making Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, even though there were some things that didn’t go so well, Kikuchi believes Nintendo and Tecmo Koei were able to develop a rare relationship in which they shared an experience where they had joy and hardship, where now they can say anything to each other
– Izuno wants to work together with Tecmo Koei again
– Makino: “To fans of the series, a cute girl shows up this time, too, so don’t worry! (laughs) The style of gameplay has changed a little, but that Project Zero taste you get by experiencing the story is still there. And, of course, I think people will be able to experience this new form of horror game that Tecmo Koei Games and Nintendo have made together.”
– Makino recommends Spirit Camera mode for newcomers
– Izuno: “Adding to what Makino-san said, I would ask Project Zero series fans to check out the battles. In the Project Zero series, you don’t like it when something scary gets close, but in order to drive away a vengeful spirit, you need them to get close to you to inflict a lot of damage. That psychological push and pull has been increased by a substantial percentage, so it’s a lot of fun.”
– Kikuchi: “It’s been ten years since I started working on the Project Zero series. During that time, a lot of fans have supported it. I’m thankful for being able to continue making it. This time, with Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, we have gone back to basics while also establishing a new structure and format. The structure has totally changed, but those who have played the Project Zero series so far will be able to feel the essence of Project Zero everywhere.”
– In this game, the 3DS itself becomes the Camera Obscura
– Kikuchi says you can feel the world of Fatal Frame close at hand if you look through the camera at the world around you
– Spirit Camera is a fine game for those who have trouble with game controls
– Kikuchi: “Thanks! (laughs) And we’ve used the Nintendo 3DS system’s features to the fullest. We’ve prepared many ways to play that utilize features that are innate to the Nintendo 3DS system – making use of its portability, the cameras, the gyro sensor, stereoscopic 3D, and AR – so it polished up into a horror game that facilitates communication between players. I hope lots of people will try it out and experience this new genre of AR horror!”

You can read the entire interview here.