– Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshio Sakamoto have a connection
– Connection they have is in regards to a 1987 adventure game
– Called Miho Nakayama’s Tokimeki High School
– Game was developed by Square
– Was published by Nintendo
– Sakamoto said the game is a text adventure game, make use of a phone
– Given a phone number midway through the game which you can call to hear hints about how to progress with messages from Miho Nakayama
– The telephone was swapped out in later versions with in-game messages that delivered the same info
– Square had approached Nintendo about making an adventure game that used a phone
– No talk back then about the game featuring Nakayama
– Sakamoto was in the meeting with Square
– Sakamoto was growing tired of the same old adventure games
– He pushed his superiors to go with the idea
– Sakamoto suggested that an idol be used instead of an original character
– Sakamoto believed the added flash would draw attention to the game
– Sakaguchi was on the development team, but not originally
– He joined closer towards the end of the game’s development
– The dev team went down to Kyoto for two weeks
– Sakaguchi and Sakamoto met for the first time during this period
– At first, Sakaguchi couldn’t believe Sakamoto worked for Nintendo
– Sakamoto’s hair was the same in the past as it is now
– Sakaguchi/Sakamoto/Iwata reminisce a lot about the past in this Iwata Asks, but discussed The Last Story as well
– Gameplay systems were a priority in The Last Story’s development according to Sakaguchi
– Sakaguchi suggested thinking about the game as “a game that has a story in it”
– Game has a solid story with a strong cinematic component, but gameplay is the strongest point
– Only the third time Sakaguchi has put emphasis on gameplay first
– Last time was Final Fantasy VII, thinking about how to use 3D in that game
– Other game was the original Final Fantasy: Trial and error phase for Sakaguchi, tried to see how the PC role-playing games at the time could be brought to the NES
– “In these 23 years, there have been only three instances where I considered gameplay systems first”
– Mario Club was used to test out gameplay systems for The Last Story
– Sakaguchi was visiting Mario Club for four days when this Iwata Asks was done
– Sakaguchi wanted to use Mario Club to see how beginners would react to the game
– Can see where players are having fun when watching them
– Test players wrote their opinion as well
– Sakaguchi a bit wary of written feedback because players will sometimes write only about what’s good or their feedback listing what they enjoyed will be different from how they actually reacted while playing
– Characters will converse as you run in the fields
– Sakaguchi thinks that it’ll allow players to get a better feel for their relationship with ally characters
– This was one area Sakauguchi wanted to convey with the game’s story
Thanks to Thomas N for the tip!
As you can see in one of the screenshots above, there seems to be a hint that there will be some sort of multiplayer functionality in Sonic Colors. SEGA has yet to share anything official, though that’ll most likely change soon as the game is due out in just a few months.
Thanks to Mike for the tip!
The latest issue of Famitsu featured a discussion between Smash Bros. and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai and Dragon Quest series producer Ryutaro Ichimura. The two had a lot to say, and covered various games/series such as Smash Bros., Kirby, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Dragon Quest. Additionally, the two talked more broadly about gaming and conversed about such points as attracting new gamers. You can check out what the two had to say below.
“A lot of people around the world have interacted with Smash Bros., and a lot of Japanese people have interacted with Dragon Quest. In that aspect, they’re both games that’re easy to approach and easy to play with.” – Ichimura
“Kirby’s Dream Land was the first game I ever made, but I had no intention of making it a mainstream game. I really narrowed down the audience to beginners only. That’s because, at the time, no matter how much fun the Super Mario Bros. games were, they were still too tough for normal people and kids. I could feel people drifting away from games, and it bothered me. In the midst of making Kirby, a lot of the team started wondering if we were maybe making it too simple. But I think it was necessary for us to consider people who hadn’t played a game before, and I think doing that earned us fans that wouldn’t have been around otherwise. That’s the same creative approach I take with Smash Bros. It hasn’t changed at all today.” – Sakurai
“I grew up playing the Dragon Quest games ever since I was a grade schooler, and they served as a gateway to this great new realm of gameplay called RPGs to me. I’ve gone from playing them to making them, but I can’t afford to let myself forget about what it’s like as a player. I need to make a game that anyone young or old can pick up and unwittingly get addicted to.” – Ichimura
“The thing I always have the most difficulty with in DQ is the hero character, who never speaks and never gives his own opinions. If the hero shows his own emotions, that runs the risk of alienating the player.” – Ichimura
“We generally don’t have the characters talk in Smash Bros. either. That can makes things interesting sometimes, or maybe boring sometimes… With Brawl, we had game modes that played out with the story, and they wound up being like these silent films where we had to keep each character’s personality but couldn’t have them talk. It’d be easier to have them talk, but that’s unfair to the characters in the game who can’t talk, so we decided to keep all of them silent instead.” – Sakurai
“I don’t think there are many games today that really attract new people. That’s why I think games need to be simplified a bit. Kid Icarus might be called a FPS or a third-person shooter, but if you took someone who didn’t know games and gave him the latest FPS and a controller with ten buttons and two analog sticks and told him to start playing, he’d never be able to. That’s why Kid Icarus is really easy to control. It gives people who gave up on the genre a chance to take a step back into that world. Even though I’m a pretty hardcore gamer, I think that’s very important.” – Sakurai
“That’s something you can do because you’ve delved so deeply into the genre and are so familiar with essence of what makes it fun. You’re able to lower your sights precisely because you have a heavy gaming habit. I really understand that, but as a producer, I suppose my approach is different. The way I see it, the main issue before us to figure out how to make games proliferate in the realm of entertainment. One way to do that is position the game front and center, then prepare a bunch of alternate entryways that aren’t games, like manga or anime or merchandise. Having all these entryways results in a single piece of entertainment, and as a producer, I feel it’s my job to link all that together.” – Ichimura
“I suppose our root motivation is the same. Kids and normal people can’t create games, so that’s why we’re here to make them instead. We need to keep ourselves aware of that going into the future.” – Sakurai
Thanks to Robert for the tip!
Munich, 2010-08-25
Remember when video games used to be fun and challenging? Tired of spending your hard-earned money on glorified tech demos that spit a billion polygons at you in full HD, but fail to make you smile? Or are you just looking for a great multiplayer game? Whatever your reasons, you’re in for a treat. And that treat is called Rush Rush Rally Racing! The beloved Sega Dreamcast Indie Game is now coming to Nintendo WiiWare! Grab your friends again, because the three multiplayer modes make this is an awesome retro racer for up to four players.
With two new single player modes, redesigned menus and many other improvements such as GameCube and Classic Controller support, it’s better than ever before!
