Game Freak’s Masuda on appealing to longtime Pokemon fans and newcomers
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 33 Comments
Pokemon has been around for 20 years, which is a very long time. The series has plenty of longtime fans, but new players come into contact with the series each day as well.
So how does Game Freak – the maker of the Pokemon RPGs – appeal to both types of players? That’s something GamesMaster asked the studio’s Junichi Masuda in an interview this month.
He told the magazine in response:
“Today you will see ’90s kids who played the first Pokémon games, who are now parents playing with their children. But some of the core gameplay elements simply appeal as much now as they did in 1996. The collectable elements of the game still appeal to people’s sense of achievement, and it’s great for strategic thinking.
“You have to make accurate judgements about what to change and what not to change. It is also about not making things too difficult. After two or three generations, games have a tendency to become more difficult. In recent titles, catching Pokémon by throwing PokéBalls is explained in-game, but we also make a point of trying to get into the heads of children who have picked up a Pokémon game for the very first time in order to better understand how the games feel to a first-time audience.”
More: Game Freak, interview, Junichi Masuda, Pokemon, top
Miyamoto on Star Fox Zero – difficulty, improvements, building interest in dogfighting games, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments
Another Star Fox Zero interview with Shigeru Miyamoto has popped up online. This time around, there’s a discussion published by TIME. Miyamoto talked about the switch in approach (now like a movie instead of a TV series), appealing to new players, his approach to difficulty, improvements that have been made, and building interest in dogfighting games.
We’ve posted some excerpts from the interview below. More comments from Miyamoto can be found on TIME here.
More: interview, PlatinumGames, Shigeru Miyamoto, Star Fox Zero, top
Aonuma and Sano on Twilight Princess HD – challenges, picking Tantalus, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 14 Comments
Last week, Stack published an interview with Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and assistant director Tomomi Sano about Twilight Princess HD. Between them both, they commented on when the project began, challenges in remaking the game, why Tantalus was specifically chosen, and more.
As usual, we’ve picked out some excerpts below. The full interview is located here.
Aonuma and Sano on Twilight Princess HD – how it came to be, considered Wiimote controls, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 23 Comments
This week’s issue of Famitsu contains an interview about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. Series producer Eiji Aonuma, along with assistant director Tomomi Sano, participated in the discussion.
Topics included how the remake came about, consideration of Wii Remote controls, the Twilight Cave, and more. You can find a full translation of the interview after the break.
Aonuma – Zelda Wii U progressing well, “something new” is key
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 220 Comments
This week’s issue of Famitsu has an interview centered around The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. But of course, the discussion wouldn’t have been complete without a question regarding Zelda Wii U.
When asked about how development is going on the new game by Famitsu, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma told the magazine:
“Busy. When we did Skyward Sword for the Wii, at the end stages of development, I was in charge of the characters’ dialogue and the in-game text. And, now as well, it’s like it was then. I had to work on text today, too. But, the game has really taken shape, and things have gotten easier. That means things are progressing well.”
Aonuma added that the keyword/key phrase for the game is “something new.” Ocarina of Time was a huge leap for the Zelda series and since then Aonuma explained:
“I think the base of our secret sauce has always been Ocarina of Time. But this time, the change in flavor will be like going from Japanese food to Western style food. Perhaps, players will be surprised. Please look forward to it, because I think we’ll be able to make ‘something new’ like Ocarina of Time was.”
More: Eiji Aonuma, Famitsu, interview, top, Zelda Wii U
Zero Time Dilemma – name, resolving mysteries, extreme scenes, character designer
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 7 Comments
As reported earlier today, Zero Time Dilemma has a big feature in this week’s Famitsu. There are details about the game itself as well as an interview with director Kotaro Uchikoshi.
Some excerpts from the interview has now leaked out of Famitsu. Head past the break to see what Uchikoshi said about the name, resolving mysteries, extreme scenes (possibly 3DS’ first CERO-Z-rated game in Japan), and changing character designers.
Zelda: Link’s Awakening team started work on the game before receiving permission
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 12 Comments
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening started out as an idea for a modified version of A Link to the Past for the Game Boy. In the end though, that never came together. Link’s Awakening was ultimately born from, as Game Informer puts it, “an unsanctioned after-hours passion project for members of the Link to the Past team.”
Director Takashi Tezuka told the site:
“The main programmer wanted to challenge himself to create a Zelda experience on a portable system to see what he could do, and I was into the idea. We just had a passion to try and do something interesting. We didn’t really have permission to do it necessarily. We were just playing around.”
“Once we got it to a certain level of creation and completion that we wanted to show, then we took it to the company and got permission to continue developing it. But initially it was just a little pet project of ours. Because we started it that way – just making a game we wanted to make – it may defy Zelda conventions. It might have interesting characters and situations we may not have had otherwise.”
During an Iwata Asks discussion for Phantom Hourglass, Tezuka made a comment about how the experience of creating Link’s Awakening was similar to “making a parody of The Legend of Zelda.” He clarified these comments with Game Informer, in which he said:
“When we say parody, I’m not sure where that word comes from because maybe there are translation issues. With Zelda games we usually plan them out, every detail is considered. With Link’s Awakening, we were working on that after our other work was done. Kind of like a club of people who loved Zelda and got together to make it. It has a different feeling for that reason.”
Masuda: Pokemon GO “will bring about a new kind of experience” compared to existing games
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda spoke about a number of general Pokemon topics in this month’s issue of GamesMaster. He also commented specifically on Pokemon GO a bit as well, in which he stated that the game “will bring about a new kind of experience, different from that of existing Pokemon titles”.
Masuda’s full comments:
“Amongst other things, this year will see the launch of Pokémon Go – a groundbreaking mobile game that will encourage fans to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Players will be able to catch, trade, and battle in the real world by utilizing location information.
“I have been involved personally in the project. It is a game where players can search, trade and battle Pokémon in the real world. I think Pokémon Go will bring about a new kind of experience, different from that of existing Pokémon titles, allowing players to explore their own neighborhoods, searching for Pokémon together with their friends. It is in this way that we hope that Pokémon Go, which will be released in 2016, will provide new enjoyment to our fans.”
Niantic was originally planning on hosting a Pokemon GO session at GDC. However, those plans were cancelled so that the team could focus on the game itself. A field test for Pokemon GO will be held in Japan later this month.
More: Game Freak, interview, Junichi Masuda, Niantic, Pokemon GO, top
Update: Another one – Video: Miyamoto talks more about Star Fox Zero, series in general
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 2 Comments
Update: Bumped to the top. Yet another video interview is below.
The Completionist recently spoke with Shigeru Miyamoto about all things Star Fox. In the video below, you can listen to him answering several questions about Star Fox Zero as well as the series in general.
Miyamoto on his favorite movie, games of 2015
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 12 Comments
What was Shigeru Miyamoto’s favorite movie of 2015? That honor goes to Star Was: The Force Awakens.
Speaking with Game Informer, Miyamoto shared some thoughts as to why he was impressed with the film:
“There were a lot of good movies last year. One movie that I would have to talk about is Star Wars. It was a movie that I was very worried about. I really enjoyed the original three movies. But as they started to rely more on CG and computer graphics, I gradually stopped watching the Star Wars movies.
I felt that for the people who were taking that on that it was a very big challenge for them. My expectation is that they’d maybe find a way to barely meet that challenge. But when I saw that movie, I was very impressed with what they were able to do.
As a creator, I really respected their ability to take on the challenge and bring back some of the feelings that people had the first time they watched the movies. I really liked that some of those actors from Episode IV came back after all these years, and you can see how they had aged. As a fan, it was a really great movie.”
Miyamoto also discussed his favorite games of last year: Splatoon and Super Mario Maker.
“I haven’t seen as many video games. Two of the games that I have been really happy with. One is Splatoon. We had a very young staff work on that game; particularly in the Japanese market, they’ve introduced a whole new genre of shooter.
And then Super Mario Maker, which Mr. [Takashi] Tezuka worked on, we’re seeing a lot of dads are playing together with their kids. That’s made me really happy.”
