Square Enix on why Dragon Quest hasn’t been as popular as Final Fantasy in the west, keeping the series fresh
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 45 Comments
Square Enix owns two big franchises: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Yet even though Final Fantasy managed to make a big splash in the west, Dragon Quest has still been trying to attain the same sort of success.
Dragon Quest executive producer Yu Miyake touched on this topic in last month’s issue of EDGE. He said Final Fantasy’s western popularity in comparison to Dragon Quest is something Square Enix has “been thinking about a lot internally”.
Miyake brought up a few different reasons in the interview. For one thing, “the source of nostalgia is different” in Japan and the west – Dragon Quest on Famicom and Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation respectively. He also believes that Square Enix should have originally given a greater effort with Dragon Quest’s localization. Finally, Miyake said that the cartoon-like aesthetic of Dragon Quest may not immediately connect with western gamers.
Miyake left some encouraging words, saying that “the age of people who are playing is rising” and there’s a greater interest overall as well. Square Enix is also trying to “soften up the ground for Dragon Quest XI” with its spinoff titles.
Miyake’s full words:
More: Dragon Quest, interview, Square Enix, top, Yu Miyake
Yacht Club Games on Shovel Knight’s cameos
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
Shovel Knight has been popping up in more and more games as of late. The character even made a cameo appearance in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 earlier this year. In 2017, Shovel Knight will be showing up in Yooka-Laylee as well.
David D’Angelo of Yacht Club Games was asked about Shovel Knight’s cameos in a recent feature on Nintendo Life. He had this to say about the character being featured in other studios’ games.
“Typically with our cameos the developers have reached out to us as they were excited about the possibilities of having Shovel Knight in their worlds. It’s really thrilling for us to see Shovel Knight in new environments, so we’re happy to be a part of the fun. Honestly, we usually don’t have to do much from our end as all the developers we’ve worked with have been top notch and very respectful of the IP. Yooka-Laylee was an especially fun one though as we created the 3D model in-house. It was enjoyable to leave the second dimension for a bit! Gunvolt was incredible – it was amazing to work with Masaya Suzuki to design the Shovel Knight sprite. What a legend!”
Former Nintendo designer on the creation of Game & Watch, Game Boy, DS
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
This month’s issue of Retro Gamer features an interview with Satoru Okada, a former designer at Nintendo. Okada worked at the company for about 40 years, and was directly involved with the creation of various hardware.
Some excerpts from the interview are now available. Below, you can read excerpts from Okada about the Game & Watch, Game Boy, and DS. You might be surprised to learn that late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wasn’t initially interested in the idea for dual screens…
Paper Mario: Color Splash dev on paint inspiration, approach to combat, says team put in its full effort
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 22 Comments
Game Informer has now published its full interview with Paper Mario: Color Splash producer Kensuke Tanabe. Tanabe was asked about a variety of topics, including the inspiration behind repainting the world, whether the team ever considered ditching combat entirely, and the team’s sense is for what fans of the Paper Mario series would like to see in the future.
Continue on below for a roundup of Tanabe’s notable responses. Read the full interview on Game Informer here.
Reggie on Nintendo going with existing franchises vs. new IPs, Mario’s lasting appeal
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 13 Comments
Nintendo has a solid stable of franchises ranging from Mario to Zelda. From time to time though, they’ll introduce something completely new. During the Wii era for example, Nintendo offered up its own take on the shooter genre with Splatoon.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was interviewed during the TV documentary series
Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed. As part of that, he was asked how Nintendo decides between using one of its iconic characters or something completely new.
Reggie explained in response:
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
SEGA 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage devs on how the included games were chosen
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments
SEGA 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage shipped in Japan this week. To mark the game’s launch, Famitsu caught up with developers Yosuke Okunari and Kagasei Shimomura for an interview.
During the short discussion, Okunari and Shimomura explain how they settled on the games to include for the latest collection. The two also commented on the additions of Alien Syndrome and Columns as well as why the two bonus games were chosen. If that wasn’t enough, Shimomura left the door open to returning to SEGA 3D Classics in the future.
Continue on below for our full translation.
Game Freak talks Pokemon – Alola Forms and potential return, series’ future, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 59 Comments
Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda recently made some comments about Pokemon and Switch during an interview with Spanish site MeriStation which gained quite a bit of attention. However, we thought the entire interview might be worth sharing, as it’s interesting in its own right. And thankfully, Nintendo Everything reader Gumbatei was up to the task of translating the comments into English.
Masuda, along with Shigeru Ohmori, talked a fair amount about Pokemon Sun/Moon and the series in general. The two talked about Alola Forms and whether they’ll return, the future of the franchise, and more. A question was also asked about potential Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remakes, but the response is about what you’d expect.
Head past the break for the translated comments from Masuda and Ohmori.
More: interview, Junichi Masuda, Pokemon, Pokemon Moon, Pokemon Sun, Shigeru Ohmori, top
Former Rare dev on redesigning Donkey Kong, Star Fox Adventures changes, meeting Miyamoto, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Kevin Bayliss left a huge mark on Rare during his nearly 20-year run at the studio. As a designer and art director, he contributed to Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox Adventures, and much more.
UK magazine GamesTM spoke with Bayliss (who is now at Playtonic) this month, and asked him plenty of interesting questions about his time at Rare. The topics we’re mainly interested in focus on Nintendo specifically. Bayliss commented on the process of redesigning Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country, the initial changes that Star Fox Adventures went through, meeting Shigeru Miyamoto, and more.
We’ve included Bayliss’ comments below. You can pick up GamesTM now for the full interview.
More: interview, Kevin Bayliss, Rare, top
Miyamoto on what sticks out to him about Iwata
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
In an interview conducted by The New Yorker, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked about the piece of advise late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave to him which he cherishes the most.
Miyamoto thought about the question for a bit, and then went on to mention that Iwata “had this unique ability to rally people around a vision.” Iwata was able “to take something, give it shape and then to motivate people.”
Miyamoto also spoke about how unique Iwata was from the standpoint of a programmer. Although such developers may tell designers why something would be impossible, Iwata was the opposite, and “would say he was going to figure out how to make it work.”
You can listen to Miyamoto’s full comments on Iwata below.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Miyamoto talks Zelda: A Link to the Past in classic interview – name, cut ideas, open-ended Zelda interest
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
Way back in 1992, Japanese magazine Famicon Tsuushin published an interview all about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with Shigeru Miyamoto. Shmuplations has now gone to the trouble of translating it in full. There are notable topics here, such as how Nintendo approached the name, Miyamoto’s interest in making an open-ended Zelda (which he’s finally realizing with Breath of the Wild), and scrapped ideas due to hardware limitations.
We’ve posted a few of the excerpts below. For the full interview, head on over to Shmuplations.
