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interview

Live A Live HD-2D

Following the announcement of Live A Live’s HD-2D remake, Japanese magazine Famitsu sat down with original director Takashi Tokita, to talk about the game’s development.

The new Switch version served as the perfect opportunity to re-release the game, something the team tried to do many times over the years. Tokita dove into a number of other topics as well including why the team settled on the HD-2D art style.

Here’s our translation of the excerpt from Famitsu:

triangle strategy name

Square Enix is no stranger to unconventional game names, and that tradition has continued with their HD-2D titles on Switch – those being Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy. In a recent interview, producer Tomoya Asano shared some insight into the team’s thinking.

Asano told Inversus that Square Enix considers “if the player can imagine what kind of game it is based on the title.” With Triangle Strategy, you play it from three angles and it’s a strategic experience. Square Enix initially included “Project” so that there would be “a little bit of room to be able to change the name”. Since it was well-received by fans, the “Triangle Strategy” name stuck.

Asano’s full words: 

kirby and the forgotten land mouthful mode decided

One of the defining gameplay features of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the new Mouthful Mode. Kirby has always been able to inhale abilities, but this time around he can take on the form of different objects for new types of transformations. The character can turn into a car, a vending machine, and lots more.

In an interview with Washington Post, some of the developers weighed in on the feature. Nintendo’s Kei Ninomiya as well as HAL’s Tatsuya Kamiyama and Yuki Endo had this to say about choosing the Mouthful Mode objects in Kirby and the Forgotten Land:

kirby timeline

The Washington Post published a new interview today with some of the key developers behind the Kirby series, and some interesting discussion came about when they were asked about a possible timeline or thread that ties the different entries together. 

It actually turns out that “there is no clear timeline for the game stories”, according to HAL Laboratory general director Shinya Kumazaki. Kumazaki explained that this is done so that the development team “constrained by past settings”.

His full words regarding a possibly Kirby timeline are as follows:

Nintendo has just shared a new Ask the Developer article for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Kei Ninomya, the game’s associate producer, Shinya Kumazaki, the general supervisor and writer, Tatsuya Kamiyama, the director and Yuki Endo, the level design director, have all participated in the discussion to provide some more insight on the development of the game.

There’s a lot of neat insight offered into techniques used to make Kirby’s transition into 3D feel as smooth as possible, as well as discussion over the tone and setting of the game.

Have a look at the full developer interview below:

Mario Strikers platformer

Mario Strikers fans might be surprised to hear that the game came close to being more of a platformer.

That news comes from Mike Inglehart, who was a director on the GameCube title as well as its Wii sequel Mario Strikers Charged. Next Level Games toyed around with that mixture of soccer and platforming after receiving limited direction from Nintendo. However, after the Big N reviewed the team’s work and was told to start over, Mario Strikers became more of a soccer experience that emphasized the sport itself.

Mario Strikers Waluigi crotch chop

There’s a lot that Mario Strikers players remember about the first game, including Waluigi’s notorious crotch chop celebration. It’s something that can be seen after the character scores a goal.

For those wondering about the origins of the taunt, we have new insight from director Mike Inglehart. Inglehart spoke with GameXplain about its inspiration, how Next Level Games didn’t count on it getting past Nintendo, and more.

Unpacking DLC

Witch Beam has opened up regarding the possible future of Unpacking, particularly when it comes to DLC and a sequel.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. If you were hoping to see more of Unpacking soon, you’ll be disappointed to hear that if anything happens, it won’t be for a long while.

super mario rpg 2

Chihiro Fujioka, the director of Super Mario RPG, has expressed interest in making Super Mario RPG 2 that would close out his career.

Fujioka has worked on many different titles going back to the early 80s. That includes several entries in the Mario & Luigi at AlphaDream – a studio which he co-founded, though he left the studio in 2015 and it closed in 2019 after filing for bankruptcy.

PlatinumGames vice president Hideki Kamiya has commented on Bayonetta 3 as part of an interview with IGN.

Kamiya told the site that the Switch exclusive will have “its own color” compared to prior entries in the series. He also teased that there’ll be “new types of gameplay”.

Kamiya stated:


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