Kirby Star Allies dev on DLC characters that didn’t make the cut, lack of initial content at launch, more

Kotaku published a new piece on Kirby Star Allies today with HAL Laboratory’s chief creator, Shinya Kumazaki. Kumazaki revealed some of the DLC characters that didn’t make it in and why, addressed criticisms that the game was lacking content at launch, and more.

We’ve rounded up some of the notable comments from the interview below. You can find Kotaku’s full piece here.

On the original plan for Heroes In Another Dimensions…

“We originally considered adding a new planet to the second half of the Story Mode, but we figured players might enjoy having an additional game mode even more, and we could reveal more of the story that way.”

On DLC characters that didn’t make the cut…

“There were other characters that we wanted to make special guest appearances, like Drawcia, Elline, Shadow Kirby, Galacta Knight, and so on. But we established a certain rule for our selection process. The rule was to select one character from each title in the main action games over the years, the so-called core Kirby games, the equivalent to numbered sequels.”

On the lack of content for Kirby Star Allies at launch…

“(The team’s goal for this game) was more to balance the game so it moves ahead at a good pace, and progress comes more briskly than usual. I’m conscious about wanting to have more players get to see the ending when I’m creating a Kirby game.”

“I’ve felt that each new Kirby game gets slightly more difficult and sprawling than the last. So from that perspective, we took another look at the origin point of the series, and set our sights on developing a game where even young children who have never played a game before would be able to stick with it and progress through the story, and would completely lose track of time while playing, just like we all did when we first met Kirby as kids in Kirby’s Dream Land.”

On the possibility of another Kirby game supported by a year’s worth of updates…

“There’s nothing I can say about that at the moment, but I think we’ve learned a lot from our experience in developing in HD, creating 4-person multiplayer and a lengthy development cycle as we updated the game. I’m confident they made the Kirby Team here at HAL Laboratory even stronger!”