interview

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.”

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More: Aksys Games, interview, Kotaro Uchikoshi, Spike Chunsoft, Zero Escape 3

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.

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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.”

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More: Atlus, Haruki Satomi, interview, SEGA

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.

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More: Dragon Quest, interview, Square Enix, Yuu Miyake

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 23 Comments

In a guidebook for Xenoblade Chronicles X, fans left various feedback about the Wii U RPG. Players noted that they wanted a more passionate/rich story, the UI was a little difficult to use, and the battle system had a bit too much going in.

Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director responded to all of the feedback, and thanked fans for everything they had to say. He also said he agrees with most of what was mentioned.

Other feedback left by fans:

– Letters are too small
– Inviting other party members was tedious
– It would be cool to be able to go into out-space
– Fans more lively online features in Monolith Soft’s next title

Takahashi concluded his thoughts with the following:

“Being several years behind others in the development of an HD title and taking into account Monolith Soft’s company size, there are just some thing that we could not achieve, which couldn’t be helped, but in order to move on towards the next step, there was no avoiding this. And that is the truth.”

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More: interview, Tetsuya Takahashi, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 8 Comments

Elliot Quest creator Luis Zuno appears to be pleased with the game’s sales performance on Wii U. Although specific numbers weren’t shared, Zuno told 4 color rebellion that sales coming from Nintendo’s console have been “much bigger than on Steam.”

Zuno also mentioned that bringing Elliot Quest to consoles was no easy feat. That’s why he’s thankful for PlayEveryWare’s efforts in porting the title to Wii U.

“…putting the game on the console has been a long journey and a lot of work and I definitely couldn’t have got there on my own, which is why I’m thankful for the help from PlayEveryWare to get there.

Elliot Quest launched for Wii U on March 19. The European release took place about a month later.

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More: Elliot Quest, indie, interview, Luis Zuno, PlayEveryWare

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 38 Comments

The developers of Splatoon had a whole lot to say about the Wii U title while speaking with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream this month. Last week, we shared translated comments from directors Yusuke Amano and Tsubasa Sakaguchi as well as producer Hisashi Nogami in which they discussed the map rotation, content updates, and more.

We have a few more final translations to tackle this week. The three Splatoon developers commented on the game’s level cap, Inkling customization, and a couple of other things.

In one section of the interview, Nintendo Dream mentions how many players are at the max level of 20, and asks if this will be raised in the future. Sakaguchi and Nogami were not-committal, but seemed surprised that so many people had already reached the maximum:

Sakaguchi: Er… That is also under investigation currently… We originally expected level 20 to require a nice amount of time to play.

Nogami: [The leveling up has been] so fast that it makes me worry about players’ daily life…

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More: interview, Nintendo Dream, Splatoon, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 39 Comments

In an interview with Wired, PlatinumGames’ Yusuke Hashimoto spoke about what it’s like working with Nintendo in creating Star Fox Zero. On a similar note, Nintendo’s Yugo Hayashi commented on how it can be working with legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Here’s what the two shared:

“This is the first time I’ve ever done this kind of collaborative design. It’s not just with Mr. Miyamoto, but also with Mr. Hayashi here. I’m struck by how fast this goes. The turnaround between the exchange of the two parties is very quick. It’s a kind of development speed I haven’t really seen before.” – Hashimoto

“The three of us are always working together and it’s very fun, but obviously when Mr. Miyamoto shows you something and is like, what do you think of this, and you have to come up with a good answer, it’s very nerve-wracking.” – Hayashi

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More: interview, PlatinumGames, Star Fox Zero, top, Yusuke Hashimoto

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii | 103 Comments

The latest episode of IGN’s Podcast Unlocked features an interview with former Microsoft executive Peter Moore and Xbox boss Phil Spencer. At one point of the podcast, they reflected on the launch of the Xbox 360. Moore noted that Microsoft “completely discounted Nintendo” when bringing out the console due to the performance of the GameCube.

Here’s a roundup of everything that was mentioned:

“I also then remember the E3 when, God bless, Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton announced $599, and we were all back stage like ‘Woohoo!’ We knew then we had an opportunity to get ahead, drive ahead, get our games out quickly and get that lead. And I always said that the first to 10 million wins.” – Moore

“It was one of the greatest times of my career. You had to build a team, because we were growing then. We had prematurely put the Xbox to sleep, we needed to get ready for this and we knew what we needed to do. We had a three-day meeting at the Sheraton in Bellevue where we wargamed the scenario, and I actually played Ken Kutaragi. And we brought in a consultancy, it was a lot of fun. And the one thing we’d forgotten about, I don’t know if you remember this Phil [Spencer], we completely discounted Nintendo. Because they came off the GameCube and it was a disaster.” – Moore

“…and they destroyed both of us!” – Spencer

“Yes, with the Wii. But we wargamed for three days, what are you going to do, what do the launch titles look like, what are the marketing budgets, what is the positioning? And it was a fascinating experience which I’ll never forget. And this is a decade ago. And I actually played Ken, and my job was to destroy the launch of the Xbox 360.” – Moore

Of course, you can’t really bank on anything these days! Although the GameCube was far from Nintendo’s most-successful console, we all know what happened with Wii.

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More: interview, Microsoft, Peter Moore, Phil Spencer

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments

The latest interview with Reggie Fils-Aime has been published by The Washington Post. Nintendo of America’s president commented on the company’s approach to having its IPs shared with others, deciding on giving games local multiplayer as compared to online, new IPs, and more.

You can read up on what Reggie had to say after the break. There are also some additional comments about amiibo on The Washington Post here, though it’s mostly rehash of what he’s stated previously.

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More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top