Series producer talks about the cancelled Fire Emblem real-time strategy game for Wii
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 30 Comments
Awhile back, we heard about an unreleased Fire Emblem game for Wii. Fire Emblem series veteran Toru Narihiro noted how “you would take a large group of people with you much like Pikmin” – in other words, it sounded a heck of a lot like a real-time strategy game.
Nintendo series producer Hitoshi Yamagami elaborated on the cancelled project with Dengeki Nintendo this month. It was planned following the completion of Radiant Dawn, but never saw the day of light.
Yamagami said the following about the game, as translated by Kantopia:
“It had me as the producer, and Mr. Kusakihara as the director. It was going to be a real time strategy Fire Emblem game with all sorts of interesting departures from the norm. But, as we approached a finished product, the incredibly picky Mr. Kusahara was not content with it as it didn’t fit the image he had in mind when he played it. While it was incredibly amusing watching him try the product, I don’t think I could’ve reached such a decision so quickly based on that alone. It did show just how passionate he was about the real time system though, but, in my experience, Fire Emblem was always about minimizing casualties as much as possible and thinking about things carefully by the turn. To put together a real time experience in a short time without these considerations and make a judgement based on that was a little premature in my opinion. So, in the end, development froze.”
More: Fire Emblem, Hitoshi Yamagami, interview
Fire Emblem devs interested in using the “Echoes” name again if there are more remakes
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 28 Comments
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the Japan-exclusive Famicom title. Using that “Echoes” name may not just be a one-time thing.
A new developer quote (probably from Nintendo Dream or another similar Japanese magazine) has one representative from Intelligent Systems saying that “Echoes” would probably be used again with another Fire Emblem make – if one were to be made.
The person stated:
“We put a lot of thought into a title like ‘echoes’ that can let older games ‘echo’ with the modern players. We were very pleased with it, and, if there were to be more remakes, we would likely use the “ECHOES” title again.”
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia launched in Japan last week. It’s due out on May 19 in North America and Europe.
Thanks to Brian for the tip.
More: Fire Emblem, Intelligent Systems, interview
Interview with Kaiji Tang, voice of Odin and Owain from Fire Emblem
Posted on 8 years ago by Zack in 3DS, General Nintendo | 3 Comments
In a recent interview with ComedynGaming, Kaiji Tang shared some details about his experience being the voice for the Fire Emblem: Awakening character Owain and Fire Emblem: Fates character Odin. Many subjects are touched on in the interview, as the interview covers many of Kaiji Tang’s roles outside of Nintendo properties. We’ve collected the quotes relevant to his role in the Fire Emblem series below. Minor spoilers after the break for Fire Emblem: Fates.
On how Tang got his role in Fire Emblem, and any similarities he sees between him and his character:
“I got the role of Owain like any other actor! A studio was having auditions for the game, I popped in and boom! Some sword hand talk later, some bit about time travel and they deemed me memey enough to become the fervent voice of Owain. I love the guy because we’re both huge, huge nerds who aren’t ashamed to let their geek flag fly. If I had special attacks, I think I’d come up with some pretty edgy names for them too. I absolutely have a blast!”
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap developers talk about project’s history, going from fan to developer
Posted on 8 years ago by Zack in Switch eShop | 0 comments
Developer Lizardcube’s lead programmer, Omar Cornut, spoke at length about the history of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap in a recent interview with Siliconera. Several topics were discussed, such as the transition of going from fan to developer and what the team behind the game wanted to change in the remake of the title.
Omar on his history with the title and how the project got started:
I’ve been tackling emulation of the Master System since 1999, and was always involved with hacking and reverse engineering games of this era. So, I built up that knowledge over time. A few years ago, I decided to use my spare time to start studying the code of the original game ROM. My desire, at the time, was to unearth unknown secrets. It is a game with lots of subtle secrets and behaviors. Players found and published lots of them, but nobody was quite sure that we had found everything. So, I started researching that from a low-level perspective, and eventually I understood enough about the game engine to consider making a remake from the angle of being extra faithful to it.
In 2014, I left my job at Media Molecule, and with that spare time I toyed around with loading data from the old game into a new engine. This was when I got in contact with Ben, who I had worked with years ago on Soul Bubbles (DS). I knew he was a fan of the series, and together we started experimenting with prototyping what a new version could be, and finding the right art style for it. Michael Geyre also joined us early, and he experimented with recreating the soundtrack.
Tantalus on Zelda: Twilight Princess HD – landing the job, Nintendo’s involvement, amiibo, dev length, much more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 25 Comments
On the latest episode of Fragments of Silicon, Tantalus CEO Tom Crago stopped by for a chat. A majority of the conversation centered around The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, of which the studio was largely responsible for.
Crago went in-depth about developing Twilight Princess HD. That includes how Tantalus landed the job, Nintendo’s involvement and working with series producer Eiji Aonuma, coming up with the new Wolf Link amiibo and Cave of Shadows functionality, how long it took to come together plus the amount of people involved, and more.
Read on below for Crago’s comments about working on Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.
Overcooked devs considered bringing the game to Wii U, talk HD Rumble plans
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 8 Comments
Nintendo UK has a new interview up with Ghost Town Games about Overcooked: Special Edition on Switch. The studio’s Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine spoke about bringing their popular game to Nintendo’s new platform.
Duncan started out by discussing Overcooked origins on Switch. The team was actually thinking about a Wii U port, but that changed when Switch surfaced.
According to Duncan:
Pocket Rumble developer interview: inspiration from Neo Geo games, 2-button control scheme, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Switch eShop | 6 Comments
Nintendo UK recently published an interview with Christian Stewart from Cardboard Robot Games, developer of the upcoming Switch 2D retro fighting game Pocket Rumble, on their website. Make sure to read the full interview here if you’re interested; below are some interesting excerpts:
On why the game is designed like a Neo Geo Pocket Color game:
Two buttons was a big, big thing about Neo Geo Pocket. Somehow SNK got really complex, complicated fighting games that felt close to the Neo Geo arcade games in portable format, with two buttons. There was some magic there that we wanted to replicate in which we could make a game that has only two buttons, but still have the complexity that something like Street Fighter, with six buttons, could have.
On why the game is a natural fit for the Switch because of its local multiplayer capabilities:
Right, that’s exactly why we need to be on Nintendo Switch! This is the first time a handheld has really had the feel of playing on one console in local multiplayer. It’s perfect. We didn’t know anything about the Nintendo Switch when we were first designing the game but as soon as we heard about its capabilities we were like “this is perfect, this is exactly what we need to be on. This is a local, multiplayer, portable console and here we have this very important local multiplayer game that’s focussed on portability.” So it was a perfect fit!
On the challenges of making a game with the limitations of a Neo Geo Pocket Color-inspired art style:
The resolution of those sprites is very, very small. It is very hard to convey certain things. Subtle nuances are very difficult to convey at such a small resolution. It’s absolutely worth it, because I think the Neo Geo aesthetic on top of the nostalgia just complements what the game is trying to do very well.
We’re trying to get rid of a lot of executional barriers and keeping things to their bare fundamentals, but those fundamentals are still very complex because they’re the inherent mechanics of 2D fighting games.
We’re simplifying as much as we can. So those simple, lower resolution graphics and limited colour palettes work really well with how much we’re focussing on the core combat mechanics.
More: Cardboard Robot Games, indie, interview, Pocket Rumble
Graceful Explosion Machine devs on initial sales, future plans, HD Rumble implementation, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 9 Comments
Over on Reddit, developers from Vertex Pop have been conducting an AMA about its recently-released Switch game Graceful Explosion Machine. Initial sales, potential plans for more content in the future, how the team implemented HD Rumble, and more were all discussed.
Notable responses from the AMA about these topics and more are below. You can catch up on the full AMA here.
Xbox boss praises Switch, Nintendo once again
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 94 Comments
Xbox boss Phil Spencer often tends to share positive vibes when speaking about Nintendo. On two separate occasions for example, Spencer praised Switch.
Spencer is back at it again with a new interview from Gamasutra. He finds Switch “interesting”, and likes how Nintendo is quick to innovate.
Spencer’s full words:
“Nintendo, I thought, did a cool thing with picking mobile. They kind of said okay, Switch is going to be a console that you can take with you. That’s an interesting idea. Nintendo always does cool things, right. They did the second screen with Wii U, they obviously did the Wii and motion gaming in the room. I love that innovation.
Having innovation that really brings third-parties along is critical to us, I think; Nintendo tends to have great success in their first-party on their platforms and then third-parties usually come in a little bit later, usually because Nintendo creates things that are less like other things. Which is, you know, kudos to them. I think it’s a fantastic part of the industry.”
More: interview, Phil Spencer
Square Enix CEO’s expanded comments on Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 51 Comments
This week, Nikkei published a significant interview with Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda. Matsuda had a decent amount to say about Switch and expressed significant interest in supporting it with many titles going forward.
We thought it would make sense to fully translate Matsuda’s statement, which include a couple of extra comments. His full words are as follows:
“Our developers with a strong interest in the Switch are eager to challenge themselves to find new ways for people to play games. Having more gaming platforms available is a good thing for us. I really want the Switch to succeed. We’ll be developing new titles, and we’d like to port existing titles that the Switch can support often as we can.
Nintendo creates a variety of new gameplay possibilities. I think other companies will comes up with some surprising gimmicks using the Switch’s unique capabilities. We have our own way of doing things, so we’ll be marrying the Switch’s unique features to the kinds of games we’re known for.”
We do also want to take this opportunity to clarify something about the interview. Some translations had Matsuda as saying Square Enix is prioritizing Switch over other platforms such as Xbox Scorpio. However, this was simply not said. Matsuda’s enthusiasm for Switch is clear, but no comments were made about Square Enix focusing on the system over others.
