Wonderful 101 soundtrack leaving digital storefronts after December; Kamiya reminisces
Posted on 7 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
Via their official blog, Platinum Games announced today that both volumes of the official The Wonderful 101 Original Soundtrack won’t be available on digital storefronts after December 31st. Platinum Games did not state a reason for this. Nonetheless, some key figures at Platinum Games took this chance to reminisce about the soundtrack. First up is director Hideki Kamiya:
I’m sad to say that TW101’s soundtrack is being taken out of distribution. I hope, though, that this announcement reaches as many people as possible and introduces new fans to TW101 and its soundtrack. I’d like to apologize in advance to anyone who, years from now, finds out about TW101 and gets disappointed to see that its original soundtrack isn’t available.
I’ve said this before, but if there’s one phrase that sums up TW101’s soundtrack, “hymns to heroism” would be it. As you’ve probably figured out if you’ve played TW101, I’ve loved superheroes ever since I was a kid. I’ve been blessed with several chances to make games about them throughout my career, even before TW101. But TW101 is the game where I really crammed in as much as I could of what makes heroes so appealing – both their aesthetics, and how they inspire us and give us something to aspire to – to capture what heroes mean to me.
So of course we put special care into the background music that colors the game as well. Superheroes shoulder the burdens of the whole world, and they risk their lives to fight for those weaker than themselves. Their souls shine bright. We aimed to express this through a symphonic orchestral sound, and the result of all our composers’ hard work was a lot of brilliant music.
The tracks appear on the soundtrack in the same order they’re used in the game, so you can experience the heroic story of the Wonderful Ones and their thrilling battles just by listening to it. This goes out to people who’ve played the game, of course, but also to people who haven’t played it yet: Please close your eyes and listen, imagining the heroes’ brief but tumultuous journey, and rally your own fighting spirit to Unite Up and face tomorrow.
…And oh yeah, please share this announcement with everyone you can, because again, I’d love for it to reach as many people as possible. Let’s give everyone a chance to get this special soundtrack before it’s gone.
Head past the break for a comment from Hiroshi Yamaguchi, the game’s composer:
Kamiya comments further on Bayonetta 3 – “talked a lot about it internally” within Platinum
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 21 Comments
PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya has once again commented on the prospects of Bayonetta 3.
Speaking with Polygon, Kamiya noted that the potential project is “actually something I’ve been thinking a lot about.” Moreover, PlatinumGames as a whole has “talked a lot about it internally” with Kamiya having even come up with some outlines about the type of game it’d be.
Kamiya said:
“To answer your question straightly, yes. It’s actually something I’ve been thinking a lot about. We’ve talked a lot about it internally at the company and I’ve written some outlines for what the game would be. And I feel really confident it would be cool if we got the chance to make it. Right now, we’re looking at opportunities… If that opportunity ever came up to make Bayonetta 3, that would be really, really cool.”
This marks the second time we’ve heard from Kamiya about Bayonetta 3 within the week. He recently said that Platinum wants to make the title, and Kamiya has personal interest in a new Okami game as well.
More: Bayonetta 3, Hideki Kamiya, PlatinumGames, top
Kamiya: Platinum wants to make Bayonetta 3, has ideas for a new Okami
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 32 Comments
Metro spoke with Platinum Games co-founder Hideki Kamiya at E3 to talk about Scalebound. However, the interview did bring up some Nintendo-related topics. Specifically, Kamiya touched on both Bayonetta and Okami, and indicated that he’s interested in working further on both franchises.
With Bayonetta, Kamiya said that he and the rest of Platinum “want to make 3.” He later added that he has “ideas” for a new Okami game as well.
Here’s the full exchange between Metro and Kamiya:
More: Bayonetta, Hideki Kamiya, Okami, PlatinumGames, top
Hideki Kamiya shares a message for Okami’s 10th anniversary
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
This past week, Okami celebrated its 10th anniversary. Hideki Kamiya, who acted as director on the game, shared a few words on his Twitter account in honor of the milestone.
Kamiya tweeted out the following:
Even though ten years have passed, I’ve still been receiving congratulatory messages and requests for a sequel, so as a developer I couldn’t ever be happier than now… I’m grateful to everyone who has been supporting Okami, and also to Capcom for giving a chance to send it out to the world, while at the same time I also hope from my sincerest heart that someday I could fulfill the duty to draw the continuation of the journey of Amaterasu and co. …
…but everyone’s expectations have been swelling so much that they’re going to burst, so even if I were to make a sequel I don’t have even a pixel of confidence that it could surpass the original…
I’m very happy that Capcom came out with Okamiden a few years back, but a proper sequel with Kamiya at the helm would be a dream come true. We need to make it happen… somehow!
More: Capcom, Hideki Kamiya, Okami
Hideki Kamiya turned down an offer to have Bayonetta in Project X Zone 2, now regrets it
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 19 Comments
Project X Zone 2 features a ton of characters from Bandai Namco, Capcom, and SEGA. Heck, there are even a few from Nintendo as well.
One character that didn’t make the final cut was Bayonetta. PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya revealed on Twitter that he received an offer to have her in, but declined it. Now he sort of regrets it.
Kamiya wrote:
There was an offer, but I said no. Now I kinda regret that I said no. RT @KoriMaru
— ???? Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) February 19, 2016
As for why Kamiya turned down the offer, he explained:
I said no to the offer of PXZ cuz I want to make the game in which Bayo & Dante appear by myself. But thinking of fans, maybe I was wrong.
— ???? Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) February 19, 2016
That message seems to have been posted after Kamiya saw images of Segata Sanshiro in Project X Zone 2.
Not bad. RT @KoriMaru Would u consider letting Namco Bandai include Bayonetta in Project X Zone 3 with interactions pic.twitter.com/UFR9oVXqGA
— ???? Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) February 19, 2016
Kamiya reflects on making Bayonetta and harsh directing style, Platinum on collaborations
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 10 Comments
With PlatinumGames celebrating its tenth anniversary, Japanese magazine Famitsu has a big feature about the studio in its latest issue, including an interview with several staff members. It focuses more on the developer as a whole rather than specific games. There are some interesting Nintendo-related bits from the discussion though.
Hideki Kamiya has only made two games in the last ten years at Platinum. Of course, those are Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. Kamiya created the original Bayonetta with the following prerequisites: make an original game with hardware you’re touching for the first time with no library, no resources, and no game engine. He wanted to have it published in three years.
More: Bayonetta, Famitsu, Hideki Kamiya, interview, PlatinumGames, top, Yusuke Hashimoto
XSEED named a cow in Return to PopoloCrois after Platinum’s Hideki Kamiya
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Random | 4 Comments
XSEED Games is handling the localization of Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale. For the western release, the company decided to name one of the various cows in the game after PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya. We’re not really sure how or why that happened, but XSEED apparently has some sort of story about the naming process. Maybe they’ll share it with us one day!
PlatinumGames’ Scalebound started out as a Wii game
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 25 Comments
Microsoft is publishing Scalebound, a new Xbox One title from PlatinumGames. But as fate would have it, the project was originally imagined for Wii.
Director Hideki Kamiya recently spoke with GameSpot about his original ambition for Scalebound, which would have had players using the Wii remote to provide orders to dinosaurs rather than dragons. It also starred a little girl rather than the current protagonist Drew.
Kamiya said:
“If you look at the long span of it, the first idea [for Scalebound] was when we started the company and were thinking of ideas and games that we want to make. The idea popped up there, but then we made Bayonetta. Then after Bayonetta, we revived the idea and made a prototype but that prototype failed and the game got cancelled. It was put on a backburner for a variety of reasons and we moved on to The Wonderful 101.”
“When they first started, the idea was for a Wii game and we wanted to use a Wii remote to do the orders for the dinosaurs. You were in control of the dinosaurs, you were ordering the dinosaurs around, and they’d do cool things. Then after we made Bayonetta, we started the prototype. The first thing that I made a change to was making it a dragon game.”
“We changed the dinosaurs to dragons, but at that point the lead character was even weaker than [current protagonist] Drew is in the context of Scalebound. She was actually a little girl who was with these dragons. As we were making this prototype, I realized that I didn’t want to just be watching the fight, I wanted to be more participatory in the fight. And I started talking with the staff about how maybe we should change this to be a swordsman or someone a little bit older. This was when the prototype got put on the backburner, so to speak, and the project was halted. Then we made The Wonderful 101.”
More: Hideki Kamiya, interview, PlatinumGames, Scalebound, top
Hideki Kamiya very much open to working with Capcom again
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Hideki Kamiya spent many years at Capcom. He worked on the Resident Evil and Devil May Cry series, and eventually moved on to Clover Studio – a subsidiary of Capcom – where he directed Okami as well as Viewtiful Joe.
Despite what some may think, there’s no bad blood between Kamiya and Capcom. It was actually his decision to leave the company, which he “felt a little bad for”. And if the opportunity were to present itself, he’d be very much open to teaming up with Capcom once again.
Kamiya told Metro during an interview at Gamescom last week:
…I can honestly say that if there’s ever an opportunity, that makes sense for me or the studio, to work with Capcom again I would very much welcome that opportunity. Of all the publishers, not just Japanese publishers or partners, I can say with confidence that Capcom still holds a very, very special place in my heart and I love them dearly. It’s one of my favourite companies.
[laughs] And why I say that is because they really helped shape me to who I am today. I spent a long amount of time with them and they helped me grow into who I am. They are one of the few remaining companies in Japan… you know we’ve seen so many other companies being merged and bought out and acquired but they remain the Capcom that they started out as. So seeing that strength and power that still is Capcom today is very reassuring. And it shows the confidence, it shows the love and passion of what they do. So I really do welcome the opportunity to work with Capcom again.
More: Capcom, Hideki Kamiya, interview, PlatinumGames
Kamiya again comments on Bayonetta 2’s initially troubled fate and how Nintendo saved the game
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 89 Comments
Last week on Twitter, Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya commented further on the development of Bayonetta 2. As has been said before, the game was in a very troubled state before Nintendo stepped in.
Kamiya noted in his tweets that Bayonetta 2’s problems came about when it was initially with SEGA. Something happened when the project was in the works there, and development halted. The game was pitched to various publishers, though it seems that most declined picking up Bayonetta 2. However, Nintendo agreed to step in and development was only then able to proceed.
Head past the break for a full translation of Kamiya’s tweets. They’re quite interesting, even if some of the tidbits had been shared previously!
