Further details on how Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem came to be
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments
Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami, who is working on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, further explained how the project came to be in this week’s issue of Famitsu.
According to Yamagami, things began back in 2009. As he explained:
“Our initial contact with Atlus was back in 2009 when we developed the game Itsumo Purikura ? Kuradeko Puremium. Afterwards, Ando said ‘I want to make a game that mixes Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei,’ so I went to Atlus with the proposal.”
Atlus responded by saying “Let us think about it”, which essentially meant no. Nintendo was later told, “We’re too busy and can’t do it right now.”
Although Yamagami was disappointed that Atlus turned down his proposal, he did feel like a partnership could be made a reality one day.
“I was really bummed about it, but it wasn’t as though they had straight out said no, so I told Ando, ‘I’m sure we’ll cross paths with them again some time.’”
Yamagami ended up receiving an email over a year later from Atlus’ Naoto Hiraoka, who asked if talks were still open. It didn’t take long for Nintendo and Atlus to be in communication once again.
Atlus producer Shinjiro Takada told Famitsu that, during the original proposal, the team was busy with Devil Survivor 2. Takada always thought of Fire Emblem as a rival title that he looked at as a goal. Takada mentioned: “That Nintendo wanted to collaborate with us with such a big title was a huge honor and I really wanted to do it.”
No DLC for FAST Racing Neo, soundtrack coming, Shin’en wants “a futuristic racer on a new handheld”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 47 Comments
The folks over at We Are Just Gamers published an interview with Manfred Linzner from Shin’en. Much of the talk focuses on FAST Racing Neo.
At one point, Linzner was asked if there are any plans to release DLC for its upcoming Wii U racer. This is ruled out quickly, with Linzner stating: “We want to release all content we created at launch of the game.”
Linzner also commented on FAST Racing Neo’s music, and confirmed that there are plans to bring out a soundtrack “at a later date.”
“For the music in FRN we tried a fresh style. We wanted something that could sound like from an 2015 Arcade Game. We really love how the music developed for the game. We plan to release the soundtrack at a later date.”
FAST Racing Neo will only be on Wii U. However, it sounds like Shin’en has at least some interest in seeing “a futuristic racer on a new handheld”.
“We currently have no plans to bring FRN to another system. However, i think a futuristic racer on a new handheld would be great.”
More: FAST Racing Neo, indie, interview, Manfred Linzner, Shin'en
Pokken Tournament – aimed at both kids and adults, game could head west, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
The latest episode of the Japanese program Imagine-Nation features Pokken Tournament. The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara and Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada were interviewed as part of the show.
Ishihara and Harada touched on a number of topics, ranging from who the game is aimed at to the possibility of a western release. Head past the break for their comments.
Nintendo’s initial mobile games will be in different genres
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 16 Comments
We know that Nintendo is working with DeNA on games for mobile. We’ve also known for a few months now that the first game is coming this year, with four additional titles arriving by the end of March 2017.
DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has now indicated that the initial games will be in different genres. Asako told Pocket Gamer:
“I understand some people like RPGs, casual games. That’s why we decided to work together to create five games, hitting on different genre-utilizing IPs. We want to make sure out of those five IP that we can end up attracting hundreds of millions of people.”
Asako called its collaboration with Nintendo “the most crucial partnership” in DeNA’s history. He also says that it’s a challenge since “people are expecting a lot”.
More: interview, Shintaro Asako
GungHo on working with Nintendo, Nintendo making mobile games, Japanese console market
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Last month, Gamasutra spoke with GungHo Online Entertainment president and CEO Kazuki Morishita at E3 2015. We have a few excerpts below.
After the break, you can read up on what Morishita said about working with Nintendo on Puzzle & Dragons, the company making mobile titles (not much on this front), and the Japanese console market. The full interview is located here.
Reggie Fils-Aime interview with Kevin Pereira, discusses NX, Metroid, the future and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Videos, Wii U | 29 Comments
The Attack!’s Kevin Pereira, who also hosted the Nintendo World Championships this year at E3, recently sat down with Reggie Fils-Aime to discuss Nintendo’s time at E3, fan backlash towards Metroid: Federation Force, a brief discussion of NX, 2015’s gaming line-up, and tons more. Check out the interview below!
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime
Zero Escape 3 – more philosophical, answers questions from Virtue’s Last Reward, importance of fans
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News | 5 Comments
Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi shared a few more details about the series’ third entry while speaking with IGN.
Uchikoshi started out by saying that moral elements “will be the main theme” for this new project.
“Your way of thinking, values, virtues will be intensely [shaken] during this game, This game is even more philosophical than the past volumes. Of course it’ll be entertaining too!”
Uchikoshi confirmed that Zero Escape 3 will answer all remaining questions from Virtue’s Last Reward. He added that “as a story [Zero Escape] will definitely end at Volume 3.”
“I intend to answer every mystery left during VLR and the mysteries in ZE3 would be solved as well. This game will not end in a cliffhanger. However please take it as one break…if there are still fans requesting, I can not deny that there will not be new incidents arriving either.”
Finally, Uchikoshi talked about how the fan responses led to 999 becoming a trilogy.
“I wasn’t thinking of doing a continuation during 999. However thanks to fans world wide giving the game a high praise it grew into a series. I am very thankful for this. Especially for Volume 2 and 3, my intentions were them being paired as a set so I really wanted to make Volume 3 happen.”
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida comments on the SNES PlayStation
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Videos | 5 Comments
With someone claiming to have come into possession of a rare SNES PlayStation prototype, Engadget asked Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida to comment on the system. You can listen to what he had to say in the video below.
More: interview, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony
SEGA focusing on quality, wants to regain fans’ trust
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 128 Comments
This week’s issue of Famitsu contains an interview with SEGA CEO and president Haruki Satomi.
At one point during the discussion, Satomi mentioned that the company has “learned a lot from Atlus”, which SEGA acquired in 2013. He also spoke about how SEGA is really pushing the idea of quality.
Satomi stated:
“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”
“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”
“We did our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with older fans of Sega, but looking back, there’ve been some titles that have partially betrayed that [trust] in the past 10 years.”
“Since we’re seriously considering quality, I can’t make that promise for the time being, but I believe we will announce something for home console at Tokyo Game Show.”
Famitsu ends its talk with Satomi by asking what fans can look forward to in the future.
“SEGA in the ‘90s was known for its ‘brand, but after that, we’ve lost trust, and we were left with nothing but ‘reputation. For this reason, we’d like to win back the customers’ trust, and become a ‘brand,’ once again.”
More: Atlus, Haruki Satomi, interview, SEGA
Why Square Enix has been hesitant to localize the recent Dragon Quest games, using Heroes to gauge interest
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 22 Comments
Square Enix is finally bringing a new Dragon Quest game to the west in Dragon Quest Heroes for the PlayStation 4. But Nintendo fans are probably more interested in the likes of Dragon Quest X, Dragon Quest VII, and the upcoming Dragon Quest VIII.
In an interview with Polygon, Dragon Quest series executive producer Yuu Miyake noted that Square Enix wants to release the different games overseas. But they’re “very text-heavy, so the time and the cost it takes to localize these and do it well is quite something.”
As fans continue to speak up, Square Enix will be more keen on pursuing localizations of past Dragon Quest entries. The company seems to be using Dragon Quest Heroes – a game picked for the west since it’s an action experience with fully-voiced characters and a higher potential for strong sales – as a means to determine how much interest there is for the series in North America.
Miyake said:
“We want to get them out here. We really do! The Dragon Quest games are very text-heavy, so the time and the cost it takes to localize these and do it well is quite something. Business-wise, we have to think quite hard whether we’ll make that money back from localizing to North America. It’s always been a difficult decision. But the more you tell us, the louder the voices, the more likely we are to do it.”
“We’re really using this (Dragon Quest Heroes) as a kind of opening up of the market. We can gauge whether the American people might want to go back after Heroes and see some of the other Dragon Quest games. Hopefully we could use that as leverage to get those out over here.”
Despite what Miyake stated, it appears that Square Enix already has plans to bring over some of the latest Dragon Quest games to North America and Europe – at least, that’s what’s been indicated by series creator Yuji Horii. Horii said at the Japan Expo this past weekend that he wants to release Dragon Quest VII and VIII for 3DS in France. Square Enix wouldn’t just localize these titles for the French market, so they would include other languages as well – like English.
