Miyamoto on Star Fox Zero – difficulty, improvements, building interest in dogfighting games, more

Another Star Fox Zero interview with Shigeru Miyamoto has popped up online. This time around, there’s a discussion published by TIME. Miyamoto talked about the switch in approach (now like a movie instead of a TV series), appealing to new players, his approach to difficulty, improvements that have been made, and building interest in dogfighting games.

We’ve posted some excerpts from the interview below. More comments from Miyamoto can be found on TIME here.

On how it’s now more of a longer form movie instead of a TV series…

“At the time of E3 2014, that was the direction. Afterward, going back to work on the game in Kyoto, we got a lot of feedback from Star Fox fans and fans on the staff. And what we decided to do at that point was take the game more in the direction of Star Fox 64. So it will feel more like a longer form movie, and we did that because we wanted to try to complete the game in a way that will satisfy those longtime fans.”

“But I still have a desire to create Star Fox in a form that’s maybe better suited to the current age, where people have different competing demands for their time, where you’d be able to play maybe in shorter bursts in a more compact form. So I’ll continue to look at those ideas and see what we can do with them in the future.”

On having it appeal to new players…

“We recognize that there are probably going to be younger kids who are playing a Star Fox game for the first time with Star Fox Zero, and maybe this will be their first action game,” says Miyamoto. “So we feel we’ve designed the game in a way that it will be welcoming to those new users and help introduce them to this style of action genre.”

“At the same time, we also feel the game is going to be a lot of fun for people to play in the living room with other people in the household. In particular with the cooperative mode, and also with the very simple shooting style of gameplay that’s in Star Fox Guard, we think it’ll be a great way to introduce people who maybe aren’t as good at this action style of gameplay to the fun of the Star Fox universe.”

On difficulty…

“One thing that I think is a misunderstanding, is that I’m not very supportive of simply making a game easy so that people who don’t play games can play the game themselves. Obviously part of the fun of taking on a challenge is that the challenge has to be a hurdle that you overcome. Simply lowering the hurdle doesn’t necessarily mean that the challenge will be fun. What’s fun is you mastering the skill and having that sense of accomplishment—of achieving something that’s difficult.”

“So I think that action games like this have to have a certain level of difficulty to achieve that satisfaction. And particularly with Star Fox Zero, if you try to complete this game, I think you’re going to find it to be quite challenging. But it’s because of that, that we have things like Star Fox Guard and the cooperative mode in this game. What those do, is allow people who maybe can’t deal with that level of challenge or difficulty to easily be a part of the gameplay and enjoy this universe.”

“And then beyond those modes, we have additional ones for people who like the game but find it too hard to get past certain levels. So for instance there’ll be a way for them to get an invincible Arwing, so that they can fly through and see the levels. But at the same time, we’re also preparing modes for Star Fox fans looking for an even harder challenge, such as a ship that does more damage, but which also takes more damage.”

On how the two-screen controls have been significantly play-tested and finessed…

“We realized that for players who were seeing it for the first time, we needed to come up with additional ways to make it easier for them to understand,” says Miyamoto of the unusual ways Star Fox Zero makes use of both your TV and the Wii U GamePad’s 6-inch screen when you’re operating the game’s vehicles. “So that was an area where we put in a lot of effort. For instance, since you have many different vehicles, and because the gameplay differs where each of those vehicles appear, people may have different control expectations. So we worked very hard to try to find the right balance on each of the vehicles. Those are some of the things that have changed.”

“Additionally we looked at how we were sharing information with the player in the form of things like icons on the screen. And we also worked on the response of each of the vehicles, because certainly you have expert players and they need the right kind of response. But then you have newer players, and if the controls are too responsive, it becomes difficult for them to play. So we spent a lot of time identifying the right balance in control responsiveness for each of the vehicles.”

“Another thing that’s really important in the game is something that we’re calling target mode. You’ll see target mode in the All Range battle stages. Typically in All Range, you’re able to fly with the camera behind the ship and you can fly wherever you want. And with target mode, the camera will pull out and lock onto a viewpoint that’s the main objective within the All Range mode. And then what you’re able to do is fly the ship in this style where you’ve got these really cool visuals up on the big screen TV, and you’re flying in target mode focused in on your objective, but you’re doing all of your aiming and shooting through the cockpit mode on the gamepad.”

“You’ll also use the target mode in the dogfights against Star Wolf’s team, where you’re able to put the camera on a particular enemy in the dogfight, then use a combination of the camera following that enemy as you’re flying at each other, or the camera focused on that enemy as it’s following behind you. And you’re able to use things like u-turns and somersaults to create some really cool visuals on the TV while doing all of the fighting through the gamepad screen. I think this is going to make for some really fun battle scenes in the game.”

“The other thing we’ve done, is if you press the minus button, you can flip the view from the TV to gamepad and vice versa. So after you’ve played through the game and mastered the techniques, you can play in that cockpit view locked to the big screen TV. And that gives you an even deeper sense of realism.”

On building interest in dogfighting games…

“I do think that we’ve come up with a control scheme that I think works very well for the Star Fox series, and I think we’ve perfected it. I do think that we can take this control style and still find ways to apply it to, for example, a single screen experience by switching back and forth between different view styles. But I hope what will happen is that people will play with this new control scheme and we’ll be able to introduce new players to the Star Fox universe and get them interested in playing more of this dogfighting style of combat and action games in the future. That’s my real hope.”

Thanks to Jake for the tip.