Nintendo has posted a new third-party edition of Iwata Asks, which can currently be read in Japanese. Although a large portion of the interview was about Monster Hunter Tri G, Satoru Iwata managed to sneak in a few questions about the fourth entry in the hugely successful franchise.
Capcom’s Kaname Fujioka started off by revealing that the debut trailer shown in September was actual gameplay footage, played by the development team.
Fujioka and series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto also discussed Monster Hunter 4’s development. The game has been worked on alongside Tri G and the staff from MH4’s team have been able to learn a great deal from Tri G, primarily because they’re now familiar with the 3DS hardware.
The time between Tri G’s announcement up to its release will be about three months. As you might expect, the game’s development cycle was rather short. The team almost reached a point where they’d say, “if you’re not sure, just put it in.” This forced the staff to show constant results.
Fujioka acknowledged that the MH4 developers are under a fairly large amount of pressure. Additionally, he believes that there is a chance that the team could fail if they worked on the project in the way they’ve made other games in the series. Capcom will once again be looking to show results on a regular basis, and the trailer shown in September was one of the first examples of showing results for Monster Hunter 4.
Thanks to 4Him for the tip!
Bakuman: The Way of a Manga Artist (DS)
Blue Exorcist: The Phantom Labyrinth of Time (PSP)
Digimon World Re:Digitize (PSP)
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3/360)
Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle Royale (Arcade)
Gintama (Mobile)
Listen to Daddy Says! (PSP)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact (PSP)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (PS3/360)
One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 (DS)
One Piece: Grand Collection (Mobile)
Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle (PS3)
Tales of Innocence (Vita)
Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave (PSP)
Tekken Hybrid (PS3)
Toriko: Gourmet Battle (PC)
Toriko: Gourmet Survival (PSP)
Scans included in the set: Resident Evil: Revelations, Beyond the Labyrinth, Code of Princess, Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure, and Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai.
Retailer blog Sinobi has listed shipment numbers for upcoming release of Monster Hunter Tri G. The site claims that Capcom has sent out 420,000 units in total for the game’s first pressing. That’s 300,000 units for the standard edition, 100,000 copies for the Slide Pad bundle, and another 20,000 for the 3DS hardware bundle.
Given the huge popularity of Monster Hunter in Japan, these numbers may seen slightly low. But Sinobi states that Capcom probably accounted for Tri’s sales on Wii when considering the shipment numbers for the 3DS title.
Thanks to 4Him for the tip!
01./00. [WII] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword #
02./00. [PSP] 7th Dragon 2020 #
03./00. [PS3] Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle #
04./04. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land
05./00. [PS3] Metal Gear Solid HD Edition #
06./00. [PSP] Little Battlers eXperience: Boost
07./00. [PSP] Weiss Schwarz Portable: Boost Weiss / Boost Schwarz #
08./00. [PSP] Uta no Prince-Sama: Music #
09./00. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii: Definitive Edition! #
10./01. [PS3] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Subtitled Edition
11./02. [NDS] One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 – New World #
12./00. [PSP] Pop’n Music Portable 2
13./03. [PS3] Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch #
14./13. [WII] Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
15./06. [PSP] Final Fantasy Type-0
16./08. [PSP] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend
17./12. [WII] PokePark 2: Beyond the World
18./17. [WII] Just Dance Wii
19./19. [WII] Wii Party
20./09. [PS3] Sengoku Basara 3: Utage
These latest screenshots of Zelda: Skyward Sword in high resolution are a bit different from the first batch we posted. There still are some images of the game’s earlier sequences, though we also get a look at some of the areas found later on. Even though I’m sure most of you are aware of Skyward Sword’s complete map, I suppose this calls for a spoiler warning. The screenshots really do look fantastic!
Voice acting in Zelda games is a fairly controversial topic. Some fans support the idea of including voices for all characters other than Link while others would prefer to leave them out entirely.
To date, we’ve never seen voice overs in any Zelda title. Nintendo has been dead-set on avoiding voice acting, and they maintained that stance once again in a new interview with Game Informer.
First, Koji Kondo offered his thoughts about voice acting in Zelda:
“The most important thing about the Zelda series is that the player becomes Link. One of the challenges with full voice is that if we’re trying to convey the player’s emotion through Link, but you hear Link talking in somebody else’s voice, that creates a disconnect between you and the role that you’re taking on.”
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma also weighed in:
“…if you create a game where everybody else in the game speaks but Link doesn’t, it emphasizes the fact that he is silent and draws even more attention to it.
“Of course, this was the first time we went with fully orchestrated songs in the game, and we’ve seen what that can do to help bring the world alive and make the game that much more fun. We’re continually looking at ways that we can evolve the series. We’re not confident that we can find the right balance with full voice, so we’ll see. Everyone would be speaking Hylian, so even if you heard them speak, you wouldn’t understand them.”
Aonuma also talked about the future of Zelda. The main point here is that he’s been starting to “think a lot more about how I can take the series and really make it my own Zelda and evolve it further.”
“I started working on the series not at the beginning but part-way through its history. I think because of that, early on I was more looking objectively at the series and how we could change small, individual elements within it, rather than looking at how the series should evolve. As time has passed – particularly in the last few years – I’ve started to think a lot more about how I can take the series and really make it my own Zelda and evolve it further. As Mr. Miyamoto has allowed me to take the reins on the Zelda series, ultimately that’s what I need to do. Perhaps some people will think it’s a little bit late for me to start thinking about that, but as time goes by, that’s becoming more of a theme in how I’m approaching the series.”
Hey, that’s Zelda Williams! I believe I see Jim Carrey there as well, possibly. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me…
